Advertising
120 Self Promotion Ideas for Graphic Designers & Freelancers
(1) Give Away Freebies With Your Design Business’s Name and Contact Information.
Go to where your target customers hang out and set up a booth or table. Give out some freebies and a flyer or leaflet as well. Some examples of freebies include free magnets, rubber bands, rulers, note pads, etc. All of these items should have your information printed on them.
(2) Free Demonstrations of Your Services.
Go to local print shops, office supply stores, and other local stores and offer to give free demonstrations of your services. You can also offer lessons as well.
(5) Speaking Engagements.
Contact local schools and associations about classes, colleges, seminars, lectures that you can speak or teach at.
(6) Go to Your Local Library or Book Store and Place Business Cards in Relevant Books.
This one is a little iffy. Go to your local book stores and libraries and find books that a potential customer might read and place your business card in it.
(7) Shave Your Logo into Your Hair or Get a Logo Tattoo.
Want to strike up conversation easily? Shave your logo into your hair or get a tattoo.
(6) Flyer / Business Card Exchanges.
Network with other local non-competitive businesses. See if they will display your business card or flyer in exchange for referrals, etc.
(7) Incorporate a Referral Incentive Program.
Offer your customers an incentive for referring customers to you. An incentive could be a discount on future business, a gift certificate, a gift, or whatever you decide that they incentive should be. You might also consider implementing a referral fee.
(8) Hold a Contest.
Offer a contest with a grand prize that would interest your target audience. Promote your contest through flyers, local newspapers, and local radio stations. This will get the word out about your business and will more than pay for itself. (however you have to have the startup cash to place ads in local newspapers and on the radio. If you don’t have startup cash, just use hand printed flyers and place them all over your the place (such as libraries, grocery stores, malls, etc). By holding a contest, you can also get your site listed on dozens of online contest directories.
(9) Directory Listings.
Make sure to list your company in all appropriate free directories. If you can afford it, get yourself listed in directories that require a fee (as long as you have researched that directory and it is a directory that will land you business).
(10) Wear Your Business Information.
Create t-shirts, hats, buttons, and bags with your company’s information and web site listed on them. You might feel like a walking advertisement but that is the point. 
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Color Branding and Corporate Identity
Color is a very important factor in design can be quite significant in defining the identity or branding of a company. Companies use colors to brand their products so that we are reminded of the product simply by recognizing a combination of colors. Not only these large companies but many designers and small companies use colors to identify themselves to stand out. Here are some examples of websites where the color contributes to the company’s identity:
Apple
Apple has always been known for their use of silver, both in their products and their advertising. The Apple website clearly displays this by the use of a silver gradient navigation, and light grays and white for the rest of the site. With their common use of silver computer casing, Apple has indeed branded themselves with the color silver. Apple also uses bright colors for some of their product lines, including the iMac and iPod shuffle/nano.
(For an interesting article documenting the change in Apple’s design between 1977 and 2008 click here) › Continue reading
Free Online Advertising
AdGridWork
When we designed our new Eri Design website, we wanted to bring a lot of rich traffic into our website. So as we were searching online for free online advertising, we happend to land on the AdGridWork website. AdGridWork provides a 100% free adword advertising, we couldn’t believe it either but we went with it and take a look at our page which provides adgridwork advertising. For information on how AdGridWork works click here.
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