All Posts, Marketing
As the end of the year gets closer most of us start thinking more about our family and what we plan to do for the holidays. Family trips, big dinners, presents right? Well a lot of you are pretty talented designers, so why not come up with some pretty cool ways to reach out to your clients to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving in a truly personal way that’s all your own. It’s a really great way to grab their attention from all the other pieces of mail, email, and rudimentary things they’ll be receiving that they plan to immediately shove aside.
Idea One: Give thanks with a custom infographic about their business and your role in it. Use 3-4 statistic examples or metrics that can be replicated easily from customer to customer so you can quickly replicate your efforts. This gives an eye pleasing approach to some facts but also promotes your service back to them.
Ideal Two: A handwritten letter sent via snail mail. Do we even write anything anymore outside of our name as a signature? Sure we’re used to emails and SMS but can you imagine how a client would feel opening a letter from you on a papyrus style paper or something with really good texture? It’s something I’m sure they’d share with others and the livelihood of it being read fully are much higher than a typed letter on regular print paper.
Idea Three: Offer an exclusive and personally direct special offer to some of your clients. Did you design a logo a few months ago? Why not offer a special deal on business cards or letterhead. But take it one step further and create a mockup already made and ready to print for them. With a watermark of course.
Idea Four: Customer Loyalty program. Track back in your previous or past conversations with your clients and see if you can find any hints on some products or services you offer that they may want. Specifically the things they want that they may have felt at the time was just out of their budget. Offer it to them at a sale or discount. They’ll appreciate the sale/discount because they will remember what the true value or price was prior to your new offer. Make it compelling by leaving a purchase window for 24-48 hours.
Any tactics you’ve used in the past that were beneficial that you’d like to add? Share with us in the comments below. If you’d like a copy of the Happy Thanksgiving graphic, request a layered (un-watermarked) PNG here.
All Posts, Marketing
Yup it’s that time again. Time to get the fireplace ready, decorate the house with lights, and set your travel plans. All is good though if this is your slow season and you look forward to it. However, it’s also the perfect time to set things up to hit the ground running as soon as the new year kicks off.
Most businesses start ramping down efforts at the end of the year. Closing out books, updating bookkeeping, and the like maybe. As a designer you may not have too many new projects coming in. If you’re one of them keep reading. I’ve got some ideas for you to keep busy and productive if this will be your slow season.
Update Your Own Work
One of the things we always neglect, is our own work. Whether it’s our website, logo, business plan, chances are there are quite a bit of housekeeping items we need to get done that we’ve been putting off all year due to being busy. Why not take the time to revamp your work. If you haven’t been able to add some social media items to your website, schedule it in now.
Brush Up On Your Skills
Have you been wanting to learn more about javascript or HTML 5? Why not take some easy to follow classes with Lynda.com or your local university. Knowledge really is power. Especially when that knowledge can be traded for money. Lets face it, the more you know the faster you’ll be at your trade and the more money you can request for your skills.
Setup a Referral Program
I know I’ve talked about this before but it actually works. Start with people you already know like friends and family and ask them if they know anyone who may need the services you provide. Entice them offering a referral fee. $50 is usually good enough to wet anyone’s appetite.
Get Out There and Network
Everyone is hosting parties. Host one yourself and invite all your clients and their friends, or attend their parties and socialize with their clients and friends. Don’t push your business on anyone, but you can provide your card if asked for it. Being in the presence of your clients gives both of you memories and a sense of friendship outside of just the business relationship.
Do you have some tips on staying busy during the slow times of the holidays? Share with us in the comments below.
Web Design
If you pick up a newspaper or read articles online you’ll easily find articles of companies and industries talking about fiscal performance from last quarter, or last year, or last month to now. One of the main things that big companies keep their eyes on is their money. Money that they take a lot of time forecasting how much they’ll make from day-to-day, week to week, and so on. I even believe that this is their number one priority and what they spend most of their waking business hours contemplating. This is because they are rated or graded by their track history or performance. Now what about you? Let me explain.
I don’t need to go over why every business needs a website. Been there done that. I also don’t need to explain how more and more people are losing their jobs and careers and NOT sitting around waiting for a new one – but instead becoming entrepreneurs and small business start-ups. I’m even not going to ask you if you think we’re in another dot-com era, or how mobile apps will be even more vital to a business in the next few years. What I am going to tell you is that as a designer (albeit web, graphic, programming, whatever) your market is only going to continue to grow. All of these people are entering your market in droves all across the country. They need business cards, logos, web sites, letter heads, and corporate identities, and they need all of that yesterday. Sure there are numbers about there that suggest most start-ups don’t last more than 5 years before they fail, but I think even that’s going to change due to there being not many other options past “plan b.”
All of these new businesses have something collectively that major businesses forgot. Customer service. I’m sure you don’t have to think back too long when you last had to call an 800 number and got someone who could less about you, hung up on you after you explained what help you needed, or couldn’t understand what you were saying past the script they need to read you. As a small business, all of these “corporate” gripes are remedied when consumers look towards their local providers. They get:
- Immediate customer support
- Local phone number to someone they probably already met in person
- A physical location to get products or services
- A pleasant customer experience that will be praised to all of their friends
As a designer, you can provide all of that and more with almost little effort than a good attitude and work ethic. Good work is good, but great customer care goes so much further. Especially in a world where a customer’s bad experience can be Tweeted or Facebook’d online for all the world to see. Don’t forget that those posts never come down. As long as you have a solid business plan, have a good work-flow, and know how to treat each of your clients like they’re your only one, you’ll survive this recession and plenty years after.
All Posts, Web Design
I’ve been in business for over 10 years as a freelancer and start-up owner. My first business was computer repair and maintenance. I learned early off with that business that the key to being successful was how I interacted with my clients. I’d get calls with questions about how they got a virus to why was their computer working fine the day before but not today. The one thing that had to remain the same was my level of patience to explain to them in layman’s terms, what the problem really is. This tactic didn’t change when I moved into designing web pages and graphics.
I had to say this, but most people who say they want a website, really have no idea what type of website they’re looking for. I’m not even going to get into the argument on whether or not they need one. Lets just focus on some key elements that may save you some headache in the terms off your website project as it progresses.
- Explaining all the elements and content you need from the client for their project to be started and completed. This usually starts out as a “no problem” from the client. Somehow it turns into a 3 month volcano because they’re dragging their feet yet pressing you for a launch date.
- Have them understand exactly how many times they can order a redesign without being charged, and what a “re-design” actually means. In most contracts that I’ve seen, a client is only allowed 2 revisions. Once they cross that, they’re supposed to be charged. However they don’t fully understand what a revision may be. Asking for a font change and color change in one email constitutes a revision.
- Fees and payment schedules. If you have a signed agreement for how your project is going to go, stick with it and constantly remind the client of upcoming fees. Otherwise they may resent you for the unseen charges, even though they clearly signed in 3 different sections of your agreement.
- Problems and setbacks. They don’t need to hear techno-babble. Explaining to them that the images they gave you were too large to fit due to pixels or file types makes no sense to them. And trying to explain why your coding looks great in Firefox but won’t accurately line up in IE or a mobile browser has to be explained with care.
- What exactly YOU do. If you’re just a graphic designer, don’t get wrapped into a project that started out as a logo project that turned into a website redesign project – and you’re not a web designer. Main reason is because you won’t be paid for what you’re doing extra, and second you could risk damaging some other work that in the end will cost you your own time and money to restore.
For me, my very first client was this post’s learning experience. I went through just about all the examples above, got paid very little, and frustrated a heck of a lot. I’d love to hear your experiences!
