Web design and development agencies, as well as independent freelancers, often experience a common obstacle of finding new clients. There are endless options for web design services available in the UK market, and a website alone is no longer enough to attract people to your services. To diversify your client base and win new customers, you need to stand out from the competition and convert visitors into paying clients through lead generation. In this process, viewers are introduced to the value of your services, and those who show interest move to the next stage of the sales funnel.
This blog will explain the process of web design lead generation and discuss 10 practical strategies that you can implement right away to generate high-quality leads for your business.
What Are Web Design Leads?
Web design leads are potential clients who are interested in the web design or development services your business provides. They may be companies looking for a brand-new website, aiming to improve their existing site, or looking for specialised website-related services.
Simply knowing your potential clients isn’t sufficient; the main challenge lies in how these businesses actually find you. Clients are more likely to hire someone else if you don’t actively market your business. It is also important to note here that capturing leads is only the first step (arguably the most difficult one), and many additional steps follow before a sale is completed.
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What Is the Web Design Lead Generation Process?
B2B lead generation, or simply lead generation, can be carried out through many different channels beyond just websites. These include generating leads from seminars, cold emailing, social media, or professional networking platforms. Website lead generation, however, specifically focuses on turning your site visitors into potential clients. It uses your website as a tool to take a person from just visiting the site to becoming a potential client.
The key to increasing your leads is to make your services more accessible than your competitors’. High website traffic means a higher chance of lead conversions, more projects, higher revenues, and consistent business growth.
Now let’s move on to the 10 strategies that can help you make this happen.
10 Proven Strategies to Generate Web Design Leads
1. Add a Conversion Form on Your Website
A conversion form is one of the most common and effective ways to capture leads. A high-quality form directs visitors to your website to submit their details without redirection. This form can ask for basic information like the client’s industry, the type of project they are looking for, minimum and maximum budget, and expected timeline. With this data, you can quickly figure out the scope of the lead and decide whether it is worth pursuing.
By adding a conversion form to your website, you can leverage several benefits, like:
- Pre-qualification: The biggest advantage of this method is pre-qualification. It means that a straightforward contact form helps you separate serious clients from casual viewers.
- Saves time and effort: Knowing the project details upfront can help you decide how much effort you should put into following up with each lead. This ultimately saves you time and energy in the long run.
- Efficient follow-up process: It also allows you to respond to enquiries more effectively since you already know what the person is looking for.
- Here is an example of an effective yet simple contact form.
Source: hirewithnear
2. Make Navigation Simple and User-Friendly
Websites with complicated navigation may frustrate visitors and make it harder for them to explore your content. If people cannot move through your pages intuitively, they are likely to leave before ever reaching the contact stage.
To avoid this, your website should be user-friendly and simple to navigate. Visitors should be able to find your portfolio, services, and pricing page quickly, without unnecessary clutter.
3. Showcase a Strong Portfolio
Your portfolio shows potential clients what you can deliver. Most designers already know the importance of a curated portfolio and include a selection of past projects on their website. However, the way a portfolio is presented can make a big difference.
Consider implementing these additional steps rather than presenting a simple gallery on your website:
- Categorise your projects: Organise your work, for example, by budget range, by industry, or even by time taken to complete the project. This helps visitors see examples that feel relevant to their situation.
- Highlight your team: A strong portfolio should highlight your team, because people connect more easily with faces than with logos.
- Use visuals: Adding visuals like relevant videos and short explanations with each project can make your portfolio feel more personal and transparent.
- Add trust signals: To build trust, you can include client testimonials, LinkedIn reviews, and even short case studies that outline the problem, solution, and results for each project.
- This is a good example of what a portfolio can look like. The custom tags for each project provide extra context for website viewers, while the thumbnail gives an idea about the website’s style.
Source: hausmangraphics
4. Use Call-to-Action Buttons Everywhere
A common theme among many web design sites is that they place their contact form at the top or bottom of a landing page. If visitors have to scroll all the way down for it, you’ve already created an obstacle. Instead, place call-to-action buttons and lead forms on each web page, not just the landing or contact page. If that is not feasible, you would place buttons that redirect viewers to your main contact form with a single click.
Here are some important points to keep in mind when creating CTA buttons for your website:
- Action-focused: A good CTA should be visible and action-orientated. You might notice most CTA buttons use strong verbs, like “Get Started” or “Request a Quote”.
- Consider the design: The design of your call-to-action buttons should highlight them from the other page elements. To achieve this, you can use contrasting colours, make sure it’s large enough to tap on a mobile phone, and keep the wording short.
- Use secondary CTAs: In addition to using primary CTAs that lead to your main contact form, use secondary CTAs. These buttons guide viewers to your portfolio or help them learn more about your process.
- Here is an example of what a well-designed CTA button with short text and action verbs can look like:
Source: squareup
5. Run A/B Testing on Website Elements
With A/B testing, you can compare two versions of a webpage to see which performs better. For example, you might test two different CTA button colours, two different headline styles, or two versions of a pricing page.
The goal here is to avoid guessing what works and instead rely on actual user behaviour to gain insights. This way, you can continue to improve your website and increase your chances of converting visitors into leads over time.
6. Capture Exiting Visitors with Exit Popups
Exit popups are small windows that appear when someone is about to leave your website. Some might consider them overwhelming or intrusive, but they can be very effective if done right. One of their major benefits is that they help reduce a website’s bounce rate, which also positively impacts its overall SEO.
Here is what you can do to create impactful exit pop-ups:
- Offer incentives to stay: You can use an exit pop-up to offer a free checklist, a discount on services, or a reminder to book a demo. This way, you give a last engagement chance to visitors who are about to leave your website.
- Keep them short and relevant: Make your exit pop-ups clear, relevant, and valuable. Avoid overcomplicating them with text or unrealistic deals. Write a clear message and offer a meaningful incentive.
- Here’s an example of a simple exit intent pop-up, which provides a meaningful offer to visitors who might leave without exploring further.
Source: myskinfeels
7. Be Transparent with Pricing
Many web design businesses hesitate to share pricing information. However, hiding prices does not do substantial good either; people may assume your services are too expensive and leave without ever contacting you. That is why we think transparent pricing sets clear expectations and builds trust with visitors.
You don’t need to publish a fixed price for every service. Instead, you can show package options and price ranges. This gives visitors an idea of whether your services fit their budget.
8. Offer Ungated Content and Utilise Lead Magnets
Offering free content builds trust, and it does not even have to be complicated. It can be:
- Ungated content: It refers to freely available material that does not require any details, like a blog post or a downloadable checklist. The downloadable PDF in this example is a relevant example:
Source: hirewithnear
- Lead magnets: It is free content that comes with a small requirement, like providing an email address to access it. In the following example, the article can be accessed in exchange for a work email, which acts as a strong lead magnet.
Source: hirewithnear
The main purpose of such accessible content is to keep it simple and relevant. Your audience may find complicated content or large PDFs overwhelming, but they are more likely to use and appreciate short guides, templates, or quick tips.
One way you can further multiply these benefits is by adding small, optional forms to ungated content to softly qualify leads. For instance, enquire about the project’s start date and budget. This helps you identify which free content users are most likely to convert into paying clients.
9. Optimise for SEO
Search engine optimisation helps your website rank higher on search engines and increases the chances of appearing on the first few pages of search results for relevant keywords. When your website ranks higher on Google, it automatically increases your credibility and helps more people find you.
Here are some key steps for optimising your content effectively:
- Use the right keywords: All the content you publish should be rich with relevant keywords and provide real value to its readers. Choosing the right keywords helps search engines display your website for the most relevant queries.
- Include SEO elements: Your website should have proper meta headings, structured content, impactful meta descriptions, sufficient white space, visuals, and clear URLs.
- Improve loading speed: Make sure all your web pages load quickly, all the embedded URLs, buttons, and forms work, and redirect the users to the relevant pages.
- Build organic traffic: When your website is responsive, SEO-optimised, contains visuals, and is accessible to all devices with functional buttons and interactive features, it builds steady organic traffic that you don’t have to pay for. More traffic means more chances of generating leads.
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Use SEO tools: To make SEO easier, you can use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. These can help you track how your website is performing and identify opportunities for improvement.
10. Use Paid Advertising
Paid ads are a fast way to reach your target audience. Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow you to run ads that bring visitors directly to your website. To make the most of paid advertising, it’s important to also track your results.
Tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, HubSpot, or Facebook Pixel can show you insights like how many people saw your ad, how many clicked, and how many converted into leads. This data helps you refine your campaigns and make sure you’re getting the best value for your investment.
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ProInteractive makes B2B web design lead generation easy for your business. We simplify the process by connecting you with decision-makers ready to buy. Whether you want to scale your services or increase product adoption, our platform delivers qualified leads tailored to your needs. With ProInteractive as your partner, you can focus on closing deals instead of chasing prospects.
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FAQs
Web design leads are potential clients who are interested in your design or development services.
It depends on the strategy. Long-term strategies like SEO may take months, while paid ads can deliver results within weeks.
Ungated content is free and open to everyone, while lead magnets require users to share their details before accessing the content.
