Organization / University Assistance.
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Here to help your organization or institution with creative assistance, direction and stability
Every client is different. It’s often hard to find the type of designer who is willing to work with you on your path to achieve your goals. Large agencies, while effective, can also be outside your budget restraints. So what can you do? A monthly retainer allows you to fill the gaps within your working structure and have access to great creative work at a discount, all while evaluating the relationship and choosing whether to continue to move forward. If you have immediate needs to cover creative services in the short term or you need help implementing a long-term strategy overall, we have some options to fit your needs. All of our packages are presented with a discount for our normal à la carte rates and are valid for the contract periods. It is a great solution for organizations and institutions looking to have a better availability and variety of creative services while cutting personnel costs.
What are the costs of an internal team?
This is the first question to ask because this is the usual deciding factor. Virtually all organizations, companies, and public/private businesses need creative services. Whether it’s for marketing services and products to generate revenue or just maintaining branding standards and a professional aesthetic to ensure consumer confidence. Traditionally, internal marketing teams have been the go-to for creative services. But that can come at an extreme price and starting out, it may be too risky a gamble.
In a simple office environment, you’d have someone over your marketing. Typically a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), an Art Director, or a VP of Marketing. Under the executive level, you would have most likely a senior and junior graphic designer, project manager, webmaster, social media manager, and administrative assistant. And while this is still a very small-scale staff, it can be very successful or a financial liability. Let’s break down the math:
CMO, VP, Art Director: $120K+
Senior Graphic Designer: $80K+
Junior Graphic Designer: $35K+
Project Manager: $70K+
Webmaster: $55K+
Social Media Manager: $35K+
Administrative Assistant: $45K+
CMO, VP, Art Director: $120K+
Senior Graphic Designer: $80K+
Junior Graphic Designer: $35K+
Project Manager: $70K+
Webmaster: $55K+
Social Media Manager: $35K+
Administrative Assistant: $45K+
Total Salary Minimum Annually: $660K*
(* includes employee fringe benefits that can add another 30-40% to the base salary)
Cost to Outsource?
Outsourcing will dramatically reduce your staffing costs instantly and can be highly effective if the company you are outsourcing with is adept at delivering the quality, style, and direction you intend for your company. With the simple internal staff example, the total expense for salaries would be at a minimum $35,000 monthly. If you add to that fringe benefits such as insurance, payroll taxes, and leave, it comes out to more like $55,000……monthly. This cost barrier is the number one reason many organizations look to outsource to avoid not only the fringe costs of permanent employees but also the restraints. What this same team could do for over half a million dollars a year, a firm can do for less than half in most cases. The reason is because you’re only paying for the services and not the overhead costs.
A more popular strategy is to utilize advertising and design firms to first develop your “brand” while also developing the marketing strategy. That would be an initial investment with then a monthly retainer that would provide the amount of deliverables you would need throughout that month to set your competitive level within your sector or field. So for instance, you may pay in a medium range of $70K – 150K for brand development that would include your corporate logo, messaging, website, style guide, and creative structure for your company. Then your monthly retainer would depend on how many deliverables you may need per month or quarter plus any additional engagements or activations. You could see your retainer then in a medium range of $5 – 20K. So if you look at the math on the higher end of the medium ranges, you’d spend $390,000 which is $270,000 cheaper than permanent internal staff for the year.
If you’ve already established your brand and style guide then you’re saving even more money. Now it is only $240,000 in monthly retainers on the very high end and saving $420,000 annually over internal staff. You many only need sales emails once a week with a few social media posts, and a promotional video once a quarter with creative assets for specialty events 3-5 times annually. Now you’re probably looking at about $3K-$5K monthly in retainer fees. That is saving you about $600,000 annually.
Who Should Outsource?
Outsourcing through retainers is mostly ideal for smaller companies with less than three owners and few employees. Sole proprietorships, single-member LLCs, and limited employee LLCs are usually ideal candidates so they can alleviate dealing with the marketing side to focus more on their core competencies such as developing the products of the business or performing the services they offer.
Companies and educational institutions that already have limited or full marketing departments can benefit through retainers to either handle more of the organizations’s mundane tasks or their specialty engagements. Either is a good use case for outsourcing depending on the company that is used and if a good partnership with trust can be formed.
In both these cases outsourcing works for start-ups or well-established organizations/institutions to become more visible and competitive within their sector while also producing more revenue and market visibility.
YOUR PERSONAL AFFORDABLE CREATIVE STUDIO.
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graphic design // logos // flyers // posters // billboards // annual reports // pitch decks
brochures // book design // promotional videos // motion graphics // and more!
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