Web designers, especially when just starting out, don’t have much of an advertising budget. So where does most new business come from? You may get a trickle of new business from people who stumble upon your website, but odds are the vast majority of your business is going to come from word of mouth. To make sure everybody’s on the same page, word of mouth advertising is when people who are familiar with you or your business personally recommend you to someone they know who needs your services.

These recommendations are often far more effective than traditional advertising. If someone sees your name on a billboard, they don’t actually know anything about you as a person or your quality of service. If they find out about you from one of your customers or a business associate, there’s an extra piece of information. You’ve dealt with at least one person who thinks highly enough of you to throw your name out there. Your potential customer now has a record of people who have interacted with you and not regretted it. You’re one for one.

It works, and it’s free. So how do you get more of it? Here’s a few tips based on my personal experiences.

Explain Your Ideal Customers.

The first step here is to identify in your own mind what your perfect customer looks like. Maybe you have a lot to offer brand new businesses that need their first web site. Or perhaps you work best with businesses that are upgrading their existing sites to take orders online. If you have a lot of experience creating sites in a particular industry (for me it’s photography) you can probably turn out more sites in that same industry in a timely manner. It doesn’t do any good to get talked up to people who want to create a site where they can upload pictures of their pets, when you’re really after local mom-and-pop stores.

Keep Realistic Expectations.

We’re not talking about paid sales people. These are regular folks who just happen to know you do good work. In most cases, they aren’t going to have the ability to provide a 3 minute speech on what sets you apart from the competition. What can they do? They can mention your name or the name of your business. If you have an easy to remember URL and/or phone number (and you should), they can mention those as well. Your army of word of mouth advertisers may also come to you with the names of people who are in the market for a web designer. If you have a very motivated cheerleader, they may carry around a few of your business cards and hand them out to your future customers. In all cases, though, don’t expect anyone else to close the sale for you. You’re responsible for following up.

Be a Giver.

A fantastic way to get recommendations from other people is to give recommendations about them. If you champion the print shop down on the corner of your street, the people down at the shop will occasionally here a customer say, “So-and-so suggested I stop in here.” If they keep hearing “so-and-so” day after day, it’s going to be fresh in their memory when a customer asks if the print shop has anyone who could translate their new brochure into a website redesign. The important thing here is to make sure that you make referrals in your capacity as a web professional. If the people you send to the print shop say, “this dude said I should check you out,” don’t expect any benefit beyond good karma. If you wrote the script, you would want it to read, “This guy, Clay, who does all my web design work said you guys could handle all my print needs.”

Unfortunately, you don’t get to write the script. Another approach is to cut out the middleman and trade referrals directly with other businesses. Local networking organizations and chambers of commerce are designed specifically for this purpose. You meet other business professionals and look for new business opportunities for each other.

Deserve It.

This point may seem obvious, but it is critical. Make sure the service you provide is worth recommending. If you fail here, then the word of mouth advertising you receive is going to be about your glaring incompetence.

filed under: Finding Work