Most people like to create, colour, try their hand at logo and tag line ideas, play with clip art and find funny images on the web for presentations. Let's face it, it's FUN! It's different. Anyone can do it right? ... With relatively easy-to-use applications on virtual every desktop and device?
So your top sales person spends an afternoon building a multicolour PowerPoint 50 slide presentation with a pixilated screen capture of your logo and a pile of pirated cartoons to lighten up the presentation mood. What is it really costing you?
How many leads could they have followed up on? How many existing customers could they have touched base with? Did they miss out on a sale that afternoon? Did they infringe on copyright that could get you into hot water?
DIY is a tempting way to appear to save cold hard money. When we look at the cost of using a professional, we need to look not only at the of the service, but also the cost of not using that professional expertise.
Sure your engineer that you are paying a large salary can do diagrams, or create spec sheets in Word, but is that the most effective use of their time and your payroll dollars?
Will that material show consistent and proper brand and key messages? Will only images with correct copyright privileges be used? Do you have 5 people developing 5 different spec sheets with different looks and messages?
Can that elaborate logo designed by your brother-in-law's kid who's taking art class be reproduced in all media cost effectively? Was it inspired by someone else's design elicited a cease and desist letter from an unhappy business owner's lawyer?
Professional designers are trained to consider these factors.
They provide expertise and knowledge that can help save money and make the most effective use of your marketing dollar.