Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
Lesson 12 from: Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and LetteringDina Rodriguez
Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
Lesson 12 from: Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and LetteringDina Rodriguez
Lesson Info
12. Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
Lessons
Class Introduction
15:10 2Moving Beyond Trials and Tribulations
06:41 3Hone Your Craft
05:41 4From Practicing to Posting
06:34 5Post Your Work To Get Noticed
14:54 6Q&A
13:36 7Choose a Niche
12:26 8Choosing Your Demographic
16:003 Rules of Web Design for Artists
09:59 10Build Your Site to Attract Clients: About Me Page
09:18 11Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Portfolio Page
05:57 12Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
06:07 13Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Blog Page
07:38 14Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Home Page
11:43 15Process That Gets You Hired: Client Questionnaire
06:49 16Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
05:06 17Process That Gets You Hired: Quote, Proposal and Plan
06:45 18Production Process: Case Studies
05:10 19Production Process: Art Direction
03:08 20Production Process: Create and Revise
06:17 21Production Process: Presentation
06:32 22Value Based Pricing
14:26 23Up-Selling and Packages
18:38 24Level Up Your Income
08:14 25Making Digital Products
04:07 26Making Tangible Products
14:52 27How to License
15:17 28Licensing Q&A
14:42 29Planning For the Future To Increase Revenue
10:29Lesson Info
Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
Now let's talk about our contact page. This is the final pitch, so why would you just have a form? Right? How many times you used to go to someone's website, they have a portfolio, it's a grid of images, they have an about page that just has a paragraph of them patting themselves on the back, and then they have a contact form on their contact page and that's it. First of all, there's no content, and if you do you spelled things wrong or you're saying dude a lot. We have to stay professional, we want to be conversational, but we don't wanna be like surf's up. That's not, no. (giggles) Unless you're in the surfing industry then maybe that'll be a little bit better. But you wanna make it really easy for you, for people to be able to contact you. So some people that just leave an email address, but what the people who just talk on the phone? If you're working with older audiences, they're not gonna want to Skype with you. They want a good old fashioned phone call. And when people are older...
they usually have a higher budget, 'cause they've had experience and so they can charge more. So that's something you wanna keep in mind. You wanna be able to have a form, you wanna have your number, your email, and any other form of contact. So if you're open to having meetings. Hey you hate filling out forms? Well book a meeting with me instead. So we can have a little bit more personalized time, whether that's a phone or it's a video chat. Whatever you wanna do. Now, I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. I use an app called Calendly. So calendar but with a "ly" at the end of it. This allows people to book time with me automatically. So I don't have to do that back and forth of what's a good time for you, what's a good day, well two o'clock doesn't work for me, well three o'clock. It's so annoying. It sees my availability because it connects to my calendar. Boom, once less click. Now on our contact page we talked about our production process, but what about our onboarding process? What happens after they hit that submit button on that form? What does that look like? You wanna give them an idea that hey I'm not just gonna be able to start on your work tomorrow. Just 'cause you contacted me today doesn't mean I'm just patiently waiting for you, and then I'm gonna take your money and then work. No, I have a few steps, okay? I wanna be able to have a discovery process, I wanna have meetings with you, I wanna talk to you on the phone. I wanna be able to show you a proposal outlining the scope of the project. I have terms and conditions. I have a contract I want you to sign, and then you have to pay me a deposit. These are important things, they wanna know what's it like to work with you, so why wouldn't you tell them? And something really important here is you have to create an in-depth questionnaire. You have to create an in-depth questionnaire, so you ask every possible question you would need in order to give them a quote. Now this goes for personalized commissions too, guys. What size does it need to be? What graphics are you attracted to, is there a specific style? Do you have attachments I could look at? Who's your demographic? Who are you trying to target? How can you give a price without knowing this information? You cannot just get emails that just go like what's your price, well what do you want? You have to be able to give your clients an opportunity to give you that information, so that way you can better answer and solve their problem. Your questionnaire helps clients better understand what they want. You might ask them a question they didn't even think about, now you just helped them better target their audience. You are already showing value and you haven't even given them your price yet. That has value. Now for our business we wanna go ahead and ask them questions like what's your contact info, email, all that stuff. But I wanna ask things like how many years have you been in business? Is this a new business adventure for you? And also I'm trying to establish my price. If you've been around longer you probably have more visibility so I could probably charge you more in value. How do you get your customers? I wanna make sure you even know how to get customers. I don't wanna waste your time or your money. So they go things like oh we actually get a lot of customers through ecommerce, from social media, that lets me know that you're doing your job so I can do mine. You're not an agency. You're creating graphics, you're creating illustrations. You don't wanna be pigeonholed into becoming that agency, where you're coming up with marketing materials for this person and their branding outline, and that's not your job. You wanna make sure that they can do theirs so you can do yours. And then asking things like who's your target demographic? Then you wanna go into project goals. What kind of content, for me, 'cause I'm a hand lettering artist. What do you want me to hand letter? If it's ten words versus five words that's gonna differentiate in price. It's gonna take more time. What kind of delivery system do you want? Do you need raster, do you need vector? And then you have to be able to explain to your client in a way they understand the differences between those two, 'cause if I'm gonna digitalize something that's gonna take more time, versus if I'm just drawing directly into Photoshop. 'Cause sometimes image trace works, sometimes it just usually doesn't. (giggles) What kind of use cases? Is this piece gonna be needed for Instagram, so I need that square aspect ratio, or is it also gonna be a banner? How big does it need to be printed? Are you gonna be using it for several things? I need to make sure it can work in multiple use cases if so. And then color. Never ask a client what kind of fonts do you like, or what kind of colors you like, because they're gonna pick off their personal preference. That's not the point here. You're trying to pick off what will attract their audience. But how to rephrase that question better is, are there any branding elements I need to include in you project? So if you already have brand colors, then I should probably know what they are so I can include them in your advertisement. See how I changed that question? Now scope, this is in terms of assets. What does that project look like if I'm just doing a wordmark for a brand versus a wordmark, an emblem, and a monogram? How many assets do you need? What are the usage rights, which we'll get into. Do you want promotional rights? Do you want the right to sell and repurpose this work? Or do you want exclusive rights? And what kind of turnaround are you looking at? Obviously if they want a speedier turnaround it's gonna cost a little more money.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Laurie
Wow! This class was fantastic! Dina did a great job at providing relevant information that I can use right away. I was particularly impressed at how she was able to explain licensing and royalties, she really broke it down into easy to understand pieces. I think this course would be a great foundation for any artist/freelancer but I liked the focus on lettering and illustration. Creative Live must convince Dina to provide more classes!
Elizabeth Matzen
This class is full of excellent information, and Dina did a great job covering everything from building a webpage to working with clients. She has a engaging delivery style, presented the information in a succinct and well-organized manner, and the pace of the course was perfect - not too slow! I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to start or boost their creative business - great info!
Sharnika Blacker
Awesome class! Inspired and excited to improve my business with the processes and knowledge gained. Thank you Dina!!