Almost two decades into the 21st century, and it’s clear that there are still businesses hanging on to branding and design notions from the pre-internet era. This is not necessarily a terrible thing, as trends in marketing today are coming full circle to more traditional humanized interactions. On the other hand, outdated design and branding can ultimately hobble a business and prevent it from coming close to its full potential.
While virtually any organization can have problems with their branding, it tends to be smaller family-run businesses and new startups that tend to have issues that could be best solved by implementing best design practices. This is where a digital design company might be useful.
Digital design companies are especially suited for helping small businesses update and optimize their branding for a number of reasons.
First off, a smaller business may not be able to devote their resources to hire and develop a full-time internal team — hiring an agency on a per-project basis should be more economical. Second, it takes time and money to train and properly equip a design team by yourself, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Lastly, digital design companies will tend to be able to competently work on different aspects of branding and design, as they have individuals with different specialties working for them.
Here are a few ways a digital design company can help your brand mature.
1.) They can help your team become familiar with best practices in design
It’s hard to tell someone what “good design” is without showing them. When you hire an agency, you get the opportunity to be shown just that.
Design companies work with several different clients under strict timetables, which means not only are they generally better at understanding good design, they are highly tuned and specialized towards creating design assets efficiently.
If you and your team are able to closely work with them, you should be able to see bits and pieces of the design process. This knowledge can be invaluable throughout the life of your organization, potentially helping you avoid making design-related mistakes in the future.
2.) Design companies can help you optimize your brand across different platforms
The recycling of design assets is almost a time-honored tradition that saves time, money, and brainpower. Unfortunately, it’s not always the wisest thing to do.
Design assets that work on print may not necessarily work on social media. As a matter of fact, design assets that work on one social media platform may not necessarily work on another. When you do a deep dive of different types of design, such as animation, publication, packaging, and others, you’ll find that there is a different set of best practices for every single platform.
While it can be challenging to do all this platform optimization by yourself, using a digital design company can give you that initial boost you need to get started. A great knock-on effect of optimized design is that you are able to squeeze more qualified leads per dollar spent out of those different platforms, which can be enough to make a difference for a smaller business.
3.) You draw from a wealth of different branding experiences
Of course, this presupposes that you’re hiring a digital design agency that has had extensive experience, rather than a new one. In any case, professionals within digital agencies will tend to go with tried and tested principles that bring branding success. The better, more experienced ones will have a feel for when to bend those principles towards your ultimate benefit. This is rather difficult to do without an agency to help you out.
Also Read: Ways a Design Agency Can Help Your Internal Design Team Grow
In the end, design agencies are not infallible. But for a small business that sorely needs an update to their designs, they are often the best possible option. The key is to understand how they could help and what role you will still have to play in your organization’s success.
Do you agree with this article? Tell us about your experiences working with design companies.
