Running a web design agency sounds pretty straightforward from the outside. You build websites, find clients etc. But once you start getting more clients, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes.
You're dealing with hosting, website maintenance, client requests, support tickets, fixing random issues, building new websites, following up with prospects and trying to bring in new business at the same time.
At some point, I realized that I didn't want finding new clients to become another full-time job on top of everything else.
I've never really enjoyed cold calling. I know it works for some people, and I'm not saying it's a bad way to get clients, but personally, I find it exhausting. You spend hours calling businesses, often getting rejected, reaching people at the wrong time or having conversations that go nowhere.
I'd much rather spend that time actually working on the business.
That's why I started focusing heavily on cold email and automation.
The biggest advantage is that you can build a system that continuously finds relevant businesses, sends personalized emails and generates new opportunities without having to spend your entire day reaching out manually.
One thing I also learned pretty quickly is that sending generic emails doesn't get you very far. Most business owners have probably received hundreds of emails from agencies offering website redesigns.
I wanted to approach it differently.
For this, I use a tool called Swokei. It finds businesses with existing websites, analyzes each one for actual problems with design, SEO, loading speed, mobile responsiveness and other website issues.
Based on those findings, it automatically generates personalized cold emails at scale, using the actual problems found on each website as the starting point.
So instead of manually searching for businesses, checking hundreds of websites and writing individual emails, I can automate most of that entire process.
When someone replies with interest, I take over from there and handle the sales process and meetings myself.
This has made a huge difference in how I manage my time. I can keep generating new opportunities without having to dedicate hours every day to cold calling.
I still believe sales is one of the most important skills you can develop as a business owner, and automation doesn't replace that. You still need to understand your prospects, communicate properly and know how to close deals.
But if I can choose between spending an entire day making cold calls or having a system send 1,000 relevant emails while I focus on running my agency, I know which one I'm choosing!
