How crisis shapes creativity: marketing in 2020 and beyond

If you’d told us this time last year that we’d be soon be locked in our houses, running entirely remote teams and creative processes, navigating some of the most significant social crises in living memory, and having meetings with the CEO whilst wearing our slippers, we’d have asked what you were planning to call this fantastic work of fiction.

Design by Pinch Studio

Nobody could have predicted what has unfolded in 2020 – and it’s not over yet.

Pandemic. Social injustice. Civil unrest. A climate crisis.

The list of challenges is as exhaustive as it is exhausting, and in both a personal and professional capacity, this year has tested every marketer and brand manager on the planet.

Our design community works with marketers from all over the world on a daily basis, and as these changes unfolded we wanted to understand the highs, the lows and the learnings of the past six months within this group. Agency, client-side and freelance, we spoke to C-suite executives, Marketing Leads, Account Managers and Brand Directors from around the world to establish how the events of 2020 have shaped the industry so far.

A challenging year, with silver linings
—

While the marketing industry has been moving slowly towards more flexible working arrangements for a while now, almost three quarters (74%) of marketers have been working from home since March.

The impact of such a rapid and fundamental shift in work model is far reaching, as are the effects of 2020’s many social and economic challenges.

But even through adversity we are already seeing benefits emerge that have the potential to shape the growth of the marketing industry in a positive way for years to come. Key takeaways include:

• Account Managers and Brand Managers are almost twice as likely to have experienced improved productivity levels than their senior leaders when working remotely
• Younger marketers have found remote creative collaboration significantly more challenging than their older colleagues
• 1 in 5 marketers believe opportunity for career advancement has actually improved during the pandemic
• 42% of managers believe that communication with their team has improved while working remotely
• Working from home has normalized remote work, and the majority of marketers say this will affect their hiring plans moving forward
• Agency staff are much more keen to get back to the office than their in-house counterparts
• Many marketing professionals under 35 believe remote training and onboarding will have a positive impact on the industry – as do 40% of agency staff
• A quarter of agencies expect fixed retainers to disappear altogether with a significant increase in demand for project-based work
• Direct mail and out-of-home are the channels marketers expect to die out in a post pandemic world, but there’s already some growth in paid social activity, digital advertising and podcast sponsorship
• Unveiling a rebrand during a pandemic is a risky move, with 37% of marketers expecting it to have no impact at all
• The majority of marketing professionals are confident that their own brand will take (or has already taken) meaningful action following anti-racism pledges, but they are much less confident that other brands will follow through on their promises

Account managers and brand managers are almost twice as likely to have experienced increased productivity while working from home. Design by Pinch Studio

Productivity in a remote setting
—

Surely working from home makes us all more productive? There’s less distraction from the fancy coffee machine, no need to tend to the office plants, and no chatting with your desk mates.

Well, yes and no. It’s definitely not one size fits all.

Almost a third (32%) of marketers said their productivity improved working from home, while just under a quarter (23%) said their productivity had taken a nosedive. Everyone else said their levels remained about the same.

But when you look more closely at the specific roles of marketers and how their productivity has been affected, there’s more to these figures than meets the eye.

Almost 2 in 5 (38%) Account Managers and Directors and 44% of Brand and Marketing Managers said their productivity had improved while working from home. On the other hand, half of C-Suite and Agency Owners said their productivity levels had stayed the same, with only 25% reporting an improvement.

The do-ers seem to do better remotely while senior leaders have maintained similar levels of productivity compared to their more junior colleagues. While experience means more senior team members have likely refined their working style and already found a balance that works for them, the type of work could well play a role.

In short, executional, hands on work has the opportunity to thrive in times of increased focus and decreased interruptions (pets and children notwithstanding!).

Creativity and collaboration
—

A similar split can be seen when it comes to creativity.

30% of all marketing professionals said that they found creative work and collaboration on creative projects more difficult since working from home, but a similar number (31%) said they actually found it easier remotely.

However, when you look at the breakdown of responses by age (and therefore typical levels of seniority), a pattern emerges: younger people have found remote creative collaboration more challenging than their older colleagues.

Younger marketers have found remote creative collaboration much harder than their older colleagues.

Again, this can perhaps be explained by experience and tenure: effective collaboration is often underpinned by effective communication – both of which are skills that can be developed over time. The confidence that comes with experience is also significant when it comes to decision making and accountability in a remote setting.

However, how the type of work being done affects creative collaboration shouldn’t be ignored if remote work is truly going to be the world’s new normal.

Career changes and opportunities
—

Marketing budgets are often the first to be cut when belts start tightening (despite a lot of evidence showing it shouldn’t be). As such, layoffs and furloughs hit the marketing industry hard when the pandemic took hold in March.

But several opportunities have emerged, and there are some silver linings that will serve the industry well moving forward.

Reduced teams and shared experiences of enduring challenging times together has meant people have had to rely on each other a lot more than normal – both professionally and personally. As a result, almost a third of marketers (31%) now believe their managers have a greater trust in their abilities than before the pandemic began.

With many marketing professionals taking on extra responsibilities and workloads over the past six months, 22% also believe that the opportunity for career advancement has actually improved during the pandemic.

42% of marketing leaders believe communication with their teams has improved during the pandemic. Design by Pinch Studio

Communication and teamwork
—

With the majority of the industry now working remotely, phone calls, video calls and instant messaging tools quickly became necessities for communication and collaboration. 37% also said that the number of meetings they attend has increased since working from home.

However, despite initial worries that not being sat next to each other would hinder quick and effective communication, many marketers have actually found significant benefits in working in a distributed team. In fact, 42% of managers believe that communication with their direct reports and team has actually improved during the pandemic.

The future is remote, long live the freelancer!
—

While the shift towards flexible work has been happening in the background for some time, the pandemic is set to have a lasting impact on how brands and agencies engage with staff both in and out of the office.

The majority of respondents (57%) said that they expected their company or clients to bring in more remote-only talent as a direct result of the normalization of working from home during the pandemic.

Over two fifths (42%) expect their companies to hire full time remote employees and almost a third (31%) anticipate working with more remote freelancers moving forward. The opportunity here is clear: as the industry becomes more comfortable working with remote talent, brands and agencies will be able to hire more diversely, benefitting both companies and clients alike.

Back to the office
—

In March, almost overnight, offices across the world emptied. And almost a quarter of marketing professionals would like to keep it this way forever.

Even so, 42% would like to return to the office full time, while a third would prefer the best of both worlds, combining some days in the office with some time working from home.

Agency staff in particular seem to be craving some company, with 56% wanting to return to the office full time compared to just 38% of in-house staff.

Around a quarter (24%) of all marketers also point out there are certain types of work they’re simply unable to do outside of the studio or office, which could explain the enthusiasm to get back to it.

40% of agency staff believe remote training and onboarding will have a positive impact on the industry. Design by Pinch Studio

The impact of remote training and development
—

The first few years of your career are crucial for developing skills and forming a working style. This traditionally requires on-the-job learning and observation of others, so it’s no surprise that 84% of marketers said that being close to their team and manager was important when they were starting out.

So how will remote work impact younger marketers just beginning their professional journeys?

We asked marketing professionals what they thought the effects of remote training would be, and somewhat surprisingly, more believe that remote training will have a positive impact (31%) than negative (24%).

The most common positive benefits of remote training and onboarding were highlighted as:

• Remote training allows for more focused 1:1 attention (33%)
• It puts everyone on the same level communication-wise (29%)
• Being able to train people remotely enables their business to hire more diversely (26%)

The top challenges flagged by those who believe the impact of remote training will be negative include:

• They don’t think they can replicate on-the-job training effectively in a remote setting (40%)
• In-person training is necessary for the roles they hire for (23%)
• Being together in an office is critical for company culture (17%)

There were also some fascinating differences of opinion by generations and organization type:

• Younger marketers believe remote training will prove beneficial, with 41% under 35 predicting a positive impact compared to just 26% of those over 35
• Similarly, 40% of agency staff anticipate positive effects from remote training, compared to just 25% of in-house marketers

While time will tell if this optimism around remote onboarding and training transforms into a lived reality for those embarking on their marketing careers, in many ways the benefits are clear: more focussed attention, a more equal platform for meritocracy, and opportunities for diversity – something the industry is sorely lacking.

Shifts in agency relationships
—

For many reasons, 2020 has also changed the nature of many client/agency relationships.

18% of marketers said they expect fixed retainers to become obsolete in a post-COVID world, while 39% expect there to be much higher demand for project-based work over monthly retainers.

Agencies themselves are less optimistic than their in-house counterparts about the future of the traditional business model. A quarter of agencies anticipate retainers disappearing altogether whereas only 14% of in-house marketers agree.

With so much uncertainty still remaining across so many industries, it’s not surprising that marketers expect the demand for greater flexibility and scalable teams for specific projects to increase in the future.

37% of marketing professionals have had their budgets cut. Design by Pinch Studio

Impacts on channels and spend
—

An enormous number of brands and businesses have experienced a downturn this year, and as such 37% of marketing professionals reported their media budgets being cut.

Spend was reduced across the board, covering everything from social spend and ads across newspaper, magazine and TV. Unsurprisingly, our increasingly digital existence means that out-of-home and direct mail are the channels marketing professionals expect to dramatically decrease in importance in a post-pandemic world.

However, as we learn to live with COVID-19, many channels are expected to recover and grow – particularly paid social activity, digital advertising more broadly, and podcast sponsorship.

Rebranding in a pandemic
—

When asked whether rebranding in a pandemic was a smart move, marketers had mixed opinions.

49% believed a rebrand (even during a global crisis) would have a positive impact, while only 14% said it was likely to have a negative effect.

However, 37% thought that rebranding now would have absolutely no impact at all – which isn’t ideal for a brand looking to evolve its identity and unveil what will have been months, and potentially years of work. But that is exactly what Office 365, Cadbury, even Australia did – with very mixed results!

Brand activism
—

Alongside the challenges of the pandemic, 2020 was the year the world finally stood up and took notice of the Black Lives Matter movement following the tragic and untimely death of George Floyd.

Protests demanding social justice and an end to racism prompted many brands around the globe to state their solidarity with the cause and speak up on their commitment to fighting racial inequality.

While brand activism can play an important role in raising awareness and amplifying the voices of those who need to be heard, many marketing professionals are concerned that brands are making empty platitudes, with half (49%) of those surveyed believing that the majority brands will not follow their anti-racism pledges with meaningful action.

When it came to their own organizations though, they were slightly more optimistic. 39% of marketers said their company had released a statement or creative work supporting anti-racism in recent months, and 62% of them were confident that there would be real action taken as a result. Only 14% felt that there would not, but there’s clearly still work to be done.

No one was prepared for the amount of change society has endured both personally and professionally over the last six months. While much remains uncertain about the future of what the industry will look like beyond 2020, the silver lining is that marketing professionals and their teams have proven much more resilient and adaptable than we ever imagined.

Want to learn about how we came up with a solution to ease the corporate crisis?

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Tell me!

—

Methodology:
772 responses from marketing professionals collected online via market research platform Corus in August 2020. Responses were collected from the United States (528), Australia (145) and Germany (101). 37% are currently working in an agency, 36% are employed by a brand in-house and 27% are currently freelancing.

The post How crisis shapes creativity: marketing in 2020 and beyond appeared first on 99designs.

The 10 best ecommerce platforms for selling online—and how to pick the right one

As of 2020, there are somewhere between 12 and 24 million ecommerce stores operating on the net, spread out across the best ecommerce platforms. Anything you want, you can get online… but what if what you want is to become an ecommerce entrepreneur yourself?

There are lots of different reasons to start an online shop. Maybe you’re planning a new business venture to replace your sole source of income. Maybe the plan is to start a side hustle with room to grow into your full-time source of income. Maybe you want to keep your day job, but use the ecommerce business as a hobby. Or maybe you already run a brick-and-mortar business and ecommerce is just another expansion, like opening up a second store, except online.

Shop around to find the best ecommerce platform for your online store. Illustration by OrangeCrush

As you learn about different ecommerce platforms and their capabilities, think about how you’ll need (or not need) these capabilities as you grow your business. Your store’s current and future needs will drive its design, as will the technical specs and limits of the platform you’ve chosen. To help you make the right call, we took a close look at ten of the best ecommerce platforms on the internet.

Hosted? DIY? Licensed?
—

Ecommerce platforms fall into three distinct categories:

• Hosted
• Licensed
• DIY

The difference between these three categories is where they’re hosted. There are other differences too, but hosting is the most divisive one.

Here is an example of a custom Squarespace design. Web design by blue-eyed-barbarian

The first category, hosted platforms, handle everything for you (yes, even hosting). With a hosted ecommerce platform, you create an account and build your store using the platform’s store builder. The store is hosted on that platform’s server, and that platform handles everything “techy” for you, like web security and software updates. For an entrepreneur who neither has coding/tech skills nor wants to learn them, a hosted platform is by far the simplest choice.

Within the hosted category, there are two distinct subtypes. First are platforms that enable you to create an independent store with your own look, your own custom domain name and your own rules regarding returns, shipping, payment options and items for sale. Second are platforms where you simply list your products and the platform takes care of the rest, less customization but less effort, too.

This guide deals more with the first category, which includes many of the best ecommerce platforms like Shopify. But if you’re looking for a hands-off way to get your products out into the world, platforms like Etsy or Amazon allow you to create a seller account, upload your products and descriptions, set your your prices and that’s it.

This website was designed for Shopify. Web design by Hiroshy

Then there’s licensed platforms, which are way more technical than hosted ones. When you go with a licensed ecommerce platform, you buy store builder software. With the software, you create your store’s pages, then upload them to the server of your choice. The platform provides support, but you’re on your own when it comes to security, hosting and managing your own files. For the tech-savvy entrepreneur (or the entrepreneur with a budget to hire somebody who’s tech-savvy), licensed ecommerce platforms give you the greatest amount of freedom as a store owner.

And this is an example of a custom WordPress theme. WordPress theme design by JSPDesign

Last, we’ve got DIY options. Like a hosted platform, this kind of setup often comes with customizable templates and easy-to-use editors. But like a licensed platform, you’re on your own when it comes to finding hosting. This kind of setup works best if you have some tech skills, but you don’t need to be a programmer to create a functional, nice-looking ecommerce shop.

Let’s take a look at your options. Here are the most popular ecommerce platforms for selling online:

1. Shopify
—

First up, we’ve got Shopify. More than 800,000 ecommerce businesses use the Shopify platform, and since its launch in 2004, they’ve made billions in collective sales.

Setting up a store with Shopify is easy. You can buy your domain name right through Shopify and start building immediately. There are more than 60 themes you can use to customize your store, but be aware that some of them cost extra. If you don’t like any of the premade themes, you can also work with a designer from 99designs to create a custom Shopify theme.

Shopify also offers an enterprise-level platform known as Shopify Plus. The difference is the platform’s power: a store built with Shopify Plus can handle more than 10,000 transactions per minute. You pay a lot more for Shopify Plus, but you get a lot more, too. Shopify Plus offers a few features that large-scale store owners might want, including:

• A dedicated store launch manager who audits your store to ensure it’s fully compatible with Shopify
• A customizable checkout page
• Shopify Flow, a tool that creates personalized storefronts for customers based on their previous purchases
• A more robust analytics system

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Basic Shopify: $29/month
• Shopify: $79/month
• Advanced Shopify: $299/month
• Shopify Plus: starts at $2,000/month

Pros:

• Huge community of designers, developers and other store owners who offer solutions and support
• Built-in analytics dashboard with a live view option
• Lots of plugins and integrations
• A comprehensive point-of-sale system that you can use in real-life settings (like a pop-up shop), with tools like barcode readers and receipt printers

Cons:

• If you don’t use Shopify Payments, you’ll pay transaction fees
• Less customization options compared to other platforms

Recommended for:

Shopify is recommended for small- to medium-sized retailers. It’s not built for any specific industry; you can sell tangible goods as well as digital goods via Shopify’s platform.

Shopify Plus is for large-scale retailers who are already doing thousands of transactions daily.

2. Big Cartel
—

Big Cartel advertises itself as being for artists and makers. If you’re a creative entrepreneur, keep that in mind—Big Cartel was built to accommodate the kind of business you run, with five images per product and multichannel selling options, so your site goes with you to every art show and vendor fair.

Unlike most of the other entries on our best ecommerce platforms list, Big Cartel offers a free option. It’s limited for sure, but if you’re brand-spanking-new to ecommerce and you have a shoestring budget, Big Cartel’s free option might be your best choice. With it, you get a basic setup with premade themes, shipment tracking, sales tax calculations and the ability to sell both online and in person. These are all things you’ll get with a paid plan too, but for a free option, we’d say it’s pretty robust.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Gold: Free
• Platinum: $9.99/month
• Diamond: $19.99/month
• Titanium: $29.99/month

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Integrated Google Analytics in paid plans
• No transaction fees

Cons:

• Few direct add-ons; if you want apps, you’ll need to use (and pay for) Zapier
• Limited user support
• Lacks many of the features other ecommerce platforms offer

Recommended for:

Independent artists and makers who want a simple way to sell their creations online.

3. Magento
—

Among the best ecommerce platforms on the web, Magento is one of the biggest. Magento actually offers more than an ecommerce site-building tool; the company brings to the table a variety of products for various aspects of launching and operating an ecommerce business, like order management and business insights.

In 2018, Adobe bought Magento and subsequently launched Adobe Commerce Cloud, a rebranded version of what was previously known as Magento Cloud. It’s a cloud-based version of Magento Commerce that gives users access to Adobe’s suite of ecommerce tools like Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Analytics Cloud and Adobe Experience Manager. Adobe Commerce Cloud is Magento’s enterprise-level offering and, according to the BigCommerce blog, launches often have six-figure price tags.

Any kind of ecommerce business can use Magento’s platform, but it has configurations tailored to a few specific industries like fashion, automotive and food & beverage. With one of these setups, you can build a website that provides exactly what customers want from a business like yours, with features like easy mobile ordering for a restaurant.

Type: Licensed

Price:

• Magento Commerce: starts at $1,988/month
• Adobe Commerce Cloud pricing varies widely according to project scale and individual needs

Pros:

• Built-in scalability
• Dedicated omnichannel shopping features
• You can list a ton of products in your store and process thousands of transactions every hour

Cons:

• You need to buy your own hosting—and your own dedicated server is recommended
• It’s “bulky,” your site has lots of files to manage and store

Recommended for:

Large-scale operations that need a platform with a lot of horsepower. If you’re a solopreneur, unsure if you’ll turn a profit or just dipping your toes into ecommerce, Magento is probably too much platform for you.

4. WooCommerce
—

WooCommerce isn’t a standalone ecommerce platform; you also need to use WordPress. Don’t worry, WordPress is free—but all your store’s individual components, like your domain name and hosting, are not. The upside is that you’re not locked into buying a domain or hosting from a specific provider, so you’re free to shop around to find the best prices.

WooCommerce is free too, but don’t assume that means running an ecommerce store with WooCommerce doesn’t cost anything. The plugin itself is free, but to run a functional store, you’re going to need additional plugins that can cost anywhere from $25 to $100 apiece. Some themes are free, but more stylish or customized themes cost extra as well. If you’re not tech-savvy enough to do all the backend work yourself, you’re also going to need to hire a developer.

As far as ease of use goes, WooCommerce isn’t as simple to use as a hosted platform like Shopify or Squarespace. But since you’re outside a gated platform like this, there are a lot more ways to customize your store. Unfortunately, those customization options aren’t created equally—you could end up with a buggy, broken or non-secure plugin if you don’t do your homework.

Type: DIY

Price:

• Technically free, but the costs for hosting and plugins vary

Pros:

• A huge online WooCommerce community, so you can always find support and answers to your questions
• Lots of plugins for different ecommerce needs, like dropshipping integration

Cons:

• Too many moving parts; it’s WordPress + WooCommerce + a theme + hosting + any plugins you want to use
• No centralized support

Recommended for:

Entrepreneurs who are somewhat tech-savvy and don’t have a huge budget to work with. WooCommerce is scalable, so there’s no limit to how many products you can list or how many daily transactions you can process.

5. Wix
—

Wix is perhaps best known as a free website builder, or even for being very easy to use. That extends to Wix’s ecommerce site builder, which comes fully loaded with premade templates, images and backgrounds. Also, Wix ecommerce is partnered with dropshipping platform Modalyst, so setting up dropshipping is super simple.

Wix’s online store builder also includes tools meant for specific types of businesses. For example, if you’re a restaurant owner, you can easily upload your menu and accept reservations through your Wix website. If you’re a musician, you can add a SoundCloud or Spotify music player to your store so visitors can listen to your work before they buy. Regardless of your business type, you can use any of the user-created plugins available in the Wix app store.

But Wix ecommerce isn’t perfect. It’s simple, but simple often means basic—and compared to other platforms, Wix lacks more advanced features like multilingual stores and the ability to accept Apple and Google Pay.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Business Basic: $23/month
• Business Unlimited: $27/month
• Business VIP: $49/month
• Enterprise: $500/month

Pros:

• List up to 50,000 products
• Easy-to-use interface
• Unlimited bandwidth with every plan

Cons:

• Although you can list up to 50,000 products, your site will slow down around 50 products
• Sites tend to load slowly in general
• Fewer third party plugins than other platforms

Recommended for:

Small to mid-sized stores. Because Wix is an all-in-one solution, it’s a good choice for the less tech-savvy entrepreneur.

6. Squarespace
—

Squarespace is among the best-known website builders, and that popularity lands it among the best ecommerce platforms on the web. With Squarespace, you’ve got everything you need to build your website, like a domain registrar, hosting and a no-coding-skills-required editor, all in one spot.

Like other platforms, Squarespace comes with lots of free website templates (and plenty of paid ones too). You can also use apps and plugins to add functionality to your ecommerce site, but there’s no actual app store with Squarespace. Rather, you’ll be using third-party apps.

Squarespace isn’t a dedicated ecommerce platform, but instead a general website builder that has ecommerce capabilities, so it lacks some of the features the other best ecommerce platforms offer. This means fewer payment gateways, fewer marketing extensions and more features restricted to the higher-tier subscriptions than other platforms.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Online stores basic: $30/month
• Online stores advanced: $42/month

Pros:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• Easy integration with apps like MailChimp and Google Maps

Cons:

• No phone support
• No professional analytics reports

Recommended for:

Entrepreneurs who are new to ecommerce and want a relatively basic, all-in-one platform without shelling out a lot of money.

7. SalesForce Commerce Cloud
—

Of all the best ecommerce platforms, SalesForce shares the most in common with Magento. Both are companies that offer multiple licensed ecommerce products, rather than being one store-building platform. SalesForce, like Magento, also offers a customer relationship management (CRM) platform as well as marketing and sales products.

Specifically, SalesForce Commerce Cloud is SalesForce’s ecommerce platform. There are two distinct products: one for B2B businesses and one for B2C businesses. One thing that makes SalesForce Cloud Commerce unique is its approach to pricing: instead of charging users a flat monthly fee, SalesForce takes a commission from each user’s sales. This can make running a store with SalesForce inexpensive… if you aren’t moving much inventory. On the flipside, it can get expensive if business is booming.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Varies widely; dependent on your store’s gross merchandise volume (GMV)

Pros:

• Hosting is included in your plan
• SalesForce offers other products you can use to manage your business more effectively
• You can run multiple unique stores from one backend interface

Cons:

• No premade templates
• Smaller developer community than other platforms

Recommended for:

Any entrepreneur who needs a robust, everything-included ecommerce solution with a lot of integrations, a lot of room to scale and no need to touch code.

8. BigCommerce
—

Although it’s on the pricier side, BigCommerce compensates with more advanced features at the basic level than some other platforms have at higher tiers (or at all!), such as automated image optimization, unlimited staff accounts, unlimited bandwidth and professional analytics reporting.

Like other ecommerce platforms, BigCommerce’s service is available in tiers, but unlike the others, each of BigCommerce’s tiers have sales limits. For example, BigCommerce Standard’s sales limit is $50,000 annually. If you sell more than that, you have to upgrade to BigCommerce Plus regardless of whether you actually want or need the upgraded tools available at that tier.

BigCommerce stands out as the only one of the best ecommerce platforms that makes it possible to sell tangible goods, digital goods and services without integrating an outside app. Other platforms on our list, like Big Cartel, can be set up to sell tangible and digital goods, but if you’re selling a service, BigCommerce is your best bet.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• BigCommerce Standard: $29.95/month
• BigCommerce Plus: $79.95/month
• BigCommerce Pro: $299.95/month
• BigCommerce Enterprise: varies

Pros:

• Ability to sell on multiple social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest
• Customizable code; you can design a site without ever touching the code or you can alter the theme’s HTML and CSS to suit your exact needs
• Strong SEO tools

Cons:

• Only 12 free themes
• Not as simple to use as other ecommerce builders

Recommended for:

Businesses that have unique needs or needs that require advanced features. There’s a lot under the hood with BigCommerce, making it the ideal solution for a large or rapidly growing business.

9. Volusion
—

Next up, we’ve got Volusion, another hosted platform that offers customizable store templates, add-ons and integration with third-party services and products.

One of the specific features Volusion provides is Quick Wins: affordable services that help you get your store up, running and optimized for profit. Among the services Quicks Wins offers are Google Analytics training, Facebook Pixel installation, SEO-friendly URLs and PPC ad copywriting. Beyond these, Volusion offers larger scale professional services too, like custom logo and brand kits.

Type: Hosted

Price:

• Volusion Personal: $26/month
• Volusion Professional: $71/month
• Volusion Startup: $161/month
• Volusion Business: $269/month
• Volusion Prime: Varies

Pros:

• Lots of built-in features, like variant pricing and advanced shipping options—there’s less need for additional apps or plugins
• Unlimited products and storage available even on the lowest tier
• Easy integration with Ebay and Amazon Marketplace

Cons:

• Sales limits at each level
• Only seven free themes

Recommended for:

Any entrepreneur who needs personalized support getting their store up and running. When you need help branding, blogging, developing a newsletter strategy or navigating the world of ecommerce via social media, Volusion’s team is there for you.

10. PrestaShop
—

The last of our picks for the best ecommerce platforms, PrestaShop has the quite a lot in common with WordPress. Like WordPress, PrestaShop is an open-source program that’s completely free to use. Similarly, like WordPress, the PrestaShop community is full of custom-made templates to download and plugins to install to improve your shop’s functionality. The main difference between PrestaShop and WordPress is that PrestaShop was created specifically for ecommerce, whereas WordPress is a more generalized platform that can be outfitted for ecommerce.

It’s impossible to estimate what it costs to run your store with PrestaShop because you’ll need to buy the plugins your store needs and a template that works for your industry and brand. The costs for these vary widely, so we recommend taking a look at the PrestaShop Addons marketplace and sketching out a rough budget of what the setup will cost before you commit.

Although you have to buy your own hosting, PrestaShop is partnered with two hosting providers, so setting up hosting is a relatively straightforward process. Similarly, PrestaShop offers customer support plans, website audits, optimization services and training on how to use the platform—but you have to pay for them.

Type: DIY

Price:

• Technically free, but expect to pay for plugins, hosting and a template.

Pros:

• It can be a budget-friendly option for users who don’t need a lot of add-ons
• Large developer and user community
• Flexible platform with lots of customization options

Cons:

• It’s free to download, but the add-ons are costly… and for most users, critical to a functioning ecommerce site
• Everything is on you—hosting, add-ons, integration and security
• Limited scalability

Recommended for:

An entrepreneur who’s comfortable DIY’ing their website and wants the freedoms that come with the DIY approach. PrestaShop has lots of add-ons and customization options, but they’re best suited for users who aren’t afraid to tool around and get their hands dirty.

Shop around for the best ecommerce platforms
—

When you’re choosing the right platform for your ecommerce store, you’ve got a lot of considerations to make. One way to make it easier for yourself is to write a list of what you need in a platform, like built-in hosting or easy dropshipping integration, and then see which platforms check off the most boxes.

And if you pick a platform and find it’s not working out for you, don’t fret—you can always migrate your site to another one.

Regardless of which platform you choose, your store needs to look great and fit your brand. Otherwise, visitors won’t become buyers. Once you have a platform, find an ecommerce designer who’s got experience creating great-looking stores on that platform.

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The post The 10 best ecommerce platforms for selling online—and how to pick the right one appeared first on 99designs.

Everything you need to know about selling online

With an estimated 24 million ecommerce websites operating globally, it’s safe to say that most people these days have bought something online. Especially in today’s climate, buying online is one of the easiest and safest ways to purchase products and services. But have you ever thought about selling online? There are lots of attractive reasons to make a side hustle or even a career out of selling online, like:

There are lots of reasons to start selling online. Here’s how to get started. Illustration by OrangeCrush

• Launching an ecommerce business has a relatively low startup cost
• 87% of shoppers are most likely to start their search for products online (even if they end up buying from a physical store in the end)
• With ecommerce, it’s easier to collect, measure and act on customer data than it is when you’re operating a brick and mortar shop
• With an ecommerce store, you can reach customers who aren’t able to visit your physical store
• It’s easier and faster to set up an ecommerce store and start selling online than it is to set up a brick and mortar store

Even though it’s easy to set up an ecommerce site, it’s important not to jump into it without some planning. Here’s what you need to do first:

• Define your overall branding
• Establish an ecommerce strategy
• Pick the right products to sell online
• Choose an ecommerce platform that suits you
• Create a website that looks and works great
• Set up social media accounts before you go live

This may seem like a lot, but when you break it down, each step is very doable! You can read more about it in our guide to starting an ecommerce store in 7 simple steps. In this post, we’re covering all the “big picture” things you need to know about selling online, rather than the more granular steps of how to sell online. If you’re serious about setting up shop and selling online, you need a thorough understanding of both.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• Where to sell online
• Brand your way to success
• The importance of marketing and UX
• What type of products can you sell online?
• Top 3 latest ecommerce trends

Ecommerce web design for EYCO by Craig Steel

Where to sell online
—

There’s a plethora of places where you can sell products online, from social media to your own ecommerce website. With all these options, it might be difficult to figure out which is best for you. Learn about the different ecommerce avenues available to you to determine which is the right one for your business and remember, you can always switch to another one down the line if your business model or needs change.

Selling on social media

You can sell online quite easily via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest. The benefits of selling on social media are that it’s super easy to set up and that you automatically have an inbuilt audience that can grow. Facebook Marketplace is a great way to keep transactions local and is very similar to an online yard sale. Facebook’s and Instagram’s “Shop Now” button lets your fans easily click and be taken to a website to buy your products. Pinterest is a great place to sell physical products via Buyable Pins that consumers can click on directly to go to a website and purchase.

Pros:

• Easy to set up
• Instant audience
• Keep transactions local
• Affordable

Cons:

• Not as “official” as an ecommerce website
• Harder to track your repeat customers
• More difficult to include branding and make your shop your own

In summary, you might choose to sell on social media if you’re just getting started and want to see if selling online is right for you.

Instagram shopping online via TechCrunch

Facebook marketplace via newsfeed.org

Selling through online marketplaces

Selling through online marketplaces is a more official way to start a shop than social media, but it requires almost as little effort. It’s also a great way to leverage an existing audience that frequents online marketplaces. A downside of selling on online marketplaces is that they often take a  percentage of your sale. Examples of great online marketplaces to sell your products or services are eBay, etsy, Amazon, Alibaba.com and Google Express.

Pros:

• More official than selling on social media
• An easy way to leverage an existing audience

Cons:

• More effort to set up than a social media shop
• Marketplaces often take a percentage of your sale.

You might choose to sell on online marketplaces if you’re ready to take the next step after trialling a social media shop, but aren’t quite ready to set up your own ecommerce shop.

Etsy online Marketplace via Etsy  

Building your own ecommerce website

Although this avenue requires the most effort, it allows you to build a truly custom shop. If you’re serious about building a business selling online, this is the way to do it.

The best way to get a unique, fully customized ecommerce website is to work with a web designer to create exactly what you need. But there are many template sites and website builders (like Wix, Shopify and Squarespace) that allow you to build one with no prior coding experience. Keep in mind that templates allow for limited customization and you might not get exactly what you’re looking for. Fortunately, many website builders also allow you to hire a designer to give your site a custom look.

Pros:

• Customizable (though certain platforms have their limits)
• Easy to track and market to repeat customers
• The best way to show off your brand

Cons:

• More difficult to set up than stores on social media or online marketplaces
• There is often a cost involved to register a domain and host your website
• You may need to update your website regularly

If you’ve got more of a budget to work with and are serious about building your business, setting up an ecommerce website might be the right choice for you.

Website design by Janki14

Brand your way to success
—

No matter where you choose to sell online, having a well-developed brand will net you more sales than you’d get without one.

By creating a brand, your customers will be able to recognize your business instantly across platforms. A brand includes everything from your logo design to your product packaging to the kinds of images you use on your website and the tone of voice your copy takes..

When creating a brand for your online business, it’s important that the look and feel is suitable for your target audience. For example, sophisticated and muted tones mightn’t be appropriate for a kids gym, but they might be perfect for an up-market fashion company. Create a brand style guide for your business to ensure your brand is always portrayed consistently online.

Be sure to also check out this complete guide to ecommerce branding to learn more about the specifics of branding an ecommerce business.

Ecommerce website for haircare products by Sudip Dutta

Brand Guide for CapUps by Hugo Maja

Ecommerce store by Studio Ubique   

The importance of effective marketing and great UX design
—

Online selling doesn’t stop at the purchasing part. It’s important to understand how you will drive customers to your store, as well as how you will keep them and keep them coming back! Here are a few ecommerce must-haves:

Online advertising

According to a 2019 study, 51% of shoppers said that they used Google to research a purchase they plan to make online. Once your customers make this search, you can use this opportunity to market to them online via Google, and then retarget them via social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This is called retargeting or remarketing, and works when someone interacts with your business online. Even if that person doesn’t instantly convert to a paying customer, they’ll see an ad for your product or service when they log into Instagram or Facebook later on. This strengthens your brand recognition and makes it more likely that they will convert to a paying customer in the future.

Online advertising is a  great way to get your audience to notice you, or to find out about you in the first place. You can read more about digital advertising in our beginner’s guide to advertising online.

Headbanner design by Kuz Design

Email marketing

Did you know that the number of global email users is roughly 3.9 billion? Plus, email marketing has the highest return on investment for small businesses. If you’re looking for a great way to drive your audience to your online shop, email marketing is for you. Email marketing allows you to showcase your current promotions and specials, share relevant news stories with your customers, introduce new products and ask your audience for feedback on your brand and products.

Check out some great email marketing design here. Consider looking at email platforms like HubSpot, Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp to set up simple yet effective email newsletters which you can easily track.

TapGlance Email Template by Grigoris G

Great UX design

UX, or user experience, is extremely important for your ecommerce website. It’s how users interact with your website and can often make or break a sale. For example, meditation app Calm keeps their users healthier and calmer through a minimalist UX design. Their UX design helps users easily navigate through the website and find the information they’re looking for. Users can even choose an environment like the rainforest or the sea as they navigate through the site and app, giving them a way to customize their experience with Calm.

UX Calm App via Calm

Considering things like having navigation menus in the correct place and making the complete user journey an intuitive one is vital if you’re looking to have repeat customers, not drop-offs. Remember to also always check for broken links and other technical features that might be annoying to your audience when testing your ecommerce site’s UX design. To get in-depth on UX and how to make your website easy and even fun for users, check out our guide to creating great UX design.

UX Homepage by Adam Muflihun

What type of products can you sell online?
—

Essentially, there are two types of products that you can sell online.

1. Commoditized products
2. Niche products

Commoditized products are indispensable and mainstream products or services. Basically, they’re products that everyone needs. The majority of online purchases around the world are of commoditized products. For example, clothing, makeup, food.

Commoditized ecommerce website for DTC Fashion by Alex Capellan.

Meanwhile, niche products are products or services that are for a very specific, or niche, audience. They’re usually made on-demand or in small batch runs. For example, handmade jewellery, one-of-a-kind plants, homemade candy.

Niche handmade candy website by Mithum

Selling only commoditized products in your online store (especially if they’re already sold on major online marketplaces like Amazon) will make it very hard to become successful, as you’re competing with the big dogs. We suggest selling a mix of both commoditized and niche products in order to offer the best value to your clients. For example, if you are selling candy, think about commoditized products that you can sell in bulk (like a well-known candy brand) but then add a niche to your ecommerce website by selling handmade candy that no other store is able to offer.

Finally, tangible products aren’t the only thing you can sell online. Don’t forget about selling services online too, like online courses. If you’re in the service business, you might also consider selling things like marketing services, custom videos, design templates, coaching sessions and even subscriptions online, which can combine selling products and services, depending on what kind of subscriptions you offer.

Digital products are also a unique niche that you might like to sell online. This can include things like skins for gaming characters, digital art and eBooks and themes for websites.

LivelyShop ecommerce website by Creative_David

Top three latest ecommerce trends
—

Still looking for some inspiration for your ecommerce website? Take a look at some of the biggest 2020 ecommerce design trends for some great branding, packaging and design tips. This is what today’s customers want and expect from online shopping.

Motion in product images

Videos, cinemagraphs, animation and microinteractions are more popular than ever, and a great way to stand out from the crowd when it comes to selling online is to show off your products in motion, rather than static images.

Detox Mode motion product image via detox mode

Unconventional grid layouts

Experimenting with new layouts and jumping off the grid bandwagon gives your brand an edgy and contemporary feel, which is especially helpful for modern and fashionable industries.

Femme and Fierce unconventional grid layout via Femme and Fierce

Landing page-product page hybrids

Ads and social posts often direct shoppers straight to the product page, which means they never actually see the homepage of your website. That’s why ecommerce designers are focusing more on their landing pages, resulting in mini stores revolving around a single product or category.

Landing Page design by logicainfo

Start selling online today
—

Whether you’re looking to sell on social media, on an online marketplace or build your own ecommerce store, remember to focus on branding, great UX and consider selling both commoditized and niche products.

If you have a great idea to sell a product or service online, now’s the perfect time to start. Or, if you already have an online store, think about revamping it with these tips. In either case, you’ll need great web design to connect with your target audience, so find a designer who fits your style today!

Need awesome web design for your ecommerce site?

Our designers can create the perfect look for your brand.

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The post Everything you need to know about selling online appeared first on 99designs.

How to make a website for free: a step-by-step guide

Creating a website for free sounds like magic: impossible at best, a trick at worst. But web development is so common these days that there are dozens of ways to get it done—from high-end design agencies to free DIY website builders. For brands on a small budget, knowing how to make a website for free opens a lot of new doors, but only for those willing to put in extra effort.

Building a website for free takes time and effort, but it is definitely possible. Illustration by OrangeCrush

Although there are plenty of apps that take care of design and coding, it still takes time, dedication, research and general website construction knowledge to accomplish everything without hired help. To simplify this process, we’ve put together this guide on how to make a website for free. Follow the steps below to take advantage of low- and no-cost options for making your own website.

Before you make your free website
—

Research the pros and cons of a free website design

Making a website for free can seem like an offer no one would refuse, but the reality is that free does not always mean without cost. If you don’t hire a designer or copywriter, for example, you will have to create those media assets yourself. In other words, creating a free website of any quality will cost you, if not in dollars then in personal time and effort.

If possible, you should be prepared to spend at least some money to get the best results, although certain parts of the process are cheaper than you’d expect. Sometimes, it may actually be easier and more productive to turn the process over to an experienced web designer.

Don’t know which option is right for you? Check out our in depth comparison of website builders vs. web designers >>

Be sure to weigh your options carefully before committing to a DIY website approach. Custom design by Iconic Graphics

Even if you are making a website for free out of financial necessity, it is important to understand the limitations involved and make plans to work around them. Although each free website builder has its own particular pros and cons that you have to research yourself, here is a brief rundown of the general advantages and disadvantages of creating a website for free:

Pros of building a website for free

• Low cost, low investment. Your time is the only thing you risk.
• Simpler and shorter development time. A custom website can take months. In situations where you need a functioning website fast (such as an online store), a website builder is a quick fix.
• Ideal for smaller scale website projects. If you just need a website capable of basic functions only and you don’t need it to look unique, getting one built from scratch would be an unnecessary expense.

Cons of building a website for free

• No professional oversight or help. DIY means you are on your own.
• Unregulated advertising space. Some free website builders often recoup their cost through advertising on your site, which means you may have no control over the number or nature of ads displayed.
• Subdomain hosting. Your website may be attached to the builder’s site rather than an independent one, which can impede SEO and branding (look to the next section for an explanation of hosting).
• Limited site capabilities. More complicated features such as user profiles or sophisticated admin & analytic tools may be hard to accomplish without spending at least some money.
• Limited data storage. There may be limits to the amount of data your site can contain and the speeds at which that data loads.
• Template-based. Website templates are used by hundreds to thousands of web pages, which means your site risks looking generic.

A website builder can eliminate some of the steps to building a website. Design by damuhra

Review the steps to building a website

Going from nothing to a live, working website can be a complicated undertaking with many steps involved. While most free website builders negate many of these steps, you still need to verify that their process goes beyond creating the website to fully publishing it.

Here is a rough list of the basic steps you’ll need to account for, but be sure to check our ultimate guide to creating a website for more details.

1. Preplanning and strategy – Define the overall site goals and what you want your users to be able to do
2. Layout and site mapping – Define the number of pages, as well as their purpose, how they interact and the wireframe layout for each
3. Content creation – Create the design assets, text copy and multimedia that goes on your website
4. Front end web design – Put together the front end visual design of the web page
5. Back end web development – Implement the design into a functioning web page with coding
6. Testing and iteration – Check for bugs or broken display
7. Domain registry – Secure a unique domain name and address that includes your business name (like Johnnysbakery.com)
8. Hosting setup – Store your website files and data onto a secure server (note: most will involve storage or bandwidth limits)
9. Content management – Regularly use admin tools (included in the Content Management System, or CMS) for editing content and site maintenance over time
10. Analytics – Regularly check tools for monitoring user behavior, SEO and general marketing performance of the site over time

Some of these steps are inevitably going to depend on you (planning, content creation and testing). Others are taken care of by website templates (layout, design and development). The rest may vary depending on the quality of the website builder you choose—whether it provides hosting/domain services, a reliable CMS and analytic tools. Many may require third-party providers or plugins to fill in gaps in tools and functionality, which can come at a cost.

When researching free website builders, make sure that each of these steps is handled. If some steps are missing or inadequate, look into free or low-cost solutions ahead of time to be better prepared.

Compile your web design needs

Make sure that you identify all your needs before creating a website. Design by loseeey

Finally, take some time to consider exactly what type of website you need and what it’s capable of accomplishing. Are you creating an online store, a professional portfolio or a business directory? There are often specific website builders and templates designs for each of these cases.

Beyond this, it is a good idea to know how many pages you will need and the purposes for each, like a home page, blog, contact, product page, shopping cart, checkout, etc. This lets you know precisely what options to look for during your research.

There are specific functionality features you may also need, such as live messaging, subscription pricing, support tools, etc. While website builders like WordPress may offer third-party add-ons and plugins to supplement some features, it may be hard to accomplish any sophisticated website functionality without spending at least some money.

Planning for your website needs ahead of time will guide your research into different website builders so that you can ensure they have the tools, templates and features that will get you the best result.

How to make a website for free in four steps

1. Prepare your website content

A website is an important branding space, so you should have at least a logo design at this point (if not, what better time than now to get a logo…). In addition, you want to think about other brand considerations like color schemes, fonts and imagery to implement across your website. Documenting all of your design choices in a brand style guide will help you keep everything consistent. Otherwise, a freelance designer can make these design decisions for you.

If you’re going the strictly free route, some website builders offer multiple fonts and color schemes for the same templates, and you can choose the setup that best fits your brand. Be sure to refer to these guides:

How to choose the colors for your web design >>

How to choose fonts for your web design >>

This website implements a strong brand presence throughout the website with a great logo, fonts and color scheme. Design by nevergohungry

You also want to prepare the website copy and media assets (or at least outline what you’ll need of each), as this helps you select the template that best fits your content volume. For media assets, there are a number of free stock photography, videos and icon sites available.

If you need to create or modify any media assets yourself, download a free graphic design software program. These include Gimp (a free Photoshop alternative) and Inkscape (a free Illustrator alternative), but be advised: each comes with a steep learning curve.

At this stage, it might be worthwhile to consider consulting with a freelance designer. Hiring a designer to assist with template design assets is still cheaper than hiring one to build a website from scratch, and that extra professional eye can be what pushes your free website beyond the generic.

2. Set up an account with a website builder service

Finding a free, quality website builder involves a fair amount of online research. You can start with comparative guides of website builders like this one and look into the features, user reviews and example websites created with each software.

Make sure that you scrutinize the terms and pricing yourself even if the website builder is labeled as free. Many free services come in the form of a limited-time trial or lock the features you need behind a paywall. As mentioned earlier, check how the web builder handles website publishing services like domain and hosting.

Start by setting up an account with your chosen free website builder. Image via WordPress.org

For a more in-depth guide to researching your options, check out our ultimate guide to website builders >>

Once you’ve made your choice, most website builders will have you start by setting up an account on the site. This allows you to save your progress and revisit the design any time you need to change or add content. From there, you will have access to the CMS and admin features.

3. Design your website

Most free website builders are based around templates, with point-and-click or drag-and-drop usability to make beautiful designs easy for first-timers.

It is important that you choose a template that is relevant to your business and the purpose of your site—which is to say, trying to make a photography website template work for eCommerce will not pan out, even if the template looks nice. To help with this, some website builders sort templates by category or industry (i.e., education, fitness, restaurant, etc.)

A good free website builder will give you plenty of template options to choose from. Image via weebly

From an aesthetic standpoint, you also want to ensure that the template can accommodate the amount and nature of your content. For example, if your site includes more photos than text copy, choose a template that comes closest to striking the right balance. This eliminates the need to substantively change the template (which would defeat the purpose of using a template).

Some free web builders, like WordPress, permit higher levels of customization, but doing so takes more advanced design and development knowledge on your part. If you prefer customization over a paint-by-number approach, factor in extra time for editing.

With your template chosen, it is time to replace the placeholder content with your own. Website builders usually include a visual menu of tools and a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that allows you to edit text and photos on a live preview of the design (as opposed to doing so through code). Website builders are generally made for non-designers, which makes them more intuitive to use, but if you get stuck on this step, you can check Google or YouTube for tutorials.

4. Publish your finished website

For your site to be accessed on the internet, you need to secure a domain, essentially your website address. No two websites can share the same domain—so it is a good idea to make sure your domain is available ahead of time. In terms of pricing, some website builders do offer free domains, usually in the form of subdomains of the builder’s website (e.g., companyname.wix.com). Registering through a third-party service, however, can cost as little as $10 per year for an independent domain.

Once you’ve set up your website with a host server, it will be live on the internet. Design by Mike Barnes

You can often register a domain with the hosting service. Some website builders provide hosting services, whereas others may require you to find a free, compatible hosting platform. Even with free options available, you might want to consider spending money (often under $10 a month) for higher storage limits, bandwidth and security.

With your files uploaded to the host server, your site will be live on the internet. Make sure that you test the site in multiple browsers and on multiple devices to ensure that everything is displaying and functioning correctly. You also want to periodically revisit and update the content of your site as time goes on.

Don’t get a free website at the price of quality
—

Creating a website for free is certainly possible from a financial perspective, but the DIY approach does take personal investment. To get anything of quality, you have to research website builders, learn their tools and put in the time to come up with a great result.

When you’re at the very beginning of your brand’s journey and your budget is tight, a free website can be a great way to get started. Remember that you can always upgrade later when you’re ready to take your brand and website to the next level.

Your website is one of your most valuable assets, so make sure that it looks as professional, unique and appealing as possible. Of course, the best way to get a quality website is to work with a talented designer. A good designer can not only save you time, energy and a lot of headaches—they will create a stunning result in the process!

Want to get the perfect website for your business?

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The post How to make a website for free: a step-by-step guide appeared first on 99designs.

Pandemic to product: 90 days to ease the corporate creative crisis

In March 2020 the world changed. One of our many realizations was that most marketing teams were facing similar challenges to the ones we, at 99designs, were facing too. Using market insights, customer feedback, determination and some of our most effective cross-functional collaboration yet, we set out to help them.

The opportunity
—

COVID-19 has brought with it drastic and abrupt changes to almost every facet of life, with a particular sea change occurring in the structure of how and from where we work. We saw the corporate world disappear to their homes overnight. Zoom calls were now being taken from bedrooms, dining rooms, gardens, daily walks, parent’s spare rooms, cars or garages. Not the boardroom.

COVID-19 brought unforeseen challenges to teams across the globe. We saw an opportunity to help. Illustration by spoon lancer

Whilst COVID-19 brought it into the spotlight overnight, at 99designs we had seen this shift towards remote work coming for a while. We’d been moving progressively to a more remote centric model of working ourselves; we have cross-functional teams in three time zones, and have partners, clients, and designers all over the world.

And of course, working across borders is something we are all intimately familiar with, and indeed passionate about. We have created, and are dedicated to evolving, a platform where our freelance design community can thrive in a remote space.

However, one of the most compelling differences we had noticed was in the behavior of our larger customers. For them the question was no longer “can we hire remote creative talent?” but more “how do we create better practices for remote creative collaboration?”. This felt quite new.

We were beginning to see that corporate design and marketing teams were in need of a helping hand to guide them through remote transformation, and sadly in many cases with reduced resources. The market was shifting, the nature of team collaboration changed, and to say this was daunting is an understatement.

Want to extend the capacity of your in-house team?

Solve your daily design challenges with 99designs Select.

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In the midst of navigating the change in mid-COVID market dynamics ourselves, it crystallized more than ever before that delivering design and managing freelancers remotely was our superpower. If there was any way in which we could help our sales and marketing peers right now, we needed to provide this expertise to corporate teams who were facing monumental challenges.

We knew we could help, and we needed to move fast.

What we did
—

We set out to solve the challenges that corporate marketers were facing with delivering production design remotely, and we did this in 90 days.

How did we achieve this? Here’s what our timeframe and process looked like:

Month 1: cross-functional team formation

As the impact of COVID hit, we went into “taskforce” mode. Historically we’ve moved mountains when we’ve rallied cross-functionally around a common goal, and we knew we had to create a setting where we could do this again. We brought together representatives from product, engineering, design, client support, sales and marketing. Within our newly formed cross-functional “taskforce” we agreed on our mission, produced a high-level scope, assessed what resources we might need, and importantly to also identify our limitations.

Month 1 core stages:

• Formed cross-functional team
• Opportunity sizing & problem framing
• Hypothesis forming
• High-level product scoping

Month 2: persona and product development

Having scoped our proposed solution, roles were assigned across the team in order to deliver this as swiftly as possible.

We mapped out what we wanted to include in the product in more detail, and how we would deliver it. We used customer analysis, independent studies and anecdotal evidence from our support teams to form a picture of what our corporate clients needed, and asked some of our corporate contacts what they thought in order to get some early feedback.

This is where things got really interesting! In listening to the needs of some of our corporate clients, we realized that we had been solving the challenges they were describing internally at 99designs for some time.

The way in which our Head of Marketing, and every member of the marketing team, had been using our own creative platform, community and processes had been enormously successful, efficient and effective over the years. We were our own persona! From there we were able to shape a product around our own proven internal remote design processes, and use this to scope, prototype and beta test a product that other corporate marketers could use too.

Month 2 core stages:

• Divide & conquer!
• Persona development
• Process mapping & product scoping
• Naming and messaging
• Sales funnel, onboarding & documentation
• Cross-functional buy-in

Month 3: Brand development & launch

Month 3 of the project was largely a delivery month. We had established what we wanted to do, achieved internal approval and moved forward with our “beta” product.

We proceeded to roll out with the help of beta testers, input from peers and network of friendlies. Our intention for this first phase was to get something to market on which we could iterate, and shape around the needs of corporate marketers. During this phase, feedback from external groups who fitted our target customer was vital: on the sales decks, landing pages and our offer.

Month 3 core stages:

• Brand development & content delivery
• Payments & tracking
• Beta clients
• Launch communications

Large businesses can benefit from the designer curation and project management offered by 99designs Select

The outcome? We now have a product that solves the remote production design challenges of corporate marketers, and it is called 99designs Select.

With 99designs Select, we will handpick a dedicated group of freelance creators around your specific day-to-day design needs, and ensure they are onboarded to your brand—which is something we found crucial for consistency in creating our own internal creative processes. There’s project management available whenever needed, and the client pays as they go on a project to project basis—no minimums or subscriptions required.

Early results
—

After the 90 day process, we launched in early July. We have a very healthy sales funnel, are busy onboarding our newest clients, and seeing a lot of promise in the market. We feel fortunate to have seized this opportunity, and are excited for the future.

One exciting development to come from this initiative is that Kelly have introduced 99designs Select as part of their Human Cloud product. 99designs Select is proving to be a value-add to enterprises who are seeking better adoption of freelance creatives within their organization.

99designs’ excellent brand reputation as a leader in the creative freelance market is only superseded by their ability to help companies get creative projects done by providing the best, on-demand talent.

- Tim Proehm

Tim Proehm, Vice President Digital Product Development at KellyOCG, explains: “We at Kelly have seen a sharp uptick in demand for freelance talent from buoyant companies bouncing back from COVID-related business challenges. Open talent models like 99designs will continue to evolve and improve freelancer engagement markets, which is one of the many reasons why 99designs is a natural partner for Kelly and our Human Cloud ecosystem. Our clients demand industry-leading human cloud partners that can elevate their total talent management strategies. 99designs’ excellent brand reputation as a leader in the creative freelance market is only superseded by their ability to help companies get creative projects done by providing the best, on-demand talent.”

 

KellyOCG launched their aggregated approach to full-service remote talent sourcing in 2020, Human Cloud, through which 99designs Select is now offered to enterprise clients.

What we learned
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Even though our scoping, delivery and launch phases went very smoothly, delivering a new initiative in times of adversity was enlightening. We learned a lot of valuable things from going through this process, which we wanted to share.

Here are some of our top tips for creating a positive outcome when you need to adapt to a shifting market:

1. Conversations are key

Don’t be afraid to share your stories or current challenges, and ask your network for feedback. Listen to what others are saying, so you can understand what they are experiencing and how you might be able to help. If we hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t have learned how valuable our own perspectives and workflows were to others.

Don’t be afraid to reach out, ask questions and get a conversation going—feedback is vital.

Throughout our product development we aimed to bring as many people into the process along the way. We talked to Open Assembly, existing clients, partners, internal teams, ex-colleagues, and people in our network.

Don’t be afraid to reach out, ask questions and get a conversation going—feedback is vital.

2. Lean into your existing assets

When embarking on a new project, it may feel like you’re starting completely from scratch. That may seem like the reality, but if you already have a functioning business, it’s amazing what you already have. In our case we had an entire internal process that was a rich asset, but there could be all kinds of things you have available that can help you move forward.

Look closely at what you already have—it’s amazing what you can find!

Additionally, might there be leads already in your database? Do you already have some processes and lead capture that could be relevant to this new project? Do you already have payment funnels and processes in place that could be reused? By asking yourself these kinds of questions, you’ll begin to build up a repository of things you can use to start running with, rather than having to go from a standing start. Which is much harder, and often requires requesting additional resources.

We were also lucky enough to have a rich community and a high volume of existing leads. But even if you’re much smaller than us, you’ll still have a lot going on. Look closely at what you already have—it’s amazing what you can find!

3. Your constraints can lead to innovation

The constraints we experienced throughout this process meant we had to get creative in places. “A Beautiful Constraint” by Mark Barden and Adam Morgan is a highly recommended read for any marketer, explaining how you can learn to make your limitations an asset.

Mark Barden and Adam Morgan of eatbigfish wrote A Beautiful Constraint, which uncovers how marketing, supply chain, design, agronomy and education professionals can turn constraints into sources of possibility.

We were heavily constrained by time and resources, and what we wanted to include in our scope was more than what we could realistically achieve (sounds familiar, right?). We were also limited with available engineering resources, and so instead of going ahead and productizing every feature on our list from the start, we decided to use good old fashioned people power to manually handle integrating with our clients workflows, e.g. Asana, Trello, etc.

This was a great discovery. The human element is core to our service level and there’s so much value in it that we have no plans to change our method. Go people power!

The learning here was that it turned out that our limited time and capacity led us to a conclusion that didn’t seem ideal at first but was in fact a better solution.

Mark Barden—partner at eatbigfish—speaker & co-author of A Beautiful Constraint, says, “One of the few good things to emerge from the COVID crisis is to once again witness the incredible inventiveness people are capable of and the central role of constraints in spurring that inventiveness, often to better outcomes.”

Constraints can be beautiful. With the right mindset, method, and motivation we can all learn to find the opportunities lurking there; and ensuring our collective future might rely on us doing just that.

- Mark Barden

He explains, “Saturday Night Live, for instance, seemed fresh and unpredictable again once the team was forced to abandon the formulaic schtick of old. In London, the existential threat of lock down forced independent food companies to collaborate on food delivery with The Crosstown Collective, giving them a huge new business opportunity for the recovery ahead. And the Body Shop, needing to rapidly scale its online business, found a host of hidden skills within its own retail staff, from translation to Photoshop, allowing them to meet demand while developing the careers of their own people in new and unexpected ways. Constraints can be beautiful. With the right mindset, method, and motivation we can all learn to find the opportunities lurking there; and ensuring our collective future might rely on us doing just that.”

What’s next?
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We’re excited to have rolled out 99designs Select, and continuing to support corporate marketers in their ongoing journey to deliver amazing design with remote creative talent. Building something that works for our clients and creatives is key, and we’re evolving our processes around the feedback we gather to work towards the best solution we can provide.

Our community goes from strength to strength, and it’s exciting for us to be creating more design connections between creative talent and corporate clients, globally.

Want to extend the capacity of your in-house team?

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