Erin MacLeod [00:00:00]:
Before you start working on website design or social media graphics or literally any other design piece, you need to determine your visual brand. Otherwise, your visual brand as a whole will lack consistency, which just doesn't convey professionalism and can actually prevent business growth.
Kelly Rice [00:00:21]:
Hey, there. You're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so that they can build lives and businesses they love. And I'm your host, Kelly Rice, and I have a question for you. So when you are looking for a product or service and you come across a business with a poorly designed website or very generic looking social media post or marketing materials that look like they were designed by Clippy, the animated paperclip guy from Microsoft in 1999, do you really purchase from that business? And I'm going to go ahead and answer for you, and it's probably not. The fact of the matter is that graphic design matters for small businesses, and it can be the difference between prospects seeing your company as a professional incredible, and ultimately deciding to do business with you, or really just to move on and work with one of your competitors because they do it better than you. So you work way too hard for poor graphic design to stand in the way of sales. And as a very, very excited to welcome Treefrog's creative director Erin McLeod to the show, and she is going to break down the seven most common graphic design mistakes small businesses tend to make so that you guys can avoid them and see success. So, Erin, welcome to the show.
Erin MacLeod [00:01:51]:
Thanks so much for having me. You know that this is a topic that I could talk about endlessly, so I'm super pumped for this conversation.
Kelly Rice [00:01:58]:
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, over the years, you and I have spent a lot of time discussing both really great and not so great design. So I know that this is something that you're very passionate about. So before we dive right into the topic at hand, would you mind introducing yourself and telling listeners how you serve small businesses in your role at Treefrog?
Erin MacLeod [00:02:20]:
You mean you don't want me to just start ranting about bad design?
Kelly Rice [00:02:24]:
We'll get to that, I promise.
Erin MacLeod [00:02:26]:
Yeah, fair enough. Hi, everyone. I'm Erin McLeod, Treefrog marketing's creative director and senior graphic designer at Treefrog. I oversee our design department, which includes both graphic and web designers. My team and I create strategic digital, print and web designs. No matter what we're designing, whether it be a website or a print piece, our job is to make sure that our clients messaging can easily be read and understood by utilizing effective design. While I know everyone who's listened to a single episode of Priority Pursuit knows the importance of clear messaging, it's also important to note that even if you have a great concise message, if your design distracts from the message you'll miss out on business.
Kelly Rice [00:03:13]:
Yeah, this is very true. And once again, we can't make it through an episode without talking about clear messaging. But really, the whole aspect of it is effective marketing can only happen with clear messaging. So if this is your very first episode of Priority Pursuit, and you have no idea what we're talking about or why we think it's funny that we bring it up in every single episode, I want to encourage you. To go back and listen to episode 83 and we'll put the link in the show notes. Or you can find it wherever you listen to podcast. So now, Erin, before we get into the seven graphic design mistakes that small businesses make, let's start with the very first design task small businesses need to complete, which is establishing their visual brand. So what is a visual brand, and how should small businesses go about creating their visual brand?
Erin MacLeod [00:04:04]:
I'm so glad we're starting here, because before you start working on website design or social media graphics or literally any other design piece, you need to determine your visual brand. Otherwise, your visual brand as a whole will lack consistency, which just doesn't convey professionalism and can actually prevent business growth. So, first of all, a visual brand is more than just a logo. It's a collection of design elements and visuals that give a company its unique look and feel. It's what helps you instantly recognize a popular shoe brand, a restaurant, or any other brand, for that matter. And your visual brand is important because it's more or less sets the stage for how your company is perceived and remembered. So many people think that your brand is just your logo and color palette. Those things are so helpful and necessary, but they're only pieces of your visual brand.
Erin MacLeod [00:05:02]:
Your visual brand consists of everything that you see. So your logo, your fonts, your color palette, graphic elements, imagery those are all pieces of your visual brand. And these elements help bring your visual brand, help your overall brand come to life.
Kelly Rice [00:05:19]:
I mean, how many times, Erin, have we know somebody says, hey, I want to do a new logo because I want to do a new brand? And we're like, yeah. That's not all of it, though, right? Yeah, right.
Erin MacLeod [00:05:32]:
Exactly. So before you begin to establish your visual brand, you need to know who you are as a small business and who your audience is so you can figure out how to serve them well through your design. In other words, you need to write your marketing guiding statements.
Kelly Rice [00:05:48]:
Even our designer talks about clarifying your messages.
Erin MacLeod [00:05:50]:
Guys, I know it might sound crazy that I am as a designer, am talking about this, but even our design team utilizes this strategy as a basis for bringing a visual brand to life. It helps me as a designer and you, if you're creating your branding elements internally, decide which colors, fonts, graphic elements, imagery, all that to use so that your ideal clients will be more likely to notice, remember, and engage with your brand or business.
Kelly Rice [00:06:18]:
So thank you for breaking all of that down for us, because basically, the professionalism and the consistency of your visual brand matters, and it can have a direct impact on whether or not prospects choose to do business with you.
Erin MacLeod [00:06:33]:
Exactly. And like we said before, clear messaging is the key to effective marketing.
Kelly Rice [00:06:38]:
I love it when designers and web designers talk about effective messaging. That makes my heart happy.
Erin MacLeod [00:06:44]:
It all comes together. It all intertwines.
Kelly Rice [00:06:48]:
Right, because it connects with design. If you don't have effective messaging, you really can't have effective design. Right, because exactly. Poor design is terrible, right?
Erin MacLeod [00:06:59]:
Exactly. Yes.
Kelly Rice [00:07:01]:
Because the poor design, it distracts from your messaging, and you're likely actually to miss out on business. Okay, I kind of took over that because I get really excited about it, too. This is a question you've been excited to answer. So if you can break it down for us, what are the seven business graphic design mistakes small businesses make? And what can business leaders do to fix or actually prevent these?
Erin MacLeod [00:07:29]:
Happily, this will be fun. And for the record, these mistakes can apply to all of your design aspects web, social media, digital print pieces, and anything else that your brand needs. So probably the most common mistake we see is poor design hierarchy. When you design anything, especially if it includes a lot of text, you want to make sure that all of your elements in your design are created in a way that help the viewer easily read and understand the piece. For example, you don't want all of the words or elements on a page to be the same size or weight. Right. That would just make it hard to know what the purpose of the piece is and what information is the most important. And because viewers or readers would likely find the design of this piece frustrating, your prospects will probably stop reading.
Erin MacLeod [00:08:22]:
Meaning you'll be missing out on business because of poor design.
Kelly Rice [00:08:26]:
Yes. And for people that are like, oh, no, I do that, that's okay, we're going to help you not do that anymore.
Erin MacLeod [00:08:33]:
Yeah, we've all been there at one point or another. So there are a lot of ways to create strong design hierarchy with font size and weight, colors, contrast, spacing, perspective. But basically, you want to make sure that everything designed for your small business has an impactful design hierarchy so that your prospects don't miss out on your message.
Kelly Rice [00:08:59]:
And I'm so glad that you started here, because you're absolutely right. Poor design can absolutely prevent potential customers from consuming your content, which, like you said, can result in lost business. This is because people scan for something they connect with. So if the design hierarchy is a mess, they won't be able to quickly understand what you're trying to show them or tell them. So please, please don't let poor design hierarchy be the thing that prevents you from making sales. And if you actually want to learn more about design hierarchy, if you're like. And this is kind of new to me. I don't know what you're talking about.
Kelly Rice [00:09:34]:
We actually have a blog post on can. I think it's called Five Tips for Using Typographic Hierarchy. And, Erin, you actually wrote the blog post and created the graphics for it, and it kind of walks through the five things that you and your team keep in mind as you design everything and really anything for our clients to ensure a strong design hierarchy. Okay, Erin, what's number two?
Erin MacLeod [00:10:00]:
Yeah, so another common graphic design mistake we see small businesses make is design overload. Basically, many small businesses or inexperienced graphic designers have a tendency to make their marketing pieces busy and crowded, which, like poor design hierarchy can make it difficult for potential customers to actually pay attention to and retain the information that you want them to know.
Kelly Rice [00:10:26]:
Right? I want to know how many listeners are like, oh, my gosh, I just got this postcard in the mail, and there was a million words on it.
Erin MacLeod [00:10:33]:
Yeah.
Kelly Rice [00:10:35]:
Everybody knows what you're talking about. They're like, oh, yeah, I just threw that away. Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:10:40]:
Don't need to shove everything on one singular.
Kelly Rice [00:10:43]:
Right. So how do they prevent doing this?
Erin MacLeod [00:10:48]:
There are a few things you can do. So first, include white space. I'll say it again, include white space. White space is negative space or space free from any design elements or text. This might not sound very exciting, but it's very important to have and use your white space well, because it helps bring a focus to your design and helps prevent people from feeling overwhelmed.
Kelly Rice [00:11:13]:
Right? I mean, how many times have we said in our office, you have to let this thing breathe, and people are like, what do you mean by letting it breathe? We're like, white space. Give it some room to move around and feel comfortable. Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:11:24]:
Yes. Oh, my goodness. We say it too much, you guys. Another way to prevent design overload is by including adequate spacing and padding. In both of these things, spacing and padding, they're simply the space within and around design elements. So they're similar to white space but different because you want to keep spacing and padding in mind as you add each and every element to a design. And again, you don't want your designs to feel cluttered and be difficult to read, and including adequate spacing and padding can help with that. So, yeah, another way we can prevent design overload is to limit the number of typefaces you use.
Erin MacLeod [00:12:08]:
In case you aren't familiar with what a typeface is, a typeface refers to a specific style of lettering, such as helvetica, that encompasses multiple fonts, like helvetica, italic, helvetica, bold, et cetera. So for your visual brand as a whole. You typically don't want to have more than three typefaces. And usually as my team and I design visual brands, we choose a font for headings, a font for paragraph, text, and then usually some kind of more bold or distinguished font that we can use in headings or as a design element. Any more than three tends to be distracting, causing design overload. But three fonts can help keep designs and visual brands as a whole consistent, effective, and professional.
Kelly Rice [00:12:53]:
Right. And never, ever use comic Sands.
Erin MacLeod [00:12:58]:
Right. Yeah. We could go on and on about what types we like and don't like. Oh, man.
Kelly Rice [00:13:05]:
Right. I think there's full memes out there in videos about not using Comic Sands.
Erin MacLeod [00:13:11]:
Absolutely.
Kelly Rice [00:13:12]:
Sorry. I know there's other things that we need to talk about these typefaces.
Erin MacLeod [00:13:18]:
Sure. Last but not least, and arguably the most effective way to prevent design overload is just to keep the design simple. And simple doesn't mean plain. Keeping a design simple means that you're visually able to convey your message clearly and concisely without a ton of extra things. So keeping it simple doesn't mean that something isn't designed well. It just means that it isn't over the top. You don't need a ton of bells and whistles to get people's attention and to get your message across. In fact, the busier your design is, the less likely people will be to engage with your marketing piece because it will likely be difficult to comprehend and it'll come across as unprofessional.
Kelly Rice [00:14:06]:
Yeah. And it really goes back to when we talk about clarifying your message. It's the same thing. You don't need a ton of words, you don't need to mansplain everything to everyone.
Erin MacLeod [00:14:16]:
Exactly.
Kelly Rice [00:14:17]:
Right. And it's the same thing for design. Yeah, I know. Design overload.
Erin MacLeod [00:14:23]:
Yeah. Basically, design overload, like poor design hierarchy, can cost you business, so make sure your designs aren't unnecessarily, cluttered and busy.
Kelly Rice [00:14:33]:
Yeah. And if you all see a theme of all the things we continually say is we're like clarify your message, make it nice and concise. And now we're like clarify your designs, clarify your website. So clarify it. Make it nice and simple. Right. Many small businesses don't have an effective marketing strategy. And because of this, they try one tactic after another without seeing results.
Kelly Rice [00:14:55]:
This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesn't deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow. On our website, you can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve. Do you ever get frustrated when you have to wait weeks for your web designer to make a simple change to your website. Is your current website so slow that it's hurting your SEO? Or do you wish designing a web page was easier? If so, you have to try Showit It. It's a drag and drop website platform that provides complete creative freedom over the layout and design of your website. So whether you're looking to DIY your site with a Showit template or work with a professional designer, showit is the perfect web builder for small businesses.
Kelly Rice [00:15:52]:
As an agency, we build many of our clients'websites with Showit because it gives our designers the freedom to build strategic visually on brand websites, rather than being forced to use a specific layout like you are with other website builders. And it comes with robust servers, meaning Showit websites are exceptionally fast, even if you're a photographer with lots of images on your site. And it's easy for our clients to use. While we are always happy to make website changes, things can change fast in small businesses. And sometimes our clients need to be able to easily update a thing or two on their own website. So we love Showit so much that we want to give you an opportunity to try our favorite web builder for free. Whether you like to try Showit or you're already convinced that it's the right web builder for you, visit treefrogmarketing.com. Showit.
Kelly Rice [00:16:35]:
To receive one free month of Show It. Again, visit treefrogmarketing.com. Showit to try Showit for free and so that you can have a website that is easy to use but works as hard as you do. So all of these are great points, and they're such great advice. And once again, we come back to the fact that poor design can prevent sales. And we see many small businesses making this mistake as they try to stuff thousands of things into their brochures and their direct mailers and their social media ads and billboard and more. I mean, how many times have you driven by a billboard? And I might be an anomaly, right? Because I look at billboards and I'm like, oh, that's terrible, or I don't know what that was mean. How many times do we drive by that? We're like, I have no idea.
Kelly Rice [00:17:16]:
Right? So I'll say it again for those in the back, for small businesses, great design really, truly does matter. Okay, Erin, so what's the third most common graphic design mistake that small businesses tend to make?
Erin MacLeod [00:17:32]:
The third thing I want to make sure we cover is accessibility.
Kelly Rice [00:17:36]:
Oh, yeah, this was a good one.
Erin MacLeod [00:17:38]:
Many small businesses fail to design with accessibility in mind, which is a shame for a few reasons. First of all, it's honestly unloving and unkind not to design using best accessibility practices, because you're preventing those with disabilities, such as visual impairments, cognitive disorders, and motor disabilities from being able to consume your content. And everyone should have equal access to information. And as a result, you want to design accordingly. Also, when you don't design with accessibility in mind specifically on your website, your SEO can be harmed. Victoria isn't here to take us back to an SEO conversation, but I know she'd be upset if we didn't mention.
Kelly Rice [00:18:26]:
We this I think this podcast would be another hour long than what it is if we let Victoria in here to talk about how all of this affects your.
Erin MacLeod [00:18:37]:
Listen.
Kelly Rice [00:18:38]:
Right, right. So were the Cliff Notes of how it can affect your SEO?
Erin MacLeod [00:18:44]:
Well, many accessibility practices align with best SEO practices, so Google and other search engines tend to reward websites that are accessible and user friendly, which leads to higher search engine rankings and more visibility for your website and content. So there are several ways to design with accessibility in mind. For example, use high contrast colors, provide alt text for images, and avoid relying solely on color to convey information. What I mean by that is, if you design a document or a web page with hyperlinks, keep in mind that someone with a visual impairment may be scrolling through that document or web page, but unable to see that your links are a different color than the rest of your text. So instead of just making the hyperlinks a different color underline them, that'll help ensure that they can be used and accessed by all.
Kelly Rice [00:19:41]:
That is amazing. And that's something that a lot of people don't just think about. Right?
Erin MacLeod [00:19:45]:
Right. Yeah. I think we could honestly do a whole episode about accessibility. Probably.
Kelly Rice [00:19:53]:
Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:19:53]:
But if you'd like a full list of accessibility design best practices, I'd encourage you to check out Princeton University's Accessibility Checklist, which we'll include in the Show Notes. This list is very comprehensive, but it's also super clear.
Kelly Rice [00:20:07]:
Yeah. I'm really appreciative that you brought up accessibility because there are so many other marketing benefits to designing with accessibility in mind. But really the main one, like you said, is that it just allows everyone to consume your content and is simply the right thing to do. All right, I know that there are four more mistakes that you want to touch on, so what's the next?
Erin MacLeod [00:20:31]:
Next? I'd love to discuss poor image selection. First, as you design something, every image you choose needs to relate to the content at hand. If it doesn't, there would be a disconnect in your design. So, for example, let's say I'm designing a PDF guide about the best content marketing strategy for small businesses. I'm likely going to want to utilize a lot of images of people writing and typing on computers and happy looking business owners experiencing growth. I'd also argue that it's important to keep your image style as consistent as possible.
Kelly Rice [00:21:10]:
Yeah, what do you mean by that?
Erin MacLeod [00:21:12]:
There are all kinds of photo styles out there, and none are necessarily bad, but having a clean image with natural skin tones next to a dramatic warm image with deep shadows is going to create a disconnect in your visual brand. So I'd recommend deciding what you want your brand's photo style to be and to only use images that fit that criteria.
Kelly Rice [00:21:35]:
So for everyone listening out there, when you're just kind of grabbing images off of your phone or stock images here and there, I think correct me if I'm wrong, Aaron. What you're saying is that you need to make sure that they look the like all the lighting is the same. The way that it's positioned are the same. Because you don't want dark images like you said, next to light images and all of that. Correct?
Erin MacLeod [00:21:58]:
Exactly. Right?
Kelly Rice [00:22:00]:
Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:22:01]:
And I want to note that when it comes to image selection, one of the biggest mistakes we see small businesses make is overusing stock images. Now, don't get me wrong. Stock images are so helpful if used well and in a way that aligns with your brand, like we just talked about. But as a small business, only using stock images can make your brand and business feel impersonal and generic and cold and even cause prospects to question if you're a legitimate business.
Kelly Rice [00:22:30]:
Now, I know there's, like, a lot of stats and stuff on this that I want people to hear about, because you and I talked about this earlier. But one of the things that I do want to bring attention to is when we talk about using your own images, we don't necessarily mean images of you and your staff and your buildings all of the time. Right. There has to be a balance in there, because if you follow best marketing practices, people want to see successful outcomes, and they don't necessarily just want to see you and your staff all the time. Right. So they want to see happy people and clients and engaging and all of these different things. But the idea of real imagery is extremely important, right?
Erin MacLeod [00:23:18]:
Absolutely. In fact, 82% of people trust a company more if they use real imagery instead of stock photos on their website and marketing materials. Because of this, at Treefrog, we highly recommend hiring a brand photographer to take custom photos of you, your team, your office, whatever else is relevant to your business. This way, you'll have a gallery full of real photos that meet your marketing needs, have a consistent photo style, and help build trust with your prospects.
Kelly Rice [00:23:50]:
And that is another great point. In fact, imagery, which includes both photography and video, is so important that we've actually added a brand photographer or videographer to our team so that us, ourselves, as Treefog and our clients have easy access to these as well. So, erin okay, what's next? I'm excited to see what's next.
Erin MacLeod [00:24:16]:
This next one might go without saying, but another common mistake we see small businesses make far too often is putting out marketing materials with spelling and grammatical errors. Kills us. Kills us?
Kelly Rice [00:24:30]:
Yes. When they use the wrong your or there, I'm like, no, even me as.
Erin MacLeod [00:24:37]:
A designer, I know the difference. So make sure you check your stuff. But marketing materials having those mistakes has such a negative effect on a business's credibility. And while this sounds negative, as human beings, we tend to fixate or get distracted by those mistakes. And as a result, if a design piece has a spelling or grammatical error, those looking at your materials will likely focus on that error and then miss your message.
Kelly Rice [00:25:11]:
Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:25:12]:
Spelling and grammar errors can erode the trust and credibility of a business, and prospects are likely to associate errors with lack of expertise and reliability, which can lead to doubts about the company's ability to fulfill its promises. So basically, if your marketing materials include grammar and spelling errors, your prospects are likely to think they can't even use spell check. How can I possibly expect them to deliver a great product or service, right? Yeah.
Kelly Rice [00:25:41]:
Right? How many times have we heard, we're like, yeah, we know that there's a spelling error in it, but we already paid for it, so we're just going to use it and we're like, right, no, please.
Erin MacLeod [00:25:53]:
Oh, man. Now, to be fair, not all of us are grammar and the wordsmiths. I mean, at Treefrog, we have an entire content department to handle those things. But before, thankfully oh, man. We are so grateful for you, content team, but before you put out marketing materials of any kind, please have someone review your materials for grammar and spelling errors. Preferably someone with writing experience who has highly detail oriented. Yeah, at Treefrog, absolutely nothing we design for ourselves or for our clients is published, posted, or sent to the printer until our content department reviews the piece.
Kelly Rice [00:26:38]:
Yes, so very true. However, we realize that things can get missed. Right. Even when ten people review something, it's inevitable that you will have an error or two along the way. But as long as it's at a rare occurrence, you'll be given much more grace by customers than if it's common. Right? Like if they're reading an entire sentence and there's six things misspelled or commas missing or periods missing, they're going to be like, but if you're reading 100 page document and there's one tiny little error that was missed, you're going to get a lot more grace with that.
Erin MacLeod [00:27:15]:
Absolutely.
Kelly Rice [00:27:16]:
Okay, now on to number six, I think six. Yeah.
Erin MacLeod [00:27:22]:
Another big graphic design mistake we often see small businesses make is not being consistent with their visual brand. Brand. Brand consistency is so important because it helps you build brand equity with your customers. I mean, think about Apple. They're huge, right? Like, everybody knows Apple. You can usually spot an Apple ad pretty quickly, even if you don't see the Apple logo immediately. Because every design piece they produce includes clean lines, simple fonts, dynamic imagery, primarily white, black, shades of gray, which makes their overall visual brand clean but elegant. Basically, apple has built brand equity by being consistent with their visual brand on all platforms, including product design, web design, ads, and all the other stuff that they produce.
Erin MacLeod [00:28:13]:
And while Apple may be one of the world's largest businesses, small businesses should strive for the same kind of consistency with their visual brand, because, again, consistency helps build brand equity, trust, and recognition of your company.
Kelly Rice [00:28:28]:
Absolutely. And if anyone listening didn't understand the importance of graphic design for small businesses before they started listening to this episode, I think it's safe to say that you do now. I mean, so much trust can be built with prospects as a result of strong design. Yeah, I'm so excited. I can't even talk of strong design. Right. My mind keeps going back. Like, I keep getting flashes of these terrible ads where there's a million things in there and all of these colors and all, like, maybe I'm having, like, I don't know, a mini flashback trauma.
Kelly Rice [00:29:06]:
I have, like, design trauma.
Erin MacLeod [00:29:08]:
Honestly, we all do. You're not alone.
Kelly Rice [00:29:12]:
Okay, instead of talking about my design trauma, I know that there's one more mistake that you want to discuss. So kind of like, give it to us.
Erin MacLeod [00:29:23]:
Okay. Last but not least, we regularly see small businesses fail to build versatility into their visual brand. Basically, small businesses tend to design a logo, pick a color palette, and maybe choose a font or two. But they fail to think about how these brand elements will work across all platforms, such as their website, social media ads and graphics, apparel, print pieces, business cards, and whatever other marketing materials they may need. Now, building a versatile visual brand can be tough, like, really tough, especially if you're not regularly creating full brand identities. But in order to keep your brand consistent, it's so important to build a visual brand that can thrive in all of these mediums.
Kelly Rice [00:30:11]:
So, Aaron, thank you so much for breaking all of these common graphic design mistakes down for us. You've given small business owners and leaders some really great tactical things that they can look at and use to assess both their current and future marketing materials, and maybe, like, bookmark this podcast or something and just constantly go back to it. Every time that you design something, you're like, okay, use it as a checklist. Gave it. We have good hierarchy. We have good white space. We've given it room to breathe and all of these things. So thank you.
Kelly Rice [00:30:45]:
Thank you. Thank you for this, Erin.
Erin MacLeod [00:30:47]:
Yeah, of course. It was my pleasure. And I know it's a lot, but like we've said about a dozen times now, a small business's visual brand truly can make or break sales and engagement. And this is why I'm so passionate about making sure that we design well and strategically for our clients and about helping small businesses understand what strong design looks like.
Kelly Rice [00:31:09]:
And we are so appreciative of you for all of this stuff. And countless other reasons. You guys, if you don't know Erin, she lights up a room when she walks there. Yeah, we love our team. Okay, but before we officially wrap up this episode, I actually have one more question for you. So, with Canva and so many other template and IA design resources out there, should small businesses try to take advantage of these resources and DIY graphics and their visual brand, or should they hire a graphic designer?
Erin MacLeod [00:31:41]:
First of all, I'm so glad we're talking about this. And while it's a bit of a political answer, I'm going to say that it depends, like you said, between templates and AI, there are a lot of design resources out there, and every small business starts somewhere. If you can't afford a professional graphic designer right now, take advantage of those options. Absolutely. But keep in mind that overuse of templates can start to become generic and prevent your company from standing out. And even with templates, design can still be very time consuming, especially considering not every template is going to work for every brand or every design you need, even if you do change fonts, colors, et cetera. So as a small business owner or a leader, your time is so valuable. We know that.
Erin MacLeod [00:32:30]:
And even though there are time saving options, unless you're a designer, worrying about design likely isn't a good use of your time. And as soon as you can, I and I know you probably agree, kelly highly recommend hiring a freelance or in house designer. This way, you can ensure all of your design for your business is top notch and spend your valuable time focusing on other important aspects of your business.
Kelly Rice [00:32:56]:
I couldn't agree more. Erin, again, thank you so much for joining us on the show and breaking down the seven most common graphic design mistakes small businesses make and being such a light in our agency, we just love you.
Erin MacLeod [00:33:09]:
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. In case it wasn't obvious, I really enjoyed chatting with you today.
Kelly Rice [00:33:15]:
So for those of you listening, thank you for tuning into another episode of Priority Pursuit. If you've enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple podcast and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.