Do This First: The Complete Guide to Navigating Creative Services as a Small Business
How do you know when to pay for what as a small business owner?
We’ve helped literally hundreds of small businesses set themselves up for success with our branding and interior design services. But, how do you navigate which creative services are worth investing in first?
In this complete guide, we’ll break down the most popular creative services a small business owner will likely pay for and the order in which they should be done for optimal results.
The Complete Guide to Knowing When to Pay for Creative Services
Whether you’re a startup or a mature business, knowing you need to invest in a handful of creative services like branding, web design, or graphic design can be daunting. How do you know which to move forward with first? Let’s break down the most common creative services into two categories: Foundational and Promotional.
Foundational Creative Services
Foundational services are intended for the earliest stages of your business, as they set the foundation for all future creative efforts. Often times when a business skips these vital services, they find themselves “flying off the cuff” when it comes to making messaging and design decisions. This can lead to a jumbled view of your brand, breeding distrust and illegitimacy from your audience.
Foundational Creative Services
1. Brand Development A full development of both a verbal and visual identity; beginning with deep discovery work and ending in a polished identity suite.
Starting at $3,500+
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2. Website Design Think of your website as the sales team that works while you sleep. A solid website should be optimized to bring in a steady flow of search engine traffic with quick load times and high conversion.
Starting at $1,950+
3. Search Engine Optimization A pretty website will only get you so far; make sure your designer is also optimizing your text, SEO fields, and content for high ranking search results.
Starting at $800+
4. Brand Strategy A strategy-based service can come in handy at any point in your business’ lifecycle, but is a priceless tool when implemented at the very early stages. Brand strategy can cover how your business operates (looks, feels, sounds) both online and off, as well as get nitty gritty with promotional tactics.
Starting at $2,500+
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5. Brand Audit Auditing your business does assume there’s enough activity to audit, but this service is still valuable to a business with less than a year of experience. Expect a brand audit to cover your business’ standings on all digital platforms as well as the public opinion. Audits can stick your digital marketing goals or go further to reshape how your audience views and interacts with your business.
Starting at $1,450+
Promotional Creative Services
Promotional services seek to market your business using the brand foundations you already have. These are services that a small business owner will likely engage with on a monthly or even retainer basis once they’ve laid the groundwork with a brand and website.
Promotional Creative Services
1. Social Media Management Is your business ready to be social? Operating as a brand on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok assumes that you have a strong sense of personal brand identity. A social media marketer will begin with an overarching strategy for both your brand and each platform, and then deliver on that strategy with content either you have or that they create for you.
Starting at $950/mo+
2. Brand Photography A strong brand has photography of their own that speaks to their aesthetic, values, and audience. Hiring a brand photographer allows you to have a stockpile of images that can be used on your website, promotional material, and social media outlets.
Starting at $800+
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3. Marketing Collateral Once you’ve settled your foundational affairs, how do you get your brand out there? Marketing collateral - things like flyers, brochures, stationery, and packaging - is crucial for small businesses that rely on local markets. Digital brands can benefit from things like Instagram post templates, PPC ads, or social media ads.
Starting at $400+
4. Email Marketing Email is alive and well! Real estate in someone’s inbox is a difficult ask, which is why it’s so important to hire an expert to create a strategy, content calendar, and a well-design email template for your business. For e-commerce businesses, email marketing is a non-negotiable!
Starting at $750/mo+
Which creative service should I pay for first?
Now that we’ve covered the most common creative services into two categories, how do you know which to invest in first? Below we’ve broken down those services into three phases, noting which should come before the other.
Phase 1: Optimize the Basics
1. Brand Development You have two choices here: invest in a complete brand development package to include brand messaging, positioning, and target demographic work, or only tackle the identity design portion (logo, colors, etc.).
2. Brand Photography You can’t have a website without photos of you and your work! At the small end, brand photography for your business might just be headshots, but consider getting photo of you at your place of work, you doing what you do, and professional images of your portfolio to start your website off on the right foot.
3. Website Design A well-designed website is crucial to any business’ success. Be sure to have it connected to your Google My Business profile so that people can find you. A website without optimization and promotion is an island out in the void.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Don’t just stop at a pretty website; all of your copy, imagery, and back end SEO fields should be done professionally to ensure you’re showing up on Google search.
Average starting cost: $7,000+
Phase 2: Get Yourself Out There
1. Social Media Management A strong social media manager will assess which platforms make the most sense (and have the greatest potential for conversion) for your brand. Remember, a lot of what makes a successful brand on social media is intangible and difficult to track with metrics, so understanding the purpose of social within your greater marketing strategy is important.
2. Marketing Collateral Your level of marketing needs will differ depending on your type of business, but you want to consider investing in things like brochures, postcards, client thank you gifts, etc. when you’ve got the above items completed.
3. Email Marketing Email marketing can be a fantastic tool for your business. Whether your goals involve e-commerce, funnel conversion, or audience growth, a strong email marketer will know exactly the type of content to put out and how often.
Average starting cost: $2,050+
If you find yourself not entirely going in the order shown above, don’t freak out. While the above is the most ideal, it doesn’t mean there’s need for panic if things go a bit out of order. The most important thing for you as a small business owner is to know the types of creative services you’ll need to invest in in order to be as successful as possible.
Are you in a similar situation and in need of some guidance? We’re here to help! Fill out our contact form to get in touch.