How do I pitch a website to a local business?

Show them their own site. Save the business in Shingle, press Build demo and read the brief, then send the link from your own phone or email with a short note about what you noticed. Follow up after three days and again after seven, and stop as soon as they ask you to.

What does a website demo cost?

A demo uses 10 credits, worth $1, and they come back if the build fails. It's a full build held to one page, and each line is reviewed against the business's facts. Its brief is free, up to six writes. When the business says yes, making it a full site uses 20 credits. The plan starts with a 7-day trial for $1, whose 100 credits cover 10 demos, and sending the links costs no credits.

Does Shingle send the pitch for me?

No. You send every pitch yourself, from your own phone or email. Send demo opens WhatsApp, your texts or your email app with the message and the link in it, or copies them for you. Shingle only notes how you sent it, so the deal can move on.

Where does the suggested price come from?

From a table of what agencies charge in the US and the UK, and what one job is worth in many trades there, with every figure's source linked. The suggestion stays inside your team's range, and you can change it. For other countries, Shingle has no figures, so you say your own price.

What does the business see when they open the link?

A page with their demo under your team's name and who made it. They can press I'm interested and leave a name, a phone or an email and a good time, or press Not now, or Don't contact me again. They don't need an account, and search engines never list the page.

Can I publish the demo once they say yes?

Yes. The demo is a site in your team, so you can keep changing it, make it a full site for 20 credits, connect their domain and publish it on the plan. Publishing asks whether the business said yes, because you shouldn't publish it, or present it as their own site, until it agrees. Our Terms ask that of everyone, and it's how you keep the trust the demo just won.

Pitch with their own website

Build their demo in one press, send the link yourself, and know when they open it.

Build my site Try the app

A saved business reading its demo right now, with Call now and Send again

Try it before you sign up

Find a business, build its demo and watch them open it.

Try the app

From a press to an answer

Build their demo
Press Build demo on a business you saved. Shingle builds a one-page site from its record, for 10 credits.
Read the brief
It's written with the demo: what to lead with, what to ask for, what to say and when to follow up.
Send it yourself
Pick WhatsApp, a text or an email. Your own app opens with the message and their link in it.
See them look and answer
You're alerted when they read it. They can press I'm interested, Not now or Don't contact me again.

Show it, then ask

A cold message that says you build websites asks a busy owner to imagine something. Most won't. They've had that message before, it sounds like all the others, and it gives them nothing to look at between jobs.

A demo changes the question. The owner opens a link and finds their own name, trade, town and phone number on a site that already works on their phone. There's nothing left to picture, so the talk moves on to whether they want it and what it costs. That's the conversation you were hoping to have.

The words around the link should be short and specific. Say what you noticed about their business, why it matters to the people looking for them, and what you'd charge. Send it once, follow up twice, and stop when they say stop. The brief gives you words for each of those, drawn only from what their record holds, and you can change any of them before it goes.

What the brief gives you

Written with the demo, from the business's own record. Read it before you send it.

What to lead with

An angle from their website's state: none, a social page, down, parked or dated
Two or three reasons, each shown with the facts behind it
How they compare with others of their trade, where the search found enough
What their demo leads with, such as a call button or a quote form
Once you've sent five, what has worked for your team by angle

What to ask for

A monthly price, and a setup fee where that's common
What one job earns them and how many a month would pay for it, where a source gives a figure for their trade
Each figure's source, linked, so you can check it
Your team's own price range, which the suggestion stays inside
Prices for the US and the UK today. Elsewhere, you say your own

What to say

Messages for WhatsApp, a text and an email
A call script and a voicemail
The three likeliest objections, with an answer to each
A follow-up after three days, and a last nudge after seven
Rewrites, shorter or friendlier, up to six writes a pitch

Know when they're reading

Mail scanners and link previews open links all the time, so an opened link proves nothing. Shingle counts a visit once the demo is showing, the page has been in view for a few seconds, and someone has touched it, scrolled or pressed a key.

Then you hear about it. Whoever owns that business on your team gets an email, at most once an hour, and an alert in the app wherever they are. The business's page says Looking at their demo now while they read, which is a good moment to call.

Each step moves the deal on its own, and only forward: Demo ready when it's built, Pitched when you send it, Looked when they read it, Talking when they say they're interested. You mark a win yourself.

Views within half an hour count as one visit
Your own look, from See what they'll see, never counts
Nothing is kept about the reader but the kind of device

The Deals page: businesses in columns by how far they've got, each with its value

You send it, they decide

Shingle writes the words and makes the link. It never contacts a business for you.

No means no, everywhere
Don't contact me again closes the deal, and no Shingle team can pitch that business after that.
The rules where they are
Send demo reminds you what the business's country asks of the channel you picked, where Shingle knows it.
Check it before it goes
A demo comes from public details and can get them wrong. Read it, and edit it like any other site.