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

Promoting my design services is an essential and very important factor in becoming a recognised and successful Graphic Designer. Therefore I need to select relevant and effective methods of advertising that apply to my own design practice. The types of promotion I should be considering are, personal selling, public relations and direct, marketing. Again, these should be considered with direct application to my design, to promote my services to potential ‘client bases.’

There are two main factors when considering promotion; place, and price. There is no use in spending hundreds of pounds on printing out fliers that will just end up in the gutter. If anything that mill probably cheapen how people perceive your practice.

A cost effective type of promotion would be using the Internet. Either with a full Website or just an online portfolio. This can be done for free on a number of hosting sites. However if I want to get noticed I will need to do more that this. I need to consider batches of business cards to hand out and potential client meetings. Not just a normal business card with a name and a number, but an innovative business card, something directly relevant to my practice which will be hard to forget. I could also have an ad placed in a magazine such as Computer Arts, Grafix or Creative Review. This is expensive but effective, as it is directly based at my potential client base.

http://www.streetadvertisingservices.com/?gclid=COGcr7itq54CFUiZ2AodiVMOlw

Building up public relations is highly effective way of being recognised, and more importantly, remembered. Sometimes all that is needed to get that next interview or even job is the fact that you know someone who knows someone else. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, so being nice and reliable at all times is paramount.

However if personal selling and advertising is struggle for me, or I simply do not have time for it for what ever reason there is always the option of a employing a sales agent. They will get the job done. (hopefully) But also there will of course be a price to pay for their services.