5 Tips for Working With Outsourced Designers

by Prasad Thammineni

http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/11/5-tips-for-working-with-outsourced-designers.html

Your small business relies on a professional and consistent look and feel. But how do you achieve this when you don’t have the resources to have an in-house marketing design team? Print design, Web design and advertising copy – all of this can be quite complicated. Outsourced designers are a great way to bring in design expertise when you need it… but managing creative professionals has its own set of unique challenges.

Here are 5 tips for working with outside designers:

1) Provide context.

Help your designer understand what your business does. Explain the goal that you are trying to accomplish with the design work. Realize that the designer does not have the same view into your business that you do. By providing context around what it is that you do and what you are trying to accomplish, you not only help the designer create better work but also help focus his or her creativity on the problem at hand.

2) Use a style guide.

It is smart to have a style guide created so that all of your collateral materials will be consistent and professional looking. A style guide is a set of standards for design of your company’s materials/documents/manuals. For a small business, a simple style guide should have the preferred primary typeface/headline/header font and secondary typeface/body text font, primary and secondary colors and general rules for on-page spacing. The goal of the style guide is that if someone sees your company’s mailing and then visits your website, they should naturally understand that they’ve come to the same company’s home page.

3) Use examples.

Provide examples of both designs you like and designs you do not. A good set of examples is a great starting point for your designer. You should not only have examples, but have specific reasons why you like or dislike them. Opinions/reasons will help the designer focus on using the elements that you like best and keep him or her from wasting time recreating elements you didn’t consider important.

4) Sketch and scan.

Another great way to share your ideas with the designer is to sketch the design on a piece of paper and scan it to share it with the designer. The goal is not to pretend to be Michelangelo, but instead to get your basic layout ideas across. Do not spend a lot of time with this, but instead just scratch out something as a jumping-off point from which the designer can begin to create something appropriate for your needs.

5) Keep in touch.

Have a regular schedule for when you and the designer will check in with each other. You’ll want to update the designer on any changes that might impact the design and promptly provide feedback to them as needed. Prompt and decisive feedback is crucial to a good relationship with a designer.

Bonus tip: Give constructive criticism.

Do not be afraid to provide criticism. The designer cannot read your mind, so you need to be honest when you do not like something. You should not feel bad delivering negative news if you can do so promptly and in a positive manner! Be polite as you state the negatives, but make sure you do state them – otherwise it will be close to impossible to get the design you want for your business.

Have you used outside designers? What have you learned from working with them? Any tips to share with the Small Business Trends audience?

Creating Effective Websites by xdude.com

Creating Effective Websites
Lesson #1: Your Marketing Message
How to Excite Your Visitors

The next time you need to write something that grabs your reader’s attention and entices them to interact, follow these simple steps!

1. Know your customer Who are they? How old are they? How educated are they? What do they love? What do they hate? What is their pain? Picture them sitting across from you describing their worries. Imagine every detail – even what they look like.

The better you can imagine your prospect in your mind’s eye, the better you’ll be able to write a message that speaks directly to them.

2. Know your product or service How will your product or service take away your reader’s pain or improve their life? How does your expertise compare to that of your competition?

3. Know the benefits What can your offer do for me, right now? Can it make me rich? Can it save me time? Will it entertain me? Will it help me feel better about myself?

4. Gain their trust If you’re marketing over the Internet, you don't have the advantage of speaking face to face with your customer, so pack as much credibility into your message as possible. Offer a free trial, a money-back guarantee, include testimonials from happy customers, and consider adding a photo of yourself, or even an audio or video message.

Most importantly: speak to your visitor – in their language. Don't ramble about technical specs of your products unless that’s what they want.

5. Keep it short! People don’t read every word on every page they visit. They scan. Use headings that grab the reader’s attention and give clues about the content of the next two or three paragraphs. Make the read easy, quick and informative. Once you're done writing your copy, go back and see if you can say it all in half the words. The idea isn’t to sacrifice quality – it’s to make your message as long as it needs to be without dragging it out.

6. Key words to use: you, get, now, proven, discover, learn, benefit, complete, exclusive Words to avoid: if, but, not, should, could, maybe

7. Create a call to action with a sense of urgency Throw in something special for the first 100 buyers or make it "This month only!" Word selection is important. Don’t just say "Buy now!" Give a specific time limit. "Buy during the month of October and get [something wonderful] for free!"

Thanks for reading.

http://www.xdude.com

Fight Freelancer Loneliness!

Miles Burke tribune@sitepoint.com Editor, SitePoint Tribune

Over the last month or two, I’ve spoken to a bunch of freelancers or telecommuters about what their biggest hurdles to success are. A common one (right up there with finding clients and keeping focus) is the sense of loneliness that results from working by yourself all day.

Many of us have partners, but they may have full-time work outside the home, and then mightn’t be overly interested in how you’ve spent your day when they return. The pets don’t seem to have much to say either, when asked which design concept they prefer, or which framework you should build that site with.

Isolation really is a serious problem for many freelancers. Here are seven ways I suggest as potential solutions to combat the sense that you’re the only person left on the planet:

Join a meet-up or local group. I’ve mentioned this here before; however, it’s worth repeating that sites such as meetup.com and other organizations run chapters in your industry right across the planet. Spend some time looking for one in your area, and head along to a meeting; you may find solace in chatting to likeminded people, who are possibly in the same situation as yourself.

Start a meet-up. So you’ve looked around, but there’s no group meeting near you. Do you have many competitors in the same town or region? Collating a list of email addresses or telephone numbers, then making contact to ask if they’d be interested in meeting at a neutral venue, is a fantastic way to kick-start a new vibrant group.

Join forums. SitePoint has a lively discussion forum, and although the pariticpants aren’t face to face, there’ll likely be enough conversation and discussion to keep you from feeling too left out from the real world.

Volunteer your time. Your local sports club, scout group, or church may need volunteers, whether it be for maintaining their website, or even looking after a booth at a fair. Volunteering makes you feel good, and helps build relationships with great people.

Go and study. We all have plenty to learn; maybe you can find a nighttime course in something that appeals to you, whether it be learning Spanish or bookbinding—you’ll meet a whole roomful of people who are also interested in that topic.

Work from a café. You may not even be speaking to those around you, but taking your laptop out of your usual environment and finding a place with good coffee and wifi can re-energize you. That old saying about a change being as good as a holiday might apply for that one day you try it out!

Find a serviced office. If you can, check out serviced offices or find somewhere you can rent a desk. As well as making you feel more like part of the human race, a regular place to work outside of home will possibly make a huge difference to your productivity if you are prone to being easily sidetracked.

Best of luck with finding the solution to loneliness!