Question for all the designers out there......

[GatorBrent]

I'm not sure how many of you go business to business selling your design services, but those who do can you shed some light on how well the results were? When and if we ever have some free time we really want to go after the local market offering design services / hosting. Any tips on how you go about doing it would be great!

[frontlines]

The only advertising I do (for now) is in the form of postcard mailouts and word of mouth. This seems to keep me busy. The word of mouth helps more than the cards though, I have to say. Also, You have an excellent base to start with, I would imagine, in hosting customers. I would do an aggressive email campaign to those subscribers and see what happens!

As a point of encouragement I will tell you that I do very little work for local companies. Most of my work is spread across the nation, and I've never met the majority of my clients. You have a brilliant reputation with your hosting and should use that for some national exposure with your design services.

Hope that's at least a little helpful!

[mediahosting]

For only a small amount of money you can advertise on http://bcentral.com Look into the BSubmit! packages.

Seems to give a lot of freedom for what your advertising, how to get your website listed on tons of search engines etc. You can monitor your site submissions & hit stats on there admin panel overviewing your sites performance in detail.

At least worth the money it costs for sure!

-Kris Parker
Programmer

[webmorpheus.com]

unlike the expensive costs of mailing out postcards, I cold call. Now studies show the average mail marketing campaign generates usually .5% to 1.5% response. It is probably a little bit but not much higher for my percentage.

However, I do save money on all of the printing and postage costs, i doubt my $50 phone bill is more than a mail campaign.

If you need tips, join local chambers, there cheap, and busines go there all of the time for referrals.

Cold Calling can get discouraging especially when you first start, and it takes some fast thinking, smooth talking, and rather large gibronees to cold call businesses. I am 17 but I sound like an experienced middle-aged saleman on the phone, only because I have worked hard at getting good at it.

If you dont have the nutz to call strangers and ask them for money, PPC is the very best option. It will probably generate the same amount response percentage as a standard mail campaign.