During this current economic stagnation, many small businesses are looking to save a few bucks here and there. Conserving precious recourses is a top priority and unfortunately, one of these cost saving techniques employed by businesses is in the area of marketing design. However, in trying to save money by setting up a do-it-yourself (DIY) website or design project, a business may unknowingly be hurting its growth instead of helping it. So here are 4 key benefits of hiring a professional design company to help your small business brand.

1. Because first impressions do count.

While we’ve all been admonished, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” many businesses are often judged by their presentation. For example, potential customers in your area often first look online when deciding to visit your establishment or not. You may have the services they are seeking, but your website appearance may be a deterrent for many would-be customers. Or perhaps your printed materials or ads have an unprofessional appearance, which may give a customer some hesitation about calling your business. You see, like it or not, businesses are often judged by their appearance. In peoples’ mind is the lingering thought, “If their appearance is sloppy, is their service also sloppy?” First impressions do count, and in our current, technology-accustomed world, while business cards and brochures are advantageous, your website is often your first impression.

2. Because your brand will be more flexible.

Another reason to have professionally designed materials for your small business is to maximize your brand’s flexibility. Concerning websites, a professional web designer will ensure your web code works smoothly and displays correctly on all computer platforms whether it be a PC, Mac, iOS or Droid. Concerning printed materials, a professional graphics designer will ensure color matching, font consistency and display proportions on all of your projects. This allows your brand (logo, name, slogan, etc.) to have the same professional appearance whether it’s displayed on a business card or a highway billboard. This expertise is often lacking for the average non-designer simply because they lack the appropriate software programs to perform these graphic manipulations.

3. Because a professional saves you time and headaches.

Professionals have streamlined their services and are experts in their line of work. A professional graphic and web designer knows what type of fonts work well together, what colors coordinate best, how website navigation works and what web features may pose visitors some problems. This level of understanding is needed to ensure your potential customers have a pleasant, positive experience on your website and/or can gather the appropriate information from your printed projects. A DIY, non-designer must spend a good amount of time in researching the best graphics and web practices and then spend even more time navigating the learning curve to implement those elements (not to mention spending more money on the software!). This doesn’t even count the time spent in maintaining on-going projects like a website: creating pages, debugging, adding videos, updating links, etc. All of this takes away from your precious time to focus on your business. Save time and minimize your stress by letting a professional take care of your design needs.

4. Because a professional can offer search engine optimization (SEO) for your website.

What is this? SEO is the process of making a website more “visible” to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. These are websites we all use on a daily basis and are quite familiar with the types of results they return. Typically the front page of search results is a list of the most popular websites. Having a website that is picked up by a search engine will always result in more visitors to your site. Many DIY designers don’t have the expertise to optimize their site, but a professional designer will. A professional has a deeper understanding of the algorithms search engines use to index the internet, and can thus incorporate certain elements (keywords, page descriptions, image tags, etc) to rank your website higher on the search results page. There is no guarantee for your website to be on the first page of search results, but a professionally designed site will always rank higher than a DIY site.

Let’s get started!

We’re hopeful this list of benefits has convinced you to contact us to discuss a design solution for your small business. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Simply fill out this form to get started!