If
your business has seen the same upturn as many online businesses in 2020, you’ll
be about ready to expand. There’s more to it than just renting a larger
warehouse and hiring more staff. There are many more things to consider,
including what should be number one on that list and how you finance that
expansion.
Although
your business may be enjoying unprecedented success, that is certainly not the
case for other sectors within retail. Many
high street businesses are struggling or failing, and this is very much the picture that
conventional lenders see. This has made them very risk-averse, and it means
that you should seek a specialist eCommerce loan for your business.
Once
funding has been secured, the question arises of where best to spend it. Of
course, there are the larger premises and more staff to think bout, but there
are five other areas you might also want to consider as priorities.
#1 Image and graphic design
They
say a picture paints a thousand words, and nowhere is that more true than in
online retail. When a customer can’t get their hands on a product to check it
out, the image is all they have to go on, so they need to be of the best quality … and there needs to be plenty of them.
This
will probably go beyond whatever resources you at the moment, so it may pay you
to get some professional shots done of your stock. After all, your competition
probably will.
#2 Website design
Although
you probably do a lot of your business through Amazon or eBay, a fair amount
will still come in through your website. Now is the time to invest in the
design and to improve the UI and UX of your site. The bar for this is often set
by Amazon, so your site needs to be as easy to use if you want customers to
come back.
#3 SEO
Getting
natural traffic for your site is the holy grail in online retail. In a world
dominated by two big players, getting people to your site without paying every
single time can make a massive difference to your bottom line. Engaging a
company to move you up the rankings is definitely part of a long game but has
been proven to bear fruit over time.
#4 Hosting
With
the upturn in business and the planned increase in traffic from SEO, the last
thing you want is for the website to crash because it can’t cope. Many small
online retailers have exactly the same type of hosting package as your everyday
blogger. If eCommerce sales volumes increase any more, these packages will not
be fit for their purpose.
So, you should look to upgrade your package or ask your hosting company for a
bespoke solution.
#5 Advertising
Short term solution but one with, if done
correctly, near-instant results. It should bring a sudden influx of traffic
that should bring in sales and test out the effectiveness of other changes that
have been made.
In
conclusion, it’s not about the thing you can see immediately that you need to
consider when expanding a business but look at every piece that makes up your
business and see what can be improved with any new funding.
There was a time when having a great product and pitching it to the right customers was enough for your company to grow. Unfortunately, that time is long gone. Now, the market is fiercely competitive, and you need two things to make sure that your company survives. The first is attracting new customers, and the second is retaining existing customers. Most people only think of new customers. They believe that they must keep getting their target audience’s attention to ensure that more people buy their products or avail their services. Undoubtedly, it is imperative to attract new customers. However, the other aspect, customer retention, is as important as new customers are, if not more.
Why put so much focus on retaining existing customers? Well,
any company’s measure is not how successful they are in acquiring new
customers. But how they ensure that their existing customers don’t switch to
some other brands. It is also more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.
Current customers spend more on a brand than new customers. They are also the
ones who sing high praises of the brand and bring in the most referrals. Word
of mouth is persuasive third-person marketing that builds or destroys a brand’s
image. Therefore, your existing customers must receive the value they desire
from your company.
Several factors ensure your existing customers keep coming
back. You can provide them with a personalized experience or promotional offers.
You can make your customer services better and be aware of what they are
searching for online. The online market is multiplying, which is why keeping an
eye on what the customer is searching for, that is, the keywords is imperative.
It is a complex task, but with this keyword checker, you can tap into online customer behavior
and offer great value.
Below are six effective digital marketing techniques to
ensure that your customers don’t switch to another brand.
1.
Communicate and Engage
There are multiple modes to communicate with your customers.
You can use email
marketing for this purpose or messenger apps and social media platforms to
talk to your customers. Nowadays, customers are getting smarter, and they get irritated
when a brand keeps on throwing promotional messages at them. If you do that,
you will soon find yourself unsubscribed, in the spam folder, or having an
adverse word of mouth in the market. Use digital communication methods to keep
your brand front and center in the customers’ minds. Ensure that you tell them
about all the deals you are offering and that you are willing to elicit
feedback and suggestions. Find out what they want. Conduct surveys, ask for
their opinions, and act on them.
2.
Personalization
The method of drafting a single message addressing the
entire audience is not a practical approach anymore. Now, everyone
wants personalization and seek brands that provide services according to
their preferences. Nobody wants to be part of the crowd anymore. It doesn’t
matter how loyal they are to your brand. If you don’t provide them with
personalized services, you will soon find them switching to another brand.
Therefore, make sure that your digital marketing strategies include personalization
tactics. Create content that is curated for your customers, offer rewards based
on their loyalty, and offer opportunities. Give them suggestions based on their
purchasing or browsing history.
3.
Captive with Value Proposition
Take any brand, and you will see that there are at least a
few customers that are loyal to it. These are the customers who love to talk
about that brand. Many brands have not achieved a love mark for their brands
from several customers worldwide. It means that customers are not only loyal to
your brand but will continue using and promoting it for a lifetime. This
strategy helps achieve a profitable customer lifetime value, but how to achieve
it? The answer is quite simple; by offering unique value, the element of
differentiation should be visible in your offerings. Make sure that you give
them a platform to divulge their love for your brand.
4.
Influencer Marketing
In the previous era, all you needed was a sports star, a
celebrity, or somebody famous, and you could market your brand to millions. However,
the current era is the age of influencer marketing. Make sure that you
collaborate with an influencer who holds sway over your target audience. The
more people see influencers using your brand, the more they will return to your
offerings.
5.
Customer Service
There is a lot that a business can do now for its customers.
Gone are the days when customer service meant that they would have to come to
your store to get it. You can now provide excellent customer service through
your website, your social media channels, and more. In this regard, make sure
that you utilize the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to up your game. How
can you do that? Make sure that you use chatbots so that you can be there for
your customer 24/7
6.
Elicit Feedback
One of the things that customers dislike is one-way
communication. For any communication to be effective, it has to go both ways.
You can implement this in your marketing strategies to ensure that your
customers know that you listen to them. Conduct surveys, ask questions, elicit
feedback, and reviews to understand their needs.
Conclusion
At the beginning of any brand, it might seem important to
focus only on acquiring new customers. However, to achieve long-run success, it
is imperative to focus on retaining your current customers. It is the existing
customers who bring the most benefit and higher profitability. Ensure that you
have strategies for customer retention, and you will not have to implement
drastic measures. Keep the above six ways of retaining customers in your mind
and ensure that you include them in your digital marketing strategy for
long-term success and growth.
The world has moved towards online sales in a big way. The events of 2020 have accelerated this trend even more, and it looks as if there is no turning back now. With this in mind, a lot of people are starting e-commerce stores of their own. While this is a great idea, and you can often launch one with a limited budget, you still need to ensure that you are doing it the right way. After all, you will find yourself facing stiff competition on all sides. Taking this into account, here is a checklist of some of the things that you need to bear in mind before you get started:
Choose Your Business Name
All of your marketing and promotional activities will center around your
business name, so make sure
you choose one that adequately reflects your company and everything that it has
to offer. Since people will be searching for you online, you don’t want it to
be too difficult to spell. While clever wordplay can sometimes be a nice touch,
you don’t want to try too hard. Ultimately, you want to make life as easy as
possible for your customers when they are trying to search for your business
online.
Establish the Domain Name and
Website
Ideally, your domain name needs to reflect your website as closely as
possible so that people can find it by typing it into the search bar. You can
then get to work designing and building the website. There are many platforms
that aim to make this as straightforward as possible to do yourself, but you
may want to enlist the help of a professional depending on your technical skill
level. If you are looking to give this a boost, you could always take a course,
such as AWS certification
training. Remember, while the design of your website should be stylish, this
shouldn’t mean that it loads slowly or you sacrifice integral aspects, such as
the navigation.
Choose Your Selling Structure
Some people choose to house all the products on-site, while others will
take part in what is known as ‘dropshipping’. Both approaches have their own
individual positives and negatives. When you take care of your own stock, you
need to first have enough space for it. Then you need to think about all the
proper security and insurance provisions to ensure that it is all properly
protected. On the plus side, you do have direct control of it, and you are able
to send it out whenever needed. As for dropshipping, this means that you use
certain partners to dispatch your products. You have the obvious advantage of
not needing to invest in anything directly, so there is a limited amount of
risk here. You also don’t need to worry about the storage space to hold
everything. However, you are very much reliant on these external partners and
you can bet your bottom dollar that customers are going to blame you directly
if anything goes awry with their order.
Start Your Marketing
Activities Early
There are several aspects involved in marketing, but you should
start all of them at the earliest possible opportunity. Even if your site is
not yet ready to launch, it is still a good idea to start generating a buzz
around it. For example, you can easily start up your social media profiles and
begin trying to accumulate some followers. Similarly, you can start writing a
blog as this is useful content to share, as well as being helpful to the overall
SEO of the website. Of course, you may not want to begin more serious marketing,
such as online ads and PPC, until you are ready to launch. When you do kick off
your business activities, it is a good idea to include an introductory offer or
a welcome bonus of some kind to introduce the world to your brand and
everything it has to offer.
Invest in the Right Software
and Hardware
While an online business can be launched with just a laptop and a stable
internet connection, you may well find that you need a little bit more to give
yourself the best chance of success. So, research your software options
thoroughly before making your choice. While there are many good programs that
are available for free, you shouldn’t worry about being too frugal at this
stage. Sometimes, the better software options are worth paying for. You may
also find that your old hardware options are simply not cutting it and you need
to invest in the latest technology for a higher level of performance.
Alternatively, you may feel like you need a degree of separation between your
business and personal lives, so you may decide to invest in a phone, or a
laptop that is just meant for business purposes.
Increase Your Customer Loyalty
It is certainly an exciting moment when you start generating some sales.
However, your best course of action is to make sure that these customers come
back to you time and time again. There are several ways of increasing customer loyalty. One of the most
effective is by creating an email list for them to sign up for. Of course, you
don’t want to bombard their inboxes, but some well-placed messages can prove to
be highly valuable in creating the loyalty that you seek. Then you have all
your social media accounts, which give you a direct means of communication and
a way of nudging your customers back towards buying your products.
This checklist gives you some of the basic ways that you can get your
online store up and running. Ultimately, you need to put a lot of focus on the
design and build of the website, and ensure that you start marketing at an
early opportunity. Not only this, but you have to consider carefully what you
are going to sell and how well it is going to appeal to potential customers.
Setting
up an agency is hard. But, keeping it in business, harder.
No
matter who you are as a business, a solopreneur, or an agency, with the
industry reaching new heights of competition each day, hitting the nail on the
head is becoming more challenging.
So
the million-dollar question here is how do you address the problem?
Enter
Branding!
Branding
is the one-stop sustainable strategy that enables you to establish a long-term
relationship with your consumers making sure your agency garners the strength
to glide during the next wave of disruption. But setting up a brand identity is
much more than a cluster of visual identity; a set of logo, color scheme,
typography, and a catchy tagline.
AsForbes explains it, a brand is everything that sets you apart
from your competitors. It is the tool that helps you communicate with your
audience and an opportunity to be an indispensable part of their lives.
So
the question here arises how do you overcome this critical point?
The
answer lies in brand surveys.
Brand
Surveys make it easier for you to understand your consumers; their preferences,
likes, and dislikes. It gives you a complete understanding of the lives of your
target audience, and their motivation towards a relationship with your brand.
1. What Is A Brand Survey?
A
brand survey is a valuable tool for gathering information about your target
consumer’s business, product, target market, competition, and other valuable
information that gives you an insight into how you can add value to their
business.
A brand survey typically hosts a series of questions related to the service you provide as a service provider. It often has questions related to feedbacks of previous services, past brand experiences, and how the audience feels about the brand.
2. What Is The Purpose Of A Brand Survey?
There
are two primary goals of a brand survey: provide a thorough understanding of
how your brand is perceived by your audience and understand your targetconsumer preferences.
After
all, it is your audience whom you are trying to serve with your products.
Brand
surveys act like a guide leading you to ask the right questions to your
audience to better understand them and come up with improved products and level
up your brand value.
Here
are a few merits that you can readily achieve:
It
helps you measure the brand image in the eyes of the stakeholders from time to
time
It
helps you to measure the efficacy of your brand policies
It
helps you devise a strategy to boost your brand equity in the long-term
It
tracks campaign effectiveness
Keeps
you informed about your competitors
Helps
you measure R-O-I of marketing initiatives
Keeps
you connected to your customers
3. 5 Brand Surveys for Graphic Design
Business
No
matter if you are a newbie design agency or a very established one here are 5
brand surveys that your graphic design company cannot fail to execute.
a)Brand perception survey:
This type of survey allows you to understand your
audience’s perception of your brand. It gives you a clearer picture of how your
customers think and feel about your brand and products.
A brand perception survey is an important
tool in brand management That assists you in building the right image of your
agency. Also, it is a one-stop solution
for receiving real-time feedback from your stakeholders.
Some of the key benefits of this survey
are:
Tracking brand performance
Competitive advantage analysis
Delivering
superior customer experience
Improving brand loyalty
Optimizing target audience communication
Here is a sample questionnaire that can give you an
insight into a typical brand perception survey:
Are you familiar with our brand?
Are you familiar with our product or
service?
When you think of our brand, what is the
first thing that comes to your mind?
How likely are you to recommend our
product to your friends?
How was your last experience with our
brand?
b)Brand positioning
survey:
This
survey is a critical data collection tool for improving brand equity. It helps
in the strategic alignment of your brand addressing business organizational
decisions.
The data obtained from a brand positioning survey is
critical in determining how you present your product or service to your
audience. This survey should essentially solve the unique challenges of your
organization, the vertical you operate
in, and the target market.
Some of the key benefits of this survey are:
Helps in developing brand strategy
Helps in developing a unique selling
proposition for your target audience.
Reinforces unique brand features and
helps to develop a key differentiating factor in your product or service.
Strengthens your core business and
establishes you as an industry differentiator
Develops an emotional connect with your
stakeholders
Here is a sample questionnaire that can give you an
insight into a typical brand positioning survey:
Why do you buy from us?
What kind of brand appeals to you?
What are the brand qualities that stand
out for you?
How would you read your experience with
our brand?
What is unique about our product that
appeals to you?
c)Brand awareness survey
This survey directly helps to measure the level of
awareness or popularity of your brand in the industry. This survey gives you a better idea of
devising a strategy for improved outreach to your target audience.
Few of the key benefits of this survey are:
Understanding the brand’s stand in the
target market
Increasing customer awareness about the
product and brand
Improving customer engagement with the
brand
Here is a sample questionnaire that can give you an
insight into a typical brand awareness survey:
Are you aware of our brand?
Are you aware of our product or services?
When was the first time you heard about
our brand?
How did you come to know about our brand?
When was the last time you used our
product?
d)Brand identity survey
This survey entirely focuses on brand
communications. It helps you to understand how well your organization
communicates its core values and image to its direct stakeholders maintaining a
positive overall impression, authority, and credibility in your domain of
service.
Here is a sample questionnaire that can give you an
insight into a typical brand identity survey:
When was the last time you used our
product or service?
How would you describe our brand to
another person?
What is the first thing you associate or
brand with?
What unique value does this brand serve
you?
How long have you been our customer?
e)Brand loyalty survey
This survey deals with measuring the probability of your
customers repurchasing from you. It also tells you about how strong your brand
communications are on the level of emotions.
Here is a sample questionnaire that can give you an
insight into a typical brand identity survey:
a) How
much do you trust the brand?
b) How
happy were you with your last purchase?
c) Would
you prefer our brand over a competitor?
d) How
likely are you to depend on our brand?
e) How
much likely are you to switch to another brand if its alternative was cheaper?
4.Tips To Optimize Your
Next Brand Survey
Conducting brand surveys is expensive. However, if
performed right, they can bring you extensive rewards. Following are a few
guidelines that can make sure all your brand surveys drive your business to the
next level.
a) Define
the purpose of the survey: Make sure you align the primary objectives with
the type of survey that your participants take. This sets a clear expectation
for the survey respondents.
b) Map
your audience wisely: No matter what kind of survey you indulge your brand
in, your survey participants should always be the ones who have some level of
brand awareness.
c) Map
the feasibility of the survey: A good set of questionnaires in your survey
is of no use if no one is willing to take your survey. The first metric to keep
in mind is to make it hassle-free to participate, opt for online surveys. This
not only helps you collect data from a large amount of audience mapping
qualitative analysis but also improves the dropout rate dramatically.
d) Organizing
is key: One of the primary reasons for the high dropout rate of surveys is
their incapability to motivate respondents to take the survey. So what’s the
solution?
Make it human. Make it fun for your
respondents.
Empathize with your target audience and design the
structure keeping both the usability and desirability in mind. Use color
schemes, layout, and graphics to balance the goals of your questionnaire in
alignment with the taste of your audience.
5.Avoid asking leading
questions
Data is no doubt the most critical point of running a
modern-day business. It is the fuel on which your business runs.
Biased misleading data can break it beyond repair. Loaded
questions are a big no. Avoid asking open-ended questions. Make it simple and
direct.
To Conclude
Humanize
the process of your survey. Make it exciting for your respondents.
Remember
not to make the brand survey feel like an interrogation. Instead use this
powerful tool to eradicate future disputes and improve chances of brand
interactions.
Let
this survey be an opportunity for you to develop a long-term relationship with your
customers.
What happened to Aiga.org, they used to serve this industry fairly well 10 years or so ago fighting for designers, but they’ve become a useless organization for creative pros.
I think it’s time we build an organization or create a Union to help designers get the pay they deserve. This is hard to do, but this industry is suffering more and more every year.
So many designers have bachelors degrees, or years of experience, but the market does not back them up, businesses just want cheap labor.
Designer pay has been about the same as it was since about 2003. Almost 20 years later and the majority of salaries or freelance wages have staid the same.
Just remember this, you would not have your business without graphic design. Your brand would fail, your marketing collateral would not exist, your product packaging would never be on display nor would you have a company website or online presence.
Graphic designers are a crucial part of a business. Treat them with respect.
Low class company (The Social Robin – Dallas, TX) offering slave labor wages for a graphic design position in Dallas, TX. They want to pay up to $10 per hour for 1-2 years of experience as a graphic designer. You have to travel some which will take up your entire $10 for one hour just to drive to Dallas. Plus, you have to bring your own equipment. What a bunch of cheap ass wipes!
These companies should be ashamed of themselves. I will shame every company I find online doing this to graphic designers.
Registering a business in my county is one thing, but what about finding a name for online purposes? What if the name is fine for the county, but there is another company with the same name on the Web? Would I have to find another name for my company if I want to go online?
Well, it is best to find a domain that matches your company name. If not, then you don’t have a brand identity. My suggestion is to find a name that works on the Web and for the company too. Plus, you need to make sure clients don’t get confused if there is another business using the same name even if that business is not in the same town or state.
A company wants to hire me to do their 10th financial report. I’m trying to figure out my price for them (I’ve never worked for them so I don’t know how time consuming of a client they are). It would be 30-40 pages (4 color) and I would be responsible for:
Creative and art direction (conceptual, photoshoots, etc.)
Design (2 initial designs and meetings to come to a final approval)
Project management/trafficking (scheduling project, interacting with printer and photographer)
Production (layout, corrections, preparing for printer, releasing, checking proofs)
Press checks (on site checking print quality and approving).
The conceptual and design would be done over the next 3 months (just to set the scheduling, decide on concept, design, and approval — probably about 50-100 hours total). Then I would be working on production, design (always some more), project management, and press checks in June, July, and August (perhaps about 360 hours — based on 30 hours a week for 12 weeks). This is a rough hour assessment which would total 460 hours. It could go drastically up or down depending on the client.
My questions:
WHAT IS THE STANDARD FEE FOR THIS SERVICE IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA FOR THIS PROJECT?
WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST I BILL THE CLIENT CONSIDERING I AM COMPLETELY
COMPETENT AND EXPERIENCED IN EVERY AREA THEY NEED?
HOW DO I PRESENT THEM WITH THE FINAL PROPOSAL?
My personal background — generally I charge by the hour, 50/h is absolute minimum for straight production but design/art direction goes up to 100/h. I am basing my rates on my experience and standard New York City pricing.
Answers to Your Questions
I am not based in New York and have no standard fee knowledge of what the going rate is for an annual report there. However, I suspect that the costs are very similar to my area which is Dallas Texas. As for the time you are planning to put in (360 to 460 hours) is quite a lot. Most companies are not willing to spend $30,000 on an annual report unless they are hiring a large firm like DDB that would have a staff of 10 or more working on the project, including copy writing and more. My suggestions below reflects what I would charge in my one person studio. My pricing also does not reflect copy writing, the client must provide this service.
Also, the time frame of 3 months is quite a long time to continue on a project. You need to force your client to try to get everything approved for final design within a month. On the second month, they should finalize and go to press. The more room you give your client to make changes and stuff, the longer the project will be and the more mistakes will happen.
Listed below is what I suggest for pricing. However, since the company is a non-profit, they will be tight on cash, even if they are a large company.
WHAT IS THE STANDARD FEE FOR THIS SERVICE IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA FOR THIS PROJECT?
Photo shoot Cost per day photo shoot direction = $1,000 (10 hours, does not include photographers fees, development or photo retouching)
Project Management/Working with Printer/Press Checks Cost = $1,000 (10 hours)
Design/Production/Art Direction/Concept/Proofing Per page cost = $300 to $400 (40 pages / 3-4 hours per page) Total cost = $12,000 to $16,000
Revisions/Alterations/Changes/ First 3-4 hours no charge Cost over 4 hours billed at = $100 per hour
Total approx. cost of annual report = $12,000 to $18,000
WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST I BILL THE CLIENT CONSIDERING I AM COMPLETELY COMPETENT AND EXPERIENCED IN EVERY AREA THEY NEED?
I suggest you bill between $12,000 and $18,000 for a very high quality annual report. This depends on what you think they would feel comfortable spending and how much you feel you could cut in order to get the job. Don’t forget you still have a photographer you have to pay – that will be in addition to your total cost.
HOW DO I PRESENT THEM WITH THE FINAL PROPOSAL?
Present them with 2 options on price range, and let them know you would be flexible based on what they need. Many clients have big eyes on what they want to do until the pricing closes them. Don’t be so set in stone about your pricing, give them options on where they can save money and still get a great product. Remember to take care of yourself and make money. Nothing is worse than working on a project that you underbid on.
I used my base rate of $100 an hour, but to get the job, I would be willing to go down to about $60 to $75 an hour. You might even consider doing a flat $60 to $75 per hour and put them on a retainer and charge them hourly.
The design prices are for design only. For the most part, it is industry standard to have one free consultation with the client and time to go over the initial design after completion. If you have changes or more meetings, then you need to extend the hours per job (charge per 1/4 hour). Basically, the 3 hours it takes to design a letterhead is just for design. Additional charges will need to be applied if the client request changes. My suggestion, is if they have minor changes, then do it for free, but don’t let it get out of hand. The reason the extra charges are not in place on these pricing guides, is that every client is different and that it is virtually impossible to judge what will be changed. Some may need more while others less. Since most design work is custom, this will always be an issue for designers.
It’s fine to breakdown your estimates, but to much breakdown will cause the client to pick apart the estimate and try to cut time and pricing. However, it is a good idea to place the amount of time and then state if the client goes over a certain amount of time that they will be billed for additional hours at your rate. My suggestion is to give the client a base price and then list the total time for the project. Then state the time overage costs to the client. Clients can be overwhelmed and not understand what you are breaking down in your estimate, they just want you to get the project done for a good price. Remember, the more simple the better.
