Are you on the verge of embarking on a graphic design service? One of the best ways to make your venture successful is to offer subscription-based services rather than take up one project at a time.
You can find out more about metering and billing software (https://www.togai.com/) right here.
Why Subscription-based Billing is Ideal for Graphic Design Businesses
Graphic designing on an ongoing basis can be very unpredictable. You may have a fluctuation of clients from month to month, which may affect your business. On the other hand, subscription-based design services deliver these benefits:
- Generates recurring revenue
- Makes selling in packages easier
- Creates more predictability
- Ensures upon payment from clients
- Creates awareness amongst clients about what they are gaining
- Saves time and speeds up your sales process
Now it is time to venture into the details about starting a subscription-based design service, as explained by Togai, a leading metering and billing platform.
Subscription-based Design Service: Here’s How You Do It
1. Create your niche.
Graphic design is an up-and-coming vertical with a fiercely competitive market. To thrive and survive, you need to outshine your competition by creating your own niche, which only you have the expertise to execute.
Finding your niche requires quite a bit of research. It would help if you narrowed down the factors to:
- The size of your target audience- Are you catering to large enterprises, small businesses, startups, or individuals? Is your target audience large enough to generate the company you want?
- Your services- What are your offerings? Do you focus on graphic design, user interface, or individuals?
- Audience accessibility- Is your audience reachable through advertising or content marketing?
- Your business model- Are you a dedicated shared or pay-per-task designer?
- Your geographical boundaries- Are you willing to cater locally, regionally, or globally?
Once you’ve zeroed in on your niche, it is best to test the waters by collecting feedback from potential clients. It is an ideal way to test how your value proposition resonates with your target audience.
2. Create a website to market your service.
Once you’ve found your niche, the next step is to create a website to sell your service. However, that’s not the only objective of your site. It should clearly explain your expertise, help visitors qualify for your service, and convert them into clients.
Your site should also talk about your:
- Value proposition
- How your service works
- Your target customers
- Work samples
- Pricing
Do not forget to add a Call to Action button that allows your customers to schedule a demo.
3. Build trust with case studies and resources.
Creating case studies and resources is a solid way to build client trust. You can create a “Before/After” slide show, design guides, templates, and illustration galleries to showcase your work and niche expertise to potential clients.
Unsure how to build case studies? You can always hire designers to create a personalized one based on their previous designs.
4. Create pricing packages.
Now that you’ve created your niche established your website, and completed case studies to foster trust, it’s time to decide how to package your offerings and what price to set for each. It would help if you considered factors like:
- Your designing and marketing costs to zero in on a comfortable margin.
- Expected customer churn.
Study your market and be clear about your expectations before pricing your services. Clear expectations regarding the purchase can increase customer satisfaction.
5. Hire graphic designers.
If you’re not a graphic designer, hiring a team of designers and project managers before taking on your first client is advisable. The designers will handle daily design requests and communicate with clients. Meanwhile, project managers will oversee and assign tasks to the designers and assist with interviewing and onboarding new designers to the team.
6. Find your clients.
Now, you are all set to launch your subscription-based graphic design service. How do you attract customers? The simplest way is to offer a pilot program, a free trial, or a price discount for the first month. You can also provide single design tasks with unlimited revisions and a money-back guarantee to reduce risk and attract clients.
7. Ensure proper customer service.
Once your customer base expands, you must draft measures to counteract churn. A few customers are bound to leave, but a high churn rate can be disastrous for your business.
To prevent churn, you need to understand its causes. For a design service business, you may face customer churn for these reasons:
- Your client doesn’t need the service.
- They are not satisfied with the design.
- The client is a wrong fit for your business.
- Poor customer service.
- The client had unreasonable expectations.
8. Focus on sustainable growth.
Want to survive the competition and thrive for many years? Do this:
- Create a good sales team.
- Refine your branding strategies.
- Build a long-term SEO plan.
- Create an affiliate program.
These efforts will yield long-term results that you can put to good use.
Let’s Conclude
Yes, creating a subscription-based design service is a lot of work. However, it has the potential to generate a good ROI and steady revenue in the long run. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get going!