Have you been spending a fortune on graphic design and you still can’t quite get value for your hard earned money? If your answer is a resounding yes, then it’s time to re-evaluate how you hire and work with graphic designers!
Should you forget about great graphic designers and stick to hiring more affordable ones? Not really! The point is not to compromise on quality.
Here’s the thing. A graphic designer can make or break your business. For instance, your logo may not seem like a mission-critical asset. Until it lands you on the list of major logo fails.
So yes – you need great graphic designers (and we’ll showcase one of the best solutions on the market for this – Penji). But you don’t need to pay a fortune for great designs.
Benefits of Working with Great Graphic Designers
Graphic design is largely where your marketing battles, whether offline or online, are won or lost. It’s a function that should not be taken lightly or for granted. The power it wields is unbelievable. Here’s why.
- 94% of users will leave a website with poor design.
- 10 seconds is all it takes for a user to form an impression on your logo.
- Social media posts with a graphic element get 650% more engagement than plain text ones.
- 92.6% of consumers say that color affects their purchase decision.
In other words, graphic design means more than pretty colors. It’s the one thing that can help you generate engagement, create brand awareness and, more importantly, generate sales.
Below is a list of handy tips that will help you and your marketing team to effectively and comfortably work with great graphic designers without necessarily breaking the bank.
5 Tips of Working with Killer Graphic Designers without Spending a Fortune
1. State Your Needs Clearly
Before you start the process of finding a graphic designer, the first step is to state clearly what your needs are – at the corporate or brand level.
Many marketing campaigns fail because companies hire a designer first before they define what they really want. You need to understand what you want before you explain it to a designer because designs vary for each one.
Clear objectives are super important. These act as a guide for the graphic designer. Without precise instructions, you can’t expect the work delivered to be up to par.
2. Check out the Designer’s Portfolio
Portfolios are a great way of identifying designers that you can work with to develop the right design work for your marketing campaign.
Look at how they interpreted their clients’ briefs, too. If possible, ask the shortlisted candidates to give you some insights into the initial brief. This will help you determine how good they are at striking a balance between creativity and following brief guidelines and business goals.
3. Think Outside the Box
Finding, interviewing, and hiring talented graphic designers is a time- and money-consuming endeavor. Why not let someone else handle the nitty-gritty of it instead? It will be cheaper and faster!
Penji does all the heavy-lifting for you. They interview and vet the best freelance designers out there so you know for sure that every time you need their help, you will work with talented professionals. Plus, the cost is only a fraction of what you’d normally pay a freelance designer that you scout yourself.
4. Negotiate the Fee
Brilliance comes at a price, and that is why you have to discuss it with your designer before the project starts. Before jumping into the negotiation, do your own research on the market rates for similar tasks.
Sounds like too big of a project? I get it! A simple Google search will get you prices ranging from $5 to $5,000 for the same work.
What if I told you that you could get unlimited graphic design for a flat monthly fee? Check out the Penji pricing or try it for free – what have you got to lose?
5. Evaluate the Quality of the Design
How can you do that without being a designer yourself? A/B test!
Whenever you hire a new designer, ask for at least two versions of the same design. Then run social media or other PPC ads with both of them (you don’t have to invest a fortune here – a minimal budget is enough). This way, you’ll see which one of them has the best traction with your target audience.
As marketers, we are often tempted to choose the design that we like best. But, irrespective of our experience level and of how keen our eye is, we are not the target audience. Always test before making a final decision!
Wrapping Things Up
Hiring an in-house graphic designer can be quite costly, especially if you think of the taxes you have to pay. Luckily, this is not the only way to enjoy unlimited graphic design. Solutions like Penji exist for this very reason: to help you get excellent designs without breaking the bank.
A graphic design service is the ideal choice for companies with large amount of projects, but limited budgets. On-demand graphic design can be quite costly if you work with a freelancer that charges you every time you need a new photo for your social media profiles.
Have you ever found yourself needing more designs but eventually working with stock photos because of the high costs of hiring someone to create a personalized option? Penji makes such dilemmas a thing of the past. A flat monthly fee gets you all the designs you need!
Ready to give your campaigns the creative boost they need?
