Being a designer comes with its own set of rewards no matter how tiring the work could be not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. The continuous flow of creativity from your brain can be quite draining, but once the results of your hard work are seen, all those slowly fade away.
There is no shame at all in trying to promote who you are and what you do. It’s all about knowing how to draw the line between promoting your own thing and bragging.
Your Personal Marketing Mix: The Four Ps
Promoting yourself should involve the usual marketing mix applied to just about any other industry:
Product
What is your main product? What else do you offer? These are the primary items you should focus on when you are trying to come up with a sound self-promotion strategy. Think about what you specialize in. Don’t just say you do creative work, but focus on what types of pieces you do best. Do you design amazing logos? Are you an expert in web design? Are your posters groundbreaking? Once you find a starting point, you can always add other services into the mix. Just make sure you have a single focal point to draw specific audiences in.
Price
How much do your services cost? Make sure you come up with a solid computation on how you figure out what to charge your clients. Find out what the industry average is for the kind of work that you do, and decide whether you want to charge on an hourly basis, or on a per-project basis. Feel free to increase your rate when the demand rises, and to adjust your prices when you aren’t getting too much work. It would also be fair to hike up your rate if the project proves to be more difficult than others.
Placement
Where do you sell your products? Who are your target audiences? Let people know if you have your entire portfolio on your website, or if you have a physical address they can visit to personally view your work.
Promotion
How do you promote your work? Do you have a blog that people can read, or do potential clients have access to a downloadable PDF file that serves as your portfolio? Know that you can also go the traditional route and have postcards, stickers, and other similar promotional products.
Once all these elements are in place, you can build a solid strategy on self-promotion that draws clients in.
Promoting Your Work
There is so much you can do to promote your name through your work. Here are a few tips that can help you do just that:
Create a personal project.
Your portfolio cannot be filled with work that you did for other people, you also have to show something that’s personal, something that you can call your own. Create your own personal project that shows what kind of an artist you truly are. Projects like these are not bound by client demands and requirements, which means that you can go all out and truly show the extent of your creativity.
Build your own brand.
You would probably think of this as cliché, but you really have to build your own brand as a creative. In the same way that people think of Nike when they see a check or Coca Cola when they see the familiar script, they also have to be able to remember your name when they see a specific style that’s unique to your work. Eventually, you won’t even have to promote your name anymore. One look at your work and they’ll know it’s you.
Give back to your audience.
You can’t make your knowledge something that’s exclusive to you and you alone. Share what you know and give tips to budding designers to help them start their own careers. You can do it through your blog, and you can do it through a podcast. It’s up to you, really. This adds more value to the brand you represent and shows people that you’re not just a decent artist, but a great human being too.
When it comes to design, it’s all about giving yourself an identity that people can relate with. This is something that will become evident once you start promoting yourself. It’s not bragging, at least not if you just follow the tips above. It’s pure self-promotion, something that’s required to survive in this industry.
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