July 18, 2023
Why do I as a webdesigner need a Welcome Package for my clients?
Once a new client signs a contract with you, you should send them a Welcome Package. Not only does this make you look professional but it’s also extremely helpful for your client – and a time-saver for yourself: Your client will be happy to find all the important information for their collaboration with you in ONE place, and you will be happy because you won’t have your client emailing you several times to ask for certain information. It’s all going to be in your beautiful Welcome Package.
How should I design my Welcome Package and how long should it be?
My personal go-to is always Canva! You can create a free account, search for “Welcome Package” and you will find several design templates you can use – or you can create your own.
Don’t make your Welcome Package too long. Imagine You are your own client and you get sent a 20-page Welcome Package. How would you feel? I would be O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-E-D! Asking yourself how your client would feel is a good guideline in general. What would You yourself need in a Welcome Package in order to feel welcome and informed, and to have the impression that your webdesigner cares for you and knows what they’re doing? Stop reading and take some notes.
There are so many factors to consider, so I cannot give you an exact page number for the perfect length of a Welcome Package. As a reference point: The one I’m using for my own clients is 9 pages long (including the cover page), well structured and with lots of images. Don’t stuff too much text onto one page, but make it feel and look light, airy, fun and inviting to read.
“BUT WHAT SHOULD I INCLUDE IN MY WELCOME PACKAGE?” Keep calm and read on!
1. Welcome Message
The first 2 pages of your Welcome Package should be a cover page (that says something like “Client Welcome Package”) and a welcome page with a personal welcome message from you. Tell them how delighted and honoured you are that they chose you as their webdesigner and why you designed this Welcome Package for them (to make the design process smooth and uncomplicated for them).
You could even include a third page at the beginning of the Welcome Package where you state your mission (that is if you have something like an official “mission” as a designer). If you want to learn about MY mission check it out here. I actually included it in my Welcome Package.
2. Expectations
In my Welcome Package I have 2 pages dedicated to expectations:
- What my clients can expect from me
- What I expect from my clients.
While it sounds natural to state what your clients may expect of you (e.g. high quality work and timeliness), setting expectations for my clients sounds almost cheeky. However, don’t be shy here! Your clients need to know that if they don’t provide you with their website images on time, YOU won’t be able to finish their project on time. They need to know that if they don’t give you the feedback you asked for on a certain website page, YOU won’t be able to continue, meaning time goals won’t be met. This has nothing to do with being rude! There are nice and respectful ways to communicate those expectations. This has to do with you being professional and setting requirements before you even start designing, so both of you know what to do to make the project successful.
I called this section of my Welcome Package “Client Checklist” (not need to give it a demanding title like “What I expect of my clients” 😉 It includes my expectations of them as well as an explanation of why I expect it, as well as a checklist of their next steps, or To-Dos (like: sign the contract and upload the website content to a shared folder).
3. Tools & resources
I give my clients an overview over all the resources and online tools we’ll be using during the website design process. This includes:
- Where to upload all their website assets (e.g. Drive or Dropbox)
- My client management portal (e.g. Dubsado or Honeybook)
- How to schedule calls with me (e.g. Calendly, Meet, Zoom)
4. Contact & communication
Tell your clients how to contact you. Add your website, your email, phone number (if you want to give them the possibility to call you on the phone), links to schedule calls with you, etc.
IMPORTANT: Also tell them your office hours and your approximate response time (e.g. 24h-48h). You have a life and therefore it is important to set boundaries. You shouldn’t be available every single day of the week, every time of the day. Letting your clients know this in advance takes off that pressure of you to be available 24/7. This is what’s called work-life-balance!
5. Service overview & project summary
Include a short service overview and tell your clients when they can expect what. You could structure this by days or by weeks, or you could tell them what happens before the project starts, what happens during the design phase, what happens during the website launch, and what happens after the launch.
6. FAQs
If you have worked as a webdesigner for a while you’ll probably hear the same questions over and over again. To prevent your clients from messaging you about those same questions yet again, simply include an FAQ page into your Welcome Package where you answer all of those questions.
7. What happens next?
Your clients will want to know what happens next. So, be sure to include that in your Welcome Package. Tell them Their next steps and Your next steps. You could either include this in some of the sections mentioned above or you could have a separate section just for that.
At the very end tell your client again how you’re looking forward to the collaboration with them, include a nice photo of yourself and tell them that you will be in contact whenever there is anything new and that you will walk them through the design process step by step. Give them a positive ending, something to look forward to. Make them as excited to be working with you, as you are to be working with them!
