How to Outsource Your Design to an Agency
Partnering with a Design Agency to Bolster Your Marketing
When you’re thinking about elevating your business, a great place to start is with your designs. However, if you aren’t a designer, it can be challenging to think about what that looks like to develop moving forward. If you’re ready to make a long-term investment to work with an agency, you can outsource your ongoing design needs to an agency in a partnership.
What kind of work can you outsource?
When it comes to answering the question, “what kind of work can you outsource to an agency?” The answer is just about everything!
Social media graphics
Have you ever spent time looking for the exact right thing to post on Instagram, and you don’t have anything?! Well, say goodbye to this momentary panic. When you outsource social content to an agency, you’ll always have something fresh, exciting, and on-brand for your clients.
Event graphics
Hosting events is fantastic, but getting people to attend them can be challenging! With branded event graphics, you can share them on your social media, and it’s easier than ever to spread the word about your event!
Branded content for partnerships or client features
When you’re working with partnerships or featuring your clients, you want it to be on your brand. Chances are, you want to co-brand some of that content and give it some extra flair to help it stick out from everything else you post or share. If you’re working with a graphic designer to outsource that, they can easily enhance the appearance of these pieces of content.
Branded videos/animations
If you’re looking to expand and elevate the content on your website or create fun, engaging animations for your social media, you can outsource those too! What is fun about getting some of these bonus pieces of content created is that they can help give your brand a more refined touch and make you come across as a bigger brand than you may be.
Print collateral
When it comes to having business cards, one-pagers, brochures, and any other pieces of print collateral created, these are the perfect projects to outsource. A graphic designer will have the ideal expertise to help bring your brand to life when it’s printed into a medium.
Package Design
If you sell a physical product, chances are it has packaging! Why not invest in some fancier packaging to help your product stick out and uplevel the customer experience as they open it up? These projects are a fun and exciting place for your graphic designer or agency to breathe life into the visions you have!
What having an ongoing relationship with an agency can look like:
Sure, it sounds nice to have so many things outsourced or just off your plate! Let’s address what kinds of specific deliverables you could be looking at if you have an ongoing relationship with a design agency.
A set number of graphics each month
If you’re looking to increase consistency and capture more brand attention on social media, this can be a great option!
Working with a package like this, you’ll overhaul and update your feeds in no time with branding that makes a difference right where people see it most, on their phones.
Ongoing promotional help for your events
When it comes to hosting and promoting events, it can be hard to stay focused on all the other things running through your mind when you need to spend time curating promotional content for your upcoming events.
Well, it doesn’t have to be a pain anymore! Not only can you outsource the graphics you’ll need, but if you work with the right agency, you can outsource the copywriting too!
One-off projects but steadily for branded content or features
Maybe you have templates or really handy members of your team that produce excellent pieces of content for your social media and your events. But, you’re looking to create some posts for partnerships or to highlight special features.
When you work with a graphic designer, you can leverage their expertise to create a steady stream of content that is a little more refined than your usual branding. This can help those pieces stick out more and give your feed a polished image.
How to create systems that foster collaboration with an agency
As you work with an agency in an ongoing way, you’ll collaborate with them as if they were members of your team! In a way, they are; however, they are also the experts. So creating a system that allows you to accurately show them what style or vibe you would like something to have and then let them run with it helps it stick out seamlessly but matches your brand.
Pinterest mood boards
The easiest place to start with an ongoing partnership is to create a pool of content ideas you like! Together, build a Pinterest board full of inspiration for your content.
This will give them some ideas visually, but it can help you think outside of the box on what some of these things could look like!
Check-in meetings
Depending on the frequency of work, you may have a check-in meeting once a month, every other week, or maybe even weekly! The point of these calls is for both parties to share ideas, get on the same page, and have a plan of what they need/can expect from the other party in the coming weeks.
If you’re pumping out lots of content, you’ll want to make sure you’re staying close to your design team.
Sharing or collaborating in a task management software or system
When it comes to making sure nothing is forgotten about or slips through the cracks, it’s important to have a centralized place to track and manage your responsibilities and projects. Who needs what? When do I need to send ideas or copy over to them? When did I say I’d get drafts returned to me?
When you’re using a task management system or software, you can easily track these next steps and keep your workflow moving.
Ready to partner with a design agency?
When you’re ready to work with a design agency or a graphic designer in an ongoing way, you must take time to vet your options and build a partnership with the right one.
We have a post on how to find a graphic designer you love that can help you if you’re unsure what you’re looking for or where to start!
Don’t forget to inquire here for more information on what we do and if you would be a good fit to work with us! In the meantime, follow us on Pinterest and Instagram to stay in touch!