How to Re-engage with Past Web Design Clients
Your past clients are one of the most reliable sources of new revenue in your web design business, and they take far less effort to re-engage than finding someone new. A client who already knows your work, trusts your process, and has seen results is a much warmer conversation than a cold lead. This article covers how to identify re-engagement opportunities and turn them into ongoing work.
Select a section to begin.
Why should you re-engage past web design clients?
Re-engaging past clients costs less than acquiring new ones, and the relationship groundwork is already done. You know their business, they know your work, and rebuilding that conversation is a much shorter path to a new project than starting from scratch. For web designers, it’s also one of the most reliable ways to build predictable revenue without increasing your new business workload.
When to re-engage past web design clients
Reaching out to past clients at the right moment gives you a natural reason to reconnect rather than a cold check-in. The best re-engagement touchpoints share a common quality: they give you something specific and relevant to say. A message that connects to something real in your client's world gives them a genuine reason to respond.
Here are three moments worth building into your client calendar.
A site launch anniversary
The six-month and one-year anniversaries of launching your client’s website are great opportunities to re-connect. It shows that you’ve continued thinking about their website since handoff and see them as a longterm strategic partner. Ask them how their site has performed over the past year and about the challenges they’ve faced that site content or feature updates could help address.
A relevant industry moment
Your clients’ industries have their own seasonal peaks, annual events, and moments that put specific demands on their websites. Reaching out ahead of those moments shows you’re paying attention to their world.
For instance, in the months leading up to Giving Tuesday, a nonprofit client may need help refreshing their donation page or updating site content for a fundraising campaign. A retail client heading into the holiday season is a natural candidate for an ecommerce review or a new promotional layout. The more you know about what each client’s busiest periods look like, the easier it is to reach out at exactly the right time.
A new Squarespace feature launch
Squarespace introduces new features regularly, and each release is a re-engagement opportunity. A feature that solves a problem your client mentioned during the project, or opens up a capability their site currently lacks, gives you something specific and timely to say.
The key is connecting the feature to the client’s goals rather than announcing that something new exists. A client running an ecommerce store is a natural fit for new checkout or inventory features. A client who wanted to grow their email list is a straightforward candidate for a new Email Campaigns capability. The stronger your notes on each past client’s goals and pain points, the easier it is to spot which launches are worth a message.
How to re-engage past web design clients
Re-engaging a past client isn’t cold outreach. The relationship is already there, and a well-crafted message picks up where it left off.
Here are some best practices for emailing past web design clients.
Personalize every aspect of your message
Generic messages risk making your client feel like just one of any number of people you’ve worked with before. Instead, use their name and reference their brand. Add personal touches like light-hearted conversational language and anecdotes from the initial site build.
Acknowledge business wins
After you hand off a finished site to a client, continue paying attention to ongoing happenings with their business through their newsletter, blog, and social media. When you reach out, reference something specific from what you’ve been following. It shows your interest in their business didn't end at handoff.
Pitch an annual review of their website
In your message, point to two or three specific improvements you’ve spotted on their site. Perhaps this is a section that’s gone stale, a feature they’re not using, or a layout that could work harder for them. Grounding the pitch in something concrete makes it feel like a service call rather than a sales one.
From there, propose a design review to keep the site evolving alongside their business.
Annual reviews are one model—some designers formalize this into a retainer, others stay in touch through regular check-ins. For a closer look at how designers structure those ongoing relationships, read how to help clients grow, sell, and evolve.
What squarespace features can you offer existing clients?
The release of a new Squarespace product or feature update is a great opportunity to reconnect with past clients. This is your chance to spotlight how, by leaning on your expertise to strategically implement the features, you offer unique value.
Squarespace has a diverse range of products you can learn and adopt to nearly every facet of your client’s business. For each past client you’re looking to convert, think about which tool or feature can help achieve their goals.
Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is an online booking tool that integrates directly with your client’s Squarespace website and syncs with their. The tool is designed to eliminate scheduling back and forth, saving clients time to focus on their sales cycle and other revenue-generating tasks.
Here are benefits you can highlight for clients:
Collect the right information upfront with custom intake forms and clear cancellation policies at the point of booking, reducing no-shows before they happen.
Automated email confirmations and reminders keep clients and their customers on time without anyone having to chase a reply.
Acuity syncs with your existing Google, iCloud, Outlook Office 365, Outlook Exchange, and Outlook.com calendars, so bookings appear alongside everything else in one place.
Time zone detection and double-booking prevention handle the logistics automatically.
Drive repeat business with recurring appointments, packages, subscriptions, and gift certificates (plan dependent).
Email Campaigns
Email Campaigns gives clients a built-in email marketing tool that works directly alongside their site. For clients managing email through a separate platform, it means handling their site and audience communications without ever leaving Squarespace.
Here’s what you can share with clients:
Send branded email campaigns directly from Squarespace, keeping design and messaging consistent with the rest of their site.
Build a dedicated subscriber list, then create and send them email campaigns featuring your latest content and offerings.
Win conversions by crafting automated email drip campaigns that trigger based on activity like sign-ups and previous email engagement.
Track engagement analytics to improve each campaign based on what's actually working.
Member Sites
With Member Sites, your client can create and share gated content and offer visitors free or paid access to a members-only community. Depending on your past client’s business, they can use their member site in several ways. For example, a wellness client can sell advanced exercise routine videos, a restaurant can offer exclusive recipes, and a musician can share behind-the-scenes recordings.
To identify past clients who may be a good fit for Member Sites, look at those with sizable followings and an existing bank of content. These followers have already shown interest in your client’s offerings, making them more likely to pay for additional access to exclusive offerings.
Here are the key points to share with clients:
Gate any content type behind a paywall in a design that automatically matches the rest of the site.
Offer access in exchange for an email address to build a contact list of engaged leads, which you can then reach with Email Campaigns.
Providing gated content in exchange for a visitor’s email address is a powerful way to generate engaged leads you can manage in your contact list and reach with future email campaigns.
Squarespace Payments
Squarespace Payments is Squarespace’s built-in payment solution, empowering ecommerce clients to accept and manage payments directly from their dashboard without a third-party processor. For clients running checkout through a separate platform, it consolidates orders, refunds, and payouts into one place and removes an integration they’re likely paying for separately.
Here’s what you can tell clients:
Accept more payment types, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Afterpay, and Klarna, giving customers more ways to complete a purchase and reducing drop-off at checkout.
Manage payments, refunds, and payouts from the same dashboard you already use to run your website.
Access earnings faster for a small fee with Instant Payouts, with funds typically arriving within 30 minutes of the transfer.
Share your Circle-exclusive discount
Circle partners save a percentage off new annual Squarespace subscriptions and can extend these savings to their clients. Join Circle to access these discounts and let clients know about it to drive re-engagement. Learn more about key Circle partner benefits you can share with clients to win back their business.
Sample web design client re-engagement emails
Use these example emails as starting points to reach and convert lapsed web design clients.
When a client launches a new product or service
Subject line: Need help selling [new product/service/offering] online?
Hi [Client name],
Congrats on launching [new product/service/offering]! I was curious if you’d heard about recent Squarespace feature releases that can help you market and sell it online to the widest audience possible. I’d love to book a call to touch base about improving your ecommerce site for conversions.
Looking forward to connecting!
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
[Your email address]
When you want to share your Circle partner discount
Subject line: 15% off a new Squarespace site on me
Hi [Client name],
It’s been a while! I was checking on your Squarespace site and started wondering: Could a new one help strengthen the performance of a recent offering of yours? For the next two weeks, I’m offering a 15% discount on new site builds. It all starts with a 15-minute chat. Let’s schedule some time to speak next week.
Best,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
[Your email address]
When you reach a client’s site launch anniversary
Subject line: It's been a year since we launched your site
Hi [Client name],
Hard to believe it's been a year since we launched your site. I've been following along on [channel] and noticed [specific recent observation—new service, rebrand, new offering]. It’s great to see the business growing.
I’d love to hear how the site has been holding up. If there’s anything that no longer reflects where you are today, or features you’ve been meaning to add, I have a few ideas I think could make a real difference. Would you be up for a quick call?
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
[Your email address]
How to get repeat web design clients
Staying connected to past clients is one of the most reliable ways to grow revenue without starting from scratch. With the right timing and a genuine reason to reach out, re-engagement becomes a natural part of how you run your business rather than a separate effort.
As a Circle partner, there’s a financial upside to this work beyond the project itself. When clients you bring to Squarespace sign up for new qualifying annual subscriptions—including website plans, Acuity Scheduling, Email Campaigns, and Squarespace Payments—you earn a referral commission. Rates increase with your Circle status, so the benefit grows as your partnership does. Learn more about Circle referral payments.
Related resources:
This article was originally published on May 30, 2022. It has since been updated.
Want more?
Join Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers and web design agencies. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
