business outsourcing Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Offshore Staffing Services in the Philippines

Graphic Designers vs. Web Designers: What’s the Difference?

Outsourcing in the Philippines, Web Design / By DBOS

A lot of people often confuse tasks between graphic designers and web designers, resulting in job mismatch and conflicts in the workplace. Laymen would think such roles are interchangeable, as both fields usually work with the same tools and software in designing. In many cases, graphic designers are burdened with responsibilities more fit for a web designer, and vice versa. Though both jobs are geared towards art and aesthetics, there are a lot of differences between both fields.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic Design is the art of translating ideas into any form of visual communication. Graphic designers are often tasked with creating a layout for promotional materials that will then be used for digital or print distribution. Their work is often based around typography, use of space, colour and imagery. While writers relay a brand’s message through their careful choice of words, a graphic designer transmits a specific impression of the brand through visual stimuli.

What is Web Design?

Web Design utilizes the same visual principles of Graphic Design but is confined to the elements or totality of a website. Unlike graphic design, web design has restrictions like the size of the screen they are putting their content in and is geared towards different goals. Web designers need to cooperate with a team or a web developer in order to fully build a working site. Web designers are also limited in making their designs fit a certain coding language to be used in creating the website.

What are the differences between the designers?

Aside from knowledge in visual composition, web designers are required to know how to code. This is crucial because they need to gauge their design’s compatibility with the coding language the rest of the web development team is using. A background in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is necessary to perform a web designer’s job.

Additionally, web designers need to take into account the optimisation of their design. They need to make sure that the aesthetics of a website doesn’t hinder its loading time and performance. Because of this, web designers often rely on image compression and other shortcuts that could help a page load faster without sacrificing visual quality. Web designers also optimise for mobile viewing and make sure their design stays good when viewed on different screens.

On the other hand, graphic design covers more mediums and can vary between print and digital media. CMYK is usually the preferred colour mode for most graphic designers as it is optimal for printing, while web design uses RGB.

Similarly, as with any industry, clashes can emerge between experts in the Graphic Design world and the Web Design world. For instance, a Graphic Designer might look down on their Web Design counterpart, thinking that web media is of a lower calibre than print media. Web Design experts alternatively, may get annoyed with Graphic Designers who don’t understand the intricacies of the coding side of Web Design.

Despite the differences between both roles, graphic and web designers are equally important. Visual media comprises a very significant chunk of advertising, and to better reach your audience, you’re going to need both. As established in another article, great design can affect your business.

Are you looking for a way to improve your website’s interface or revamping your promotional materials? Check out our web design and graphic design services to see which ones fit your business needs!

How Great Design Can Affect Your Business

Outsourcing in the Philippines, Web Design / By DBOS

Enticing visuals capture attention, but there’s a difference between creating a smart design and being tacky or overdoing it–and most companies struggle drawing the line between these traits. Visual appeal is often brushed aside in the corporate setting, especially when planning a budget. While not all, entrepreneurs cut costs on spending for aesthetics and assume it’s not a priority. This usually results in businesses relying on freelancers to do the designing, thinking that a project-based designer will cost cheaper. The reality is, when it comes to art, quality means everything. Here are a few reasons why investing in a regular designer is worth every cent:

Effective web design establishes your brand’s credibility

Have you ever researched a prospective business partner and found their website off-putting? Company websites are seen as a business’ shopfront, and must always aim to create a positive first impression. If you want to attract potential customers and partners, a polished website can establish your credibility and create a favourable user experience to your site visitors. In-house web and graphic designers can sometimes charge highly for their creative services, but rest assured that hiring professionals are worth every cent. It’s also important that you hire the right people for the job, as web and graphic designers both do different tasks but are often confused as interchangeable when they are not.

Colour Psychology and Colour Theory is real and artists know how to use it

Though it’s not yet an exact science, the proper use of colours can impact a viewer’s mood and behaviour. Colours carry an emotional and cultural significance that can be incorporated in the multimedia design and make it more efficient or in line with the aesthetic goals. Especially when setting up your brand, a specific colour scheme can be used to reach your target audience better. For example, you own a hat shop for men and you want to expand your business by franchising in China, it’s best not to make a logo featuring a man wearing a green hat–this has cultural connotations in that country, and wearing a green hat in China actually means that their wives have committed adultery! Your target audience will perceive your brand as rude or offensive. There are more nuances when it comes to using colour, and expert designers know how to properly utilize colour symbolism in creating logos, websites, and other peripherals.

Half of your message can already be conveyed through design

Whether it be for graphic design, logo design, or a website design, adopting the fundamentals of art in creating a layout can be used to communicate with your target audience. Considering the following examples below:

The differences in colour use, contrast, shapes, and typefaces can be used to convey a variety of messages. Trained professionals are equipped with the knowledge on how to “speak” design: visual art is like language, in a way that it can invoke a specific impression and harmonize it with the intended message. This is most important in logo design, as logos consist of a huge chunk of branding–it is considered as your business’ “face”.

Scrimping on your budget for design can subject your marketing materials to unforeseen circumstances, causing it to fail. I’m not saying that freelancers aren’t capable of creating great output, but rather, underpaying outsourced designers and freelancers can get you a substandard design that is likely to fail in conveying your brand’s message.

If you’re looking to hire highly-skilled artists & designers but still wanting to save, your best bet is to hire an offshore designer. You’ll get the same quality of output as an in-house artist but for lower wages and costs. Check out our services to see which options are the best fit for your business!

How to Find the Right Outsourcing Partner

Business News, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By DBOS

All agencies aren’t created equal, and half of your success in offshoring lies in selecting the right business partner. Nidhi Hola of GoDaddy India shares her tips in finding the best service provider fit for your business’ needs.

According to the article, it all boils down to setting clear goals and identifying the core challenges that your enterprise is struggling with. Once fully established, all you need to do is line-up and cross-check your options. Though this sounds simple, you also have to keep in mind several factors that could affect your future partnership: if your goals fit into a specific niche, you might need to adjust your search to specialist firms instead of large agencies.

Nidhi describes more of these nuances in detail. To view the full article, you can click here.

Branding Matters: Why You Need Social Media Marketing

Outsourcing in the Philippines, Social Media Marketing / By DBOS

With over 2.072 billion active users monthly, Facebook has become the biggest Social Networking Site (SNS)–trumping both Instagram and Twitter with 800 million and 330 million active users respectively. It only makes sense for businesses to use these online avenues for advertising their products and services. This rising marketing trend led to the creation of social media marketing and has proven itself to be very effective as a means of directing traffic. BPO companies around the world began offering social media management services, so businesses can get a boost in their online presence.

Reach a wider audience

Using Social Media Platforms broadcasts brand awareness to a wider, international audience. Social network platforms also come with built-in tools that will help you gauge analytics and enables you to choose a specific target audience for marketing. Facebook and Instagram for example, allows business profiles to create a paid advertisement and customise parameters in order to filter in users who are likely to be interested in your product or service. You can also easily monitor the progress of your marketing campaigns through page insights, complete with options for optimising the visibility of your page and its content.

Create an online personality for your brand

Ever since the advent of the internet, viral content has the potential to reach “immortality”–funny and interesting videos, pictures, and any kind of engaging content remain relevant for years and even decades. This is why brands have started launching their own viral marketing campaigns on their official SNS accounts that help attract new customers for your product or service. Among the most memorable examples would be the Wendy’s Twitter account, that shot to fame overnight due to its hilarious comebacks and sarcastic replies to people who tried to engage with the official account. In fact, the marketing stunt was so popular, people have started making fan art, fan fiction stories, and even dressing up as Wendy’s iconic mascot. The viral marketing campaign had dramatically raised their social media engagements, resulting in a profit of around $64 Million that year. Social media marketing brings your brand closer to your audience by interacting and engaging with them through a defined personality according to your brand’s tone and image. You can also opt for hiring a community manager which can further drive people towards your online channels.

Community Managers vs. Social Media Managers

You can broaden your reach by hiring community managers to support your official SNS profiles. Community managers create their own persona and endorse the brand to followers in their accounts. The main difference between a social media manager and a community manager is that the former engages with people already familiar and following your brand, while the latter is responsible for bringing the brand closer towards people outside your normal reach, and help more people discover your products or services. Community managers help your business become more accessible to potential customers as they are not confined to a corporate tone or persona when engaging with other people online.

Overall, your business will surely benefit a lot from social media marketing, especially when it’s done right. Not only does SNS help people connect with each other, it also helps you connect with your target audience!

Want to give social media marketing a try? Check out our services to see which staffing solutions can help you amp up your branding online!

Crucial Skills to Consider Before Hiring an SEO Specialist

Outsourcing in the Philippines, SEO / By DBOS

There is an ever-increasing demand for SEO services and specialists as more and more businesses shift towards digital marketing to establish their brands online. Search Engine Optimization plays a big role in directing traffic and boosting the visibility of your website and its peripherals. Finding the right SEO agency or team for your business can get tough, as there’s no easy way to initially gauge their expertise until you have them on board and start working for you. Luckily for you, we have gathered a few traits that could help guide you when deliberating applicants for the right position your business needs.

Observe their writing and speaking ability

This is probably the easiest one to screen, as a brief writing assessment and interview will do. Though not to generalize, a lot of writers tend to get tongue-tied in expressing themselves when speaking, and other people are the other way around. It’s best to get an SEO expert who is both well-written and well-spoken, as it will ease the communication of ideas between you and your staff. Displaying strong writing and speaking abilities can also give you an idea of what kind of quality of output you can expect from them.

Simulate situations that require problem-solving and critical thinking

Every business has varying website optimization needs, which is why you’ll need a flexible staff or SEO agency to help you overcome any difficulty when planning a digital marketing strategy. People who are great problem solvers and show strong critical thinking skills can do a lot of good for your business. To help discern these traits, you can ask hypothetical questions during your interview, such as what was suggested in this article. Simple to complex situational questions can be integrated into your assessment. Though there are no right or wrong answers for these, it will give you a good idea behind how your prospects process information and how they will handle a given situation.

Opt for people with the desire to learn

It’s normal for applicants to oversell themselves during an interview. However, there are genuine qualities that can shine through people’s facades. Look for people with a thirst for continuous learning and the desire to keep improving themselves. These types of people often have a lot of drive in doing their best and looking for more efficient ways to approach issues or problems. Lifelong learners will take every opportunity they can to help themselves perform better in their jobs, and with SEO practices constantly evolving throughout the years, they are most likely to be the best in adapting to ever-changing SEO practices.

Take note of expertise in relevant skill sets

SEO specialists need to have an understanding of basic coding, metadata, search engine marketing and even a little bit of web design. Aside from the content itself, search engines often rely on the technical aspects such as the coding and metadata in order to find any type of content attached to specific keywords. Therefore, the nature of an SEO expert’s job requires even the slightest of knowledge or familiarity in other fields besides writing.

Online marketing is predicted to grow exponentially for the coming years, and having a team of SEO professionals will give your brand the proper advantage it needs to stand up from the digital crowd. We hope these pointers will help you find the right staff or SEO agency to boost your brand’s image.

Still having trouble looking for qualified SEO masters? Check out our services or get a free quote and let us help you better by connecting you with the right people.

Top Benefits of Outsourcing Your Accounting Operations

Accounting Outsourcing, Offshore Back Office / By DBOS

Every business, no matter the size, needs a reliable accounting department to sort out any financial matter. However, since the demand for highly qualified accountants is constant, hiring a team can get very expensive depending on your home country’s wage rates. This can put a strain on your budget, especially for startups and smaller enterprises. Luckily, the business process outsourcing industry makes it easier for companies of any scale to hire an offshore staff to render their accounting services needs. We’ve compiled for you a short list of reasons on how your business can benefit from outsourcing your accounting services!

Virtually risk-free service, made affordable for you

Accounting outsourcing has made great strides in improving business systems around the world. Having professional accountants do your bookkeeping and whatnot also increases the efficiency of risk management and reduces the probability of errors. This includes fraud checks as well, as your service providers will be held responsible for the processing of every transaction making accuracy control stricter compared to a more relaxed in-house staff. Today, most offshore back office services have achieved a 99.95% accuracy level. Since highly-skilled experts are handling your data processing, data encoding, and other accounting services, you can rest assured that your data is in safe and capable hands. In Australia alone, a regular accountant can cost you around $4,600 AUD per month on average, that’s twice or even thrice the wages an offshore accountant usually charges for the same quality of output. Not only will you get security, you also get to save your hard-earned money.

Access the latest technology, trends, and accounting standards

One of the best advantages you can get when you outsource is that competent BPO services are always up to date with their systems and staff training. When you hire an offshore staff, seat fees and set-up fees are already integrated into the billing. These added expenses are well worth it because it is what a BPO company uses to equip your staff with the latest tools they need to perform their job. BPO companies also encourage their employees to regularly upskill themselves through sponsored training or boot camps. This gives outsourced accountants an edge over in-house hiring.

Allows you to focus on your core operations

Smaller tasks under accounting services such as data encoding and data processing can get very tedious due to the nature of the job. Smaller enterprises tend to bypass this problem by having their staff multitask and handle several responsibilities. To avoid overworking your in-house team, outsourcing your back office accounting work can free your staff and help you save time. Another thing to consider is that most back office functions do not drive revenue. Spending more on labour fees for non-profiting posts, especially when you’re only working with a limited budget, is pretty unwise. Outsourcing will help you direct more funding on aspects of your business that will increase your revenue, thus effectively improving your cash flow.

These are only a few of the many benefits you can reap from outsourcing your accounting operations. Smarter solutions don’t necessarily need to be expensive. Hiring an offshore staff can help you further grow your business through efficient services, and it starts with finding the right BPO company to partner with.

Interested in outsourcing? Check out our services to see which options fit your business best. You might even find what you’ve been looking for all this time!