[Paul Boag] So let's look at the issue of marketing and promotion.

I want to start by doing something slightly strange.

I want to look at what doesn't work,

because I think there are a lot of misconceptions and preconceptions

surrounding how to market your work.

Let's look at some things that don't work well.

In my experience cold calling, advertising,

bidding sites, and networking events don't work very well.

Now you might be thinking, "Well they work for me,"

and I'm not saying they never work.

I'm just saying that I don't think they're the most effective way of working.

So why don't these things work?

Let's apply some of the principles of user centric design

by putting ourselves in the place of our potential prospect—our potential client.

First of all let's look at cold calling.

The problem with cold calling—by picking up the phone and just ringing someone

you want to work with—is that you have to call them at exactly the right time.

They have to have a project that they want to work on there and then in order

for your call to actually be useful. Now think about it for a minute.

What are the chances of that actually happening,

because if you're not calling them at exactly the right time

all you're going to do is just annoy them,

and they're certainly not going to want to work with you in the future if that's the case.

Then there's advertising, isn't there?

The problem here is that there's just too much choice.

There are too many people out there clamoring for attention,

going, "Look at me! Look at me! Hire me!"

The trouble is that you'll find that advertising gets really expensive,

and you're just going to be one voice amongst a million clamoring for attention,

and the problem is as well from a user centric point of view

is that for most clients buying a web site—

paying for a web design agency to come in and build them a web site

is an important purchase and it's too important a purchase

just to kind of go along to Google and click on the first ad.

It's something that needs some kind of recommendation behind it.

Then there are those bidding sites, aren't there? You've seen them.

You go along to something like Elance

and you enter in your details and you ask web designers to pitch,

but my problem with those is it's all about price.

They're the only things that define whether or not you win the work,

so it all becomes a race to the button,

and your profit margins will just evaporate into the air.

Finally, there are those networking events.

My problem with networking events—a lot of people really like them

and enjoy them, and they are great fun.

It's great to meet other people working in different industries and sectors,

but my problem with them is that everybody is selling and nobody is buying.

You'll go along to these events hoping that someone will buy your service,

but if everyone is selling then how are you going to win any business through it?

So the big one is about hiring a salesperson.

Should you hire a salesperson to do all of this stuff for you?

Well that's a tricky question, and I have to say

I don't think hiring a salesperson is the answer.

After all, how do you motivate them?

Do you put them on commission?—but commission on what?

Is that commission on sales or commission on the profit that you make on the project?

If it's sales, then they're just going to promise the earth, aren't they?

"Oh yes, we can do all of these really complicated technical things

on your web site for 50 pence" because they want to win the project

so that they get their commission on that project.

They don't care that you're not going to make profit on it.

If however you provide them with commission based on profit margins,

well that's a bit unfair on them, because your profit is so dependent

on things outside of their control. It's not their fault if the client is badly managed.

It's not their fault if you get stuck on a particular technical problem.

So it's very hard to motivate an external salesperson.

So what is our conclusion from all of this?

Well, basically, traditional sales and marketing approaches just don't work

when it comes to promoting your web design business.