A freelance web designer who makes over $200,000 a year says the majority of his income comes from referrals. Here are the emails he sends to get businesses to refer him to their customers.

• Sam Schnitzler is a successful freelance web designer.
• He noticed that most of his clients came from referrals from other businesses, so he developed an email that would entice businesses to strategically partner with him.
• Although he offers a lot of information about his services up front, Schnitzler leaves some air of mystery to get potential partners to respond.
• Ending with a clear question also keeps the conversation continuing, he said.
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Website consultant Sam Schnitzler, owner of the website design firm Universal NYC, has been a successful web designer for over 17 years. As a full-time freelancer, Schnitzler says he now makes well over $200,000 a year.

Schnitzler told Business Insider that the strategy he used to reach this level of financial success was focusing on building his client base through referrals.

"I noticed that while some clients send me their friends once in a while, they [were] not really consistent," Schnitzler said. "I tried asking my clients to have me in mind when they hear someone needs a website, and while they all agreed to do so, nothing really changed."

So Schnitzler drilled down deeper and discovered that most of his repeat referrals came from other businesses. When he realized that many of these businesses - which included copywriters, programmers, and consultants - were reaching out to him naturally without him asking, he decided to leverage this marketing opportunity by proactively targeting and reaching out to potential partners.

To do so, the freelancer created packages and pricing on his website that are specifically for these priority customers and not available to the general public. He now gets around 80% of his clients from these strategic partners.

How his referral process works

Schnitzler shared that these targeted businesses can sign up to become a "strategic partner" and choose if they want to offer his services to their clients as a white-label service, or just send them directly to him and get a finder's fee or other valuable services.

The web designer also greases the wheels for these partners to promote his services by providing marketing materials and proposal templates with the customers' own branding. He additionally offers training and support free of charge.

"This makes it very easy for my strategic partners to sell web design services without learning a new skill, and it gets me an ongoing flow of repeat business on a monthly basis," Schnitzler said.

To find these potential customers, Schnitzler doesn't simply pull random contacts out of a professional directory or social media: He looks for a true connection by pursuing what he called "shared clients."

"While any type of relationship is better than nothing, a shared client is the best connection, as it proves to them that their existing clients need my services and are happy with what I do," Schnitzler said. "Plus, it demonstrates that we're at the same level."

When Schnitzler works with existing clients on a project, he asks them who they work with in similar B2B industries, such as graphic designers, programmers, developers, marketing specialists, printing companies, copywriters, IT/networking professionals, business consultants, and more. Schnitzler doesn't provide this entire list of possible partnerships to his existing clients; instead, he sees what types of services each client already uses, and he targets those services when discussing this with them.

Once his client provides him with the contact information, he sends that business an introductory email with an offer. He designed an email template that abates common fears he's learned about through conversations with potential partners.

For example, one prospect told Schnitzler that he always wanted to offer web design services, but didn't want to hire more staff. So Schnitzler added a point in his email template that by coming to him, businesses don't need to hire additional staff.

The email template you can copy from Schnitzler to offer discounted pricing and other opportunities to your clients

Hi [prospect's name],

My name is [your name], and I've been working with [shared client's name] on their new website. They mentioned that they are also working with you and seem to be happy with your work.

I wanted to introduce you to the opportunity that will help you grow your business, without spending extra time or money!

You are already selling [name of service] to business owners like [shared client's name], and offering web services to go with it will only make the right business decision.

Every business needs a website, and your clients would much rather deal with a vendor they already know and trust, but being a "jack of all trades, master of none" is no benefit to anyone.

I'm here to help! I provide white-label web design and development services at a low cost to you, which allows you to resell them at a competitive rate.

The benefits of offering our services to your clients include the following:

• Earn more money from existing clients.
• Expand your business in new markets.
• No need to learn anything new.
• Avoid hiring additional staff.
• Enhance your customer experience.

It is effortless to get started:

• I'll hold your hand and answer all your questions, and your client's questions.
• I can help you promote your new services; you shouldn't have to spend extra time on it.
• I will be empowering you with the tools you need to succeed.

Would you be interested in learning more about how we can work together for the benefit of your company and its clients?

Thank you,

[Your name]

Leave an air of mystery to encourage the prospect to reach out

If you noticed that Schnitzler's email doesn't provide full details about how his process works, you're right. The web designer said that he deliberately avoids "spelling everything out" because he wants his email to leave the recipient with some questions that he can answer.

"I do that because I want them to contact me for more details so I know they are interested," he said. "If I give them all [the] info[rmation] right away, they may be very interested but forget about it after a few days, and I won't know about it."

Once the prospect responds showing interest, he sends a follow-up email to explain more of his services and answer questions.

The follow-up email that he sends to interested prospects

Hi [prospect's name],

Thank you for getting back to me. I offer a variety of web services that your clients already need, including Informational Websites, Shopping Carts, CMS Systems, and Custom Web Systems.

By creating a strategic partnership, you will have the ability to offer our services in three ways:

Full Control (Option 1 - at 30% off our regular pricing)

You keep full control over the project and customer; I will only be doing the work behind the scenes.

Happy Medium (Option 2 - between 20% and 30% off our regular pricing)

You do what you do best, which is [name of service]. I will be dealing with your client as your staff member or as your business partner when it comes to the areas you need my help with.

Hand Over (Option 3 - up to 20% commission depending on the project)

You get us in touch directly with the client, and we send you a commission whenever the customer submits a payment.

Which of these options seems to work best for you?

Thank you,

[Your name]

Best practices for emailing prospects

Schnitzler keeps the emails he sends friendly and personal, rather than "corporate looking," but added that he has a designed version that he sends to subscribers on his mailing list. He always ends his emails with one clear question to keep the conversation going.

In the body of the email, Schnitzler only mentions services that would be interesting to the specific client, and that would also be valuable to his own business. If he decides to tack on other services later, he upsells them.

And finally, the web designer said, "Delivering exceptional service is the key to any business success; otherwise, no one will want to recommend you to anyone. So I make sure to keep all my clients happy. But most importantly, clients that come from my strategic partners get the special treatment."