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Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

There are 2 things:

1. Commoditized website development where any tom dick and harry can setup a quick website on wix/squarespace etc because frankly, they don't need more than that. It is really hard to compete against tools like these because they sell $2/Year websites (or something low enough)

2. There are businesses (small-mid sized) that have built something way back (read:late 90s-early 2000s) who are struggling with their in-house system and looking for a better solution. But they are too scared to think about changing because they don't know who to talk to and what it will cost. You need to find those businesses.

Source: My company finds the #2 and it is a gold mine.

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How do you find customers for #2 though?

Not easy. We found out that most of the #2 types are not necessarily looking so the whole "let them find me through inbound marketing" doesn't work on them for the most part. You really need to come up with an outbound strategy i.e. how to hunt for those clients. It comes down the niche that you are interested in. If you are a generic web dev. shop, it is harder. The client has to really understand why you could make their business better and get them a better ROI.

For us, it is easier in the sense that we only deal with one specific niche. So we use things like linkedin sales navigator, hunter.io (to find emails)and plain old google.com. You ill be surprised how many prospects will actually give you 15 mins of their time if your call is well researched and relevant to their needs. This is not something you can do in your part time though. Requires a lot of research and execution. More about quality than quantity.

I'm guessing you don't want to share your niche. Broadly, is this how you find clients?

1. Find businesses in your niche with not-so-great websites 2. Find their contact details 3. Contact them with specific action items that can improve their SEO, sales funnels, conversions etc

That still doesn't explain how you can find clients with poor in-house tools, unless they are talking about it publicly?

Thank you for answering, this sounds like a lot of work - no wonder prospects are willing to talk to you!

If they have a bad website, its likely that they do not have good in house tools. Obviously not every one of them will be in that position, or have interest in changing things, but still having that list of prospects to go through is a lot more effective than spray and pray (not having a niche to go after) or relying on people reaching out to you. Once you do something well for 1 client, its pretty easy to show other similar companies that success and have them understand the value you offer. It won't be a 90% success rate, but still would be a lot better than not getting specific and niche-ing.

Source: My company employs this same type of method, and previously were generalists with no niche and didn't target specific companies we felt were a good fit. Being on the offensive and actively finding clients is night and day difference to before.

I don't mind sharing the niche:edtech. Your guess is a good start but that is just the website part. I m talking more about web app i.e complex dynamic business applications. But yea, finding the gems requires a full time effort. We have a sales and marketing team.

Same, should've added that but my agency mostly deals with web apps or custom integrations to more simple websites such as client portals, custom admin panels, or custom e-commerce.

Also, if you're looking to niche and don't have a client in the chosen industry, you can use other success stories in the industry to the same effect. Our first client in one industry we got because I set up a meeting with one of the companies in the industry that had recently made a large update to their website like we would like to do for others in the industry. Sat with the COO that told me all the improvements they've seen, increased revenue, & other advantages to the website overhaul. I took that info to another similar (but not direct competitor) company and said we could offer the same advantages with a similar product. Literally walked into their office and introduced myself, gave a business card, then followed up with a few emails to various people in the business until the Owner called me up one day out of the blue. Had a contract signed a month later.

for the 1., it depends on the quality you want to achieve.

A business that relies on those platforms can't be called business.

I'd argue otherwise. For example, my sister just opened a local swimming pool for dogs and using one of these platforms is great for her so far. A presence with opening hours, pricing and contact details are all many small businesses need.

I need to know more about this business.

Exercise and rehabilitation, turns out it's something dog owners in the area had been missing.

Depends whether the website is your core competency. If it's just there to display your rates or a bit more about your business then there is no need to have anything more.

For instance, I operate a bar as a side business. I just knocked together a WordPress site in a few hours because I don't want the website to suck up too much of my time or to become a cost centre.

We have such "lego block" website builders in Germany since $forever, and while with some experience you can easily tell which builder (and therefore hoster) any restaurant or hairdresser used for their site, it's good enough for their purpose: get the word out there, announce their services and opening times, have something to point at from Maps.

There's also a chrome extension called Wappalyzer that can help you determine what was used to build the sites if its something you check often. Works pretty well in my experience.

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