Task Three

How will I promote myself, what do they want to hear? 

The marketing communication mix comprises of;

• Personal Selling 
• Public relations and publicity 
• Advertising 
• Direct Marketing 
• Promotions 
• The internet: WWW and Social Networking 

In this post I will evaluate which of these methods will be most appropriate for my own personal design practice to reach potential customers.

Personal selling is all about meeting people face to face and building a relationship with customers. As a freelance designer I could employ this method by approaching and presenting to potential new clients face to face. Larger organizations would employ a sales agent to take on this role but it would be more appropriate for freelance designers to represent themselves.

Public relations and publicity can be a very cost effective way of getting you and your work known to a wider audience. As a graphic designer, design competitions are one way of getting your work seen, usually you pay to enter these but winners are often widely published (in specialist publications). You have to be careful to make sure customers are aware and not just other designers. Doing 'free' design work for a charity or smaller community organization is also very good publicity, this can be picked up by local media and will raise your profile as a respectable practitioner, and it shows you care.
Advertising can be effective as long as it is targeted effectively to an audience.

A practicing designer should be very cautious about spending money to advertise their services. If you want to specialize in designing to a specific business sector, trade magazines might be effective in getting your services seen.

Direct marketing is marketing that will target a specific customer, for example I could collect names and addresses of previous clients to send out nicely designed Xmas cards or a reminder on the services I offer. Also I could target new customers in the same way if I knew the name and address of someone who might want to use my design work. This is a personal way of selling yourself, and if done well is very effective; the downside is the cost of printing and sending could potentially outweigh income gained from any new work.

Promotions should be handled with care, cutting prices will probably not be appropriate for me as a freelance designer, but offering something extra, doing more than a competitor can work when selling business to business.

The internet is now an important way to market any business, but having a well designed, professional looking website is especially vital for anyone working in the creative industries, this will go a long way to inspire clients confidence in my design abilities.