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The demand for graphic design is high. Many professionals and companies outsource graphic design skills for visual communication materials, including ads, website designs, infographics, and merchandise. FinancesOnline.com’s graphic design statistics reveal that 46% of website visitors associate a website’s design with a brand’s credibility. Therefore, it’s no surprise that many companies get help from businesses that offer graphic design services—like yours—to improve their brand image through the use of high-quality visual materials.
However, small businesses in graphic design aren’t exempt from certain challenges. For instance, you may struggle to keep up with the changing design trends.
Something you created today might not work in the next few days. Another is finding clients. Even if your business has a great portfolio, you won’t succeed if you don’t get paying customers. Such challenges can affect your revenue and how you run your business.
Luckily, emerging technologies—particularly automation and artificial intelligence (AI)—can help maximise revenue from graphic design. These assist in doing tasks more quickly and efficiently—including those involved in communication and marketing—which is why many businesses already use them. With that said, here are some reasons why your small business should use automation and AI:
It can help you promote your business to niche markets
Finding clients is necessary for small businesses to continue growing. Although you can accomplish this in several ways, like posting ads, you may not reach your target market. For example, if you’re a business that creates wedding invitations, you may not be posting your ads on channels frequented by your target audience of soon-to-be-married couples.
AI can help you optimize your marketing materials for specific groups, making it more likely for them to check out your business and potentially acquire your services. The AI marketing platform Albert can drive fully autonomous digital campaigns for you by processing and analyzing data about your audience and optimizing your marketing campaigns accordingly.
This way, they reach your targets on platforms like Google and Facebook. As a result, more potential customers from your target audience can discover your small business and use your services, helping you convert more leads into sales for revenue maximization.
It can improve customer communication
Some customers may want to inquire about certain things before using your services, such as asking how long it would take to get a poster or how much specific designs or sizes would cost. Answering all of these accurately and promptly is essential if you want to increase their chances of doing business with you. Otherwise, they may turn to your competitors instead.
Automated chatbots can help you simulate human conversation to respond to basic inquiries like these. The customer service chatbot HelpCrunch engages with your website visitors on your behalf by responding to frequently answered questions about your business, products, and services.
If someone asks a more specific question, like if it’s possible to include specific elements in a poster, the chatbot will direct the customer to you.
With this, customers will feel welcomed even before meeting you, and there’s a higher chance that they’ll support your business. More importantly, your business will have more resources to focus on the quality of the services you provide, making it more likely for potential customers to become regulars who provide you with more revenue over time.
It can allow you to explore new business models
Exploring new business models allows you to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction, enhance operational efficiency, improve resource allocation, and ultimately maximize revenue. One of the most effective for graphic design businesses is the subscription model, which charges customers a recurring fee at scheduled intervals instead of on a per-project basis.
Besides providing a steady income stream, it can also make it more convenient and cost-effective for your customers to use your services. However, managing subscription payments across multiple clients can be complicated, potentially leading to miscalculations or late billing statements if done manually.
Automation can make it easier to reap the benefits of new business models like subscriptions. SOFTRAX’s subscription billing software supports all recurring billing functions in one platform to drive business growth.
It’s useful for all the phases of the subscription billing journey and automatically manages payments across your clients despite their complexity. SOFTRAX can also streamline contract renewals to make renewing subscriptions easier for customers. That way, you’ll have steady and maximized revenue streams from recurring customers needing graphic design services.
It enables you to forecast demand
Graphic design is a service that takes time due to the creation process. Our post “10 Ways How to Make Money as a Graphic Designer” shares many instances where you’ll experience this, such as if you design and sell t-shirts or sell your own prints. These require meticulous planning to get the right design and revisions (if applicable) according to customer feedback. As such, meeting various customers’ needs can be difficult.
AI can help you forecast demand so you can prepare your business to handle it accordingly. After all, you wouldn’t want to turn down paying customers—something that would impact your ability to maximise revenue from graphic design —because you don’t have time or resources. AI-powered demand forecasting software LEAFIO uses data and machine learning to help you determine if you must expand your product range or business to handle a potential influx of customers. Consequently, you can better allocate resources when you know you have a busy season ahead. It also ensures optimal inventory to reduce surpluses and release frozen inventory, allowing you to increase revenue.
Using AI and automation is useful for small businesses in graphic design. Such technologies can effectively help maximize your revenue for business growth and success.
