Despite an array of do-it-yourself options for designing a website (and even apps these days) and the fact that most of even the smallest companies are already online and mobile friendly, a survey of Web developers and designers conducted by Evans Data and commissioned by GoDaddy finds the Web professional industry still very much in demand globally. As it turns out, however, not all revenue streams are equal (read on).
Seventy-nine percent of Web developers and designers (from the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, India, Brazil and Mexico) reported client growth of 25 percent or more a year - with more than 1 in 3 saying growth was over 50 percent. While it may seem that those experiencing an upward tick are only established firms, nearly half of the respondents have been in business less than five years but still report high revenues (a majority had revenue of $250,000 or more and 1 in 3 reported revenues of $500,000 plus).
As businesses mature digitally, there are countless areas where development help is needed from redesigning a whole website and launching self-service options for the end-user to taking advantage of omnichannel capabilities that provide consumers more choice in their buying journey and optimizing a website for greater visibility across the Web. While those are simply but a few examples of the types of projects developers are needed for, the point is, it may seem that businesses (smaller ones in particular) are starting to understand design and development help is not a one-off line expense and those who truly partner with developers can better keep up with visitor and industry expectations.
In fact, the
primary driver for business from the group of respondents
is selling new services to existing clients (40 percent) followed by providing support to existing clients (31 percent), finding new clients (21 percent) and reselling third-party products/services (7 percent), there is a small margin of error. Since most revenue is coming from existing clients, designers and developers would be wise to use some of the same retention strategies used by larger businesses: email, social, churn prediction, competitor monitoring, content marketing and more.
Other notable findings include:
- 72 percent of U.S. designers and developers work from home.
- Communicating with clients over email is quickly losing favor in the U.S., with most of the respondents using video apps and services such as Slack instead.
What does Website Magazine's community of Web developers and designers think about the study? Are the findings similar to your experience? Let us know in the comments below.