How to Attract High-Paying Web Design Clients
Attracting high-paying web design clients is key to having the freedom you want - both financially, and time freedom!
In my first few years as a website designer, I took on a lot of lower paid projects because - of course - I was excited about working with clients and didn’t want to turn away the work! This is totally normal (we all have to start somewhere!), but at a certain point it can take its toll.
Under-pricing yourself constant means that in order to make the money you want, you end up having to take on MORE and more web design projects at one time, which is a sure-fire recipe for burnout 🫠
But taking the leap from those lower paid projects, to raising your rates and attracting high end website design clients can feel daunting. It brings up a lot of imposter syndrome, and can be demoralising when you send out higher priced quotes only to be ghosted.
In this post I’m sharing some things you can do to avoid that, and get more of those dream clients you deserve.
Table of Contents
Benefits of working with high-end design clients
So I’ll admit that for years when I was starting out as a web designer, I was SET that I wanted to work with micro businesses who were on a budget. I desperately wanted to HELP clients who didn’t have huge budgets.
But guess what - you’re no help to anyone at all if you’re burned out, overworked, and rushing through projects because you need take on so many to make ends meet 🎤 *mic drop*.
Here’s the thing - you’re not running a charity. You’re running a business, and you NEED to make sure the services you’re offering make financial sense for your goals and time capacity.
Fewer, higher paying projects = more impact
Rather than juggling multiple lower paid gigs, you can put more time, effort and passion into the projects you do work on, without feeling rushed and overloaded. And when you are secure and getting paid well, you can THEN look to help other businesses with pro bono or sliding scale/accessible pricing if you want to. You can only create this kind of impact from a place of security yourself 🙏
Share your expertise with more creative freedom
This isn’t always the case, but in my experience, clients with bigger budgets have more trust in you as a designer, because they already understand the value in what you provide. They know they’re paying more because they’re hiring an expert, so are keen to have the expert lead with what’s best.
You’ll be less at-risk of AI & New tech ‘taking your clients’
I’ve spoken before about whether AI will replace website designers, thanks to the host of new tools available that let people create a website from a single prompt! But the crux of this is, that in order to ensure you won’t be replace, you need to be repositioning yourself for more premium clients, who aren’t going to be choosing between you or AI.
Build a secure, scalable business that doesn’t stress you the f**k out!
Being self-employed or running your own design business is hard, and one of the only major benefits (that many of us go freelance for!) is more freedom. To choose your schedule and not have it controlled by anyone else.
BUT when you end up overworking yourself with lots of lower paid projects, you can actually end up working way more than in your 9-to-5, and your busy schedule ends up being dictated by your clients. Let’s quit this!
Why most web designers struggle to attract high-paying clients
Most of us experience imposter syndrome at different points throughout our business journey. I’ve met people with hugely successful 6 and 7 figure businesses who still experience it!
But nothing seems to trigger imposter syndrome more than when you’re raising your prices… and I truly believe this is why most website designers struggle to get to that next level.
If your brain is freaking out that you’re not skilled enough, or your processes are too chaotic, or there are no clients that will pay your new rates, this is going to have a trickle-down effect on the the actions and things you need to be doing to attract those higher-end clients.
You’ll struggle to communicate your value in your messaging if you don’t believe it yourself
You’ll continue taking on low paid projects just in case
You’ll struggle sharing your expertise and authority online because you don’t have confidence in yourself
You’ll spend hours doom-scrolling comparing yourself to others rather than focusing on things that can move the needle in your business
^ GIF via Justin Hartley Nbc GIF by This Is Us
So the FIRST thing you need to do is get comfortable with charging a higher price for your services and drop-kick that imposter syndrome straight out the door.
Start thinking of yourself as being in that next pricing tier, remind yourself of your existing testimonials and how you’ve helped people and the transformations you’ve made. You’ve got this!
1. Become a specialist website designer
If you’re just offering general web design services to anyone that needs a website, you’re not going to stand out. And you can’t charge a premium price and attract premium clients if you’re blending in with the masses!
You need to go from being a generalist to a specialist. Because people pay premium prices to work with specialists!
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to choose a specific type of client to niche with. There are lots of different ways you can specialise, but it’s important that you do.
A yoga studio is likely to pay a higher price for a designer who specialises in websites for fitness/yoga studios, vs a generic designer.
A business with a Showit website is likely to pay a bit more for a designer who specialises in that platform, vs a generic designer.
A brand would likely rather pay more for a website designer that proudly shares its values around social issues vs a generic designer.
2. You’re not selling websites. You’re selling valuable solutions.
Rather than saying you’re selling websites, you need to shift to selling the outcomes and benefits that your web design services will give your clients.
You need to be able to clearly communicate the value of what you offer (ie. how will it positively affect your client) vs just the features (eg. a 5 page site, mobile responsiveness, domain connection) etc.
You can pair this tip with the tip above by reframing your web design services into specialist solutions for your exact clients’ needs! Use messaging that really speaks to that specific person, and calls them out on their desires and current challenges.
^ Example of my own web design sales page, talking about the solution
3. Position yourself as an expert authority
People pay for specialists, and they pay for experts.
But no one will know that you’re an expert unless you’re sharing about your expertise and experience online. Creating content that shares your expertise can position you as an authority and a ‘go to’ in your industry, so that higher paying clients will be pinning you as their vision board designer to work with.
4. Curate a consistently relevant brand & portfolio
Like attracts like, so in your website design portfolio make sure you’re sharing the types of projects you want to attract more of. If you don’t have any projects that are relevant to your new high-end vibe and specialism, create some fictional ones yourself to demonstrate your skills!
The same goes for all your brand touch-points and online content; higher paying clients have higher standards, and will want to see you embody your design expertise by ensuring everything looks consistent.
5. Deliver an exceptional client experience
High end web design clients will expect a high end experience, so what does that look like really?
Create clear boundaries & communicate them professionally
Just because someone is paying more, doesn’t mean you have to offer 24/7 on-call responses and unlimited edits. In fact, it might look like the opposite of this! Setting expectations (for communication, revisions etc) and having clear boundaries means you and your client know exactly where you stand, and this creates a professional working relationship and dynamic.
Make your client feel supported
There’s nothing worse than being ghosted by someone you’ve paid a lot of money to - you want to be reassured of your investment, not constantly wondering what’s next and what’s going on, and being left with lots of questions.
Be organised & efficient
If you’re organised with your own task, project, and client management systems, this has a knock-on effect with your clients so they feel like you’re really an ‘on it’ expert!
PS. Need to get these systems set up quickly? Check out my Organised Designer’s Hub course and templates!
An elevated experience = repeats & referrals!
Attracting high-paying web design clients becomes so much easier when we have clients out there raving about us and sending more high-end referrals our way! But they will only do this if they’ve had a great experience.
6. Create content that sells your high end design services
If you want to attract more premium web design clients, you have to get out of the weeds of sporadic portfolio posting on Instagram and calling that a marketing strategy. This isn’t enough to set you apart and position yourself as an expert!
Think about it - expecting someone to go from stumbling on a random Insta post to spending potentially £000s with you is quite a big leap! Your content needs to be bridging that gap.
This is why I teach how to build a content funnel inside my program - In Demand Designer® - where we create content that not only attracts your dream, high-paying clients into your audience, but also nurtures and converts them too.
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