A few months ago, we publicly launched Snap, a subscription-based web development and hosting service/micro-agency. We use a number of tools, some are code-based, but many are no-code like Webflow. Webflow helps us do frontend development at an exponentially faster pace than our old development process.
Starting Snap was much easier than I initially thought it would be. So I wanted to share what I learned in case anyone else is thinking about starting their own Webflow agency as well.
Pros
- Speed of development
- Plenty of resources and tutorials
- Clients can update their own sites easily after development
Cons
- If you don't know code, you might have to string together a few no-code tools to do certain things that Webflow can't do alone.
How to Position Your Agency
Pick a specific niche. Don't just do Webflow sites. Couple it with something else you can do well, or a niche market you are involved in. Find pain points in your selected market and create your service around solutions to those pain paints.
Make sure you're not doing the same thing every other agency is doing. Compare your website with other agency sites often and make sure yours stands apart through who you are marketing to, or the kind of problem you are solving.
Building a Website
Write your copy first, before you design your website. Your copy should determine what kind of layout and images you need. I have a whole article about writing effective website copy if you want to dive deeper.
If you're a Webflow agency, you will definitely want to use Webflow to build your site. Your own site will be your clients first impression of the kind of things you delivery and quality they can expect. So make sure it is something that is very appealing to your target audience. Starting from a template is fine, I would just recommend that you change it to the point where it no longer resembles the template you started with.
Don't worry about having a client dashboard or anything like that. You can send payment requests via email with Stripe and let the client manage their billing through Stripe's customer portal. If you really want to build a dashboard for your clients, worry about that after you've successfully got a few customers and have validated that your agency's positioning actually works. Otherwise you're building a dashboard for no one, and wasting valuable time that should be spent on acquiring your first customers and finding your niche. Identify that you have a successful idea before investing any more into it. Customers don't care about if you have a login page on your website or not. They just want their problems solved.
Pricing Your Services
You can charge differently for each client, or have clients contact you for a personalized quote. If everyone in your target audience generally falls into the same price range, then showing public pricing on your website might be a good idea. But if your clients vary quite a bit in the size of their needs, then it might be best for then to contact you for a custom quote.
Find ways of creating ongoing value to your customers. This will help you charge a regular monthly fee and generate monthly recurring revenue (MRR), which will give you much more financial stability. You can resell faster Webflow hosting through CryoLayer, offer to monitor their website with monitoring tools, and/or do a few hours of revisions to the site every month. Just ask the client directly what their problems are and see if it's something you can solve every month on an ongoing basis.
How to Find Webflow Clients
I would highly recommend reaching out directly to your ideal clients. Don't underestimate cold emailing and DM'ing. Directly selling is still booming and can work great for Webflow agencies. Cold emailing can be a great way to directly and instantly find reach hundreds or thousands of ideal customers all at once.
If you're running a Webflow agency, your ideal client is someone who is already using Webflow. You won't have to convince them to change platforms, and you can probably work their existing site if they don't want to rebuild it. Prospective clients who are already using Webflow will instantly be able to understand the value your agency provides.
Normally getting a list of potential Webflow clients would be time consuming or expensive. Fortunately this is a problem I have already solved for you. No-Code Movers is a live list of thousands of Webflow sites with contact information and social links and updates every month with new sites and site information.
You can search the list for keywords based on your niche, and instantly generate a list of prospects to reach out to via email or DM.
Going Further
Try to listen to feedback and pivot often until you find a good fit between your services and your target audience.
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