Design as a Service: Benefits for Small Businesses

Did you know that 75% of people judge a business based on its design? What others think of your logo, website, social media posts and marketing promotions will be informed by how well they are designed. This is especially true for small businesses. As a business owner, you spend so much time and effort running your business from sales to service to keeping the day-to-day operations afloat. You don’t have the time or energy to acquire the proper design elements that create trust and brand recall.

However, hiring a full-time designer can be too expensive, and relying on freelancers can be hit-or-miss. This is where design as a service has become increasingly popular. Design as a service means you pay a subscription fee and get unlimited access to design professionals when you need them most. It’s affordable, accessible, and designed with small businesses in mind for future growth.

What Is Design as a Service?

Design as a service is a contemporary rendering of getting graphic and design solutions without the added cost of hiring or the time spent interviewing and retaining multiple freelancers. Instead, with a provider, you pay one flat monthly fee and get access to talent.

Here are some great benefits of this model:

• Flat monthly fee—there’s no surprise, and you know what you’re getting.
• Unlimited requests—you can submit tasks as frequently as you’d like.
• Unlimited revisions—if you’re not fully satisfied with the request, you can continue adjusting until you are.
• Dedicated liaison—whether through a dashboard or a project manager, someone is there to help you and organize everything.

Everything becomes simple. For example, if you need a flyer one week but Instagram graphics the next week, instead of hiring two different freelancers for two jobs, you already have someone on your roster for both.

Moreover, comparing professional unlimited graphic design services to previous models like freelancing per project gives you more control. You no longer have to worry about waiting too long or paying too much. Hiring outside help for immediate coverage tends to take longer when waiting for turnaround times; with this process, your graphics come in much quicker fashion to help aid your marketing needs.

Why Graphic Design as a Service is Beneficial for Your Business

Think about how you’d feel purchasing from a poorly designed business. Whether it’s a shoddy logo or cluttered website, it discourages sales. Even within seconds of encountering a company, customers make decisions based on how they feel about what’s before them. Therefore, graphic design as a service is an alternative for such overwhelming potential costs.

Why should something out of your control cause unforeseen costs? Instead of waiting for answers and hoping for the best from unreliable freelancers, you can enjoy a steady pace with graphic design as a subscription service.

You’ll get customized professional designs that fit within your branding initiatives. More importantly, you’ll reduce the stress of having to go out there and find creative talent to hire and manage.

When you attain graphic design services via subscription, you receive:

• Trustworthiness and credibility for customers who appreciate brand consistency.
• Funding reductions compared to hiring in-house permanently.
• Immediate solutions for seasonal needs or time-sensitive initiatives.
• Assurance that your competitors with well-designed branding will not outpace you.

A professional appearance fosters customer trust much sooner than anticipated. This leads to loyalty and eventual growth.

Advantages of Graphic Design as a Service

A transition from conventional thinking to design subscriptions comes with several obvious advantages. Let’s explore the top ones:

Cost savings

Hiring someone full-time means salary, benefits, healthcare options and office space/technology investment. That’s a hefty price to pay for using someone 40 hours/week even when there might be slow lulls in business operations. With an unlimited access subscription, you’re charged one monthly fee. It’s much easier to budget compared to accessing high-quality work from full-time service providers.

Time effective

You no longer have to search for freelancers or wait for their availability. Submitting requests takes only moments, and most turnaround times get answers in just a few days. This enables you to remain on schedule for product launches, promotions, campaigns, etc.

Clear communication

Most providers utilize easy-to-navigate communication avenues through dashboards or online portals. You can submit jobs, track progress and provide feedback in one area instead of relying upon email chains that may complicate communication.

An entire team at your disposal

Instead of having only one person vouch for your success through freelance means, you’ll have an entire team at your fingertips with specialized areas of expertise like branding, social media or web-based design distribution. This provides you with the breadth of possibilities you previously would have had to hire separately.

Helps ensure your decision-making

Sometimes it’s hard to make up your mind about what type of graphic you want. With unlimited graphic design services, you can ask for different versions so that comparing what’s presented makes it easier to finalize something that works best for your branding efforts.

What Design as a Service Has to Offer

One of the best advantages of this approach is the variety included. You don’t need to hire different people for different responsibilities. Most providers cover many services, including:

• Logos and branding—creation or rebranding efforts to develop what will be visually recognized by consumers over time.
• Marketing materials—flyers, posters, brochures, business cards.
• Social media graphics—posts, ads, banners and stories special to each platform.
• Web-based creative—website banners and digital ads/landing pages.
• Presentation formats—slides that attract attention and keep interest intact.

This cohesive access helps maintain integrity among what’s produced across digital and print markets; everything looks the same and further supports branding efforts.

Design as a Service vs. Traditional Methods Comparison

When you need assistance creating graphics and designs for your business, typically you’d work in-house or search out freelancers or agencies. Let’s see how they compare instead of preferred options:

• In-house designers—Highly reliable, but expensive. You’re paying someone’s salary even during seasonal lulls when their talents are not needed 40 hours/week.
• Freelancers—Flexible solutions but inconsistent quality; they may have varying pricing measures and delivery timetables.
• Agencies—High-quality solutions that appeal to bigger clients with bigger budgets; they’re expensive but designed as permanent solutions.

Comparatively, graphic design as a subscription service offers professional conclusions without agency costs or freelancer unpredictability at a fraction of the cost while still being reliable.

A Few Graphic Design as a Service Examples You Can Consider

There are plenty of companies offering this service today; while each has slightly different focuses, they all make accommodating design efforts more accessible for small businesses. Here are some to explore:

• Penji—Unlimited design requests and unlimited revisions for one flat monthly payment; Penji boasts quick turnaround times without sacrificing coverage of services provided; it’s popular among startups/small businesses with access beyond typical means.
• Design Pickle—One of the original agencies that offers flat-rate design services primarily within branding and other marketing materials; they boast quick turnaround times without sacrificing quality.
• ManyPixels—Another company that champions daily turnaround times across many requests; their interface is easy for submission without hassle making them efficient.
• Kimp—Unlimited design plus video editing services under one roof; if you’re going to want graphics and video content blended together, this is essential.
• Flocksy—A creative subscription service including design efforts along with copywriting and video/web development all good if your design endeavors work under the auspices of other content creation offerings.

When deciding which one works best for you, determine first what kind of work you’ll need most often. If it’s social media graphics every single day then you’ll want many people on board who specialize in different avenues than someone who needs graphics maybe once every few weeks/months for branding efforts like pamphlets or flyers.

Conclusion

For small businesses, design is not simply an accessory but rather another form of presenting who you are to prospective clients without ever having met them firsthand. Strong design builds trust efforts throughout visibility without spending valuable operational hours trying to circumvent plans that might otherwise go wrong ahead of time without the proper know-how before getting started.

That’s why now more than ever, the options that graphic design as a service provides makes it more appealing than conventional methods like hiring full-time designers or sifting through freelancers on an ad hoc basis who still might disappoint with awful graphics after being paid too much time in the first place.

If you’re ready to see how this can work for you today—for all your design needs moving forward—then visit penj.co and see what might be possible!

FAQ’s

1. What are four examples of service design?

Some examples are customer service, online reservations, physical store arrangements, and subscriptions. According to Design as a service, these aspects of well thought out design minimizes stress on the job and maximizes customer satisfaction.

2. What are the three elements of service design?

People, processes and tools. According to Design as a service, these elements operate in an efficient manner without redundancy or confusion so your designs are realized quickly.

3. What are the 5 characteristics of service design?

Usability, accessibility, interaction, dependability, and appearance. According to Design as a service, these characteristics ensure that your designs are comprehensible, useable and align with the needs of your business.