99designs what can be learned from their success.

April 29, 2016

99 Designs

99designs is very successful. So let’s leave the baggage behind and try to examine why they are doing so well:

They have made design more accessible by lowering prices and creating a newbie friendly system.
They offer upfront pricing. Most design firms are crazily vague on this. MOST NEVER OFFER PRICING. Is a website really that complex to price? Is a logo that intimidating that you can’t even give a prospective client a range of pricing?
Everyone loves getting options. All “contests” provide multiple options from multiple designers. What fun!
They capitalize on the global market. Their designers are often in areas that have lower cost of living.
They offer a money back guarantee. See the homepage screenshot. They mention the guarantee very prominently. (Do they still pay the designers for work if the contest holder decides not to pay?)
They up-sell all over the place. You can pay for better quality designers, more concepts, you can pay for additional design materials, website etc.
They highlight their designers best work very well. Conversely they hide the worst work fairly well too.
Their own site and brand are designed well (They used to have a POS logo).
They offer many categories. If a client is looking for something specific they don’t have to guess. If they need a tattoo and they see tattoo as an option in the nav then their biggest barrier to spend (uncertainty) has been resolved.