Week Three

Legal & IP Frameworks | Comparing Different Case Studies, Media Use & Equity Ownership

Research

Marketing

Social Media: Social media marketing is the use of social media websites and platforms to promote products and services and connect with audiences. Using social media as a marketing tool can help build your company’s brand and increase website traffic, by getting more eyes on your brand you can build an larger and more loyal customer base and therefore increase sales. By using social media to market your brand it can help humanise your company, by posting content of the people behind your brand as well as your products you can build brand credibility and trustworthiness. Ideally your social media content will drive people to your website where they can learn more about your services and products. It’s also a good idea to keep up with the industry trends and what other companies are doing so you stay relevant to your customers.

I will be doing most of my marketing through social media, using the following platforms: Instagram, Tik Tok, Linkedin, Pinterest and Behance. The main social media platform I plan to use is Instagram, on here I plan to post examples of my work, as well as the behind the scenes of projects and the design process. I will also try and post educational content and tips for different software such as, Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. The other main platform I will be using is Tik Tok as this is arguably the most popular platform at the moment. I will use this to make educational content such as tutorial videos, record behind the scenes of design process as well as ‘day in the life’ videos. I will have my Tik Tok videos to post straight onto my Instagram and Linkedin account at the same time to reach a larger audience. My Linkedin account will purely focus on educational content and sharing career milestones. Another social media platform I will be utilising is Behance, this allows you to showcase and discover creative work, like an online portfolio. I will also showcase my work on Pinterest.

Online Job Listings: When I’m first starting out I plan on using online job listings to generate leads, create work and gain contacts. Using online job listings has many advantages, it allows you to reach a much wider audience, you can also narrow down your search to specific types of work or expand your search to include a variety of different work. I will use the following websites: Fiverr, UpWork and Dribble.

Website: A website is one of the best ways to market yourself as a freelance graphic designer it’s like an online portfolio, it’s a great way to showcase your work and skills. I will include not only the work I’ve produced from projects but also snippets of the process so any potential clients get an insight into how I work. All my social media platforms will have links to my website so I can maximise the amount of traffic heading to my website, this will increase the amount of potential work and clients.

Email Marketing: Email marketing can provide you with a highly profitable means of promoting yourself and your business.It involves sending out promotional emails about your business, promoting a product or service. Email marketing allows you to stay in touch and communicate with current clients but also allows you to reach new clients. It is also a way of strengthening relationships with clients, it improves communication and allows you to take your clients opinions and feedback into account. It is also a great way to increase traffic on your website and social media accounts. I will use email marketing once I’ve built up a bit of a client base, as I would use a site like Mailchimp to manage all email marketing on my behalf. So I would need a small client base as this would be an extra overhead cost I would need to budget for.

Networking Events: Networking events play an important role in building any business, reaching out to others in the industry helps build your reputation and name. I will make sure to attend lots of different networking events so I can meet other designers and make new contacts. When attending these networking events I will make sure to take personal marketing materials with me such as, business cards as this will help me promote myself and make a good impression. I will also use websites such as Art Rabbit to find events in and around my area.

Timeline

I will be including a timeline in my business plan so potential clients can see roughly how long each of my packages take to complete, this timeline will also help me calculate my pricing guidelines. For brand design packages I have estimated it to take me around 6 weeks to complete. For digital and print packages I have estimated them to take me around 2 weeks to complete. For logo design I have estimated it to take me around 3 weeks to complete. Finally for illustrations I estimate them to take me around 5 weeks to complete. The number of weeks it takes me to complete will vary based on the project’s complexity and requirements. The client will be presented with a specific timeframe before the project begins and if they have a specific deadline in mind they should let me know before the project begins.

Pricing

For my business plan I will be including a page on my pricing guidelines. I will be doing 4 different packages: brand design, logo design, digital, print and illustrations. All of my pricing guidelines will be based on the average junior graphic designer rates. See below UK freelance rates that Stuart showed us in a webinar.

UK Freelance Rates

Junior: £150 - £200 (day rate, 1-3 years experience)

Mid: £250 - £275 (day rate, 3-8 years experience)

Senior: £300 - £400 (day rate, 10+ years experience)

So I have decided that I will be basing my pricing guidelines off the junior graphic design day rate of £200 a day, this is because I am trying to launch myself and make a profit so I’ve put myself at the top of the junior rates. Each pricing guideline is calculated by taking the average amount of weeks (5 day working week) it takes to complete a project multiplied by the daily rate of £200. For example, the estimated cost for a brand design package would be: 6 weeks (30 working days) multiplied by the day rate of £200 which comes to £6000 then add on the VAT (20%) gives a final cost of £7200. Once the client has filled out the questionnaire about their project and we’ve had the discovery call I will be able to calculate a more accurate timeframe for their project. After this I will be able to work out how much their project is going to cost and provide them with a proforma invoice. If the project exceeds the allocated timeframe any extra days worked will be billed at £200 a day. You won’t be billed for any extra days if the delay is out of your hands, all this information can be found in the terms and conditions. To secure your booking a 50% deposit will be required upfront then once the project is completed the remaining 50% will be due and I will provide you with a full VAT invoice. This payment structure allows a high level of service and ensures that both parties are committed to the project’s success.