We often hear that graphic design is an over saturated industry with no growth opportunities for new talent. When I started in this industry, I did not get any client for the first 6 months even after putting myself and my work out there on every platform possible, I started believing that graphic design market had becomes inundated and I was wasting my time. But after completing nearly 2 years working in this industry I can say that, It is 100% possible to stand out and carve your own place, however over-saturated the market may be! How you ask? Well let me tell you.
So if you have given more than 2 year to the industry and you still have little to no work, then their is something within your business that you need to work on & change! Either you have not gained expertise in the industry, or have not figured out your niche or your target audience or you are not marketing yourself in the right way. Something you do is not working for you, and you need to take a deep dive in your business strategy and work on it. And here are some tips that might help you in creating a identity for yourself in an over-saturated market -
Work on your Process - Before anything you need to hone your skills and develop expertise in your niche. You need to develop your knowledge, your process, your client management system, your business documents and your website. These are the things which differentiate you from a newbie and help establish you as a professional in the industry.
Work on your Personal Brand - Work on your business. Build your personal brand so that people start trusting you. Establish yourself as an expert in the industry by sharing process, Your ideologies, your progress, share your missions, values, vision etc. Let people connect with you and let them start believing in your work.
Grow your Knowledge - Graphic design is an ever evolving industry with new design trends taking emerging all the time. So in order to stand out, you need to keep yourself updated with the latest tools, tricks, trends, principles etc. So take out time every week or fortnight to maybe take some online course or watch YT video or read industry related book or learn a new tool etc.
Social Media is your bestie - I know being regular on social media is a daunting task, but if you want to carve a place for yourself in today’s world, then you need to use Social media platforms as much as you can. To ease the burden you can create a strategy, create content pillars, plan your content in advance, batch create your content (maybe once every 2 weeks) and schedule it (most of the social media platforms now allow scheduling). Also start using different social media platforms and don’t rely only on Instagram.
Show yourself - Use Instagram stories to show yourself more, share your day, BTS, anything exciting you are doing, even your mundane tasks, have polls for things you can’t decide, have Q&A for your audience. Showing on stories helps you create a bond & trust with your audience and they connect with the face behind the business.
I know how difficult it gets as a freelancer in any industry. But just remember “Rome was not built in a day”. You just need to work on yourself and your business & be stubborn enough to never give up on your dreams.
I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, be sure to let me know in the comments section!
See you all in the next blog! Tadaa✨
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