Month: June 2022

Outsourcing has become a trend to increase the proficiency of the tasks being performed. And when it comes to outsourcing graphic design services to a company, it takes a lot to juggle and decide the best option. The entire look of the company is in the hands of the designers. If the designs are good, then the ads you run on various platforms will grab attention. This will further help in lead generation and huge revenues eventually. Most online marketing campaigns are successful because of the enchanting designs.

Since we know how important it is to have professional and attractive designs, let us take up some important questions. These are some of the questions that are most frequently asked –

• Is it worth outsourcing graphic design services?
• Should it be outsourced to an agency or a freelance designer?

First, let us see if it is useful to outsource graphic design.

1. Speeding up the Process

In the case of a freelance designer, you will have to give all the work to one or two in-house designers. There will be times when you will have a lot of things that will require designing, like brochures, social media content, website banners, etc. On the other hand, there will be days when you do not have many designs. But if you have in-house designers, you will have to regularly pay their salaries. In such a case, you will be in a tricky situation when the work is in abundance and you will wish to outsource the project.

When you outsource it to an agency, you will be able to pay at a fixed rate as per the contract. It will be the responsibility of the agency to get it done. The agency may assign it to a single designer or more, but get the work done.

2.Affordable

When you hire an in-house team, you will have to pay rent for the space. You will also have to generate work on a daily basis as per employee bandwidth. Even when there will not be enough work, you will have to pay a certain amount as a salary. On the other hand, when you outsource it to an agency, you will not have to pay the space rent. Even the amount you pay would be justified. It is mostly on a project basis. Thus, there is a fair amount of money. The agency takes full responsibility for timely delivery of the project and may deploy more employees on one project.

3.Concentrate on bigger projects

It becomes difficult to concentrate on every little project when there is work in abundance. You cannot even skip the minimal design of that Instagram post because these posts have established a visual tone for your brand. But focusing on the designs of those promotional hoardings needs to be done as a priority. In such a situation, you can make your in-house designer focus on the bigger projects and outsource other projects.

These were the top 3 reasons that justify why outsourcing your company’s assignments is a wise decision.

Now, let us address the second question. Whether to outsource it to an agency or a freelancer.

1.Time Bound

Freelancers are their own bosses and sometimes they may not work round the clock. This may result in delays to your projects. On the other hand, an agency has proper management and the designers are answerable to them. Also, if the projects are lengthy, the agency will assign a team to work on them. This not only ensures timely delivery but will also make room for more ideas and innovation.

2.Cost

A freelancer may deliver the project late, but it may cost you less than the cost of an agency. If you are a newbie in the market and are watching your budget, you can go in for a freelance graphic designer. But initially, if you are dealing with clients, then go in for timely delivery to set a strong foundation for your brand. Your content should appear regularly on online platforms. If you are doing it through a freelance designer, then get a week’s posts designed by the designer beforehand. But there are some affordable agencies also. Agencies like Work4you and many more provide virtual assistants at affordable prices. These companies not only provide graphic design services but also bookkeeping services, online marketing, etc. So, you can get all the services in a package in one place. This will cost you less and ensure timely delivery. Thus, you can go in for such a midway.

3.Availability

Freelancers may take time off due to unavoidable circumstances. In such a situation, you cannot force them to work as per your will. The only option you will have is to find another person to complete the project, set a budget, and pay them again. Thus, it will lead to delays.

On the other hand, agencies have many designers who work in shifts. They are available 24/7. They can adhere to your details and provide you with the projects on time. They are also flexible in adapting the timings as per your choice.

4.Specialization

In an agency, the designers are engrossed in multiple projects, while a freelancer has a particular niche. A freelancer focuses on one type of project and will treat you with their specialization.

But if you have different sorts of design work, like designing logos, website pages, advertisements, organic posters, etc., then an agency can be useful. There is a team of experts that sit and brainstorm to deliver the best in all the niches.

The Bottom Line

The formula SACT (Specialization, Availability, Cost Effectiveness, and Timeliness) is very important for making a wise decision. So, we have clearly stated the pros and cons of the agency and a freelancer according to the SACT formulae. You can scrutinise the pros and cons of both the options and choose what suits you best.

Your brand’s marketing goals highly depend, not only on the quality of content, but also on the distribution platforms that you choose. It is a rudimentary demand for any digital marketer or content writer to understand this facet of content distribution. With the internet bustling with life and millions of visitors consuming content every second, the number of platforms is never an issue. Also, what industry you belong to plays a role in deciding your ideal platform.

Let’s dive in and explore the various ways in which you can choose the best platform for publishing your content.

Identity your goals and your target audience

Before you begin your search though, a crucial aspect remains. Not only is identifying your audience and your goals good for your content, it is helpful in all vertices of your marketing strategy. Therefore, it is a must to start your pursuit by defining your marketing goals. To come up with a concrete goal, consider these pointers:

• How can we increase brand awareness?
• How can we improve the quality of prospects?
• What will be our sales funnel?
• What measures can be taken to increase the relevant visitor count on our website?
• How can we capture the search results?
• How can we serve our customers better?
• How can we boost customer engagement?
• How can we increase the company’s income? What is our revenue model?

After you define your goals, another fundamental is to define your audience. Having a clear idea of your target market allows you to make better decisions. Also, concerning the topic at hand, clarity about your audience allows you to choose the right distribution platform for content writing and publishing.

Your brand’s target audience is defined by demographics and behaviour. Parameters such as age, nationality, gender, race, etc. play a role. Also, the current behavioural trends matter a lot. Let’s say that you run a trendy shoe store online. If you have a clear idea about the kind of people who love your product or love the idea of your product, you can push your brand toward this specific group of people. It helps you come with more solidified strategies and saves costs in the process. Just like Work4you, you can get ample amount of benefits such as Bookkeeping, BPO & KPO, Back Office Support, Virtual Assistant, Digital Marketing, and Graphic & Web Design. It is up to you which service you want to obtain.

Identify your distribution options

Your distribution options may include:

• Organic social media.
• Influencer.
• Paid.
• Email.

Each of these main headings have several subcategories and distribution platforms that you can go for. Let’s go through them one by one.

Organic social media distribution

It is best to go with content writing on social media if your goals align with the following:

• You need better brand awareness.
• Building a strong connection with your audience.
• Increasing lead generation.
• Increasing visitor count on your website.

The best part about organic social media or even social media advertising is that your audience follows you because they have interest in your content. You can harness this to reach out to relevant prospects and grow an organic viewer base.

Developing content for social media requires a lot of tact and intuition though. It has to resonate with the interests of your audience. Content writing and publishing techniques also differ across different social media platforms.

We live in a time when the attention span of most social media users is very short. This is testified by the success of Instagram Stories, SnapChat, Vines, and YouTube Shorts. Designing the right content for social media demands attention grabbing pieces.

• Facebook provides the opportunity to produce lengthy text based content. There are 91 billion active monthly users on this platform. Growing organically on Facebook is challenging though. Because of the large number of players already advertising on this platform, it is hard to enter the scene and find a place for yourself.
• Instagram is the young generation’s hang out spot. If your brand’s target audience is Gen Z, it is recommended to grow a community on Instagram. Although the number of reported users on Instagram is much less than Facebook, it is still a gold mine waiting to be explored.
• LinkedIn offers a wonderful channel for B2B brands. If your company functions on this model, go for LinkedIn at all costs. Paid social media advertising on LinkedIn is expensive as compared to other platforms though.
• Twitter was all in the news due to its takeover by Elon Musk. It has gained popularity over the years. Twitter is amazing for customer engagement and nurturing a healthy community of people with an interest in your brand.
• SnapChat is used more by women than by men. Like Instagram, it appeals more to the younger crowd.
• Finally, TikTok also allows a n arena for social media advertising and organic growth. Small bite size content is ideal for grabbing the attention of a user base that does not spend much time on a single post.

It is important to note that media based content (audio, video, and images) work better on social media platforms than text based content.

Paid distribution channels

Injecting cash into your social media as well your website is good when:

• You require better brand awareness.
• You need more leads.
• You want to grow your audience.
• You want more people on your platform.

Paid advertising is one of the most strategic aspects ofinternet marketing. You can go for social media advertising, Google AdWords for growth on search engines, and displaying your content on third party platforms such as Medium.

Paid content and internet marketing is best when you want quick and relevant results. It is obviously better than organic growth although the downside is that people develop interest in your brand as compared to the latter.

 Influencer marketing

Internet marketing witnessed a changing phase with the rise of Instagram and TikTok in the form of influencer marketing. Content writing and development to fortify your influencer distribution platforms helps you when:

• You need to build brand trust.
• ROI on marketing needs to be improved.
• You need to enable a sales generation funnel.

Influencer marketing is extremely effective on younger generations and people who love to purchase from purpose driven brands. Influencer content writing needs to be versatile and intelligent. It should go well with captions, video subtitles, as well as for livestreams.

Email distribution channels

Although one of the oldest forms of internet marketing when it comes to distribution channels, emails are still very effective. They help you achieve better brand loyalty, increase revenue, and fortify your cross sells and upsells. You can reach out to both your subscribers and your cold/warm prospects via emails. Email marketing is targeted and guarantees a percentage of success every campaign.

Content writing for emails is a bit more formal than the usual social media posts. Although brands are switching into more attractive email marketing strategies, the base audience that checks their email regularly is still very professional. The advent of push notifications via mobile applications has decreased the use of email campaigns by a small margin. However, this channel is still very relevant.

Strengthening your distribution strategy

Once you decide which distribution channel works best with your brand’s style and its goals, you can start working on ways to strengthen it. As a general rule, content writing for any distribution channel or platforms needs to be:

• Free from grammatical errors and readability issues.
• Optimised to attract the attention of your target audience.
• Optimised to serve search engine crawlers with good results.
• Follow the current market trends and behaviour.
• Flexible enough to stay relevant for a long period of time.

“Let’s Google” is often the answer we give to ourselves whenever finding a solution to a question. Suppose you are seeking a realtor near you. Will you be searching on the streets or simply Google the top realtors in your area or city? Now, think from the other side. You are a realtor with no presence on Google. How will people find you? How will you even appear in the search results? Well, this is where the role of Google comes. In order to catch the sight of the searchers, you need to have a website that is highly searchable with a good SEO. 

Search Engine Optimization and internet marketing will facilitate your website to appear in the top 10 results. This is how your site will be on the first page and will have a high chance of getting more traffic. Do not underestimate the power of distinct factors like speed of the site, bounce rate, etc. when it comes to making your website reserve that top place. Timely changes in SEO strategies and keeping an eye on a host of factors can help your website maintain its place on the first page. This positioning of the website further contributes immensely to getting more traffic and enhancing the business’s authenticity. So, if your website is not being found on Google, then you should buckle up and go in-depth to find the reason behind it. 

Some Common Reasons Your Website is Not Searchable

1. Too new website – Google takes time to recognize new websites, and you need to be a little patient. Yes, Google will find you, and then it will proceed towards the process of getting discovered. You can also check whether Google knows about your website’s existence by searching – site:your website.com. If there is one result, then Google has already found your website otherwise you have to wait further. You can also consider taking the help of a sitemap that can tell Google about your important web pages. So, wait up if you have just entered the world of sites by getting it developed by a website developer. Google will take some time to get to know your site and it will get indexed eventually.

2. Stopping Google from indexing – Yes, you can block search engines to index your web pages. If you use the “no index” meta tag, then that page will not be indexed. You cannot achieve any searches without indexing. You could check with your web developer if they added this meta tag and forgot to remove it. They apply it to stop Google from indexing when the website is under construction. So, remove all those “no index” tags from your website if you wish them to appear in the searches. Also, note that Google cannot crawl through the robots.txt file. So, if your website has this, make sure to get it removed ASAP. 

3. Website is not optimized – Optimizing the website is very crucial and for that, you definitely need the assistance of a pro SEO service provider. No matter how relevant your web content is and how great the site design is, it will not be helpful without optimization. On-page SEO plays an important role in your website’s worthiness and proves its authenticity. This is one of the important criteria that you must fulfil to appear on the search engines.

4. Using high-volume keywords – Highly competitive keywords will make it difficult for your website to achieve rank. In some cases, your website will not rank no matter how much effort you put into it. This happens when the same keyword is used by numerous competitors. Let’s understand this with an example. If you have a restaurant in a location full of restaurants that serve the same cuisine yours, then it will be difficult for your business to keep its keywords game strong. Try using less competitive keywords and you can uplift your search game like a pro. 

5. Website has a penalty- Another reason why your website doesn’t appear in the search results would be the penalty. Yes, Google can penalize your website, domain, or page. There can be various causes of this penalty, and the most prominent one is the duplication of content. You may also witness a sudden decrease in the number of visitors to your site due to sandboxing by Google. So, always try to stay updated with the changing algorithms of Google and keep up with every change from time to time. 

6. You might be facing inherited issues- Your domain must be having some past. Yes, it must be associated with some other website before you get it registered under your name. That website owner did some tricky internet marketing business that took away the authenticity of the domain. Now you must have to file a reconsideration request to Google to get your website indexed. So, stop writing good content and working on on-page SEO before you fix this issue, as all your efforts will go in vain. 

7. Slow website is not preferred- Google doesn’t want to put further slow websites. So, your site ought to be fast. Not just Google wants speed, but your visitors demand a fast loading website too. Imagine who will wait a minute for a website to load! They will simply switch to the site’s competitors instead of waiting. If your website has loading time issues, then consider fixing them immediately. 

Internet marketing, SEO, or any other online growth tactic will work when your website is properly developed. So, your first step should be to get the assistance of a reliable web developer and designer. Once it is done, you need to get help to remove all the technical issues that are creating hindrances to the success of your website. If you are still in confusion about the best facilitation, then simply choose Work4You. Their experts will guide you and make your website search game strong.