VOLUME I

Finding Clients:
Creating a Solid Foundation

An actionable guide for growing

your web design or development business
Table of contents

3 —
Web Design Portfolio

8 —
Case Studies

14 —
Contact Us Page

27 —
From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client

36 —
How to Become Part of the Shopify Partner Ecosystem
Introduction

As a web designer or developer who is beginning to grow their

individual brand and business, it’s easy to want to hit the ground
running — extending your feelers to (what feels like) the end of the
earth to find new clients. We get it. How can you ever be successful
without establishing a repertoire of customers?

With the goal of becoming profitable and establishing brand

recognition in your industry, it can be easy to rush your website —
your portfolio, case studies, and contact us page — to create an
online presence for yourself.

They may look beautiful, but are your most important assets as
optimized and effective as they could be?

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• What to include in your design portfolio website

• How to write trust-building case studies

• Why you should be paying closer attention to your contact

us page

• How to find your first client (or your next)

• How the Shopify Partner Program can help grow your

business

Chock-full of professional tips, actionable insights, and expert

advice, this guide will help you create a solid foundation for finding
new clients.
CHAPTER 1

Web Design
Portfolio

A professional portfolio is a necessity for anyone working in the

creative industry. Not only does it allow you to showcase your
design expertise to prospective clients, it also gives you the
opportunity to establish a unique brand for yourself as a designer.
And while physical portfolios continue to be a staple in the design
world, online web design portfolios offer you an entirely new
avenue to reach audiences outside of your immediate professional
circle.

Unlike a physical portfolio, an online web design portfolio allows

to show off your work in a medium that actually showcases the
work you really do: web design. Prospective clients get to see
your amazing work, and they’re also able to interact with the
portfolio itself — another testament to your design expertise.
Considering that your prospects will want to assess the quality of
your work before hiring you, your online portfolio is a great way to
demonstrate your abilities as a web designer.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 4

1. Choose your best work
This should be a no-brainer. Since your web design portfolio will
play a major role in winning the confidence of potential clients, it’s
worth taking the extra time to go through all your design work to
separate the average from the impeccable. Even if you aren’t usually
the boasting type, this is one place where it’s okay to be a little
self-aggrandizing.

When you’re going through your old web design projects, try to
select examples that showcase the diversity of your capabilities and
experience. Featuring projects from a variety of industries, design
styles, mediums, and site types will let clients know that you’re
more than a one trick pony. In addition, it’s a good idea to limit your
examples to your most recent projects. That way, your portfolio will
accurately reflect your current level skill and expertise with design.

“It will be tempting to include everything you’ve ever created

to show your diversity. If you’re not 100 per cent convinced it
is great work — don’t! Try to find your voice and then use your
portfolio to showcase it. If you show something to a client that
you don’t love, that client might hire you then to do more work
that you don’t love. And that can turn into a vicious circle.”

Daniel Weinand, Chief Creative Officer, Shopify

If you’re just starting out and don’t have a ton of client work to
showcase, don’t worry. It’s perfectly fine to include personal design
projects, mockups, and design school assignments in your portfolio.

Pro tip: Always outline the problem that your project is

trying to solve, and why your solution is a good fit. A little
bit of research and a few well-placed statistics go a long
way! However, save indepth analysis for your case studies.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 5

2. Be professional and cohesive
You should treat your web design portfolio just like you would any
other design project. Once it goes live, it will act as your resume
and will live on to become a direct extension of your personal
brand. That means it’s worth your time to ensure the final product
conveys a consistent visual narrative that wins over the hearts of
clients — and opens their wallets, too.

Of course, striking a balance between cohesion and creativity

can be tough to achieve. By no means are we advocating for a
traditional portfolio with a boring layout, but there are some basic
rules of UI you should try to follow to make things easier for your
user. For example, each project page should have consistent
layouts, writing styles, and image sizes. And every page of your web
design portfolio should share similarities in terms of colour, layout,
and experience.

Another important place to check for consistency is your usage of

text. Typography will help you set the tone on your portfolio site, but
you’re going to want to make sure that it never steals attention away
from your design samples. To guarantee that your work remains
the focal point for the user, try limiting your typography to one type
family.

Pro tip: Create a brand guidelines document for your

business to make this process easier. That way, you (and
any other designers or developers you may hire in the
future) are striving for cohesion, and creating a consistent
experience across all of your brand’s assets — including
your portfolio.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 6

3. Make contact information readily accessible
It’s easy to get tunnel vision when crafting your portfolio and focus
all your efforts on the visual aspect of the site design. And while
your visual designs should be the focal point of the portfolio, your
personal contact information is equally as important. Give a little
detail as to who you are, your experience, and your credentials.
Just don’t get too wordy, as you want your designs to speak for
themselves.

Don’t forget that the purpose of your portfolio is to attract potential

clients and convince them to hire you. If you’re able to capture
their interest, your contact information should be readily available
and the process to get in touch should be simple. A great way to
facilitate this is to include a contact form that asks for basic details
like name, email address, and a brief description of the project. A
form allows your prospective clients to spend less time trying to
reach you and more time examining your design work.

Also remember to include calls to action that encourage your

visitors to reach out to you to learn more about what you can offer
their business. Simple examples could include “Request a quote,”
“Let’s work together,” or “Get in touch.” While these are perfectly
fine to use, challenge yourself to come up with some that show off
your creativity and personal flair.

Pro tip: Head over to chapter 3 to find out how you can
completely optimize your contact us page to attract new
leads directly from your portfolio site.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 7

4. Show you can achieve business objectives
While the primary purpose of your web design portfolio is to
showcase your design capabilities, prospective clients will also want
to see how your work helped businesses achieve success.

That’s where the case study comes in.

These descriptive tools allow you to explain the rationale behind

your design and the context in which the project was created.
By making a business case for your work, you’re in a better position
to prove the value of your work to even the most skeptical prospect.

A simple case study should include the following elements:

• Project background and description — This provides

context for the project including timelines, budgetary
constraints, and the purpose for the design project.

• Project goals and objectives — Every design project should

have tangible goals and objectives associated with the
project purpose. Were you trying to optimize product pages
for higher conversions? Drive more traffic to the site overall?
Reduce cart abandon rates?

• Creative strategy — This is where you should explain your

thought process behind the design. This could be in the
form of design iterations, research processes, or creative
insights. Don’t just show designs; explain why certain
elements and imagery were used, and dive into detail about
your creative process.

• Success metrics and results — Sometimes it’s tough to

get quantifiable results from a client, but if you can show
prospects that your work was able to help past clients
achieve results, they’ll be more confident in your abilities to
do the same for them.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 8

 • Your role in the project — If you worked on a team, you
should specify what your role was within the project and
what contributions you made.

• Client testimonials — Client testimonials are another

confidence booster for your prospects. These can be simple,
two sentence quotes that show your client’s satisfaction
with your work. Try asking for them at the tail-end of a web
design project.

Pro tip: This is only a simple overview of case studies and

their role in your portfolio website. In our next chapter,
we offer an indepth look at each of the components that
make an effective case study — with more professional tips
that will allow you to create intriguing, trust-building case
studies to find new clients and WOW them.

Chapter 1 | Web Design Portfolio 9

CHAPTER 2

Case Studies

One of the toughest challenges designers face when pitching

prospective clients is winning over their trust and confidence.
If your prospective clients haven’t worked with you in the past,
they’ll likely have hesitations about handing over their hard-earned
cash to a stranger. To win their confidence (and close the deal!),
you’ll need to take some extra steps to reassure them that your
design work will not only be a success aesthetically, but that it will
also help them achieve their business objectives — this is where
case studies come in.

The best case studies move beyond intuition-based explanations

and document the rationale behind the design, UX, and visual
decisions. They offer a more humanized perspective into the
design process that, ultimately, makes a business case for your
work. This leaves you in a better position to prove your value (and
price) to even the most skeptical client.

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 10

The 5 core elements of a web design case study
1. The overview
Think of your overview section as the executive summary of your
case study. It’s the Cole’s Notes version of the document, and allows
your prospects to quickly understand the highlights of your past
work without reading the entire thing. This section should include
the core takeaways from all other sections including the main
problem, an overview of the solution, and key results.

While the overview will be your least detailed part of the case
study, it is probably your most important. Only the most meticulous
clients will take the time to read through your entire case study; the
majority of them will just quickly skim through in order get the gist.
Because of this, drafting a complete and well-articulated overview
should be your top priority.

Pro tip: Write your overview section once the rest of your
case study is finished. That way you can simply scan over
the main points of each section and summarize them into a
one or two paragraph synopsis.

2. The context and challenge

The second section of your case study — commonly referred to
as the context and the challenge —  is designed to provide your
prospective client with a detailed description of the context that
led to the creation of the project. If it’s well-written, the reader will
leave with a solid understanding of the environmental factors and
problems that you were hired to solve as a designer.

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 11

This section can be distilled into three main elements:

1. Project background and description — The contextual

information for the project including timelines, budgetary
constraints, and the overarching purpose of the job.

2. The problem — The “why?” and the focal point for the
project. Your case study needs to clearly explain the
problem that led to the onset of the project. For example,
if you were working on an ecommerce project then your
problem could be something similar to:

Interest for company X’s core product was growing

internationally at an unprecedented scale. This led to severe
logistical and distribution problems that could not be fixed by
physical retail solutions alone.

3. Project goals and objectives — Every website you work

on should have tangible goals and objectives associated
with the project’s problem. Are you trying to drive more
traffic to the site overall? Optimize product pages for higher
conversions? Reduce cart abandon rates? No matter what
your objectives are, try your best to include any quantifiable
metrics that were known at the onset of the project.

Pro tip: The core elements of the challenge are often

presented to you in the project Request for Proposal or
creative brief. If you are working on a more personal level
with your client, however, try capturing this information in
conversation. This will become the basis of your brief and,
eventually, your case study too.

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 12

3. The process and insight
The purpose of this section is to elaborate on your design process,
creative concept, and insight that led to your design decisions. It’s
also an opportunity for you to walk your prospective client through
the research, workflow, and iterations of your design work.

When writing content for this section, you want to illustrate

how you got from the challenge to the solution. Make sure the
flow of information is logical and that it culminates with a core
insight about your client’s audience, business, or industry. These
insights can stem from your client’s unique selling properties
and key differentiators, or from their audience’s behavioural and
consumption habits.

To ensure your reader conclusively arrives at these insights as

well, you’re going to need to thoroughly document your research.
Include any details about A/B tests, user research interviews, and
key brainstorming takeaways that led you to uncover those crucial
pieces of information.

Pro tip: Finding a core truth about your client’s audience

can be one of the toughest challenges as a designer. If
you’re lucky, your client might already have substantial
research about their customers. Use their knowledge and
this research to help you craft an insight. Otherwise, try
employing tactics like A/B testing and user research to help
guide your design decisions.

4. The solution
The solution is where you get to show off your skill and style as a
designer. It’s your chance to feature any and all samples of your

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 13

work — from videos, landing pages, custom integrations, and
anything else you created for the project.

To really get the most from this section, be sure to include written
descriptions about your design work. Take the time to explain in
detail your site’s defining features like its UX, navigation structure,
content strategy, or unique mobile attributes. If you put the effort
into crafting descriptions that complement your visual assets,
your readers will feel much more confident in your decisions as a
designer.

Pro tip: Remember, the medium is the message. Don’t

limit yourself to screenshots alone. Incorporate interactive
elements — animations, video, transitions, or anything else
— that accurately represent your design work to really wow
your prospects.

5. The results
For most business owners, it’s all about the numbers. That’s why this
section is crucial for an effectively written case study.

The results section will cover the qualitative and quantitative

success metrics from your project. While the type of metrics you
report on can vary from one project to another, they should directly
address the objectives you established in the context and challenge
section. Having these results in hand will allow you to show your
prospects that your work had a direct influence on your client
meeting their goals. If you can do this, you’ll help them feel more
comfortable putting their business (and their money) into your
hands.

In addition to, or in lieu of, quantifiable metrics, consider including

one to three testimonials in this section. These testimonials are

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 14

another great tactic for boosting the confidence of your prospects.
Since the source of these reviews come from outside your business,
prospects are more likely to trust them as a reputable reference.
When including your testimonials, however, keep them short and
sweet. They can be as simple as one or two sentences, so long as
they illustrate your previous client’s satisfaction with your work.

Pro tip: Be sure to collect testimonials from your clients

near the tail-end of your project. Ask them to speak
about your process, creative thinking, and the quality of
the final product. Just make sure you get their approval
to publish them!

Chapter 2 | Case Studies 15

CHAPTER 3

Contact Us Page

As a freelancer or agency, your portfolio website has the power to

be your most valuable asset for finding new clients. As previously
mentioned, it establishes a baseline level of trust, and helps
build some initial interest from a prospective client without ever
engaging with them directly. But what good does that interest
serve if your prospects never end up reaching out to you?

That’s where your contact page comes in. When done right,
these simple form-based pages allow you to capture interested
prospects directly from your portfolio, while also streamlining your
process for vetting and prioritizing those prospects.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 16

Why your contact page is so important
At its core, your contact page is a simple web page that features a
lead capture form, designed for client acquisition. You more than
likely already have a very simplified version of this form on your site,
which probably looks something like this:

These contact forms are quite common on freelancer and agency

websites, but are mostly added as an afterthought without much
consideration about their purpose or impact. While simple forms
like the one above does give your prospects an opportunity to reach
out to you, they’re often not compelling enough to persuade your
visitors to actually do so. And even when someone does fill out your
basic form, you’ll often end up with a vague response like this:

It doesn’t make sense for you to devote the same amount of time to
every prospect that comes through your website. A response can
take hours, or even days, of back and forth communication before
you fully understand the scope of the project, and identify whether
your prospect is a good fit for your business.

Rather than opting for the status quo, you should put in the effort
to create a contact form that is elegantly designed to extract the
most relevant information from your prospect. This proactive
information gathering allows you to make an educated decision
about working with them, before wasting any time writing proposals
or attending introductory meetings. Having an established process
like this, might seem like overkill to some, but it can be exceptionally
beneficial if you’re a longtime freelancer, or if you work at an agency
that receives a substantial amount of leads through your portfolio.

Design agency Pixel Union has put together a beautiful contact form
that is not only visually consistent with the rest of their website,
but also asks the right amount and type of questions in order to
effectively evaluate prospects for fit.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 17

The benefits of adding a detailed form like this to your portfolio
don’t end there, they can also add a ton of value for your
business by:

• Optimizing your portfolio site for inbound lead acquisition

• Allowing you to capture more information about the

prospects in your sales pipeline

• Helping you better understand a prospect’s needs,

challenges, and context before talking to them

• Streamlining your client qualification process so you know

which prospective clients to prioritize

• But above all, strategically planning out your contact page

form will help you identify potentially successful and
profitable relationships more quickly — ultimately saving you
time, energy, and money

Pro tip: Many consultants choose to keep a basic contact

form on their site, in addition to this more detailed form,
so they have a space for general inquiries. This chapter
is focused on the benefits of the detailed form, but it’s
ultimately up to you to decide if you want both options
available on your portfolio!

Optimizing your contact page

It takes some proactive and strategic thinking to transform your
standard contact page into a lead generation and qualification
machine. It’s important that you carefully consider all aspects of this
page, and how they interact with one another, just as you would any
other area of your portfolio site.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 18

In order to optimize your contact page and encourage submissions,
you’ll need to design it with the intent of lessening user friction
— the actual or perceived amount of time and effort it takes to
complete your form. At the same time, your form also needs
to gather enough information to qualify your prospects. The
balance between these two needs can be a tricky one, but it’s not
impossible.

Here are a few things you should consider in order to avoid

unnecessary friction, and qualify prospects when creating your
contact form:

1. Provide context for the form

It’s important to provide context to your site visitors whenever you
want them to take action — and your contact page is no different.
If you want a prospective client to fill out your form, you’re going to
have to convince them why they should. Some of the best contact
pages accomplish this by including some clever copy before the
form, in order to persuade visitors to take action.

This part of the contact page can often be overlooked, but it

shouldn’t be. Providing context around the contact form will help
you establish expectations with your prospect and allow you to
overcome any perceived friction or risk associated with the form.

At the very least, we recommend including the following in your

pre-form copy:

• A gesture of appreciation — Thank your prospects for their

interest in your business and let them know you’re excited to
work with them.

• An explanation of the form’s purpose — Describe why filling

out the form is important for the client onboarding process.
Take the perspective of the client when framing this part, by
telling them that this detailed form will simplify the process

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 19

 of working together and give you enough information to be
truly beneficial for their business.

• An expectation of their time investment — Let them know

how long it’s going to take to complete the form before they
start. This will help reduce any perceived friction associated
with the length of the form (this is especially important for
longer contact forms).

Shopify Expert and design agency Lucid have included some

succinct, but compelling copy in their contact form that is able
to communicate the value of the form, the length of time it’ll take
to complete, as well as their appreciation for the prospect’s initial
interest.

Pro tip: It’s also a good idea to let potential prospects know
if you aren’t currently taking any new clients. That way
expectations are clearly established upfront, and neither
of you will waste time by starting a conversation that won’t
lead anywhere any time soon. You can see an example
of this type of messaging on design agency and Shopify
Expert Shopify Ninjas’ contact form.

2. Ask the right questions

We’ve all seen the status quo for contact pages: the “name, email,
memo” format that appears on most websites. While you may be
able to get some information from these questions, they are really
the bare minimum and won’t provide you with enough detail to
make a sound decision about your prospect.

It’s important that you think about your contact form questions
strategically — you want to capture enough details that you have a

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 20

baseline understanding of their request, but not so much that you
scare them off.

A good rule of thumb is to include one to three questions from each

of the following sections:

Contact information — This stuff is mandatory for any contact form.

Examples of these fields include their name, email address, and
phone number.

Business information — These questions allow you to get a better

understanding of who you’re dealing with, and are vital if you’re
focused on a specific vertical. Examples of these fields include
business website, industry, product offering, and primary contact/
decision maker.

Project information — This is the most important part of your

contact form since it provides you with the necessary details to
qualify their project and determine if it’s the right fit. Examples of
these fields could include project type, estimated budget, estimated
timeframe for completion, and even the business problem they’re
trying to solve.

Pro tip: It’s important to remember that just because you

ask the right questions, doesn’t mean your prospect will fill
out the form correctly or entirely. Some clients will not have
all the answers you’re looking for right off the bat, so it’s
important to make non-essential questions not mandatory
if you want to increase the likelihood that the form will be
completed.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 21

3. Ask questions the right way
While it’s important to be strategic about what questions you ask,
it’s equally important to consider how you ask those questions. The
format of your questions can directly impact the level of friction felt
by the user, which in turn will influence the likelihood of a site visitor
completing your contact form.

In his online course, Unbounce’s Oli Gardner talks about how one
of the major sources of user friction in lead generation forms stems
from the style of questions used within the form itself. While the
course focuses primarily on forms in a broad sense, his lessons can
be directly applied to your contact page form.

For example, including too many open-ended questions on your

form can leave prospects spending more time thinking about their
responses and not actually responding. If they end up wasting too
much effort planning out their answer, it’s more likely that they’ll just
exit without giving you one at all.

To keep this from happening on your contact form, simplify their

thought process by swapping open-ended questions with drop-
down menus or radio buttons that present a set amount of options.
This will instantly remove any unnecessary friction from an open
field and make it easier for a prospect to fill out your form quickly.

Ecommerce consultant and Shopify Expert Kurt Elster uses this

approach in various sections of his contact form, which makes filling
it out a breeze.

Just be careful because, according to Gardner, drop-down menus

and radio buttons can actually increase friction when they don’t
include a reasonable option for the user. Thus, it’s mandatory that
you always add an “Other” option for those special use cases.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 22

4. Add some social proof
We’ve all heard it before: social proof can help build trust with
users. You probably already use social proof on your portfolio site
within case studies and on your client roster page, but you can also
leverage its influential power on your contact page.

Even after reviewing your portfolio of work and navigating over to

your contact page, your prospects may still feel uncertain about
reaching out to you. One way to combat this is by adding a few
client testimonials above or below your contact form, to help
remove any of these worries or doubts.

Having other business owners share the positive experiences

they’ve had working with you will not only lend to your perceived
credibility, but it will also help even the biggest skeptic feel more
comfortable entrusting you with their business.

Pro tip: Having these endorsements directly on your

contact page will help remove any unnecessary concerns
about your business on the spot, which ultimately reduces
friction and can lead to increased form submissions.

5. Consider the length of your contact form

So far, we’ve focused on the content of your form and its impact on
the overall effectiveness of your contact page, but the way in which
you design your form is important as well.

One of the biggest design decisions that can influence a prospect’s

assessment of friction is the length of your contact form.

Form length has an interesting correlation with lead quality. In

general, the shorter the form, the easier it is to complete and the
more prospects you’ll likely receive. While in many cases, more

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 23

submissions is a good thing, you’ll be more likely to generate highly
qualified prospects with a more detailed form.

The decision to go long or short will ultimately depend on the type

of strategy you’re trying to pursue. Here’s a little insight into both:

THE CASE FOR THE SHORT FORM

If you’re new to the freelance world and are looking to land your first
few clients, it might make sense to opt for a shorter form length with
fewer questions. A reduced form size will eliminate a lot of friction
from the submission process, and help you get more prospects in
your sales pipeline.

If you do opt for the short form, make sure to include the essential
contact information section, as well as a few qualifying questions
from the business/project sections so you have at least some
information to evaluate the client.

Jeffrey Zeldman offers an example of a great, simple contact page

form (bonus points for the budget slider).

THE CASE FOR THE LONG FORM

On the other hand if you’re an experienced freelancer or work at an
agency, you’ll probably be looking for a higher quality of prospect
for your sales pipeline. This can be accomplished by using a longer,
more detailed form. The length of these forms will help you weed
out any prospects who aren’t serious about hiring you, while giving
you enough information to qualify prospects before deciding to
continue the conversation.

If you opt for the longer form, we recommend breaking the process
into steps, and including a progress bar to show prospective clients
how far along they are as they complete the form. By dividing up
questions, your lengthy form will appear much more manageable,
which will reduce the perceived amount of effort needed from
your prospects.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 24

We’ve include these examples previously in this chapter, but both
Lucid and Shopify Ninja’s contact forms demonstrate some good
best practices for dealing with long form lengths.

6. Test and iterate your form

The recommendations above are general best practices commonly
seen across the industry. However, this does not mean that they will
be the best solution for every specific situation.

It’s important to consider what will work best for your business
when building your contact page form. As with any part of your
website, you should be consistently gathering research around the
effectiveness of your form for future optimization.

In order to collect some quantitative results, I’d recommend running

your contact form through some simple A/B tests. By measuring
the impact of small, incremental changes on form completion rates,
over time you’ll be able to create a form that is fully optimized for
submissions.

Here are some resources for learning more about running your own
A/B test:

• How to A/B Test Your Forms for Maximum Conversion

• Case Study: 30% More Leads By A/B Testing a Contact Form

• Form Length Isn’t Everything: 3 Other Ways to Optimize Your

Forms for Conversions

These anecdotal insights can uncover some interesting perspectives

and ideas about your contact form.

Regardless of how you decide to gather insight on the usability of

your form, it’s important that you invest in conducting this research
to simply test your assumptions and optimize based on your
findings.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 25

 Pro Tip: You can also uncover a lot of insight by gathering
qualitative feedback from existing clients who were
onboarded through your contact page. Try chatting with
them in-person, or seeing if they’d be willing to fill out a
follow-up survey mid-way through or near the end of your
project work.

These anecdotal insights can uncover some interesting perspectives

and ideas about your contact form.

Tools for creating your contact form

If you’re looking to set up a form on your own portfolio website,
there are a variety of tools available for simplifying the process.

While you can create a simple form yourself using basic HTML and
PHP, sometimes it’s just easier to use an online form builder instead.
If you’re looking for a tool for this purpose, here are few favorites to
keep in your back pocket:

• TypeForm — You can easily create beautiful, customized

forms, surveys, and quizzes using TypeForm. Typeform offers
a ton of personalization and customization options to help
you create the form of your dreams.

• Wufoo — Another great option for automated form building,

Wufoo allows you to host forms on their site or embedded
within your own. They offer more than 300 templates that
you can start with, or that you can code your own design
too. You can try them out on your site for free, but only up to
100 entries.

• Hubspot — Hubspot is much more than just an online form

builder. This tool is great for creating custom lead capture

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 26

 forms for your site, while also offering CRM functionality for
keeping track of those leads in your salespipeline.

There are also a few tools you can use to integrate your form data
with other software services you might be using, such as mailing
automation and CRM software:

• Zapier — A great workflow automation app that makes it

easy for your various platforms to share data and talk to
one another. Zapier integrates with more than 500 web
applications and is perfect for connecting form software
to email platforms like MailChimp or CRM solutions like
Hubspot.

• IFTT — Another workflow automation app that allows you to

connect various web applications and push responses from
one another. IFTT has less integrations than Zapier, but is
available to use largely for free.

Transform your contact page today

Despite the tendency to overlook the contact page, you should
treat yours with the same devotion as the rest of your portfolio
site. Investing in an optimized contact page can result in a greater
amount of leads for your business, and a sophisticated process for
qualifying those leads.

Chapter 3 | Contact Us Page 27

CHAPTER 4

From a Shopify
Expert: How to
Find Your First
Client

Now that you have all of your personal assets optimized and ready
for client conversions, it’s time to find your first client (or learn
some useful new strategies for finding your next)!

Shopify Expert Kurt Elster, co-founder of Ethercycle, offers his

counter-intuitive approach for finding clients, as well as tips for
building your network of fellow web designers and developers.

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 28

One of the most common questions I hear from new freelancers is,
“Where do I find my first client?”

The first client is always the hardest to get. For any new business, no
matter how compelling your offer is, if no one has heard of you, they
can’t hire you.

When I started my own web design business in 2009, I eagerly

launched my new website to crickets. After some frustration, I
resorted to an entirely old-fashioned approach. I hand-addressed
letters of introduction to my local neighborhood retail-business
owners, and slipped envelopes under their doors one early morning.

A few of those letters turned into phone calls, which turned into
meetings, and within two weeks it turned into my first client. From
there, that first client referred me to another local business, that in
turn referred me to another.

Each subsequent client is easier to get due to a combination of

experience and word of mouth. But until you land that first gig, what
do you do?

Were I to start my business over from scratch, I have a clear idea of

how I’d do it.

Figure out your positioning

Your first step should be to figure out your positioning. Who do you
serve? What do you do for them? How are you different from other
freelancers?

If you know that, then you can put it together and form what I call a
positioning statement. For example, my positioning statement reads
something like this:

“Kurt Elster helps Shopify store owners uncover hidden profits

in their websites. Unlike web designers, he’s solely concerned
with providing the highest possible return on investment.”

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 29

Try it yourself, fill in the following blanks:

“I’m a __________ who helps__________ with__________.

Unlike my competitors, I __________.”

It’s easy to skip this step, but you’ll be hurting yourself in the long
and short term by doing so. Having a crisp and concise positioning
statement is the cornerstone of your marketing. By defining your
positioning, you make it easy to stay top of mind with clients, which
enables easy referrals.

Think about this: When someone asks you, “what do you do for a
living?” how long does it take you to answer? I bet it takes longer
than ten seconds. And if it does, how do you expect them to
remember it? If you can’t concisely explain what you do for a living,
no one else will be able to either.

Having a crisp positioning statement enables you to describe what

kind of value you offer, but more importantly, it also lets others
describe what you do with ease and consistency. In turn, when
you’re not around, people in your network can easily remember
what you do, and give your elevator pitch for you. Again, it keeps
you top of mind.

The worst thing you can do here is to have a broad positioning

statement: “I help everybody with everything!”

Don’t do that. It’s counter-intuitive. When you’re a generalist, it’s

extremely difficult to establish yourself as an expert or authority,
because you do too much. For me to become the go-to Shopify
Expert among my network, I had to start saying that I worked
exclusively on Shopify. The more specific and targeted your
positioning, the easier it will be to attract clients.

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 30

The rule of ten
Once you have a positioning statement worked out, it’s almost
time to start writing to your audience. Let’s start building you an
audience by exploiting the rule of ten.

The rule of ten is pretty straightforward; tell ten people about your
positioning. If you have more than ten, great, but if not make a list
of ten. That list can include past clients, coworkers, friends, family,
anyone really.

Start a newsletter on your topic, and ask them to join. This is the
start of your audience, and the only requirement is that each person
must be able to directly benefit from your writing and knowledge. In
any online business, professional services included, your list is your
most valuable business asset.

A newsletter will let you systematically build a list of people who

have raised their hands and said they’re interested in you. This lets
you build a relationship with them, allowing them to either hire you
or make referrals to you.

Once you have a small but mighty audience, start writing. It’s so
much easier to write with an audience in mind, and even easier to
write if that audience has questions that you can answer.

Your first email to your list should be a question. Ask them, “what’s
the single biggest pain or problem you’re facing with [TOPIC]?” The
replies to that email are your homework; the answers should be
what you publish in your newsletter.

Get inspiration for your own newsletter by signing up for others like:

• Gavin Ballard’s Mastering Apps

• Eric Davis’ Shopify Dispatch

• And my own, Ethercycle

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 31

Finding your next clients
Finding continuous clients isn’t always easy for web design and
development agencies, and creating beautiful websites sometimes
isn’t enough. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to
branch out and find more clients, whether you’re just starting out
or a veteran of the business. Here are 6 tips web development
agencies can use to find new clients.

Use social media

This might seem obvious, but having a social media presence is a
great way of getting free publicity and a potentially wide reach. And
believe it or not, you can be picky with your channels. You don’t
have to be on all of them, but make sure you pick the right ones for
your business; in other words, pick the ones where your clients are
likely to be.

Pinterest is great means of showing off the fantastic websites you

have created while LinkedIn is a powerful tool for networking with
peers, potential clients, and partners. Create a profile that’s rich with
keywords and try to remain active and engaged with other users to
build strong relationships.

You also want to develop a consistent social media presence to get

your branding across.

Dedicate some time to creating a solid strategy which you can

realistically maintain over time. Think about what content is right
for what platform: Facebook is great for more relaxed, laid back
content; LinkedIn is best for professional or business related
content; and Twitter is perfect for short, snappy updates and
anything that’s currently a hot topic.

Think about your branding, what you stand for, and what tone you’re
going for. If you strive to be quite serious and professional, stick
with LinkedIn; if you’re more edgy and hip, maybe try something

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 32

like Twitter or Instagram. But remember: use social media to engage
with people and build relationships, not to sell.

Finally, join appropriate groups related to your skills (Google+

and LinkedIn are great for this). Interact with other users, engage
with them, and answer questions. By connecting with people on a
regular basis, sharing resources and answering questions, you may
find that work starts to come to you.

Pro tip: Don’t feel the need to be on every social network —

only the ones that are appropriate for your brand. That way,
you can focus your time on engaging with your community,
rather than exceeding your professional bandwidth trying
to be everywhere at once.

Blog posts
Writing your own blog is a great way of building your credibility as
an expert designer. The key is to show potential clients that you
really know what you’re doing, so you are going to need to create
content that demonstrates your knowledge of web development.
Writing guest posts for respected blogs in your industry is
also a good idea — this way you can get more exposure, build
relationships, and get backlinks.

The focus here should be on developing name recognition and

improving your credibility, but you want to write content that’s
interesting, engaging and helpful — i.e. stuff budding developers
are actually going to read. Try and strike a balance with your
content, for example a “Tips for Web Developers to do X, Y and Z”,
or an instructional series for those new to the business. Humour is
good, but use it sparingly, and write in a way that developers of all
skill levels can understand.

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 33

To search for guest bloggers, try looking through Twitter to find web
development bloggers with lots of followers, or simply try Google,
searching for keywords like “web development blogger” + “guest
post” to find bloggers that accept guest content.

Then send out some emails, something along the lines of:

“Hello, I’m a web developer who has been in the industry for
X years. I’ve been reading your blog and would love for you to
consider me as a guest blogger as I think I have some content
which would interest your audience. Please get back to me so
we can discuss this further.”

Make sure you actually read their blog to get an idea of the kind of
content they accept, and include links to some of your previous
content so they can see some examples of your work.

As your name becomes more well-known, you’re more likely to find

new projects falling into your lap with little or no marketing effort,
simply because people have read and liked your articles.

Pro tip: Find a critical knowledge gap in the blog’s content

and offer your article as a solution to this gap. This will
show that you’ve read the blog, understand the content
and audience, and have found a niche that your content
can satisfy.

Look at existing sites

Redesign a popular website with your own unique take, send it to
the head of the company, and explain why you’ve made the changes
you’ve made. This is a great way for web developers and designers
to get work, and also allows you to get creative as a designer to
demonstrate your skills to both your peers and potential clients.

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 34

You’re showing that you have specific ideas to make someone else’s
business better, and that you can actually create these ideas.

Network with other freelancers

Networking and building relationships with freelancers is one of
the best ways to get client referrals. A number of freelance web
developers find themselves in a very fortunate position where they
have more work inquiries than they can handle. It is also possible
that they might frequently be contacted for work that is beyond
their capabilities.

The good news is most of these web developers are willing to help
their peers out because even if they can’t do the work themselves,
they want to help the would-be-client by referring them to someone
they trust. And chances are, you might be in a similar situation
where you can one day recommend them to other would-be-clients.

It’s important to remember that these people aren’t necessarily

your competition; they are actually your community and building
relationships with these people could benefit you.

How do you network with other freelancers? There are plenty of

networking opportunities and events both offline and online, and
social media is also a great means of making contact.

Once again, social media can be a great tool for finding other
developers to connect with. You can use these sites like LinkedIn
and Google+ to join groups where you can meet other like-minded
individuals, engage, share content and ideas, and so on.

Forums are another great method of meeting developers. Try sites

like Web Design Forum, Freelance Gossip, and Digital Point. You
can even find information on meet-ups, expos and conventions for
developers and designers. Try going to ecommerce expos to meet
potential new clients as well as meeting potential partners. Just

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 35

make sure you take some business cards that include your contact
details, website, and information on what skills you offer.

The same thing goes for web designers. These guys are just
as useful as other web developers when it comes to building
relationships and getting more clients. Having working relationships
with web designers can be especially helpful to web developers as
a lot of web designers aren’t strong coders or have reached a place
in their business where they want to outsource the work. This can
be a great opportunity to build a longterm relationship with a web
designer where you partner up on projects, or refer clients to one
another for work that the other party is not capable of completing.

Again, try social media and forums to get in touch with designers.
Search on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, as well as forums like
Designerstalk, Graphic Design Forum, and Web Pro Cafe for
designers who are looking for partnerships.

Pro tip: Joining the Shopify Partner Program gives you

access to the partner-only forums. This will allow you to
network with other web designers and developers, and
learn more about the Shopify platform and how it can
benefit your future ecommerce website projects.

Chapter 4 | From a Shopify Expert: How to Find Your First Client 36

How to Become
Part of the Shopify
Partner Ecosystem

As a web designer or developer, one of the many decisions you’ll

(eventually) have to make is which ecommerce platform to offer
to your clients. It needs to be intuitive for you to build on, and
extremely user-friendly for the merchant you’re building for. No one
can make that decision but you.

Perhaps you’ll consider Shopify.

We’ve established a vast network of international designers,

developers, marketers, and consultants that use Shopify as the
ecommerce tool of choice for their clients. We call it the Shopify
Ecosystem — a supportive community of freelancers and agencies
learning from one another and aiming to make commerce better for
everyone.

The easiest way to join this ecosystem is to sign up for the Shopify
Partner Program (don’t worry—it’s free, so you can try it out to see
if it’s a good fit). You’ll get access to our in-depth documentation,
workshops and webinars, marketing materials, private discussion
forums, and early insights into Shopify’s roadmap. You’ll also have
the opportunity to earn a listing in our Shopify Experts Marketplace,
where we send all of our merchants looking for help with design,
development, or marketing.
You’ll be able to create unlimited development stores so you can
test out the platform or build a client’s site before launch.

These are the things that we feel will bring you the most value as a
Shopify Partner, but to say thank you, we also offer a revenue share
for each merchant you bring onto Shopify (or each app or theme
you sell). We’ll give you 20 per cent of what your clients pay Shopify
monthly for as long as they remain on the platform. For your apps
and themes, you’ll earn 80 per cent and 70 per cent respectively
from each sale.

We hope you’ll join us.

Become a Shopify Partner