Mastering DIY Design: How Small Businesses Can Create Professional Marketing Materials on a Budget

Amber Hollier • March 25, 2024

Mastering DIY Design: How Small Businesses Can Create Professional Marketing Materials on a Budget

Creating professional marketing materials doesn't have to break the bank. With the right DIY design tips and tools, small businesses can produce high-quality materials that promote their brand and attract customers, all while staying within budget.


Start with a Clear Plan: Before diving into the design process, take the time to outline your goals, target audience, and key messaging. Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your marketing materials will guide your design decisions and ensure that your final product successfully communicates your brand message.


Choose the Right Tools: While professional graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can be powerful tools, they often come with a steep learning curve and a hefty price tag. Fortunately, there are plenty of affordable or even free design tools available that are perfect for DIY projects. Canva and Adobe Spark are a few examples of user-friendly design platforms that offer a wide range of templates, fonts, and graphics to help you create polished designs for your printing materials. Before sending your design to print, you want to ensure that your materials maintain their highest quality. You can read more about that here.


Stick to Simple Designs: When it comes to DIY design, less is often more. Avoid cluttering your marketing materials with excessive text or graphics, as this can overwhelm your audience and detract from your message. Instead, opt for clean, minimalist designs that allow your content to stand out. Use plenty of white space to create visual breathing room and make your materials easy to read and navigate.


Focus on Consistency: Consistency is key when it comes to branding, so make sure your DIY marketing materials align with your brand's visual identity. Use consistent colors, fonts, and imagery across all of your materials to reinforce your brand's personality and help customers recognize your brand at a glance. Creating a style guide can help ensure that your materials maintain a cohesive look and feel across different channels and platforms.


Embrace Templates: Don't be afraid to use templates as a starting point for your designs. Many design platforms offer a wide variety of pre-made templates for everything from business cards and flyers to social media graphics and email newsletters. Starting with a template can save you time and effort while still allowing you to customize the design that best suits your brand and messaging.


Proofread Carefully: Before finalizing your designs, be sure to carefully proofread all text for spelling and grammatical errors. Typos and mistakes can undermine the professionalism of your materials and leave a negative impression on your audience. Consider enlisting the help of a friend or colleague to review your materials with fresh eyes before printing or publishing.


If you ever find yourself stuck in a rut with the design process, Triangle Printing and Marketing has a dedicated graphic design team to help aid in your process. And of course, when you are ready to have your design printed, we can help with that, too! With the right tools, planning, and attention to detail, DIY design can be a cost-effective way to improve your marketing efforts and grow your business. 

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Why You’re Not Getting Google Reviews (and How to Fix It)

By Amber Hollier • June 17, 2025
Online reviews are as good as gold for any business. Google Reviews add to your credibility and directly impact how easily potential customers find you online. But here’s the hard truth: many companies struggle to collect reviews, even when they have plenty of happy customers. If your business isn’t getting the reviews you deserve, here’s why...and, more importantly, how to turn that around. 1. You’re Not Asking — Or Not Asking The Right Way It might sound obvious, but a huge reason companies don’t get Google Reviews is simply because they don’t ask. Many satisfied customers assume you don’t need their feedback unless you tell them otherwise. Even worse, if you only ask once and in an inconvenient way, customers are likely to forget. How to Fix It: Make asking for reviews a consistent, simple part of your customer communication. Train your staff to ask after a purchase or successful service. Include a polite, clear request in follow-up emails or invoices. A direct line like, “Your feedback means the world to us — would you mind leaving a quick review?” goes a long way. 2. It’s Too Hard to Leave a Review If your customers have to hunt for your business on Google, find the right link, and log in, you’re asking too much. The more steps involved, the fewer reviews you’ll get. How to Fix It: Create a direct link and/or generate a QR code that goes straight to your Google Review page. Google provides a special URL that takes customers directly to the review box. Add this link to your website, email signature, thank-you pages, front desk, and receipts. The easier you make it, the more likely people are to follow through. 3. You Don’t Follow Up People are busy. Even happy customers forget to leave reviews when life gets in the way. Many businesses ask once and never remind customers again. How to Fix It: Automate a gentle follow-up. Send a reminder a few days after your first request. Use simple, friendly language that expresses genuine appreciation for their time. Tools like email marketing platforms or CRMs can help you schedule this automatically. 4. You’re Not Showcasing Reviews Believe it or not, customers are more likely to leave reviews when they see others doing it. This is a lot like how customers are more likely to leave tips when they see a few dollars already in the tip jar. If your Google profile looks empty, people may feel their effort won’t make a difference. How to Fix It: Highlight existing positive reviews on your website, social media, and in-store signage. This builds trust with potential customers and encourages others to join in. 5. You Don’t Have a Company Culture That Values Reviews Sometimes the problem starts within the business. If your team doesn’t see reviews as a priority, they won’t remember to ask customers consistently. How to Fix It: Make reviews part of your company culture. Celebrate great feedback in team meetings and share positive reviews with your staff. Recognize employees who help generate the most reviews...a little internal competition never hurts! Start Growing! More Google Reviews means more trust, more clicks, and ultimately more business. By making it easy, asking consistently, and showing appreciation, your company can increase their online visibility and credibility. Need printed thank-you cards with a QR code that links straight to your Google Review page? We can help! Bring your happy customers into the heart of your marketing.