I would suggest you go offline and speak directly with business owners. The face-to-face contact matters a lot.
Where easy ways are already available why are you needlessly suggesting to take the hard way. Face-to-face meetings may work for other businesses, but for these jobs, I don't think face-to-face meetings matter much. And I don't think any company now sit for web designers like this to build their website because they can go to good platforms like Allready Fiber, upwork and hire highly professional or budget friendly web designers for them.
You are right that things have changed, it's not like the old times when developers or programmers needed to visit so many places only in search of a job, and they would give a lot of interviews every day at different places and offices. But today, the world has revolutionized, and you don't need to do those things anymore. From interviews to hiring or attending meetings, everything can be done online these days.
It would also not be wrong to mention that the competition has increased as well over the course, so as there are more facilities available for people to find and land jobs, there is also tough competition for jobs.