With the proliferation of online talent recruiting sites such as Elance, oDesk, and Guru that gather freelancers from all over the world to work and compete on projects posted by clients with similar international backgrounds, I’ve seen an increase in services such as logo design. have dropped to unprecedented levels.
I would even go so far as to say that customers pay next to nothing for the logos they get from designers.
This is not a healthy trend at all. For this bad trend, I think the freelance logo designers themselves are to blame. After all, if no one had a job that paid such a pittance, we would be in a situation where the prices asked would remain substantial. Instead, today we see that there is almost no limit to how low prices can go.
With this background in mind, I offer tips on how freelance logo designers can continue to charge a good (if not a premium) price for the services they provide.
Tip 1 – Resourcefulness
Well, it’s a given, but many freelance logo designers just don’t pay attention and unfortunately rehabilitate existing logos just to propagate what they call “original” creations. While some customers can be fooled, most will not. Do not do this. Instead, come up with something truly unique and original based on the client’s profile and client’s business/personality themes. As the customer gets what they want, you’ll be able to get better prices.
Tip 2 – Compete on value, not price
A common mistake many freelance logo designers make is competing on price, not the value proposition they offer. This was a very big mistake, they kept floating around the bottom and couldn’t get a bounty. Do not do this. Instead, compete for the value you offer. For example, asking a premium price but offering 3 different iterations of the logo to meet customer needs.
Then provide a full version of the logo, including all layers, not just JPEG when designing in a program like Adobe Photoshop. When you do this, also inform the customer how easily he or she will be able to reproduce and reproduce the logo you provide on multiple surfaces and objects since you provide all layers of the logo file. Finally, have a (limited) set of revisions, say one or two rounds.
If a customer sees all those little value propositions you offer, he or she certainly won’t mind paying extra for your services.
Tip 3 – Be proud of your work and what you are worth
If you take pride in your work and your own personal worth, you don’t charge cheap basement prices as far as you really value your worth. Remember that what you are doing is no less than an art form, albeit digital.
When evaluating the value of your work, don’t just look at the time you spent creating your logo. Instead, think about the time you spent mastering logo design. Think about the costs you incur in getting the software you need for your logo design. Also consider your ideation time, then the time it takes you to complete the task, the back-and-forth communication that may occur, the cost of face-to-face or face-to-face meetings (if applicable), etc.
If you think about all these little things, you will understand your true worth and you will probably stop charging very low prices for the services you provide.