I went viral on TikTok… but I was ready.
If your aim is to go viral on a social media platform, then make sure you have your ducks in a row.
I posted my first video to TikTok less than two years ago. As a logo designer, I would often create short, time-lapse videos of myself working in Adobe Illustrator. I’d design a logo, record myself putting it together on screen and post the video to all the social platforms to try and show off my design skills.
I had about 50 videos on TikTok, all faceless (meaning no videos of me, or anything with a voiceover). I was simply posting my work, and hoping the quality of the content would help the account take off.
Then I decided to change tack for one video.
And that video exploded.
As of this morning, it has 3.1M views. And that single video has completely transformed what was a struggling freelance logo design business, into a successful one.
In a single day, the video led to 80 sales leads, jumped my follower count from a few hundred to 15K, and brought in clients from all over the globe.
I am now booked out for three months, working with tech startups, biotech firms, lawyers, a small motor racing team, an NFT project, a 3D print artist, a TV chef and so many more.
The traction and recognition I received after posting this video has transformed my life. But the real-world success I’ve had was only possible because I was geared up and ready for the fallout.
Here’s what happened…
The video that went viral
My TikTok that blew up was a stitched video. This means I took the first few seconds of someone else’s video, where they asked a question, and answered that question with my own video.
There are a few reasons why I think my video was so successful:
I had a genuine, excited reaction
I was bragging about a niche
I explained the situation clearly
It had a baby in it
I made the video while I was looking after my 9-month-old son. He was practising pulling himself up on the sofa, and was interrupting me while I was talking. So the video had a genuine quality to it, which I think appealed to a lot of people.
A seemingly common conundrum with TikTok is the video that you put the least amount of effort into is often the one that goes viral!
It also had a hook, thanks to another user’s question in the first few seconds of the video. It kept people watching, which led to more views.
[Edit: There’s another reason I forgot to mention. A huge amount of my American audience thought I was saying ‘Lego’, not ‘Logo’. So they stayed until the end of the video expecting to see award-winning Lego designs!]
The real-world benefits of going viral
What happened over the next few days (the sales leads and the influx of genuine, paying customers) was only possible because of almost a year of work prior to that video taking off.
Lots of accounts go viral with a single video, but unless you are ready to reap the rewards of that sudden increase in audience, your five minutes of fame will be just that.
You can see this when you look at some of the accounts that have had a viral video. You might see an account with a video that has more than 5M views, but only a few thousand followers.
That video may have been a one-off. And the rest of the content on their page wasn’t consistent.
But my video was about my industry. And it was geared up to serve me.
I had made the decision to niche down from generic graphic design into branding a couple of years prior. And since then I‘ve been positioning myself as an expert in the field. And I had implemented the following steps in order to reap the rewards should one of my posts ‘blow up’.
My website contained good quality, premium-looking content, and was up to date.
I had a clear landing page with a sales funnel and multiple ways to contact me.
My design packages were explained and itemised, without pricing, and designed to lead to enquiries.
My website contained articles with various forms of content regarding my industry.
My TikTok profile linked to my website and all other social profiles, where there was lots of similar content about my niche.
So when a new user found me because of this video, there was more of the same for them to see, which lead to an immediate follow.
Keeping the hype train going
In the four months since that video exploded, my TikTok following has grown from ~15K to ~44K. And about 80% of my sales leads now come directly from TikTok.
Growth tracking (from March - May) on TikTok analytics
This is because I have made a concerted effort to build momentum on the platform.
I post regular explainer videos, tutorials and funny titbits about the business of logo design. I run live streams where I design logos in front of an audience, taking in feedback directly from the comments, and printing things like t-shirts for my audience to buy.
On top of this, my other social accounts have grown directly as a result. Not quite as strongly as TikTok, where organic growth is almost guaranteed if your content has worth. But an unmistakable uptick.
Going viral as a repeatable model
I won’t deny it, I’ve been attempting to repeat this experience ever since it happened. Replicating the success of the video, and discovering the perfect format/hook to achieving 1M+ views is something that has eluded me.
I’ve since had six videos with 100K views or more. So my content is appealing to people inside my niche, but nothing on the kind of level that appeals to a global audience.
However, all of this growth has led to a bit of an issue.
My freelance business is now at crossroads. I’m starting to lose business because my waitlist is too long. Quite rightly, a lot of people aren’t willing to wait more than three months for a good logo.
Do I hire someone to pick up the slack, but potentially lose a bit of control? I’m worried about quality/standards slipping if I have to manage someone. Sometime soon I need to make the decision to either keep going as a ‘lifestyle business’, where my income is capped, but I can keep my current hours and freedom to spend time with kids.
Or do I expand and start an agency?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of this.
Either way, I owe a lot to TikTok and my followers. If you focus on building a TikTok brand, generating quality content that serves your audience (and not just you) then when that viral video finally happens, you’ll be ready to exploit it. And the influx of traffic it comes with.
In a nutshell, TikTok for business is a gold mine!
Screw your product. Your logo is the most important part of your business.
And you should budget more than you think for yours, right now. If you don’t, your business is doomed.
Are you thinking of launching a startup? Do you already have one?
How much are you going to spend on your logo? You could make one on Canva yourself, right? Or maybe splash out on Fiverr and get someone to do it for you.
Maybe you’ve put aside a couple of hundred bucks.
I’m here to tell you, your business is doomed.
• • •
“Hi James! I am in the process of separating from my current company with the aim to set up on my own. I will need a logo. Can you help me?”
[Sends proposal/budget]
“Ah. I think I’m just going to have my web developer knock one up. Thanks anyway.”
As a logo designer, I’m obviously biased about the subject of how much a logo design should cost. It’s in my interests to preach the value of a well-designed logo.
But after almost two years into a global pandemic and consumer spending at an all-time low, now, more than ever do you need to re-evaluate what a logo does for your business. And why you need to spend more than $200 for one.
Without a worthwhile logo you’re going to be facing an uphill battle for the entirety of the (short) lifespan of your company. And if you don’t apportion a healthy percentage of your budget to investing in a good logo now, it will pigeon-hole you from the get go.
Trust. Encouragement. Reward.
Let’s first distinguish between a brand and a logo.
For new customers, your logo is usually their first impression of your business. It is the face of your company.
A brand is a person’s gut feeling about that company. This develops over time. It is influenced by your logo (the company visuals), their messaging and your position in the market.
In a study performed in 2019, 81% of consumers said that they need to be able to trust a brand in order to buy from them (Edelman, 2019).
If your logo has been pieced together as a secondary thought, and it doesn’t reflect your industry space, why should a potential customer (especially online) trust that you are who you say you are and spend money?
Does your logo look trustworthy? Does your logo reflect your industry?
Point of difference.
Unless you’re a brand new, emerging tech company with a revolutionary new product, my guess is your business model isn’t unique.
Let’s take the hairdressing industry as an example.
A quick Google search in my area tells me there are 14 salons/hairdressers within a 2-mile radius of my house. How is a new hairdressing salon going to make the cut (pun intended) when customers have 14 separate options to choose from, all a mere mouse click away and at a potential snip of the price? (I’ll stop now)
When it comes to a personal spend in a saturated market like this, users aren’t looking for cheap and cheerful. They need to trust that the person cutting their hair knows what they are doing. They’re going to choose the salon/barber that stands out as being professional, experienced and maybe even priced at a premium.
Does your logo stand out as professional? Does your logo feel premium?
Search results from the Fiverr Community
Why spend money on a designer?
If you’re still reading, I’m sure you’re savvy enough to know what makes a good logo. Your logo should be simple, recognisable and relevant to your industry. It should work on a small scale. It should work in one colour.
And, most importantly, it should be unique.
Designers on race-to-zero websites like Upwork or Fiverr work on volume and speed. They can afford to charge you a pittance for your logo.
Why? Because a lot of the time they are working from a template that they have used multiple times previously. Or worse, they have plagiarised the design from someone else!
When you work with a logo/brand specialist, a huge part of our process is competitor research. Also, any designer worth their salt knows that a good logo idea in its simplest form has probably been done before.
Our job is to check that our work hasn’t infringed on anyone else’s. Usually by an exhaustive reverse-image search. Or our years combing the design community for inspiration means that we can quickly recognise if a design is similar to someone else’s.
I’ve been the victim of plagiarism many times, and it is beyond maddening.
Source: My Instagram
Plagiarism is incredibly difficult, painstaking and usually expensive to police. But if your company is guilty of it, at any moment you could be forced to change your signage, take down your website and face any legal ramifications of using a logo that you never truly owned or trademarked.
Is your logo unique?
Now is the time to be timeless.
Here’s an experiment. See if you can draw the Nike logo from memory on a piece of paper.
Easy(ish) right? If you’re anything like me you practised drawing that on the back of your school notepad.
Now draw the Reebok logo. They’re in the same industry. The company has also been around for longer than Nike.
Not as easy.
For me, the difficulty comes not from being able to draw the icon, but from trying to remember which one they are currently using.
The Reebok Logo, 1977 — present. Source: Wikipedia
The Nike logo has barely changed since 1964. Yes, it’s probably the most famous logo of all time, and Carolyn Davidson was only paid $35 for it, which doesn’t strengthen my argument.
But the logo is timeless. And because it hasn’t changed in nearly 60 years it is probably the most recognised logo in history.
Yes, using the Nike logo as a case study is as tired as it comes. My apologies. My point is that any experienced logo designer knows how to make a logo stand the test of time. Meaning you won’t have to change the design in a few years when your design doesn’t render well in the metaverse, or virtual reality advertising formats.
An investment in the right logo now will give your brand a backbone that will support it indefinitely.
Is your logo timeless?
I can’t afford it. It’s not a priority. I can’t justify the spend.
Let’s diagnose why you need a worthwhile logo.
Maybe you want more sales. In which case, how are you going to achieve that? Do you want to appeal to a specific target audience? Do you need to be seen as trustworthy? Do you need to stand out from your competitors?
If you have a financial goal for the year (you really should), and we’re speculating to accumulate, what percentage of that target value would you be willing to invest on a brand that could help you reach that goal?
Five percent?
Ten percent?
What is the absolute maximum budget you could commit to creating the face of your business? Remember, this is the symbol that is the first impression your customers have. And according to 8ways, it takes about 0.05 seconds for a customer to form an opinion about your website. A captivating logo tells your story and ultimately inspires enough trust to convince someone to spend money with you.
If your business is forecasted to make $75,000 in your first year, a ten percent investment would be $7,500. Is it unreasonable to apportion this much money to achieve those goals?
When we reframe the discussion in this way, it changes how we value our logo. Also, remember that this thing will be on your business cards, your website, any signage and your social media channels.
If you’re not proud of your logo, you’re going to feel it. Every day. And I guarantee you that if you try and get your logo designed on the cheap, it will reflect in the quality. You’ll waste your money and might even end up coming back to someone like me anyway.
Are you proud of your logo?
Rant over.
Thanks for reading. I needed to get that off my chest as I sometimes get demoralised with my client’s expectations when it comes to pricing logo jobs.
I’ve said this in other articles, but I’m proud of my pricing structure, and I have more than a decade of experience, which I believe entitles me to set the bar reasonably high. So when I receive a $200 offer for a logo job, it’s hard not to feel a little insulted.
It’s easy to look at a logo design and say,
“Well I could have done that!”
But creating a timeless logo that works in its simplest form takes years to master.
It takes effort to appear effortless.
And that effort has worth.
Live Logo Design
Over the last few months I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone and running live design sessions on Instagram. Each session lasts about an hour, in which I attempt to design something (a logo, sticker or badge) live on camera.
Over the last few months I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone and running live design sessions on Instagram. Each session lasts about an hour, in which I attempt to design something (a logo, sticker or badge) live on camera and answer any questions as I go through.
After each session I’ve edited down the ‘class’ into a short, time-lapse video format. Here they are for your perusal. You can watch the full sessions over on my Instagram page, and I’ll keep an updated list of the sessions on this post.
Listing my prices on my website: Two months later
It’s been exactly two months since I published a pricing guide on my website. The aim was to weed out people either wanting a logo for free (exposure) or those whose budget unfortunately didn’t match someone with my experience.
Good god, no.
No way.
What was I thinking?
It’s been exactly two months since I published a pricing guide on my website. For a TLDR version of my last article, I listed a ‘floor’ price for my logo design services on my portfolio. The aim was to weed out people either wanting a logo for free (exposure) or those whose budget unfortunately didn’t match someone with my experience.
I listed the price for my cheapest logo design package, with an enquiry button for the other two.
This was supposed to save time by creating a budget filter, and skipping a lot of back and forth with clients, before they finally discover my prices.
What were the results?
Before listing my prices, I would typically receive 5–6 leads a week. Either from my website or my Instagram page. Admittedly, not all of these were strong leads, but they were usually genuine enquiries from small businesses with a budget to spend.
After listing my prices I received one lead. In two months.
One.
And this lead, while starting strong, ultimately fell through due a delay in the project.
It was an unmitigated disaster.
After the first four weeks, as my cashflow dried up, I dropped my floor price. I did this by streamlining the number of deliverables in the entry package to a point where I could offer the bare bones of a brand; basically a logo file as a jpg, png and a high res format.
I then tried to stem the bleed-out by putting a small budget behind paid ads on Google and Facebook. But again, I was thwarted by failure.
So what happened?
Firstly, these results have nothing to do with traffic. I’ve worked hard on my search engine optimisation (Google the phrase ‘Logo Designer London’). Looking at the analytics over the last two months, traffic on my website actually went up more than 30%.
While I have no solid proof, I can only assume that my previous reservations about listing my prices came to fruition. Another designer, knowing my prices, could undercut me on a job. A client could also use my prices to try and negotiate another designer down. Or that I was missing out on small budget, yet high-exposure jobs that I might have taken on.
For example, after I posted a tutorial video to Reddit, one viewer reached out to me to design a badge for their Texas-based motorcycle club. He hadn’t visited my website, so he wasn’t aware of my prices. The budget was small, but I took the job on gladly because he had a pretty tight brief and the project was hugely fun!
One thing I am still sure of is that my price point is right. This might sound contradictory based on the above results, but here’s my thinking behind it.
People have paid my prices in the past. They are tried and tested. And feedback following a job has been glowing. But what’s missing now?
Objectively, a client might visit my website and click on the big PRICES link in the navigation. Ultimately that’s what they’re interested in, right?
Upon seeing a big number, which might immediately seem out of their budget, they would be very unlikely to continue on and research me any further. They’re seeing a price before I’ve had a chance to discuss their goals, what the value of those goals means to their business, how much experience I have in problem solving and any rationale I might have that would get them over the line.
Without an opportunity to justify my costs, all I got was a hard bounce. And off that customer went to one of my competitors.
Basically, my sales funnel was f*cked.
So this morning I made two small changes to my website. I changed the link in the nav from PRICES to PACKAGES, and replaced the floor price with an enquire now link (setting up a 301 redirect from the old page to the new).
Keep adjusting and be open to wiggle*
When I went freelance, one of the first pieces of advice I received was,
Always have at least two months of your living costs in savings.
Boy did I have to dip into those. There’s no accounting for problems and unforeseen expenditure, and having those savings has kept me afloat.
This was always an experiment, driven by the need to rid my life of incessant admin. But I guess that’s the nature of running a business. If it takes me an extra few minutes to copy and paste a pre-formatted response into an email, in order to win some bloody business, then so be it.
*A quote from the pricing guide by Made By James
Should I list my prices on my website?
Let the client ask for my fees? Or risk losing a potential lead by being too transparent? Decisions, decisions.
Over the last six months I have gradually transitioned my company from general graphic design services, into a more specialised logo design offering.
The theory is that by specialising, my services are easier to market and I can build a name for myself as the go-to-guy for branding, rather than being a Jack-of-all-trades designer. If I market myself as an expert in my field, then referrals should flow as my audience slowly comes to know me as a specialist.
This has also led me to start billing on a project basis, rather than by an hourly rate. Following the advice from The Futur, I’m now realising that billing hourly puts a cap on any potential income (there are only so many hours in the day, right?). Also, clients prefer to know upfront what the price will be.
But where in the sales funnel should you first present your prices?
Traditionally, I would wait for a lead to come in, usually from my website or my instagram page, and after feeling out what the client requirements were I would send over a quote. This is typically in the second email or at the end of the first call. It gives me time to research the company/individual to try and tailor the quote. A customer starting a small side-hustle won’t have the budget of a multi-national who is launching a new product, for example. This also allows me to decide how much time I should commit to a proposal. Would a quick email suffice over a presentation deck?
But after working so hard on my pricing structure, and creating a ‘floor’ for my startup (basic) logo package, I am finding that around 70% of leads are working to a budget that isn’t anywhere close to this. And had I just mentioned my fees upfront, it would have saved us all a couple of days.
There seem to be a number of schools of thought on this.
Budget filter.
The obvious advantage (for me at least) is that by being upfront with my costs it filters clients that don’t have the budget. I’m proud of my pricing structure, and I have more than a decade of experience, which I believe entitles me to set the bar reasonably high. If I’m transparent with my costs then this should educate potential clients on how these jobs are priced, and stop chancers from asking me to design their logo for ‘exposure’.
Speed.
Also, I’m fairly certain that people are visiting my website for two reasons; to check out my work and to find out how much I charge. If they have to email me to find out my prices and then wait for a response, the whole process is delayed. It’s bad user experience. Being upfront saves everyone time. Time that could be invested in other projects.
Entry point for negotiation.
The beauty of listing my prices publicly is that the first number is down on the table early. Everybody likes to haggle, but nobody wants to be the one to start. Too low, and the other party might snap at that price (and might have paid more). Too high and you scare them away. For me, my pricing structure is tried and tested. I know I can charge what I do because people have paid it in the past. But in order to win a job (for a client who doesn’t quite have the budget) I can pull deliverables from an itemised list on a package to get it over the line. As long as my website copy is clear that a package price can be trimmed by removing some deliverables, or increasing the deadline.
Competition.
One thing that worries me is that another designer, knowing my prices, could undercut me on a job. Or a client could use my prices to try and negotiate another designer down (no good for anyone). However, perhaps any customer with a bargain hunt mentality when it comes to creating the face of their business isn’t for me anyway.
Missing out on jobs.
I recently completed a branding job for a TV personality. They weren’t working with a huge budget, but I did the job because the opportunities and connections this job could present me were brilliant. Not to mention the exposure. Had I listed my prices on my site, there’s a chance they’d never have even contacted me.
This goes both ways. Larger clients might pass me by for being too cheap. Decisions, decisions.
Solution. A compromise.
Here’s what I did.
Firstly, I itemised all the services in my arsenal. I then set up a three-tiered pricing structure and named the packages (the Startup, Professional and Deluxe). I then listed the price of the cheapest option. The other two, more advanced, packages are priced individually (and by client) and these aren’t included on my website. The line reads ‘Enquire for price’.
This solves a few problems for me. It creates a hard ‘floor’ to weed out clients without the minimum budget required, which will save everyone time. But it doesn’t limit what I can charge upwards of this for my more advanced projects. I’ve also made it clear in the copy that the lowest package can be trimmed further by removing items from the list. Hopefully, this should encourage customers that have a budget close to my number to still reach out.
Check it out, and the price for the Startup package if you’re interested, at barnard.co/prices. I’ll let you know if it works, or if my inbox dries up completely!
And if you have a service business, let me know how you’ve approached this. I’d love to hear from any experienced contractors who’ve gone through something similar and how it worked out for you.
Making my own t-shirts
Ahead of England’s football final against Italy in the 2020 Euros (and a long way from home in Australia) I set about making my own England supporters t-shirts.
Now that I’ve moved to Australia, finding England football paraphernalia is rather difficult. And with England about to play Italy in the Euro 2020/21 finals, I thought I’d try out some iron-on transfer paper I found at K-Mart for $12.
I knocked up a design in Illustrator and printed it out on the basic inkjet printer in my office. It worked a treat! I might leave the design on slightly longer next time, as it came out with a sort of grunge effect. But I kinda like it!
The video above was pretty popular on Reddit’s Graphic Design thread, and a few people actually requested to buy it! So you can order yours for Qatar in 2022.
