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With so many freelance graphic designers and graphic design companies available to choose from, how do you choose the right one for you? We’ve put together a list of a few things you may want to think about before signing any contracts.

There are 4 major factors to take into consideration

1. Portfolio. Every good graphic designer has a portfolio on their website showcasing previous projects they have completed. Before you even phone or email to make an appointment with the designer or design team, have a look at a few different portfolios on line. Is there versatility in the work style? Is there a variety of projects? Be wary of designers that seem to stick to the same style of design. For example, if their portfolio consists of mostly CD covers or posters, you ask to see catalogue or magazine spreads.

2. Personality and communication style. Try to set up a meeting where you can interact face to face with the team before hiring them to ensure your personalities mesh well. It’s a good way to gauge their communication style and professionalism. Choose a graphic designer who is going to be proactive in letting you know how the project is tracking. You don’t want to be the one chasing them up.

3. Timeline of the project. Don’t forget to ask about turnaround times. How long is going to take them to complete your design work? If you want a 60 page catalogue and they promise to have the job finished in two days, this should sound alarm bells. It’s probably being a little optimistic and if it is completed, it won’t be to the best of their ability. Take the time to find out what the creative process is from start to finish.

Learn more about the creative process with XDesigns Advertising >> link to http://www.xdesigns.com.au/x-designs-blog/from-brief-to-beyond

4. Budget. It’s important to let your graphic designer know what your budget for the design work is. If you are a small company who doesn’t have a big budget allocated to marketing, your designer should be able to you what they can do for your available funds.

What makes XDesigns Advertising different >> Link to http://www.xdesigns.com.au/x-designs-blog/what-makes-x-designs-different

Now that you know what to look for in a graphic designer, check out XDesigns Advertising impressive portfolio of work and pick up the phone to discuss what we can do for you.

Ever dealt with a huge corporate advertising agency where you feel like you are just another nameless face and they don’t really care incorporating your ideas or your business.

At X Designs, we genuinely care about our clients and do our utmost best to make sure they are happy with the end result, a business logo,  technical brochure or website with an entire branding makeover.

We take the time to sit down with you and discuss your needs, your ideas and do our best to make sure you feel like you are part of the creative process from the initial layout through to the finished product. And if you the whole concept of advertising materials and websites makes you break out in a cold sweat, we’ve got years of practical experience and innovative ideas we can share.

The team at X Designs have a very real passion for design which translates through to every project we complete.  Once the creative work is finished, it’s not the end of the road. We make sure you are happy with our work and if you’ve had a website design, you’ll walk away with peace of mind that you can update it yourself easily through a content management system (CMS).

It’s the little extras and 100 per cent genuine customer service that really matters – and that’s exactly what you get from X Design Advertising – a company that not only provides exceptional work, but cares about helping you take your business to the next level.

You can’t expect the marketing plan you had designed for you way back in the early 1990s is going to work forever. If you haven’t undertaken any changes to your business operation since its inaugural launch, chances are you are missing out on valuable revenue. There’s nothing like a rebrand to grow and breathe new life into your company. You’ll end up with a better understanding about what you want your brand to stand for as well identifying your prospective clients and how to reach them. With these five simple steps you can successfully rebrand your business.

1. Get to know your brand identity. Think of it like getting to know a potential partner. What sort of personality does your brand have? Is it fun, loud and flashy? Or perhaps it’s straight-laced, serious and straight to the point. If your brand was a person where would their favourite hangout be? What would be their favourite colour? What type of people would it mix with? What kind of charities would it support?

2. Hire a proven graphic design professional. You want your branding to be perfect so it is imperative you choose a graphic designer with experience in branding. This is one arena where you shouldn’t try to cut costs. Rule of thumb is you pay for what you get. If the price sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Ensure to share your vision and brand identity ideas with your designer so they can incorporate your ideas with theirs.

3. Make sure your brand is consistent and reflected on the website, blogs, social media pages, office stationary, merchandise, staff uniforms, and data presentations to car and front of shop signage. It all needs to match – no exceptions.

4. Never underestimate the power of social media. Prior to the launch of the new rebranding try leaving enticing teasers on Facebook and Twitter. Consider investing in a marketing strategy video which can you upload to youtube and repost and retweet on the day of your rebrand launch.

5. Plan an event to unveil your new brand. This is an important step as it will give you a chance to invite staff, friends, current clients and media outlets to attend the presentation.

A brochure is only as good as its content. The design can look fabulous, the text can read like a dream, but unless it’s making an impact on your sales, you might as well use it to wrap your fish n chips.

By ensuring you utilise these five essential elements, you can transform your brochures into highly successful sales instrument.

1. Attention grabbing headlines 

Attention grabbing headlines which focus on the benefits your company can offer will be more successful than slapping a company logo on the front cover with a tagline which doesn’t really say anything startling. Take for instance a weight loss company; a brochure which has “Lose 8kg in 10 weeks” is likely to have more success than starting with committed to excellent customer service. The headline targets a problem a potential customer might have and offers a benefit in a concise, clear manner.

2. Points of differences

Points of differences are unique benefits that set you apart from your competitors. What makes your company different? Why should a client opt for using your company instead of another? Think of it as a personal branding statement. A weight loss company might use something like Lose 8kg in 10 weeks or get your money back. A popular fitness company uses Earn $10 for every kilo you lose. Whatever you decide on it has to be snappy, clear and unique to your business.

3. Make your brochure educational

Make your brochure educational. Once you have the potential customer interested, they will want to know more about what you are offering. Try to be clear without overloading the text with industry-jargon only tech-savvy people would understand.

4. Back up your claims with hard evidence

Back up your claims with hard evidence. You can achieve this by using testimonials and quotes from satisfied customers, public figures, even celebrity endorsements. Short articles and pictures are also useful.

5. Make your reader want to take action

Make your reader want to take action. After reading the brochure from top to bottom, the prospective customer likes what they see, now comes the part where you want to encourage them to pick up the phone or call in and visit rather than filing the brochure away in a kitchen drawer. You might offer a money back guarantee, a trial period if they call before the end of the month or a bonus product.

Utilising all of these five essential elements into any brochure, be it small home based business or large international corporate company, will create a dynamic sales tool that works.

Whats next? Need help putting your brochure together?
For a complementary Brand session call us on 1300 881 204 and talk to XDesigns Advertising today.

When you’re a small fry swimming in the big worldwide web pond, how are you supposed to compete when pitching your products against the big brand names? The answer is simple. You need to boost your search engine ranking to guarantee you are capturing There are a few tactical secrets; XDesigns Advertising can share with you absolutely free.

Secret 1

Find out the exact phrases and keywords your potential target audience are looking for, by researching the most popular words and phrases entered into the most commonly used search engines. Sounds difficult, but it’s as easy as logging on to Google Keyword tool and searching the terms you would enter if you were looking for your own website.

It’s not about selecting the keywords or phrases with the highest number of global searches, instead you need to choose the keywords and phrases you will use in your website copy by thinking  about

1. How relevant is the keyword or phrase to your website?
2. How many other people are using the same keyword or phrases?
3. Which keywords or phrases have the highest search volumes?

Secret 2

When you have selected your phrases or keywords, it’s important to incorporate them in the website copy. Correct placement is important. Generally your keywords should appear with 3 to 5 per cent saturation, but no more. You still want your copy to read well without it sounding like your keywords have been stuffed into every second sentence.

Example of badly written website copy with keywords; If you are planning a romantic candle lit night and need to buy candles, we are your candle specialist for rechargeable LED candles, candles with remote control and scented candles.

Is your website mobile friendly?

https://xdesigns.com.au/x-designs-blog/do-you-need-a-mobile-friendly-website/

Secret 3

Ensure you use your keywords within the meta description, in titles and headings. If this all sounds a bit like understanding ancient hieroglyphics, it might be worth the money to get the advice of a proven graphic design and search engine optimising specialist.

Secret 4

Do a link exchange with other websites. Basically it’s a “I’ll list your link on my website if you list mine on yours.” This is often referred to as back links.

Secret 5

Regularly update your website. No one wants to regularly update the main website copy, so the best way around this is to start a blog.

Find out how to blog for your business
https://xdesigns.com.au/x-designs-blog/blogging-for-your-buisness/

Sitting on the train from Hornsby into Central station every morning, every second person seems to have their head down, clutching some sort of glowing device and is frantically tapping away at a screen. Be it an iPod touch, iPad or Smartphone, it’s hard to ignore the fact that portable technology is becoming more prevalent. It’s believed the number of users increase every day and is said that over 83 million web users who access the internet do it via their mobile device.

In the age of portable digital devices, which are now outselling PCs, it’s not enough for business owners to have a website. Now there’s the need for their website to be mobile-friendly as well.

For technophobes, the easiest solution might be to throw your arms in the air and try and ignore the rapidly increasing page of technology, but it’s a sure-fire way to lose customers.

Website’s that aren’t optimised for mobile use are extremely difficult to navigate. The text is often microscopic. It requires having to zoom in and move the page around in an attempt to find what you’re looking for. In fact it’s just a pain in the butt, so unless you have a mobile-friendly site, it’s likely a potential customer will log on to a competitors website if you haven’t moved with the times.

Mobile friendly sites are quicker to download. They’re not bogged down with large images or fancy web banners using java or flash which take forever to download and chew through data allowance like hungry termites. Having a mobile optimised website is cheaper than having an app created for you. Apps need to be created in a variety of platforms so they are compatible with the mobile device. For example an app created for a blackberry won’t work on the Android platform. Mobile friendly websites don’t present the same compatibility issues which may arise if you were to have an app designed.
Your competitors already have optimised websites, so what are you waiting for? Talk to a proven graphic design company today.

If you’re diving into the realm of social media for the first time, it can be quite difficult to know which social media platforms you should be wetting your toes with? Is it simply enough to be on Facebook? Do you really need to be on Twitter? What about Instagram, LinkedIn or Google+? Or should you have a presence across the board?

Think of social media like a close group of friends. Each platform is completely different with individual characteristics. You don’t interact with your friends in exactly the same way and the same can be said with social media apps.

Like with the real world of relationships, you can’t be best friends in the world with everyone. If you were to try, you would end up spreading yourself too thin. This analogy also applies to social media. It is better to pick one or two platforms and ensure the content you use is high quality than trying to embrace all of them. There are not enough hours in the day to make sure you do justice to your social media marketing if you have a presence on every platform (unless you have a social media team).

So let’s take a look at the different social media platforms and their purpose.

Twitter

Experts have described Twitter as ‘Drive-through’ conversations. It’s fast, real-time snippets and is the quickest way to get information out to users.

Facebook and Google+

It’s the vessel to interact with your follows, survey users thoughts and feeling and is a way of personalising your brand. Both platforms have the potential for huge audiences.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional, formal version of Facebook but for professionals. It’s not the place to post #FridayFunnies or engage casually with your followers. However if you are looking to attract business clients, generate leads and marketing opportunities and learn from other corporates in your field, then LinkedIn is for you.

Instagram

According to sources, Instagram is bigger than Twitter and users are 58 more times likely to comment on an Instagram photo than on Facebook. Instagram is a visual medium so it will force you to get creative.

Now that you have a brief overview of the different formats and what they are for, you need to strategise about what your corporate needs are. If you have a lot of merchandise, are fairly creative and good with a camera, perhaps start with Instagram.

You don’t have to launch into all platforms at once. Simply pick a platform you are comfortable with and once you have come to grips of how it operates, then you can think about expanding. Keep in mind not to spread yourself too thin.

For more help with any social media related questions, content or graphics for your Instagram or Facebook account, or landing pages, talk to the team at XDesigns Advertising today.

Now that you have gained a brief insight into what a landing page is, let’s explore landing pages in more detail, so you can truly discover the benefits and how they help you maximise the effectiveness of your website.

By now Im sure you understand there is more to a landing page than just looking pretty. A landing page can be visually appealing and consistent with your corporate branding, however if it’s not converting website traffic into genuine leads, it’s not fulfilling its purpose.

We’re going to have a closer look at the necessary design elements needed to create an effective landing page. It will give you a better understanding of what information is important.

Less is more.

You have just a few seconds to communicate your message so it’s important exclude unnecessary text or graphics.There’s nothing more frustrating for a prospect to land on a page and be bomarded with multiple messages and offers. Keep it simple, anything superfluous will detract from the real reason your client has been directed to your landing page.

Stick to

one purpose, one objective.  If you have other offers you want to communicate to your marketplace, then there’s no reason why you cannot have multiple landing pages. We recommend you start with just one. Always remember a cluttered page will never be seen and acted on. It will take longer to download especially for those who are using smartphones, iPads or tablets which can be frustrating.

Grab Your Prospects Attention at the top. 

Your prospective client should not have to search to find out what the offer is. State it simply at the top. Wham. It should be the first thing your eyes focus on. It should speak directly to your prospects wants and needs and should instantly capture their attention.

Be clear and concise

Following the traditional marketing formula, your headline should be informative and include key words. Don’t waste time trying to be clever or witty. The potential customer immediately wants to know what’s on offer. It’s also important to ensure the main body of text is rich with keywords and keyword subheadings are used to break up the content. Remember your sub headline and your body contents main purpose is to build interest and desire to know more about what your product or service will offer.

Use high visibility buttons

The purpose of a landing page is to entice potential customers to take action. What you want your prospect to do needs to be highly visible and works best if all they have to do is just click one button and enter minimal details.

Everybody loves freebies

Using words like free sample or free trial or win will lure the customer into taking action. If you feel the word “free” is overused then try complimentary. It is always important to use the words that match your business and your product, service and or offer.

Always lead the prospect into taking some form of action

Whether you want your prospect to fill in their details or take an immediate action to purchase, it’s crucial you lead your prospect into doing something like filling in their details to access complimentary training videos, download a free e book or whitepaper. Whatever it may be, be sure you lead them to completing the form and leaving their details.

By now I’m sure you are ready to dive straight in and have a landing page built that will bring more qualified leads to your business.

What’s next? How do you get a landing page?

Visit our landing page, fill in your details or call us on 02 8824 5169 and Talk to X Designs today.