5 Marketing Strategies to Promote Your Graphic Design Business
Whether you’re a graphic designer, UX designer, or animator, learning how to market yourself is an essential skill. This time, my focus will be on the graphic design business, although I’m sure there are some useful tips for other businesses as well.
In order for your graphic design business to be successful, you must first learn the best ways to promote it. There are many options, among which many are even free.
Here are 5 marketing strategies for the best promotion of your graphic design business. My advice to you is to try out different ones until you find what works best for your business.
Let’s start!
Marketing Strategy For Your Graphic Design Business #1: Build a Good Portfolio
The first step when promoting your graphic design business is creating a good portfolio. A portfolio is a must-have for graphic designers, and it is their most powerful weapon. It is a way to show your work to potential clients, and a good opportunity to show your originality.
A portfolio is supposed to contain your best work and represent you. It can be your previous work with clients, or even your side projects. You can also include client recommendations, and show or describe your creative process.
Simply, you should go ahead and collect your best work. Add information about you including contact. Present yourself to your audience the way you want to. To avoid mistakes in this process you might wanna read this article about things you need to avoid in your graphic design portfolio.
Marketing Strategy For Your Graphic Design Business #2: Create a Website (And Don’t Forget to SEO Optimize it)
Now that you have a good portfolio, the next step is creating a website. You’re probably thinking – do I need both? Yes, you do! Creating a website will enhance the recognition of your graphic design business. It will also show your professionalism and dedication.
You should include your portfolio on the website, along with your introduction. Write a strong bio and show who you are, insert your headshot, and update your website continuously. Be creative and original. Make sure you have quality content and good design.
You can include written material (ex: blog posts). To get inspired, I recommend you to explore other websites, and see what you do and don’t like. Make a list of your skills, and choose the ones you want to highlight. Think about how you want your website to look design-wise. Include whatever you find interesting, relatable, and what represents you and your graphic design business the best.
And then there’s the SEO. SEO optimization of the website will boost the visibility of your graphic design business website. Potential clients searching for graphic design businesses will find you more easily. So, that will help you succeed faster.
When it comes to SEO optimization, it is all about implementing different strategic activities. Unfortunately, it is more complex than just inserting a few keywords. Choosing an SEO-friendly domain plays a big part in that. The SEO industry requires agility, creativity, and keeping up with new trends.
Marketing Strategy For Your Graphic Design Business #3: Promote Yourself on Social Media
It is very important to promote your business on social media. But, you should choose your channels wisely. Not every platform will provide equal success, so you should promote your business on those platforms used by your target audience.
So, first, you should know what audience you want to target. Then, once you make that decision, you will know what social media channels are best for you. It is important to interact with the audience and build relationships.
We will now go over some of the social media channels. Hopefully, that will help you find out which ones are best for your graphic design business.
LinkedIn is the platform that is primarily used for professional networking and career development. It has over 347 million users and continues to grow every day. It should be the best platform for promoting almost any kind of business, as it allows professionals to connect and interact. It shouldn’t be your priority, but I think everyone should definitely have a LinkedIn account since it is considered one of the best job-searching networks. On LinkedIn, you can find professionals and committed adults.
If you decide to promote your graphic design business on Instagram, you should have an account made specifically for the business. It is a platform based on photographs, which makes it a good choice for graphic design businesses. Actually, Instagram is considered the best and most effective social media platform for graphic designers. On Instagram, you can post your finished work, but also, you can post your unfinished work, or work in progress, and share your creative process with the audience. You can create videos, live videos, and more. In the end, it is up to you, but you should know that Instagram is probably the best platform for your promotion. Along with a personal website and portfolio, of course.
You can be really creative with Twitter. It is a social media channel on which users post and interact with messages known as ”tweets”. Twitter is considered one of the best platforms for designers to explore their existing work and find future opportunities. You can share your portfolio on Twitter while using relatable hashtags. Also, you can share your website, add a description of yourself, and post relevant comments or information. Find and follow people from your industry. Although you probably haven’t thought Twitter is a platform suitable for graphic design business promotion, it most definitely has certain advantages and perks.
So far you have realized that there is a way to promote your graphic design business on every platform. It is no different with Facebook. Facebook is another good tool for promoting graphic design businesses. On Facebook, you can showcase all elements of design work. I recommend you create an account specifically for the business. You can also create a business page. On it, you have the photo area, where you can post your work. Besides that, you can post links, information, and thoughts, and interact with your audience.
TikTok
TikTok is very popular lately and is providing a lot of opportunities. It is a short-video-based platform. Although on TikTok you can find different types of pranks, dances, and jokes, it has also shown to be successful in promoting businesses. Unleash your creativity, and devise a way to present your work through videos!
Besides these, there are other platforms that you can explore on your own. Be brave and experiment until you find what works best for your graphic design business.
Okay then, now that you know all about these social networks, get down to creating content!
Marketing Strategy For Your Graphic Design Business #4: It’s Simple, Ads
If you want to reach your marketing goals in the promotion of your graphic design business, you should definitely include ads.
This step is absolutely important in the promotion of your business. Ads are a great way for businesses of all sizes to reach a virtually unlimited, targeted audience. They also give you the ability to measure your ad’s performance. Another great thing about ads is the fact you can start, stop, pause and adjust your bids at any time.
Therefore, with the ads, you get everything you need – new clients, fast and transparent results, high-quality traffic sources, and you find out more about your market!
Marketing Strategy For Your Graphic Design Business #5: Effective Email Marketing
Email marketing is a form of marketing that allows you to have direct communication with your (potential) clients. It’s another great way to connect with your audience.
First, you should make your email list. We talked about the audience earlier. So, everyone you think would find your work interesting and relatable should be on your email list. Your next step is creating email content – designing and forming the desired shape of your email.
Let’s keep it simple. You need to give an answer to these questions: What is your primary intention? What do your clients get from your email? How often will you be emailing them? Are you willing to give discounts or giveaways to your clients?
Also, don’t forget that the visual part of an email is as important as the written content!
In Review
And now, we have come to the end of this article.
Promoting a graphic design business requires a lot of creativity, originality, and experimenting. What I want is to encourage you to be brave, and use the knowledge and tips I wrote down in this article. I hope it will help you build your client base, or even get your business to the next level.
Until next time!
