Do not Just Stick to Design, Learn Some Marketing Too!
The designers of big firms do not have to worry about projects because they don’t find projects, projects find them. However, if you are a freelance designer, you should not just stick to design only. Learning marketing can prove to be really beneficial for you. Since a freelancer is considered to be a one man show, he should have little bit of knowledge about everything that he will be required to do and self marketing is the most important aspect of it. Having a nice self promotion strategy will get you loads and loads of good work. Following are a few good tips that will make you a marketing professional along with a designer.
Correct Usage of Business Cards Design:
Business cards, if used in a right way, can work as a great publicity items. The reason is that they allow clients to contact you because all of your contact information is available there. You should not just stick with email signatures because people delete emails instantly whereas business cards are kept for a long time.
As a designer, people would really expect you to have a nice, decent business card. Do not overdo the designing part just to impress the clients, be precise about your services and make sure your business card contains all the necessary information. Also, keep a good amount of business cards always with you. Distribute your business cards not only to the potential clients but also to the existing ones in order for them to be able to refer you.
Create a Strong Online Presence in Design:
Anyone who plans to hire you would really want to see your work before hand. Instead of sending them various links as references of your work, you should have a proper online portfolio so that they can see all of your good and then decide if they want to hire you or not. As a designer, having an impressive portfolio is a great way to market yourself and since you are responsible for marketing and designing, you should learn how to do it the right way.
Marketing Yourself with Brochures:
Designing a brochure and Brochure Printing of your services and mailing it directly to old and new clients is a great way to promote your creativity. A lot of designers are now ignoring the importance of traditional methods which is not good. These traditional methods can still work wonders for you. It should be nicely designed, again, having all of your contact information. Brochures might be the first professional interaction of your services with your clients and therefore try to impress your clients in the first look with your brochures.
Target the Target Audience:
Do not waste your time by marketing yourself to anyone and everyone. You need to differentiate between the potential leads and non serious leads so that you do not end up wasting your time. If you have been working with small firms for a very long time, you need to start marketing yourself to big and huge firms for big projects.
If you will work for big companies, you will get better recommendation. So, before marketing yourself, you need to come with a list of companies that you might want to target. Defining your target audience before marketing yourself is very important.
Your Marketing Strategy Should Be Rigid:
Since you would be still in process of learning marketing, you might end up making mistakes and we don’t want you to do that. If you really want to learn marketing, and at the same time, you want to work as a designer, you need to have a strong and rigid marketing strategy. You should not impose yourself on the clients. Give them breathing space and never every attach your portfolio with your introductory email as this is supposed to be a bad marketing idea. You need to take permission from the client first and if they want to, then you can send your work samples.
Following up is also very important so if you have not received a reply of your email, make a follow up phone call. Don’t get disheartened if people are rude to you because people in the field of marketing have to face rejection. Accept it and move forward by calling other plenty of people to sell yourself. The key here is to never give up.
Remain Visible and Accessible:
If you have been sending out proposals and emails to your potential clients, you need to stay accessible for all of them. They would want to contact you and if no one answers the phone call or replies to the email timely, the client will be disappointed and will definitely look for some other designer who is available. A person in the marketing field has to be available all the time to answer the queries of the employers.
Market Better through Newsletter:
Newsletters, both online and offline; are a great way to generate leads for your business. This is one of the most efficient and commonly used marketing strategies to keep yourself in the wheeling and dealing of the design business. Newsletter is also an effective way to keep your clients updated about any new changes in design world as well as about your latest projects and business achievements. If your clients are facing any problems, your newsletter provides them with easy solutions or other tips to avoid any inconvenience in seeking your services.
Final Thoughts:
Designing business these days is a pretty competitive business and requires regular and efficient marketing. Therefore, in order to pace up with and exceed from the competitors, you need to be a jack of all, instead of being a master for none. So, don’t just sit there, follow the above mentioned tips and do some marketing too!
About The Author
