Professional, brand-consistent graphic design signals quality of service and a solid reputation when marketing your medical practice. Until the past decade, top-tier graphic design services were only available through agencies, but user-friendly graphic design applications and the "gig economy" are rapidly changing how we access and interact with quality creative services.

Affordable and User-Friendly Apps for In-House Design

Here are six resources for taking control of your medical practice's visual design:

Adobe Spark

For more than three decades, Adobe has been at the forefront of visual design software.  The Adobe Spark graphic design app is easy to use, boasts a multitude of professional-quality features, and meshes beautifully with Adobe's other visual design offerings. Adobe Spark is perhaps the best value in the pack, in large part due to its access to thousands of fonts, magazine-quality stock images, and professional templates.  You'll have every opportunity to remain on-brand, no matter how creative you get with Spark's virtually limitless tool palette.

Recommended package: Individual (though you can bring other staff members on board to collaborate on projects) for $9.99 paid monthly or 99.99 annually.

Canva

Close on Adobe Spark's heels is  Canva, designed with (but certainly not limited to) a focus on social media. The tiebreaker is Spark's integration with Adobe's other offerings, but you'll be hard-pressed to need anything more than Canva delivers, including its graphics animator for bespoke graphics created in Animator Pro. Canva also integrates seamlessly with several content management tools, including HubSpot and Dropbox.

If your practice has a social media presence, or you're planning to build one, you'll appreciate Canva's handy social media planner and scheduler.

Recommended package: While you'll enjoy Canva’s free package, we suggest you go with the Pro plan for $12.99/month for a five-person team (additional team members are an option) or a $199 annual fee to unlock more stock images and design options.

Crello

Crello is a user-friendly alternative to Canva and Adobe Spark, with many of the same features, but it’s the best choice if you're looking for an extensive library of high-definition video clips and animations. Crello is also applauded for offering user-friendly tools to create your own.

Crello's static graphic design options might not be as feature-rich as its cohorts, but for the price, it might be everything your medical practice needs in a design app.

Recommended package: Skip the skin-and-bones free starter option and go straight to their Pro package for $9.99 monthly or $95.88 per year.

Affordable Online Resources for Hiring Freelance Graphic Designers

You may decide that your staff's time is better spent focusing on your practice's regular work routines, but you're hesitant to jump into contracts with graphic design agencies or little-known independent freelancers. That's why these top three freelance platforms might be the right alternative:

Fiverr

Fiverr is known as the best resource for one-off projects, but with a bit of work, you can connect with a professional for larger projects. Alternately, you can build a team of design professionals who will adhere to your style guide and with your brand design. The platform works much like a directory.

With Fiverr, you browse graphic designer profiles by specialty, satisfaction rating, and budget range until you find the one you want. You can then contact the designer through their profile to ask questions or request a quote.  You also have the option of posting your project's budget and specifications. Once submitted, you won't wait long for freelancers to send in their pitches.

There are no sign-up fees on Fiverr. You pay for the project according to the freelancer's rates, from which the platform takes a percentage.

Recommended feature: The freelancers, rather than the platform itself, offer service packages from within their profiles. As for Fiverr, you can use the free Pro search feature to get one-click access to the best and most vetted professionals on the platform. These freelancers do charge much more than those without the Pro rating, but they're less of a risk, which might in the end save you time and money.

If you have budgeted more time than money for your graphic design project, you can still find excellent freelancers who have not earned the Pro ranking.

Freelancer

Like Fiverr, Freelancer offers a variety of content creation options and has an excellent pool of graphic designers. Payment is on a per-project basis, rather than by the hour. There are two means of connecting with the best candidate:

1. The "contest" method, in which you post your project and choose from freelancer-submitted spec designs, or
2. The "project", for which you request quotes in a project that's viewable to platform freelancers.

Recommended approach: The project method allows you to interact with the graphic professional as they develop your designs. This ensures you'll get the best, most accurate interpretation of your ideas, and allows you to build relationships with freelancers for future projects.

99Designs

This platform, which is focused solely on visual creatives, is somewhat of a hybrid of Fiverr and freelancer: like the latter, it offers a competition-style request for submissions, and like the former, it holds a directory of ranked creatives. Unlike both, 99Designs dictates project cost ranges based on project type and a freelancer's particular quality tier.

99Designs is often called the most expensive of the three freelance platforms described here, with website landing pages costing, with the contest model, between $249 (Bronze) and $1399 (platinum). If you prefer to negotiate fees directly with a freelancer you've chosen from the directory, you can. However, 99Designs sets the minimum as well as the maximum costs.

Recommended approach: Freelancers are given rankings that benefit you in either approach, and the benefits of one over the other are completely subjective. If you don't want to haggle, opt for the contest mode, and regardless of whether a freelancer is Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, it's likely you'll get a solid submission. However, if you want continuity across multiple projects, your best bet is to work with a hand-picked graphic designer.

Use Graphic Design to Elevate Your Brand

With design elements consistent with your medical practice's branding, and access to do-it-yourself applications, and a stable of freelancers, you can tap into your team's creativity. Here are some examples of projects that might otherwise fall to the wayside:

• Recovery handouts
• Procedure brochures
• Business cards
• E-mail newsletters and follow-ups
• Website graphics
• Letterhead
• Promotional items
• Mailers
• Your DearDoc integrations

Stylishly and Seamlessly Engage Your Patients

When it comes to using intuitive design in a user-friendly, high-conversion medical business website, let DearDoc’s team of professional developers help you keep your patients engaged and on schedule. Contact us today to learn about our features and how we can help you grow your practice:

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