As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate: Management of product development, production, cash flow, inventory, suppliers, customers and all those problems and opportunities that come up which you had not anticipated. Throw into this mix the need for design and marketing, and we have heard many business owners say that they find themselves out of their depth. After all, as Steve Ells says: focus on a few things, and do them better than anybody else. Afterall, you can do anything, but not everything. Which is why we are here to give you a bit of breathing space.

As business owners, especially if you run an ecommerce store or a B2C product, design and marketing play a huge part in your success. Without good design, customers will not appreciate the amazing product you have and without marketing, customers will not know about it.

Here is a list of resources that are available to you to help you do everything:

Design your way through your customers' minds

1. When you are looking for images for you blog, social media, website or to make anything more attractive:

• There are now a host of websites which offer stunning free images which are royalty free. Take advantage of those and make your marketing look professional and contemporary. Some options you have are: Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash and Freeimages amongst many others.

• Sometimes you might not be able to find the right image which fits the requirement of your business in the above free websites. Afterall, they are free and have some drawbacks. To access the largest and most extensive collection (240+million) of royalty photographs, music and videos use Shutterstock. GlobalLinker members can save 10% on their already competitively priced packages by using the code: GL10SSTK
  
  

As business owners, especially if you run an ecommerce store or a B2C product, design and marketing play a huge part in your success. Without good design, customers will not appreciate the amazing product you have and without marketing, customers will not know about it.

2. When you want to design a social media post, website banner, presentation, flyer, email banner, advertisement, logo and everything else in between

• Canva – Canva is a simplified design tool which can easily be used by professionals and non-designers to make all the above design collaterals and more. The free version is compact with tools and resources and you can pay if you need those extra fonts and images.

• Gravit - Gravit Designer is a full-featured vector design app and is great for all sorts of design needs from screen, icon designs to presentations, illustration and animation. When you sign up you, you get to use the pro version. But once it ends, you are transitioned to the free version unless of course you want to pay for those extra tools and resources.

• SME Design services – GlobalLinker offers design services priced keeping in mind the business owners. With SME Design Services you not only get to access a world class team of designers, but you actually get to speak with them, tell them what you want and it magically appears – better than you could have imagined. Get your brand’s logo designed for only INR 2499 or an entire corporate identity package for INR 9999. Let the professionals take care of your design teams while you take care of your business.

Market your product into the customers' minds

While you can try some of these marketing ideas for business owners on a shoestring budget, sometimes you need an extra booster for your brands marketing. After all, marketing is your enthusiasm transferred to the customer. And we are sure you have lots of it. So here are some resources that can help you let the world know about your amazing product.

1. Use Buffer or Hootsuite for social media management. These tools help streamline your social media efforts, by helping you scheduling and auto posting posts across platforms and increase your followers, engage your audience and build your brand.
   
   
2. Use SurveyMonkey or GoogleForms to collect customer information, engage customers, uncover trends and get feedback quickly and most importantly for free. In a few minutes you can design, execute and send your survey to your stakeholders and get the results analysed and ready to be used.
   
   
3. Mailchimp is a great free email marketing tool which small business to intimately engage with customers. It gives you the tools to nurture and convert the leads you get. 
   
   
4. GlobalLinker’s digital marketing services – Following on GloablLinker’s mission to make the growth of SMEs globally simpler, more profitable and more enjoyable, we have come up with a suite of marketing services which provides business owners with customised services coupled by industry experts who are responsive and are invested in your growth. Google analytics, social media marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), YouTube marketing, Gmail advertising or network marketing–you name it and we can do it. A quarterly marketing calendar is devised to keep on top of your campaign and its objectives, and the best part is, that the various packages are competitively priced to allow us to come through on our mission. What's more? We will give you digital marketing services one month for free.
    

Last but not least, you should definitely try and find (and you will!) design and marketing partners from our 260,000 members on GlobalLinker. Some of the best minds of the business are there to help your business grow. Just as we are!

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• Is GlobalLinker’secommerce platform for companies with no online presence?

Image source: shutterstock.com