The Importance of a Good Logo
When we think of logos, we tend to image the big brand logos of multinational corporations, who spend millions of dollars perfecting the perfect designs. However, logos are also important for freelancers and solo-entrepreneurs. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on them either to make them stand out.
Your logo is the face of your business.
They help prospective clients identify your business quickly and memorably, as well as influencing their first impressions of your brand. Using fonts, images and colors, your logo is a short and sharp reference to everything your freelancing business stands for and can do.
Logos also provide a point of consistency throughout your advertising and marketing materials, often influencing color schemes and design options in other features of your business, such as website graphics and invoice software templates.
A Good Logo Makes a Great First Impression
First impressions count a lot in business marketing, especially online. People make split-second judgements about a business based on the look and ‘feel’ of their branding. You can be an exceptional freelancer with excellent samples and reviews, but if your logo and wider brand image is poorly designed, people might not even bother checking out your website.
A logo that looks cheap, tacky, and amateurish, and which doesn’t convey the essence of your freelancing services, will do little to impress new prospects. On the other hand, a well-designed, visually appealing, and market targeted logo can go a long way in inspiring people to explore your work.
A Good Logo Builds Trust
Building trust is everything for a freelancer. You need to build a prospect’s sense of trust in your business before they even make contact with you. A good logo and related brand design help develop that trust. Deep down your potential client will know that if you’ve cared enough to spend money on creating a strong brand identity for yourself, then you care enough about your business to do the best work possible for your clients as well.
An eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to understand logo immediately boosts trust levels and places you as a freelancer to trust.
A Good Logo Makes You Easily Recognizable
The best logos are simple and easily recognizable. Good logos are all about building awareness and consistency in your marketing and branding. The more people see your logo, the more they’ll come to associate it with your freelancing services, and the more likely they are to then make contact.
People tend to trust a brand they see more frequently, whether on social media or via referrals. But not if the brand design is shoddy. It’s essential therefore that the logo is clear, appealing, and positively portrays your business. Great logos should be seen from a distance and stand out from a crowd.
A Good Logo Markets Your Professionalism
Clients like to work with established professionals who take their work very seriously. A great brand design suggests the freelancer loves what they do and cares about their reputation, which prospects subconsciously perceive. Successful freelancers have carefully cultivated a brand image over time to match with their experience and skills.
A strong logo suggests there’s a great business behind it. Prospects are willing to pay more to work with an experienced freelancer who oozes trustworthiness via their branding, as well as their portfolio and reviews. A good logo helps with that all-important first impression and makes you look competent, able, and highly professional.
A Good Logo Adds a Competitive Edge
All freelancers face huge competition online in the battle to attract new clients. Every little thing counts if you want to charge higher rates, work more sensible hours, and make a comfortable living. New freelancers are popping up every day and more established ones are upping their game every week. Marketing, advertising, and branding are becoming more and more important for freelancers and solo-entrepreneurs.
An eye-catching, memorable, and effective logo can inspire prospects to check your business out and delve further into the services you provide. They’ll either hire you on the spot or remember you for a later date.
Where Freelancers Can Use Logos
A great freelancer logo needs to look good in multiple formats and locations. It’s easy to assume your logo will be primarily for your website but there are many other places where freelancers need their logos to work for them.
Usually, your logo will appear in the header of your freelance website. Yet it can also be used in other places on your site including in the footer, on the contact page, in project request forms, in downloadable PDFs, bio pages, and more.
Then you have all your social media channels including the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. The logo can be placed in the headers and bio images of these platforms, hence the importance of making sure the logo is sharp and clear.
Invoice form software have boxes in which to place a logo. A good logo adds to the professional look of invoices and other important documents including proposals and contracts, as well as letterheads in printed materials.
Logos can be placed in email signatures, where they form a constant reminder to prospects and clients of your brand identity, skills, and professionalism. Emails are also shared or forwarded, and an effective logo can catch the eye of more potential clients.
A great logo can also form the main identity of an office space, creative studio, or agency interior. The colors and style might influence the décor and how clients perceive you and your team when first visiting your premises.
And that’s not the end of where your logo can potentially be placed. A great logo will look good on stationery, t-shirts, leaflets, flyers, brochures, business cards, vehicles, exhibition stands, mugs, as well as in videos, presentations and slideshows.
A Logo’s Importance for Freelancers
When you’re running your own business, there are a thousand and one little jobs to get done, especially when you’re just starting out. A small logo can seem unimportant in the great scheme of things but it’s actually a vital part of your brand design to get right from the start. A great logo makes your business stand out, and can effectively make you look more professional, established, and talented, than you might actually be.
A little more investment and focus on a suitable logo design can make a big difference to how your freelancer career grows and the type of clients you attract.