15 Oct The problem with all the free design templates out there
One of the things I adore about the internet is that you can find pretty much ANYTHING you need. Like, you want a wooden money box shaped like the first initial of your child’s name? No worries! There’s a guy in Lithuania who handcrafts them. Looking for a first edition of your favourite childhood book? Not a problem! There’s an old bookstore in Arkansas who can ship that to you.
As a small business owner, you have to wear all the hats in your biz, no matter if it’s where your skills are. This is where the internet and all it provides can appear to be really helpful. If copywriting isn’t your thing, there’s someone online who can help you out. If you’re struggling to pull together a client proposal document, there are a staggering number of design templates out there for you to choose from. Kinda like the $99 wedding dress which keeps appearing in your Facebook sponsored ads, but just because you can access something on the internet, doesn’t mean you should.
Unless you’re lucky enough to pull together a whole lot of templates from a whole lot of different sources which somehow manage to match, I would suggest that all those free design templates which initially appear to be really helpful are actually going to do your business a disservice. Here, let me talk you through it.
All those choices are just overwhelming! At first, when you scroll through the many available design templates it can be exciting. But then, as you continue to scroll (…and scroll some more) you realise you can’t remember which ones you liked or what it is you were even looking for! Before you know it, you’ve lost a good chunk of your day, your work has piled up and you’re left with a template chosen not for its strategic value, but for its emotional appeal.
The free ones often just don’t cut it. The thing with free design templates is they’re usually created to appeal to a broad and diverse range of people. Which means, they won’t specifically target your dream client. It could be that the look isn’t quite premium enough for your clients or, if it does manage to suit your target audience, there’s only one template included. Now you’re stuck trying to create all the other collateral you need and doing your best to somehow make it all match.
You can’t get all your elements to match. When you’re trying to pull together all the things you need for your business from these design sites, you need to search for each of them individually. Not only does this take more time but it usually leaves you with a whole lot of elements which, on their own look great but together, there’s no cohesiveness. For truly excellent business branding, each element needs to work with each other and, with your brand styling.
They haven’t been designed for your audience. Yes, the template you’ve chosen may look absolutely gorgeous. It’s got the font you love; the colours are crisp and modern, and you just adore the layout. But, does your target market? Good business branding is designed specifically for your dream client. Everything from the colours and the font, all the way down to where the CTA is positioned will have been strategically chosen to inspire their purchase.
And that, my dear friends, is where we come in! We know the struggle of running a business and we understand how hard it is to wear all the necessary hats required to make it a success. So, let us take one of them off your hands.
In response to all the issues mentioned above we have created an AMAZING resource for small businesses (just like yours!) where you can find ALL THE THINGS you need, in just one place.
No longer will you have to piece together different styles of templates, labouring over ways to create a cohesive look and feel. For you, we have created a whole suite of elements, in a range of different styles, so that you can get everything you need in one, single purchase.
Our templates will include items such as:
- Business cards;
- Letterheads;
- Invoice templates;
- PowerPoint slides;
- Proposal templates;
- Social media templates;
- And more!
All of these have been designed to create a cohesive aesthetic, ensuring your brand is consistent and awesome! Simply choose the look and feel which best suits your brand and then purchase each of the elements from that suite to integrate into your brand collateral.
This incredible resource will be launching in late December. To ensure you’re the first to know when it drops, sign up to our newsletter here>
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