How to create profitable web design packages (with examples)
If your package description includes the words “5-page website,” you need to read this post. You’ll learn the step-by-step process for putting together and pricing profitable web design packages that are easy to sell.
Why copying other web designers is a bad idea
If you’ve never sold anyone a web design package before, it’s completely normal not to know what to include. If that is where you’re at, you’re probably worried that if you don’t get it right, you’ll look like you have no idea what you’re doing. (By the way, it’s okay not to know what you’re doing.)
If you’re like me and most other designers, you’re probably going to try to compensate for being a newbie by analyzing other designers’ websites and how they present their packages.
But the problem with this approach is that you have no idea what’s happening in their businesses. Are these packages even selling? When was the last time they updated this? Is this even what they sell these days? You don’t know!
We know we shouldn’t compare ourselves to other people on social media — the same rule applies to web design packages.
Here’s how to actually create packages that you can sell and deliver, and make a profit doing it.
Step 1. Get clear on your target audience
The first step to creating your package is to get clear on your target audience. You’re probably thinking, “How the eff am I supposed to know who that is?” (Totally normal.)
Because this feels hard, it can be tempting to skip this first step. But that would be a big mistake. Skipping this is like putting the first button on your shirt in the wrong hole — the rest of the buttons are going to get messed up, too.
Let me make this super easy so you have no excuses for skipping this step: If you have made a website for someone other than yourself, that person is your target audience. I don’t care if you got paid for it or if you did it for free.
If you have not made a website for someone else yet, choose one person you have talked to in the last 12 months for whom you could see yourself making a website. That person is your target audience.
For the rest of this video, my one person is a business owner who owns a hair salon in Seoul, South Korea.
Is your target audience going to change in the future? Of course.
If someone who is not your target audience comes along and says they want to work with you, can you take them on as a client? Of course.
But this one person is your starting point. Here’s something I haven’t heard anyone else talk about: when your priority is to start earning money from your business as quickly as possible, the people you’re already talking to are the best people you can sell to.
In other words, your target audience needs to include people you currently have contact with.
If there is a different group of people you’d rather sell to, like experts in a specific industry, like health coaches, therapists, or musicians, you can absolutely work towards building your network and developing relationships that connect you to those people. But you shouldn’t wait until you are in front of those people to start selling your web design services.
The sooner you start making websites for clients, the sooner you’re going to earn an income. That income will help you get out of survival mode and help you make progress building the business you really want, working with the audience you really want to serve.
Step 2. List out what your target audience needs
Next, list out what your one person (aka your target audience) needs. This is what they think they need, not what you think they need.
So yes, they might need a mobile-friendly website, a privacy policy, professional brand photos — but that’s not what we’re talking about here because that’s not what they are thinking about. You need to consider what they think they need to make sure that this package is relevant for them.
Here’s what my one person, the hair salon owner, needs.
They need to be easy to find on Google, because their customers are usually searching for hair salons in their neighborhood, not the name of their business.
They need to display a list of their services and the prices
They need to show information about their stylists because the different stylists speak different languages and have different levels of experience. Customers will want to know that before they book.
They need customers to be able to book, reschedule, and cancel appointments online, on their own.
They also need their website to look and feel like them. They have a really beautiful physical space that’s like a mix between an Apple store and a luxury spa, and they want the website to feel like that as well.
So that’s five different things that my one person needs from their website. When you’re doing this exercise, I recommend asking yourself, “What else does this person need?” until you have a list of at least five items.
What someone needs from their website can be so different from person to person. If you try to make a list that covers everything that everyone needs, you’re going to end up with something that applies to no one. That’s why it’s so important to focus on just one person. You can always tweak things later, but this will give you a solid foundation.
Step 3. Create your package
Now, we create your package. At this point, you might be wondering how many packages you need. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I like keeping things simple. You only need one package to start with.
I know that a lot of people who teach sales and sales psychology tell you that you need at least three options to maximize your income. Forget that. Let’s keep it simple.
What’s important here is that you create a package that makes your one person go, “Hey, that’s exactly what I need.”
This is why I’m so against selling “5-page websites.” Virtually no client is going to look at that and think, “Hey, I need a 5-page website.” They have no idea how many pages they need.
To create your package, look at the list you made in Step 2. For each item that your one person needs, write down which feature you will deliver.
For my example of that hair salon owner in Seoul:
The first thing they needed was to be easy to find on Google.
The feature, or the “what,” I’d deliver to achieve this is a website that is search engine optimized.
Anytime you list a feature, you want to ask, “So what?” As in, “Okay, you have an SEO-optimized website. So what? What’s so great about that?”
Well, this means new customers can find your business with a simple Google search — that’s the benefit.
When I present my package and talk about what’s included, I will mention both the feature and the benefit: “A website that is search engine optimized so that new customers can find your business with a simple Google search.”
My hair salon owner also needs to display a list of their services and prices. So I’m going to deliver a transparent and easy-to-understand price list so customers know what to expect at their appointment.
They also need to show information about their stylists. For that, I’ll deliver an “about us” page that showcases your team’s expertise and personalities to help your customers get to know them and choose the stylist who is the best fit for them.
For online scheduling: an appointment booking system so that customers can manage appointments without having to get in touch by phone, email, or Instagram, freeing up hours of admin time each month.
Finally, I will also deliver a custom brand kit including a new logo, brand colors, fonts, and other visual elements to ensure that the website looks and feels like their salon and reflects the high-end experience customers get.
This is a simple exercise, but it might take some time to work through, especially if you haven’t thought about the benefits of your services before. Take your time! This is important work.
Step 4. Choose a price
Because pricing is so personal, and money is so personal, it’s easy to overthink this piece. You might be thinking, “What if I choose a price that’s too high and no one buys?” Or, “What if I choose a price that’s too low and leave money on the table — or end up with really difficult, penny-pinching clients who don’t value my work?”
You know what? Those things might happen. And it’s okay. You won’t know what the right price is until you’ve tried selling it.
The worst thing you can do is not be transparent about your prices. When someone is on your website looking at your web design package, and you don’t even have a “starting at” price or a price range, they have no idea what to expect — and that makes it so easy to dismiss you as an option. We don’t want that to happen.
So think about how much this website is worth to your one person based on all the business needs that you’ve considered.
For the hair salon owner, I might try to think about what a 10% increase in revenue could mean for them. That’s quite modest, but in USD terms, that could be tens of thousands of dollars. And I feel like it’s a realistic outcome to hope for, considering all the improvements I’m going to be delivering with this new website.
I fully acknowledge that without a lot of experience working with different clients, it can be really tricky to gauge these kinds of numbers.
So here’s another helpful number to think about: the minimum price you would have to charge to do this work without feeling resentful. Take into account:
The amount of time you would put in roughly
The professional development you’ve invested in to be able to do this work within this timeframe
The final price you choose should be higher than this minimum price and lower than what the website is worth to your client.
This is not an exact science. It’s so important to listen to your gut. Seriously. This is coming from someone who trained as an engineer. I am super analytical and not someone you would consider “woo,” but I’ve learned that to build a business that makes you happy, it’s critical to pay attention to both the hard data and your intuition. (I like to think of my intuition as my brain subconsciously processing all the information that it’s been collecting.)
Step 5. Ask for feedback
Now, how do you know whether this package is going to sell? What if you put it out there and no one buys?
The answer is by asking for feedback.
Go to the one person you chose in Step 1. Tell them, “I’m working on updating my website package. I’m at the stage where I’m looking for feedback so that I can make this package as relevant for my clients as possible.” Then ask, “Would you be open to taking a look and sharing your thoughts?”
If they say yes, thank them and send them the link to the package information. Or, if you’re talking to them in person, bring a hard copy.
Ask questions like:
“What’s missing?”
“If you were hypothetically in the market for a new website, what would make this package an easy ‘yes’ for you?”
“The last time we talked, you mentioned you might help with your website. Does this package cover what you need? Can you help poke holes in this?”
At the very least, you’re going to get so much valuable feedback.
But in the best-case scenario? This conversation could lead to them saying, “Actually, this sounds really great, how do I sign up to work with you?” This is how I sold multiple projects in my first couple of years of business.
You can also ask around to see if there are people like that one person who would be open to helping you do some market research. So I might ask my business network, “Hey, do you know anyone who runs their own hair salon? I’m doing some market research, and I’d really appreciate some help.”
You do have to talk to real people. People are going to help you, and you can then use their feedback to improve your offer. The more people you can talk to, the easier it’s going to be to sell your package.
Next steps
I hope you found this helpful for putting together your new profitable web design package! To sell your packages, you’ll want to work on your sales skills — if you’d like to learn about how to nail your sales calls, check out this post and video: Discovery call script for landing more web design projects
