How A Web Design Agency Can Maintain A Steady Workflow

By Gavin Kilgallon on Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Most businesses find maintaining a constant workflow close to capacity challenging. As one of London's leading web design agencies with decades of experience, we know that we can either be run off our feet or anxiously await the next project. Through firsthand experience, we have learnt effective strategies and working practices to help maintain a steady workflow, minimise times of work scarcity, and create a happy client base.

Choosing The Right Tools

Like many industries, having the right tools can massively improve the efficiency and effectiveness of any web agency. They can help automate tasks, improve productivity, free up time for other initiatives, and improve collaboration and communication (internally and externally with clients). Below, we will list some of the platforms and software-related tools that we have found to be highly beneficial to running our agency and, without any doubt, helped us grow and maintain excellent relationships with our clients.

Monday: We use Monday.com constantly. It is a powerful, brilliant, highly customisable, and collaborative project management tool.

Figma: Is a collaborative SaaS design platform that allows us to showcase workflows and design interfaces with clients.

Jasper: A great AI-powered tool that helps create consistent content using a unified companywide tone of voice.

Fostering Relationships & Communication

Building solid relationships with clients is vital to success for any design agency. At ID Studio, we understand that transparency in communication and consistent and honest interaction is paramount to creating productive, collaborative and meaningful relationships with the people we work for. Some fundamental techniques that we employ include:

Honesty in open communication. Sometimes, it can be difficult to inform clients that a project is delayed or that there are potential issues. However, being up-front all the time fosters trust.
Project management is essential, especially with website design. Monday.com (discussed above) can aid communication through real-time updates, easy collaboration, visual progress charts, complete transparency, and 24-hour dialogue.

Putting Clients First

Putting the client's needs before anything else is a key policy at ID Studio. Whether the task is a simple website update or a complex eCommerce system, we apply the principle that every client and task matters.

Other agencies look to make as much money as quickly as possible out of each client until the relationship runs its course and then move on to the next client. ID Studio takes the opposite approach and tries to build long-term relationships based on mutual trust and respect.

We conduct planning and brainstorming meetings to understand our clients and their website goals fully. We then work on designs until they are 100% happy.
Regular meetings during the website design and development lifecycle, ensuring continuous feedback and personalised solutions.
We go above and beyond. An example of this is redesigning a part of the website after it has been approved by the client and signed off. We understand that circumstances may change, and our goal is to keep the client happy. We may take an initial financial hit, but in the long term, they are more likely to reuse and recommend our services.
Be proactive during the project build, anticipate potential issues, and provide advice. Don't wait for the client to ask. Call them and discuss ideas that elevate the user experience. This is an excellent way to build solid relationships and trust in your agency.

With a client-focused business approach, we differentiate our web agency from the competition, building a reputation that will help attract repeat business and new clients through recommendations.

Retainer Agreements for Steady Income

Retainers are a good business strategy for both agencies and their clients. Though we've only actively sought retainers in recent years, they offer a reliable and secure source of ongoing income. For clients, retainers provide peace of mind, ensuring their sites remain updated, secure, and optimised.

As a web agency, some areas that clients can be retained for include:

Website updates and enhancements.
Brand updates and design consistency.
Search engine optimisation, content creation and PPC.
Security monitoring and applying framework and plugin updates (especially for WordPress websites).
Managed social media posts, newsletter marketing campaigns, and landing page creation.

You can read more about our website support and maintenance services here.

Maximising Exposure Through Marketing Channels

Increasing your brand awareness and overall visibility is essential, especially as the web design market becomes more crowded. There are many ways to promote your business and improve publicity. Some of the strategies we use at ID Studio include:

Organic SEO promotion: Optimising our website so it is high up for relevant keywords on the SERPs. ID Studio has a dedicated team that can help with your ongoing organic SEO promotion.
Social Media promotion and targeted advertising: Using platforms like LinkedIn and Google Ads to target specific markets and professionals.
Industry awards and recognition: Hundreds of websites allow design submissions, some of which are highly regarded and are viewed by thousands o potential clients.
Create insightful and helpful content on your website: Publishing valuable, relevant content on your website will showcase your expertise to existing and new clients whilst increasing your site's exposure on the SERPs.
Keep in contact: Regularly (without becoming annoying), contact new and past clients through email and newsletters. This is a great way to stay relevant and showcase new projects, clients and services.

Impressive Portfolio and Testimonials

We at ID Studio are lucky. Our extensive and impressive web design portfolio covers a wide range of industries and website types. Many of these projects have won industry recognition and provide us with a steady stream of new enquiries.

A strong and visually stunning portfolio instantly showcases our credibility and skillset to existing and potential clients. Our website has over a hundred portfolio examples and is growing regularly.

At ID Studio, we are here to help your business succeed online. If you have questions or want impartial advice about your website, contact us anytime.