Starting a company is the first step for any entrepreneurial jump, and it comes with an abundance of responsibilities. When writing out your business plan, and gathering the methods of all the technicalities, there’s always a vision of what your new adventure looks like, feels like and how it presents itself. The world of branding is a universe of details that all come together to make your brand memorable. The costs associated with the creation of your look can really break the budget, but it doesn’t need to. In a digital platform driven world, the internet offers a plethora of tools that anyone with basic computer skills and a spark of creativity can use to cut the costs (at least in the beginning) when branding your company. Read below about the platforms that helped us start ours.
WWW.CANVA.COM
This graphic design platform is easy to use and offers a never ending reel of tools to create logos, post cards, menus, posters… you name it. It’s 'Business Basic Plan' costs about £12.00/ month and offers access to fonts, colours, graphics, templates and just about anything you might need to cover the first steps of branding. One of our favourite features is the “Brand Folder” which outlines the guidelines of your visual brand (i.e: logo, fonts, and colours) and has the settings readily available for your next design.
Coding is a language, and not many of us speak it – that’s why website design and build used to cost upwards of £10,000.
Ouch! Platforms like Wix, or even SquareSpace simplify the process and allow the users to design a bespoke website using their tools. Of course, your needs of functionality will depend on your business, and these platforms may not be able to accommodate overly complex functions. Though to build a simple to moderate functioning website with the addition of mobile optimization, Wix is the solution to budget friendly websites and offers quite a few tools that are surprisingly easy to incorporate for a better user experience.
WWW.SURVEYMONKEY.COM
Feedback is always very necessary when collecting information about the success of your brand. SurveryMonkey has simplified the process in collecting feedback in a user friendly, visually appealing way and offers thousands of templates to gather information about your customers’ experience with your brand.
Tip: Utilizing this platform pre-launch is a great way to find out what your clients are looking for in a business of your nature. Asking 50 people to fill out an anonymous survey that asks for feedback about your ideas is a great way to gain non biased insight.
WWW.MAILCHIMP.COM
Though newsletters seem to be outdated, statistically – they work. Mailchimp makes it easy to send a monthly newsletter or even a weekly reminder in a clean and professional way. Check out our article on 'How to Write a Newsletter' to let your customers know of the latest news and happenings of your company, or just to say hello! (If you are using Wix for your website, using their email marketing feature is just as good as Mailchimp, and will keep all of your functions in one place.)