You inevitably have to constantly talk about your offer in order to keep it top of mind with your audience. After all, according to the rule of 7, someone needs to see or hear your marketing message seven times before they finally purchase from you. That seems like a lot, right?

Well, talking about your offer doesn’t always have to mean you’re directly promoting it 24/7. There are other ways to indirectly promote your offer without driving your people away (because it’s almost guaranteed you’ll lose followers or list subscribers if all you’re doing is selling to them).

Keep reading as we dive into how to talk about your offer without wearing out your audience!

If you’re anything like us, you like to make sure your money is going to something with a positive ROI before you invest in it. And we mean doing lots of research to be at least 99% positive that it’s worth the time and cash. Especially when you’re a new business, you don’t have the extra money to just throw spaghetti at the wall, so it’s really important that it’s going to stick. The same applies to all things graphic design.

Graphic design is a huge part of every business. It’s your social media content, your marketing assets, your website, your brand collateral, it’s pretty much everything visible about your business. And even though it’s super important, that doesn’t directly correlate with needing to spend big dollar bills on it.

In this blog post, we want to show you how you can make all things graphic design happen without breaking the bank. Welcome to the frugal business owner’s guide to graphic design!

Whenever we need to create quick graphics, Canva is always our go-to. The user-friendly interface and intuitive builder makes it ridiculously easy to create graphics for practically anything we need. It’s the perfect graphic design tool for business owners looking to create marketing assets themselves because anyone can use it, no matter if you have little to no graphic design experience or you’re an award-winning designer. (Our in-house designer for Boss Project, for example, still uses Canva for many of our graphics.)

But what would you actually use Canva for? Anything, really! In fact, we can think of at least 15 ways you could be using Canva right now, which we’ll cover in this blog post.

Canva and Picmonkey are two of the largest editors for those looking for a quick and simple way to create designs. If you’re a beginner in graphic design or photo editing, you’ll probably find these two tools to be lifesavers. There’s always the question, though, of which one is the best and why?

In this blog post, we’re going to give a side-by-side comparison of Canva and Picmonkey, so you can decide which would be best for your needs and business!

As a business owner looking to design and create graphics and other marketing materials, it can be super difficult to decide what kind of software you should be using, especially if you have little to no graphic design experience. However, not everyone is at a place where they can (or want to) outsource these things to someone else.

We’re big fans of Canva but with backgrounds in graphic design, we’re no stranger to the Adobe software, like Photoshop and Illustrator. So, we want to give you a comparison so that you can make the final decision on which software is right for your business and needs!

When you think of “branding”, what comes to mind first? We’d venture to guess a popular logo popped up in your head, or a specific color palette. In all actuality, branding is much more than just the visuals that represent a company. It’s also the voice, personality, mission, and tone that make up a brand.

Even if the brand is run by multiple individuals, the brand as a whole should have its own personality that, well, personifies it! It should coax certain feelings from an audience and specifically target a certain group of people.

It all seems very confusing, but by following just a few steps, you’ll be able to intertwine your personality into elements of your branding and successfully convey that to your audience, whether you’re just starting out or in the midst of a rebrand!

As small businesses competing against larger or more well-known businesses, it isn’t as effective to just talk about what you do as a business. The key to standing out is the brand that you build. A recognizable and loved brand is one of the most valuable assets a business owns.

However, a brand is much more than just a name, tagline, logo, and other visuals. Even though these pieces do play a role in the bigger picture, there are other elements that bring it all together.

Your branded marketing collateral is like the sidekick to your business. They aid you in marketing and promoting your brand across different mediums, which means they play a huge part in your overall brand strategy.

Your branded marketing collateral is what makes the first impression on people, so it’s important to make sure that each asset is planned and designed to effectively let the market know about your brand story and what you offer.

OK, so it plays such an important role, but what actually is it? Keep reading as we dive into how brand marketing collateral can make your business turn heads, plus the different types of collateral!

Having a brand that’s authentic means being more in tune with who you are and where your passions lie, as well as the needs of your audience. Spoiler alert: It isn’t just about an amazing logo and a pretty color palette. When you pull together elements of yourself and your personality, the benefits you’ll reap are well worth the extra time and effort it takes to really dive in and build a powerful brand identity.

With all that said, here’s our 5-step guide to creating a powerful brand identity that stays closer to the things you love, the things that represent you and your business, and your personality!