Sometimes it feels like you won’t ever increase revenue with your web business. That you’ve reached a plateau and you’ll never do more than you’re doing now.
There are ways to boost your revenue, though. Here are five possibilities for picking up new revenue.
Choose a single product to focus on
This might seem a bit counterproductive, but if you know you’re really good at something, it makes sense to really become the single point of reference for it. Do you make fantastically optimised landing pages? Beautifully scrolling single-page sites? Blogs built to show off experts?
If you have proven results in one product, this gives you an easy way to show off your work, show off your talent, and get more people buying in.
This doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you do – this is how you get the customers in. Then you can offer them so much more.
Start offering freebies
We don’t mean offering free hosting packages or domain names or anything like that. This is offering your knowledge and experience to your customers, showing off what you’re good at. Write an ebook. Start a newsletter. Run a workshop. Have five-minute consultations.
It’s something where someone can come along, get some free advice, and learn that you’re an expert. From there, when you do offer them a paid service, they’ll be much more likely to take it up, since you’ve already shown them you can do the work.
Partner with other businesses
Do you know other freelancers or small agencies? Maybe a copywriter, a marketing agency, or a print shop? Join up with them and accentuate each other’s strengths. You offer a hosting package, they offer 500 flyers. You offer landing pages, they offer PPC campaigns.
It’s not just about partnering with them either. Keep networking with other businesses in your area – when they don’t have the right skill set or capacity to take on a client, they’ll remember you.
Find a niche audience
Rather than trying to get every possible customer out there, why not focus on a particular industry? Businesses in that industry often have the same problems, which makes it easy to find their pain points and provide your expert solution. Whether it’s construction firms, food bloggers, accountants, or amateur sport clubs, there are plenty of niche markets out there who desperately need someone who talks their language and talks the web at the same time.
This definitely doesn’t mean providing the same template, copy, and optimisation for each business. You’ll need to tailor your solutions for each customer. But it does mean you’ll be known as the best person for the job.
Do more for your existing customers
They already know you’re great at what you do and trust you. So what are they missing? What’s something you’re not offering them that you could be providing?
Most revenue, especially in the web industry, isn’t from new customers – it’s from existing customers. Along with their product renewals, existing customers are more likely to turn to a company they already know rather than doing the work of finding a new company. Talk to your customers, find out where their issues are, and see if you can’t provide that for them.
Whether it’s a new hosting package, better optimisation, marketing campaigns, or graphic design, your customers aren’t just a great source of existing revenue, they’re a great source of potential revenue.
So there’s our five top tips – what do you think would be a good way to earn a little extra?
