Every new designer aspires to be the best. However, this doesn’t come easy. You not only have to work hard, but you also have to develop good artistic, marketing and communicative skills. You need to know where to market your skills and how to capture the client’s interest. There are hundreds of tips and tricks but I would like to share with you just seven great secrets to becoming a graphic design superstar. The best designers understand these secrets and this is why they are the BEST.

1. Communicate, Relate, Share

Become a member of a graphic design community and interact with other like-minded designers. Such communities, forums and social gatherings help you to meet new people, share ideas, knowledge and grow as a professional. This is the best way to get maximum exposure, creating professional relations and gaining abundant knowledge regarding the design field.

2. Expand, Improvise, Adapt

Being a good graphic designer means being flexible and adaptable. Do not limit yourself to just one field. Expand your skills and learn about various spheres of digital designing. This will help you in acquiring a strong client base, while honing your expertise. Improvise on your design style by learning to work on multiple graphic programs, including 2D and 3D modes. Make yourself an “in-demand” designer, catering to any sector.

3. Evolve, Learn, Update

You can never say, “I know it all.”  The best designers are constantly learning.  Every day you can learn new tricks and tips, explore new strategies and get brand new ideas.  Stay updated with the latest tutorials, design ideas and software.  But don’t forget to manage your time. The more updated you are and the more versatile you become, you will automatically be wanted by business owners.

4. Read, Read, Read

Read and get in depth knowledge about color psychology, design concepts, typography, trends and the latest software. Graphic designing is not wild imagination; it is a tamed art that can mold itself according to the needs of an industry.  This is what graphic design books, tutorial websites and professional blogs teach you about.

5. Experiment, Experience, Understand

Experiment with various design styles and color combinations.  Be innovative when creating designs. Think outside the box, avoid clichés and common trends. Playing with graphic software is a good exercise and a great way to learn various techniques. Doing so gives you practical knowledge which is worth more than the hundreds of books you may read. Also, don’t hesitate in asking your friends and colleagues for their opinion of on your work.  This will help you to understand your flaws and improve on them.

6. Seek, Inspire, Create

Graphic designing is a field that has somewhat of recycled inspiration. In broader terms, it means that you will have to avoid seeking inspiration in other people’s work in order to be original. The first idea you might get for a project will not always be unique. With thousands of designers out there it is possible that your idea has already been worked on. Seek inspiration from your surroundings, from nature, from people you know instead of just focusing on online designs. Remember though, that seeking inspiration does not mean copying designs.  Copying designs will take away your credibility as a professional designer.

7. Aim, Score, Win

Do not aim to be the best, aim to develop your skills and abilities. Keep learning and don’t hesitate to ask questions when you don’t understand anything. Become an active part of the design community. Share your knowledge as a designer with others and they in turn will not disappoint you when you have a question to ask.  Cater to customer needs and understand their business. This will help you win clients and in turn you will able to build an excellent portfolio and be known as a professional graphic designer.

What else do you think makes a graphic design superstar? What is it that best designers do differently? Share your thoughts with us.

By Joe Witte, Executive Vice President and Partner, Logo Design Guru

Are you seeing more traffic come to your website? Seeing more leads come through your email? But not seeing the results in your revenue?

Here are some tips to help you convert these leads to customers.

1)    Call/Email immediately- remember, if someone found you online, and took the time to phone/ fill out a lead form, chances are they did this with another company. Being the first company to contact that individual is critical. If you don’t reach them on the phone, follow up with an email that includes all of your contact information and the best time to reach you. Consistently stay in touch with these leads over the next 3 to 6 months.

2)     Have someone confident and knowledgeable call your prospects- your prospects may be the most important people you speak to today, because they could be your customers tomorrow. It’s an easy task to delegate, but ensure it’s delegated to someone who represents your company well, and is knowledgeable.

3)    Collect emails from lead forms- If someone filled out a lead form, and it includes their email address, collect that data and store it in an email marketing system such as www.iContact.com or www.ConstantContact.com.  Then you can send these interested parties a monthly newsletter or discounts.

4)    Rate your leads by opportunity- Not all leads are equal. If one person has expressed an immediate interest, and has a budget of $1000 for your widget, he is worth more than someone who says they are mildly interested and has a budget of $500. Help your sales team prioritize the leads and follow up accordingly.

5)    Provide monthly offers, discounts or coupons and update them regularly. Make them fun and interesting.

6)    Create urgency with your prospects, and give them a reason to buy NOW.

7)    Have a call to action on everything you send out… include “Call now”, “Email Us”, “Buy Now”… make it easy for people to find contact information and take action when they are ready.

8)    Have marketing materials professionally designs, and ready to send. Use metrics and visuals in your marketing materials. If you have to write proposals for your business, have a template that allows you to turn them around quickly.

9)    Ask your prospects/leads where they heard about you- and when you start to see a pattern, INVEST IN IT, OPTIMIZE, DO MORE.

10)    Optimize your advertising campaigns. Clearly communicate with your advertising partners what’s working, who your best customers are, and what’s not working. Good marketing requires optimization, testing, improvement, tracking and expanding on those results that work well.

Joe Witte is a partner at Logo Design Guru, and has successfully started 3 small businesses including CentricSource and Travel Ad Network.

Spring is traditionally the time of year associated with rebirth and rejuvenation. Flowers are in bloom, the doldrums of winter are over, and everybody’s mood seems to improve. If your house is anything like mine, Spring is also the time for “Spring Cleaning” and the undertaking of minor and some not so minor household repairs and improvements. From putting away the winter wardrobe to taking a harder look at that old torn window screen, it’s a great time to evaluate and fix little things around your home.

Once your house is in order, what about Spring Cleaning for your business? Do your marketing materials all match up and look consistent? Is the content on your website up to date and fresh? Is your current marketing or advertising plan working? If not, maybe it’s time to clean your business and evaluate whether your brand needs some small improvements.

Clean Up and Update Your Website

When was the last time you read over the content on your company’s website? If it’s been a while, you may not realize that some of the information may be so outdated that it doesn’t even apply to your business anymore. Is your pricing correct? Are there any old promotions still lingering? Are you and your customers sick of looking at the same old photos all the time?  Does the navigation and layout look dated and out of touch? Do you have broken links on your site that lead nowhere or to an error page? If you answered yes to any of these questions it may be time to update your website. Remember your website will never really be “finished”. It is an evolving, almost living component of your brand that needs to periodically change and be refreshed. Nothing says “I don’t care about my businesses’ appearance” to customers more than a stale website. You wouldn’t wear the same exact clothes everyday for 3 years, so why would you let your website look the same. Instead of making your website an ancillary part of your brand, make it the engine and driving force for new business.

Try a New Approach to Marketing

With all of this renewal and rebirth in the air perhaps it’s time to re-think or update your marketing strategy as well. How and where are you getting your message out? What is working and what isn’t? Perhaps it’s time to try something new. Have you thought about Search Engine Marketing as a strategy? Do you ever Google your business’ name to see where it appears? Is it on the first page of the results, or do you have to go through page after page before you find your website? Did you know that 42% of internet users click on the top search result? If your business has a great website, and you want potential customers to find your business, then you MUST invest in Search Engine Marketing for your website. Optimization is the fuel that drives visitors, and more importantly possible sales, to your site. It can be your most valuable marketing tool. If you haven’t yet considered it, it’s time to talk to an expert about it.

Update Your Logo

Design styles change over time and it doesn’t take long before your logo can look outdated, making your business appear behind the times. Sure, an established brand is a good thing, but an old logo can send out  the wrong signal. Upgrading your logo is a simple investment and does not mean changing it completely. Many companies change their logos over the years, but still maintain their brand. An update, such as color change, font change, new tagline or a re-draw on your original design shows a fresh, inspiring new look that says a lot about your business and demonstrates its quality.

Maintaining a fresh outlook and keeping the parts of your brand up to date helps build brand loyalty and brand freshness. A little “Spring Cleaning” may be the key to a successful Summer and Fall.

Setting up a website for your business can be complicated, but your business’s online presence is the foundation for forming a viable brand and is essential to your success.

Many design companies offer web design, but do not provide their clients with web hosting services. What does this mean for you? It means that the company designs your website, and that’s it. They hand you your files, and send you on your way. Most clients assume that once the design is complete, the company will show them what steps to take to get the site live on the internet, however, this is rarely the case. It is left up to you to find a web hosting company (a company to upload and store your website so that it is visible on the internet).

Design companies may recommend a hosting provider, but it is then up to you to contact them, establish an account, and make sure your site is up and running. With such a complex undertaking, the last thing you want to do while managing your business is worry about another vendor, where to send your website’s files, and what to do if something goes wrong. It is always best to make sure the company that designed your website can also host and maintain it.

1. One Point of Contact

If there is a problem or you need to make changes to your website, it’s much more reassuring to know you can make one call to your design company and speak to the same person at the same company each time. If you were to deal with multiple companies, you would have to speak to multiple representatives, who, in turn, waste more of your time playing “catch up” than actually assisting you. With one company, one assigned representative builds a relationship with you, so that they know all about your company and website and can assist you in a timely manner.

2. Troubleshooting

If you have spent any time using a computer, then you know occasional problems are a fact of life. Forms occasionally quit, databases stop responding, and your site crashes from too many visitors, the list can go on.  Often, a design or development fix is the solution. Having separate design and hosting companies makes it complicated to resolve simple problems. It may require a lot of back and forth phone calls and if you are not sure whether the problem is from your design or your hosting, who do you contact? Let one company take care of this for you. With one phone call, the problem can be fixed in a matter of hours, not days.

3. Maintenance

What happens when your business has a new product or service and you need to update your website? Do you have the time to change the photos, site navigation, or hyperlinks? Do you want to hire someone to do this on a regular basis? If you answered NO to any of these questions, it’s best to go with the company that has designed your website and is hosting your website. Who better to change, modify, or develop than the people who designed the site in the first place? In addition, you can call that point of contact mentioned above. One phone call and it is done. You have enough things to worry about, don’t let your businesses website be one of them. At Logo Design Guru, we take care of your maintenance so that you can focus your priorities where they belong: Your business.

Many businesses have blogs on their websites, which can be very beneficial. Blogging allows you to offer advice, share thoughts and ideas and directly converse with your current or potential clients everywhere at the same time. Blogging is a fun and educational way for a business to get involved with the community. A blog has great opportunities to offer information, but it also functions best when the posts are updated frequently with fresh content. This may seem easy enough, but where does your content come from?

Blog content should be original and relatable. If your blog is business related, business tips and stories make very interesting content. Honest opinions from other entrepreneurs always make the best advice. Entrepreneurs reading your posts are in the same place that you are and learning from each other will lead us all on a good path.

Content can be a challenge to think up sometimes, but that doesn’t mean the first thing you should do is find someone else’s blog post and copy and paste its content. It is fine to be inspired by someone’s idea and develop your own take on it. It’s also okay to discuss someone else’s post openly and include their content, but only if it is an excerpt and given quotes and proper acknowledgment to the writer. The excerpt, however, shouldn’t be more than a paragraph or so in length, and should also have a live link to their original post.

As a writer myself, I know that when you work on a blog post, you research and put time and effort into it and it’s upsetting when some time later, you receive a Google alert with the same identical content that you recognize attached to someone else’s name and blog. It is a frustrating concept, in which you feel angry and cheated, but the truth is that stealing content isn’t worth doing and it doesn’t even benefit the thief in the long run. Sure, they may have acquired some “new” content to post, but over time, duplicate content actually hurts the search optimization of the site and their rankings are bound to go down.

Don’t be a thief. Blogs are meant to share genuine thoughts and opinions and although content writing can be difficult at times, it’s better to have the satisfaction of knowing that ideas you share actually belong to you and are completely original. It gives more credibility to your business and is another step toward success.

Deck the halls and spread holiday cheer to your business this season. Although it’s time to make your personal wish list for the holidays, it may also be a good idea to stop and think of a wish list for your business. Gift giving for friends and family is an enjoyable part of the holidays, but your business deserves some gifts as well.

1. Add Some Spice to Your Website

You may already have a website for your business, but when was the last time you improved it? How about adding photos or changing your overall theme. It’s best to maintain your original brand, but a classy update will show your clients that you are serious about your business and will give them a fresh and new outlook on your products or services.

2. Give the Gift of Blogging

A blog allows you to have an open discussion about your company and the products and services you provide. This is also another way to improve your website and attract more customer interest. Blogging is a fun way to have direct involvement with your clients. It allows you to offer advice, news, or promotions about your company on a regular basis and is open to feedback and discussions.

3. Promote your company with Promotional Items

Promotional items are great tools to help market your business and they make great gift for the holidays.
From hats, mugs, calendars, clothing and so much more, get them for yourself or others. Thank your customers with a small gift that also shows off your logo. Recognition is the key and they will remember you every time they use it.

4. Brochure

A brochure is a fantastic, printed option that will help sell your business and is something you can leave behind wherever you go. Similar to the advantages of a business card, a brochure allows you to say more and is a great offering at trade shows or an addition for envelope stuffers.

5. Email Signature

Let your clients know who you are and the company you represent. Sign all of your outgoing email messages with your name and company logo. A graphic signature will immediately be attached to all of your outgoing emails. Ditch your boring text signature, and send a visual reminder about your brand with every outgoing message.

Every business is in need of something, so why not treat your business as a member of the family and send holiday cheer in a new direction. Your company deserves some attention as well and the results from a little extra effort, will last the whole year through. Have a safe and happy holiday season from Logo Design Guru!

The holidays are quickly approaching and now is the time to start searching for those items on your holiday shopping list. Sure, an ipod, PS3 or HD TV are some of the big-ticket selections this year and there’s no doubt that they make great gifts, but what about gifts that relate to your business? As an entrepreneur, your business is your pride and joy, and it shouldn’t take a backseat to the holidays, it should be as involved as you are!

Did you ever consider promotional items as a way to advertise your business? If not, then as an entrepreneur, it’s best to have an open mind about new forms of advertising. Promotional items are a great way to spread holiday cheer, while you show off your logo at the same time. Your logo is the proud symbol that represents your company, so the more it is seen, the better chance your business has to flourish. It is important to create a visual memory with your identity so that your business is easily recognizable. With the holidays just around the corner, it’s a great opportunity to get started.

Promotional items have many benefits to offer your business and are a great opportunity for creative thinking and advertising. Based on multiple studies from the Incentive Performance Center, the use of promotional items increases name recognition, tradeshow traffic, attracts new customers, and reinforces your company’s brand image. With promotional items, people have a constant reminder of your company’s identity that is visible to them every day. This is a much more effective method of advertising than a commercial that potential clients can fast forward through or a billboard from which they can look away. Promote your business with a useful promotional item and your business has a better chance of lasting in a person’s memory.

With promotional items, there are many options available, such as hats, mugs, calendars, clothing and so much more. They are great for gift giving, trade shows, prospective clients, internal marketing, and other ways that promote your business. They leave open the chance to think outside of the box. You can thank your customers or wish them a happy holiday with a small gift that also shows off your identity. Recognition is the key and they will remember you every time they use it!

Since every business is different, specific items may work better for some than for others, however, there are so many different options that every business is bound to find something that suits them best. Be creative with your choices and during the holidays, or anytime, your clients with be happy to receive a gift from you and your company will benefit in the long run. Logo Design Guru offers many options and personalized service, so get your shopping started and help out your business this season. With so many great ideas, you can’t go wrong and the possibilities are endless!