To attract professional web design projects, it is essential to communicate the value of your work to clients. For example, explain to them how investing in a website can lead to increased revenue. Emphasize your ability to create added value, and convince them that paying a higher price ultimately results in greater returns.
How to Get Web Design Projects?
Learning web design is only one part of the journey. The other part is the ability to attract clients and projects. Even if you’re the best web designer in the world, your skills are useless without the ability to get projects. In this article, we’ll explore how you can find projects that match your expertise. Although the focus is on web design, the principles apply to SEO, graphic design, and many other fields.
There are many free and paid courses online that teach web design. But in my experience, there aren’t many reliable courses on how to actually get web design projects. The goal of this article is to share insights from my 13 years of experience.
The Best Method to Get Web Design Projects
A quick search online will show you many cliché solutions: Instagram pages, LinkedIn profiles, and freelancing platforms. But with so many popular pages and low-cost experienced freelancers out there, why should a client choose you? Not all of these methods guarantee success. In my view, you need a different approach. The web design market is highly competitive, known as a “Red Ocean” in marketing.
Part 1: Let Clients Find You
By using the marketing techniques below, you can position yourself as an expert and show potential clients that you can meet their needs.
The Secret: Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting clients by creating valuable, relevant content. Unlike traditional outbound marketing, where you advertise to reach clients, inbound lets them come to you giving you more freedom to set your pricing.
Inbound marketing is great for beginners to build credibility and visibility. By sharing helpful content, you prove your knowledge and earn trust.
Key Inbound Marketing Tips:
Build some very strong portfolios.
To get started, one of the most important steps is to be able to create a few strong and professional portfolios. Even if necessary, you can start with lower prices and from acquaintances and friends, but you should showcase all your art and expertise in these initial projects and work with beautiful, principled and professional design. If you can’t find an initial client, you can design demo sites for yourself in the fields you are interested in. Portfolios are very important for attracting web design projects.
Without any pretense, I will tell you that even I don’t pay much attention to people’s resumes when outsourcing some tasks such as content production and graphic design, and portfolios are more important to me.
Carefully design a personal website for yourself.
Your personal website is your most powerful asset. Believe it or not, I’ve secured many projects simply by showcasing my own site—because I invested time, creativity, and technical precision into its design. Your website and blog are the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy.
By consistently creating high-quality, relevant content on your personal website, you position yourself as an expert and draw in potential clients organically. This approach helps beginners land their first jobs and boosts the credibility of seasoned professionals.
A personal website brings clients to beginners and builds authority for professionals.
Some practical tips for implementing inbound marketing
- On your personal website, set up a blog or an educational section where you write about topics related to web design—such as the latest trends, tips and tricks, and other important subjects.
- You can also create a high-quality eBook or video tutorial on a relevant topic, like an introduction to WordPress, and offer it to your audience for free.
- Participating in online forums or Telegram groups related to web design and answering users’ questions is also an effective way to grow your professional network. Over time, your connections will naturally expand. At this stage, avoid directly promoting your services; instead, focus on helping others and building your credibility as an expert in the field.
The best kind of marketing is not like traditional marketing at all!
Unlike direct and pushy advertising, this type of marketing focuses on building trust and forming genuine relationships with clients. When you help customers instead of directly promoting yourself by offering valuable, useful content and answering their questions you’re actually creating a natural and trustworthy connection. This approach leads clients to come to you organically, and that connection naturally results in more sales and success.
At this stage, you should avoid direct and outbound advertising for getting web design projects. Your main goal here is to build credibility and establish a strong personal brand. By showcasing solid portfolio work, launching your own website, producing valuable educational content, and actively participating in discussions, you’ll adopt the best marketing strategy to start your career. This approach will help clients naturally trust you and ultimately, come to you.
- At this stage, you gradually separate yourself from the crowd of low-quality web designers. Let me emphasize once again that your expertise plays the most important role in this process. Over time, your skills will naturally attract better-quality projects.
To be recognized for your quality work, don’t take on every project at any price. Instead, focus on delivering high-quality results and working with clients who understand and appreciate the value of what you offer.
You can also specialize in a specific area, such as eCommerce website design. By narrowing your focus, you can position yourself as an expert in that niche and attract more targeted clients.
Show clients the true value of your work. For example, explain how the money they invest in a professionally designed website can lead to increased revenue. Help them understand that your service creates more value for them—enough to justify a higher price.
By applying these tips—based on my personal experience—you can effectively use inbound marketing to increase your chances of landing web design projects and becoming a professional in your field.
Part 2: Target High-Quality Clients
After completing the first phase, you can gradually begin promoting your services and identifying potential high-value clients. This doesn’t mean launching large-scale advertising campaigns rather, presenting your services professionally can significantly help attract more quality projects. At this stage, your focus should shift to building strong working relationships. Relationships with clients and colleagues are extremely important. Maintain meaningful, ongoing communication with your clients and collaborate effectively with your peers.
In this second phase, if you decide to create an Instagram page, make sure you enter the platform prepared. Alongside educational and general content, start showcasing your success stories and portfolio. However, be careful to maintain balance. In my opinion, no more than 10% of your posts should be promotional. In other words, out of every 10 posts, only 1 should highlight your services and achievements.
Don’t work for just anyone at any price.
If you’ve done a good job with the first phase using inbound marketing to attract web design projects you’ll likely receive many offers, and you may even need to turn some down. At this stage, your pricing strategy becomes crucial. My personal recommendation is to set your prices slightly above the market average.
There’s work out there for everyone, but you need to carefully choose the projects that are truly worth your time and expertise. For example, one project worth 50 million tomans is far better than ten projects worth 5 million. It not only adds a stronger piece to your portfolio but also saves your time. Always remember: you’re paid for the time you spend, and that’s a hard truth so don’t sell your time cheap.
My experience working on a website
In the past, I have a Digital Marketing Agency and built a team with some amazing professionals in the field. Together, we took on and successfully completed several large scale projects, which was a valuable and exciting experience. Now that I’ve migrated, I’ve launched my own Digital Marketing Agency again and decided to create a new chapter with fresh experiences.
I became more professional with this site.
The first and most noticeable impact of my personal website was the boost in my professional image and credibility. Having a well-designed, luxurious-looking website immediately shows potential clients that you’re a professional who knows what you’re doing. If you can build a great site for yourself, clients will naturally trust that you can do the same for them.
In fact, in several projects, clients have specifically asked me to create websites similar to my own. If you’re a web designer without a personal site, you’ve probably heard this question before: “You’re a web designer, but you don’t have a website yourself?” So, don’t wait build your own site and let it showcase your skills and creativity.
Beyond web design projects, I’ve also created multiple streams of income.
In addition to the core services I offer on my website, I also provide complementary services such as private web design training, SEO consulting, advertising strategy, and more. These side services now make up a significant portion of my monthly and yearly income. That’s why having a dynamic, engaging website allows you to monetize various aspects of your expertise.
Fields like content creation, graphic design, SEO, and digital marketing can all be profitable. Moreover, by offering free courses or valuable blog articles, clients quickly recognize your professionalism. That trust makes it much easier to attract web design projects—and once you’re perceived as a pro, you’ll be able to sign higher-value contracts with better terms.
A high-quality project with a decent budget is always better than handling several cheap, low-quality ones.
Based on my personal experience, the money earned from too many low-budget, poor-quality projects never matches the value financially or professionally of one or two high-quality jobs. You’ll also run into serious time constraints. Your goal should be to step out of the crowd of low-level designers and enter the top tier of the market. That path not only improves the quality of your work but also leads to better long-term income and reputation.
My experience working on Social Media
Social media can be a double-edged sword when it comes to specialized work. On the positive side, a large percentage of people are active on these platforms and spend a significant amount of time there. However, the downside is that social media is generally a public and entertainment-driven space. As a result, the chances of someone messaging you for specialized services like web design are relatively low. Technical or professional posts usually don’t get much attention, as most users are looking for fun and light content.
That said, social media is still an excellent tool for personal branding. It’s best to create general content that introduces you as a specialist in your field. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook can help you attract small web design projects, but as mentioned, your main focus should be on building your personal brand—and if you have a store, on selling your products.
Final words:
Be careful of dream-sellers and scammers.
If someone promises you easy money from web design, you should be skeptical. Every day, I come across numerous ads especially on Instagram and Facebook making bold claims of earning thousands of dollars in a short time or earning easy dollars through web design. Most of these promises are scams, and the real goal is just to sell their training courses and fill their own pockets.
Methods often mentioned in some articles like advertising on classified sites, cold calling, and similar tactics usually bring no real results. In fact, they often lead to frustration and disappointment. These strategies won’t land you large or reputable projects.
Web design is indeed a high-income and growing profession globally. But to reach a high level of income, you need to work hard, stay up to date, and approach your craft with seriousness and creativity.
Thank you again for your attention, and if you have any questions or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you in the comments section.