Critical design mistakes your B2B company is probably making

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This is an excerpt from our free eBook “A blueprint for B2B design”. Click here to download the full eBook.

Okay, so you run a B2B company. You understand that design is important in terms of marketing and product development. However, the thing you might not understand—and that might be holding you back—is the true vital nature of design when it comes to your business’ success. You might not know it, but your design process and products can actually make or break your brand. 

You want your B2B company to utilize design to grow (and not as a stumbling block you keep encountering that holds you back). So, it can help to learn about some common errors that a lot of B2B organizations make when it comes to incorporating design into their process. Here are some of the most common design mistakes B2B company leaders make, and why they might end up hindering your company’s progress.

Skipping a frontline assets audit

You have a great idea for a new logo and company colors! You want to update your typeface and send a new message out to the world! But, before you just go ahead and tackle design (or re-design) at your B2B company, you need to do an audit of all your frontline assets. This means ALL of the things that go out in front of prospects, customers, employees, shareholders, partners, and more. Departments tend to work in silos and don’t share their design assets with one another before they go out. So, it really helps to take a thorough look at the complete picture of what you’ve got at the company so you can map out your design needs as a complete, holistic brand.

Keeping the importance of design veiled and opaque

Sure, marketing and product people know about the importance of design. But… the finance team and HR (and beyond)? Our guess is, they rarely (if EVER) think about design. However, if you want to create a cohesive, thriving brand, you need to make sure that EVERYONE at your B2B organization is aware of how important design is when it comes to creating a brand that will outshine competition. This will allow for scale, speed, and quality design work while maintaining its integrity. Making everyone aware of design may have to include training processes, where everyone learns to understand just what exactly their role is in the design process.

Trying to keep all design in-house

Let’s face it: if you want to do design right, you’re going to need to team up with outside partners in order to ensure you maximize your design capability, reach, and scale. An in-house design team can do great work. But, bringing in outside partners allows you to avoid backlogs. It also gives in-house folks the opportunity to focus on the more important higher-level strategy and creative thinking they were hired to do—rather than daily execution. This makes for higher-quality output AND a happier team.

Now that you know about common design mistakes B2B companies make, you might want to know more about how to do design right. To learn more, check out our eBook A blueprint for B2B design. We’ll walk you through why design is important for B2B organizations, how you can utilize it for growth, and how you can make your design scalable so it continues to work for you. Also, if you want some professional guidance to help you with your B2B design, reach out to SketchDeck. Our team can explain to you the ways you can use design (that you might know about yet), then help you develop regular, daily design assets that will help establish and grow a successful brand. 

Did you enjoy this article? It is an excerpt from our free eBook. Click here to download the full version.

Becky B

Becky B

Redefine what's possible with SketchDeck.

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