3 tips to build trust with your logo design clients | Journey of a Nigerian designer — E10
Hey guys. We’re in Episode 10 of this newsletter 🎉. It’s been a great 10 weeks of writing and I hope to bring more of my design tips and experiences to you in the coming weeks.
Today we’re going to talk about building trust with logo design clients.
Clients work with designers that they know, like and trust, especially when it comes to working on a logo for their brand. A logo is such a big deal that clients won’t bother working with you if they don’t trust you enough to handle designing it. Trust is usually earned, so we’ll have to work for it. Here are some practical tips I’ve used in recent weeks to build trust with my brand design clients.
1. Set up a video discovery call with them after their first contact with you.
In my logo design process, I set up a discovery call after a client sends me an initial request about designing a logo. I’ve come to learn that clients love to see who they’re working with. Like literally, them getting to see who they’re working with gives them so much confidence as they have a better idea of who you are. This helps you build more trust and credibility that you’re a real person and not just a robot or scammer.
Try to align with your client and if they are fine with having a video call, then go ahead. Zoom or Google Meet would work just fine. Also, there’s no need to feel ashamed if you don’t have super lighting or fancy backgrounds. I once felt this way, but I realised that a plain wall and sunlight is good enough. Although later on it might make sense to invest in these. But for now, just come prepared, settle in a quiet place, wear a good shirt, be welcoming and professional during the call, and you’re good to go.
2. Always meet deadlines……Always
In my logo design process, I have mini goals within the project. For example, I present a stylescape (visual mood board) to my client 3 days after our discovery call. Within these 3 days, I will do my best to come up with a stylescape that matches information I’ve received from the client plus my research on the brand. On the 3rd day, the presentation must be ready for the client to see.
No excuses
Missing a meeting or design deadline starts to build distrust with clients and you don’t need that. Sure, they might not say anything but after the project, if they are not really satisfied with your service/reliability, you might not be contacted again and that’s a client lost. Lost clients are the most difficult to get back, so you need to make sure you are meeting up with deadlines all the time.
3. Post regularly on social media platforms
I asked one of my clients why they contacted me during the course of a recent project, and they pointed out some recent posts I made on Instagram. Now the case on how many times you should post on social media is a big debate.
For me, I post on Instagram like 1 to 3 times a month which I guess is not recommended by experts. But so far, it has helped me gain a couple of clients and they always refer to posts I’ve made. In the future, I hope to take my social media more seriously, but I would recommend 1 to 3 logo posts a month for a start on social media to build some credibility with clients. Clients love to see your work because it tells them that if you can do this great work, you can equally do great work for their brand.
So, these are the top 3 things I’ve tried to do within recent weeks to build trust with clients.
1. Set up video calls
2. Never miss deadlines
3. Be active on social media (start with what’s comfortable)
I hope this helps you nail bigger clients and build trust with them.
Design resource of the week
There are times in a project or at work that you might need the vector logo of a top brand like Coca-Cola, MTN or Apple.
Today’s resource is WorldVectorLogo, a site where you can get the SVG files of major brands across the world for free. This will save you the stress of trying to search for brand logos on Google, only to get a PNG file with a white background 😭💔.
Click here to check it out and add it to your design workflow.
Thank you so much for reading. I’m quite excited to get to 10 letters and I look forward to sharing my design stories and helping you become a better designer. Please I would really appreciate your support by giving this newsletter a like. Also please subscribe and make a comment.
See you next week in Episode 11.
