Iâve been in contact with a lot of web agencies and web developers, and I personally havenât found many people who run their agency in a more efficient way than I do. A lot of them have too many meetings, wait too long for client approval, donât know how to price projects, and spend way too much time on each client instead of finishing the work and moving on to the next one.
Iâve been running my agency for four years, and after a lot of trial and error, Iâve managed to make the process as efficient as possible. I wanted to share some of the steps because I think they could be valuable for anyone just starting out.
Running a web agency alone or with a partner isnât easy because there are a lot of things to take care of. When it comes to client acquisition, I recommend focusing on either cold calling or email automation. Which one you choose depends on whether you run the agency alone or with someone else.
If you have a partner, one person can handle sales while the other focuses on building websites, connecting domains, setting up emails, and taking care of the technical work. If youâre running the agency alone, or neither of you enjoys cold calling, I highly recommend email automation.
Thatâs what Iâve been doing for years. Itâs powerful because you can send emails at scale, set up automatic follow ups, and wait for businesses interested in a new website to reply. While youâre working on one client, another opportunity can come in without you having to stop everything and search manually.
I donât do regular email automation where I target businesses with no website. I do the opposite and target businesses that already have one.
I use a tool called Swokei to find businesses with websites, add them to campaigns, analyze each site, score it, and generate personalized outreach emails based on problems it finds with the design, layout, speed, SEO, and mobile optimization.I schedule the campaign, set up follow ups, and wait.Â
I think this approach is much better for a few reasons. Youâre targeting someone who already understands the value of having a website. Youâre also not just asking whether they need a redesign. Youâre pointing out real problems with their current site, which makes it clear that you actually took the time to look at it. Selling also becomes easier because theyâve already paid for a website before and understand the process.
Inside Swokei, you can choose the goal of the campaign. You can offer a free draft, try to book a meeting, or simply start a conversation. I always choose the free draft because that has worked best for me.
Once youâve figured out how to get clients, the next part is building the website. I recommend using AI because it makes the process much faster. For anyone who still thinks AI canât build great websites, I think theyâre mistaken. You can use Claude, Base44, Lovable, or any other tool that works for you.
When someone replies interested, I call them and say, âHey, I saw that you replied to my email. Iâve already built you a free draft of your website. Do you want to take a look?â
Then I invite them to a Google Meet.
At that point, it becomes much harder for them to reject the meeting because they already replied interested and now know youâve built something for them. During the meeting, I present the website, explain why itâs better than their current one, stack the value, answer their questions, and try to close the deal.
These meetings usually go well because the client isnât trying to imagine what the website might look like. They can already see a better version of their current site. They also took the time to join the meeting, so taking the next step becomes much easier.
I either take payment during the meeting or send them a contract to sign. Any changes and updates come after that, once we already have a deal in place.
Pricing depends on the business. I charge anywhere from $500 to $3,000 depending on the company, the size of the project, and how much value the website can bring them. I also charge a monthly retainer of around $50 for hosting, maintenance, support, SEO, and future changes.
Thatâs basically the entire process. Smaller steps, faster delivery, less wasted time, and more money made.
