The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Graphic Designer
As the senior creative designer at Politika, part of my job is to use digital illustration to create materials that provide information about a company. This can be done with company logos, web design, flyers, brochures, stationary, signage, business cards, mailers and more.
Creative Designers usually work collaboratively with researchers in order to achieve an understanding of industry trends. Strong problem solving, decision making and organizational skills are vital to us because our job requires us to meet with clients to discuss business objectives, estimate the amount of time required to complete the work, develop design briefs, and present finalized work that suits the client’s needs.
We often work as part of a team dealing closely with printers, copywriters, web developers, account executives and other marketing specialists to get ensure that the visual message is consistent and obvious. This strong, result driven approach ensures that our digital picture conveys a clear message in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Possibly the most important and rewarding aspect of my job is working with new businesses to create a visual brand. Since a company brand is the way the world will see that business, it is one of the most crucial first steps in launching a new business so it should not be left to amateurs.
Often times small businesses create their visual brand using colors, shapes and names that hold some importance to them yet have no connection to the consumers in their market. These businesses try to save a bit of money by using the talents of family or friends who have a good eye for color and can work in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. They don’t realize that the money they save up front can cost them their business in the long run.
Creating a proper brand requires professional research to ensure that your design will not cause a copyright infringement; research to know what the market will respond to and experience so that your brand can be used across all mediums.
Think about it, you are investing thousands upon thousands of dollars to start your business – the place to save money shouldn’t be on the image that you want to present.
Avoid the crucial and costly error of improper branding by seeking the help of a professional graphic designer.
For more information, you can email me at [email protected].
Success With Google AdWords in Staten Island
Success With AdWords
Struggling with ideas on how to promote your business on a limited budget? Don’t worry, we are too! But after reading this we hope to provide a solution for any size business and budget.
You probably know what AdWords are, without knowing it. Every time you do a web search the search engine you’re using will populate the top and sides of the search results with banner advertisements. These advertisements are created via Google AdWords.
Google allows you to advertise products and services you are selling or promoting on your website through Google AdWords. Why is this useful and why should you consider it? Let’s say your business, Widget Land, is in the business of selling and servicing widgets. Our friend Bob is looking for particular widget parts, and could possibly be talked into buying the newest and best looking widget to hit the market. How do we connect Bob and your business?
Make The Connection With New Customers
Let’s let Bob know that Widget Land has the part he’s looking for. We do this by setting up an Ad Words campaign and creating banner advertisements for widget parts. Your ads can be targeted by geographic locations so you can just advertise in your city, state, or nationwide. Maybe Bob is located across the country and you have the best widget prices anywhere. Your Google AdWords campaign can connect you and Bob. Your newest customer found your website via a Google AdWords campaign.
Flexible Budget For Desired Results
All of this sounds great but you’re hesitant to spend money advertising online. You’ll never know the results unless you try. Google AdWords allows you to spend as little or as much as you want. We recommend clients test the waters and spend five dollars a day for a period of three weeks. Google provides you with valuable statistics such as the number of people that saw your ad, how many people clicked on it, and which ads are preforming better than others. If your campaign is success and resulting in sales (which can be tracked and measured), you can increase or decrease your spending.
Google AdWords Management is just one of the services we offer at Go Social. Contact us for a free consultation about this service and other opportunities we have your for.
Google Business View: Why You Need It
Google Business View: Why Your Business Needs It
As a marketing company, we have to occasionally market our own business. It’s an ongoing exercise and we use our successful efforts as case studies for existing and potential clients. What better way to give you an example by talking about Google Business View and the why you need this service for your company.
Google Business View isn’t some kind of crazy voodoo magic, but after reading it’s description you may think that. So basically Google trained and certified (not everyone is qualified to do this) photographers come to your business location and take panoramic photos. These high quality photos are then used to create a virtual tour of your store, office, or any space. Anyone anywhere can now take a virtual walk through your store. Someone that lives on the other side of the world can virtually check out your bar that his buddy recommended he visit while in town. Sounds like magic, but this is reality and more and more small businesses are doing this every day.
Go Social decided to provide this service for our own office. The actual photo shoot for our office took about 15 minutes. A few days later after the editing we had our very own virtual tour. The walk-through was embedded on our webpage and it was also attached to our Google Plus profile. This has the extra benefit of your business showing up in Google Maps and also provides ranking benefits to your website as well.
Take A Google Business View Of The Go Social Office
Have a minute? Take a walk through our front door. You can literally see how many pens and pencils we have on our desks, how many fish our in our fish tank, and our passion for comic and sci-fi memorabilia. Good thing we cleaned! The walkthrough pictures used in the virtual tour are so clear you can see dust particles on that one desk we missed during the clean up (I swear, we’re not messy people).
Measure Your Return On Investment
These Google Business View services can and should be used for any business. The one time cost of providing a virtual tour for your company will have long lasting powerful effects. You own the tour forever, so if you change your website or get started on a new social media platform, it can easily be placed anywhere online.
Imagine you and the guys want to visit a new golf course. Imagine checking out all the holes and the entire course without leaving your living room. What if your buddy wants to check out this “hole in the wall” he found downtown. If they have a virtual tour, you would be able to check the surrounding area for visual clues to its location. A car dealership can bring in new customers by having a walkthrough of their showroom. The possibilities are endless.
In summary: Any one not considering this as a window for potential customers to look through needs to give it second thought. The low cost for this service can actually be measured with online analytics to see how many people took a virtual tour and then be correlated to sales. A third person perspective can also give business owners a real look at their store front and interior contents, showing what needs improvement or at least a fresh coat of paint. As a growing company we are happy to have done this and already it has helped relations with our new clients, letting them know exactly where are we.
How to Choose the Right Marketing Firm
There may come a time when your company will grow beyond its own marketing capabilities and when that time arrives, you will need to hire a marketing firm. However, the idea of hiring a marketing firm is easier said than done. Not every marketing firm may fit your business goals and company needs. So where do you start?
Start by establishing how you will evaluate different firms so you can avoid wasting time exploring options that turn out to be unfruitful in your key decision making. Below are key factors that you should take in account when considering a marketing firm for your company.
Relevant Experience. The marketing firm should have experience with companies of your size and with similar business models. It is important that the marketing firm has the capacity to service the size of your company. The firm does not necessarily need to have experience within your industry though it would be a big plus, but if the firm has experience in various industries, this will prove helpful as the firm can provide an outsider’s perspective into your business. Your company can differentiate itself from the competition.
Handling Challenges. Ask the marketing firm to provide you with reports on how they raised the profile of other companies. Did their strategies increase reach new audiences, increase profits or visit frequency? You have a marketing challenge in mind and you need to know if the company has previous experience in successfully accomplishing similar challenges.
Creativity and Strategy. Inquire about the marketing firm’s creativity and strategy capabilities. Not all ideas and strategies that worked for one company may work for another. Every company is different, so recycling ideas may not be good idea. It’s important that the firm can think differently. The firm should demonstrate its ability to think creatively and critically about your challenges and offer solutions.
Options. If you haven’t established a budget for marketing efforts, ask the marketing firm to provide you with proposals for high, medium, and low budgets. Ideally, you want to give the firm a budget so they know what they’re working with. No marketing firm has mind reading capabilities, so openly discuss how much you can spend on marketing efforts. No one’s time is wasted and the firm can provide a range of options for your budget.
Success. Marketing efforts and its success does not happen overnight, unless you’re willing to spend grand amounts of money. How would you rate success? Your measurement of success and the marketing firm’s are likely different. Discuss what you expect from the firm because when everyone is on the same page, the firm can push your company forward into new directions.
Compatibility. The marketing firm must be compatible with your company. Water and oil never mix. You want a firm that can work with your company on every level. If your company likes to joke around sometime and the firm is stiff, then it may create social tensions. Get to know the firm before you commit to any long-term partnerships. Meet the firm’s staff and get a feel for yourself if this firm will have your company’s best interest in mind. You can also assign the firm small marketing tasks so you can gauge how effective and compatible the firm is.
Hiring a marketing firm is not an easy task. Don’t rush to hire a firm because wouldn’t you rather take the time to do it right the first time instead of making a mistake and starting all over again? Don’t waste your time and money. Good luck!