It’s a common conception amongst graphic designers that small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t have time or ability to design their marketing materials and websites themselves. But at Fandango Media Group we believe otherwise. We know that you will make time to save money and you are smart enough to design your flyers and a website to cut the costs of professional services.
But at some point you will look down at the brochure coming out of your desk printer and think to yourself “You know, my product deserves better that this.” Here are 13 other reasons to hire a graphic designer.
1. YOU NEED MORE CLIENTS
You could handle a few more clients, but you need to do something to attract them. Your graphic designer can suggest you what campaign will work best for your business and your budget. There are many tools and options to advertise your business that include printed and digital campaigns which will help you customers to find you.
2. YOUR WEBSITE IS OUTDATED AND LOOKS BAD ON THE PHONE
Even if you are not planning to sell online, having a mobile-friendly website is a standard. It’s a well-known fact that more and more people are using their phones to browse the internet.
3. YOU NEED PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
If you need promotional materials, such as Brochures, Flyers, Labels, maps, menus, programs, Facebook page, etc. hire a professional. A graphic designer knows how to bring consistency to all your materials and help to promote the awareness of your brand.
4. YOU WANT TO STAND OUT
Professional graphic designers are educated in such matters as design principles, typography and color theory. They also make sure they are aware of the latest trends. If you want to stand out of your competition and look professional, hire a professional.
5. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT DOCUMENTS TO SEND TO THE PRINTER
Working with the printers requires the experience in pre-print production and the knowledge of the CMYK printing process. If you don’t know what is acceptable and what is not, you may waste a lot of money on printing costs, and still have a poor quality product delivered after all.
6. YOUR PRESENTATION NEEDS SUPPORT
You would like to have some good looking flyers or catalogs that will impress your audience. Perhaps, you want to hand them out. Whether you have a booth at the market or a trade show or a PowerPoint presentation in the office, need a catalog for the gallery or simply going for an interview, you need supporting materials. Make sure you plan in advance, discuss it with your graphic designer to give her enough time to create and print top quality documents for you, so you don’t find yourself empty-handed.
7. YOU DON’T HAVE A BUSINESS CARD
Investing in producing your Business Card can be all you need to attract a lot more business. It will work if your business card is good looking, professional and eye catching.
8. YOUR LOGO WAS NOT DESIGNED BY A PROFESSIONAL
If your logo was designed by your husband, or wife, or a nephew who has Photoshop, consider hiring professional as soon as possible. Don’t trust your brand look to someone who is not a professional logo designer. Making a bad logo will cost you a lot if you consider the cost of production and print of all your other documents that have your logo. The door sign, for example, can cost thousands of dollars to change. So, make sure you have a professional logo before you do anything else.
9. YOU USE ARTWORK FROM GOOGLE SEARCH
If you are using Google images for your blog or flyers, don’t. Not only that you could be fined $4000 for using a copyrighted image, if you try to print it, it most likely will be low resolution and turn out pixelated and blurry. Your graphic designer will make sure that the images used are top quality and that you have a license for using them. Check this article for 5 things your designer wish you knew.
10. YOU MADE YOUR WEBSITE, BUT YOU DON’T LOVE IT ANYMORE.
With so many options of free or cheap website production, who is not tempted to try doing it themselves? However, the reason good websites cost money, it requires design skills, knowledge of a few programming languages and experience in order to plan and produce a well-structured website that will look good on all browsers. And the cheap websites… well, they look cheap.
11. YOUR DOCUMENTS HAVE COMIC SANS OR PAPYRUS TYPEFACE
You might consider yourself a person with a great taste, which you probably are, but don’t trust your taste in typography. Let a professional graphic designer choose and match fonts. There are rules and principles that they know and you may not.
12. YOU WANT TO REACH OUT TO YOUR CUSTOMERS THROUGH EMAIL
Email campaigns and newsletters are very effective tools for reaching out to your customers, keep them updated about your events and promotions. Just don’t try doing it yourself. A graphic designer will create a layout to match your brand, and will make sure it looks good on all browsers and devices.
13. YOUR ARE PLACING AN AD IN THE NEWSPAPER
Don’t trust your brand to a busy office hoping that they will make your ad look good. The people who will make your ad might have 40 more on their desk that day. They may not know you personally, so, most likely they won’t care about how it looks or if it delivers your message the best way possible. Hire a graphic designer to make your ad and send it to the newspaper as “print-ready”.