Online Photo Editing Tools (For the Design Pro to the Design Illiterate) Posted on November 12, 2015November 30, 2021 by Jessica Lunk As much as copywriters would like to believe otherwise, images are the key to engaging browsers. Social posts are significantly more effective when a photo or video is included, and blogs, articles, and copy all rely heavily on images to capture attention in time – you typically have only a few seconds to grab it before they leave your page without reading anything more than the heading. But what if you have no digital photo editing skills!? Fortunately, there are helpful tools that can make photo editing easier. You don’t have to be a pro to create great-looking photos for your company. Just get to know some of the tools that you can find online or download to your computer. PicMonkey PicMonkey has a free version that anyone can use to create photo collages or enhance existing photos by adding text and graphic elements. Beginners can learn the PicMonkey program pretty quickly. For advanced elements, you can used the paid version. You can use PicMonkey’s templates or upload your own for editing. The site is used to create images for Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. The biggest drawback is that it can be slow at times. Canva Canva is similar to PicMonkey, although it is easier to navigate. It doesn’t have as many free graphic elements, but it starts you off with the perfect size image for each type of social media. Also easy to learn, Canva has more free options when it comes to grids and layouts, but does charge for most of its images. The fee is only $1 per element, so it’s worth the money if you want to use one. It is easier to navigate Canva and it doesn’t get bogged down as much as PicMonkey. Pixlr Pixlr is a mobile app photo editor that is completely free. You can use its various tools to edit your photos right on your phone or tablet. It has many elements similar to Photoshop, but is more complicated than either Canva or PicMonkey. It is a good choice for intermediate users that want to edit on their mobile devices. It is available for iOS and Android. Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 A smaller version of Photoshop, Elements is not as costly and offers quite a range of tools for a more serious photo editor. There is no free version of this program, but you can get a free trial. Beginners can learn by using the guided tutorials for the program. You do have to buy this program outright for your Mac or PC. Google Picasa 3 This is a free program for both PC and Mac that is a good choice for photo editing quickly and efficiently. Not for serious editors, this program is good for people who want to edit photos without much fuss. It is a good program to use for Google +. GIMP Available for Linux, Windows and Mac, GIMP is free to use on your computer and is compatible with all photo files. It is an open-source photo editor with a full array of tools. It also has a file manager, and offers advanced tools for serious photo editors. Creating images for your marketing can be a lot of fun. I would recommend playing around with a formula that you use to create consistency and to make it easier to produce images on the fly. Think about the emotion you want to convey. Is there tension? My secret weapon for finding great images that are free to use is The Stocks. It’s an aggregate of different photo sites so it’s easy to sift through and find the right image for a blog post, a motivational image, an email header, etc. When you are planning your marketing strategies for small business success, you don’t need big, complex software to reach your goals.
In a World of Marketing Madness, Simplicity Rules Posted on March 2, 2015 by Jessica Lunk Marketers and advertisers used to control the message sent to consumers. But a lot has changed. For instance, we can opt out of watching TV commercials and skip the radio for our favorite podcast. Today there are lots of different channels from which your audience consumes information. This also means that many forces are at work to influence customers to make decisions. Word of mouth, peer recommendations on social media, online advertising, thought leadership, online searches > all of these channels work together to turn prospects into customers. Today’s multi-channel approach to marketing can feel overwhelming, but there is relief. In a complex world of marketing madness, simplicity is key. Here are 5 ways to simplify marketing: Simplify Your Messaging > Do you know who your best customer is? If your messaging is generic, and you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’ll find it difficult to capture anyone’s attention. Instead, boil down your company’s mission, purpose, vision and unique value proposition to attract only your best customer. Your messaging will resonate much better with your audience, cutting through the noise to pull in more (and better!) customers. Simplify Your Design > Website design is trending toward big images, flat icons, and shorter, succinct copy. Sites and design are getting simpler in order to adapt more easily to a fluid landscape of devices, social media channels, email, video and online ads. Design is a communication tool. It should get to the point and aid in conveying your message. Design shouldn’t hinder your ability to connect with your audience. Simple, responsive design can help your brand resonate with your audience across all channels. Along those lines, simple design elements can help you quickly execute multi-channel campaigns, easily adapting creative to social media, print, ads, video and others. Simplify Your Tools > Have you ever invested in technology, only to find that you needed a specialized consultant just to get it to work for you? Not only are complex tools frustrating, but they are time consuming and costly. As a small business, you can’t spare extra time and resources just to make a system work like it should. Cut out the middle man and use simple, but powerful tools like Hatchbuck customers Deanna Fenton and Kim Doyal have done. When you invest in tools that fit your business size, budget and resources, you can dive right in and start seeing results now, rather than waiting 6 months to roll out new technology. Simplify Your Campaigns > Today, marketing is 6 months in, not 6 months out. Agility and flexibility are crucial in executing cross channel campaigns. The market, your target audience, technology – a lot can change before you wrap up a year long campaign. Shorter iterations give you a chance to test a campaign, measure results, learn from what worked (or what didn’t) and repeat. Simplify Your Tests > Little changes can add up to make a big impact. Test one little change at a time to improve customer conversions across channels. Elements like the color of a button, a homepage image, a line of copy, or an email subject line can all be optimized to generate better results. Moving the needle doesn’t need to be complex. Gaining incremental advantages can make a big difference in your business, improving metrics like conversion rates, deal size and customer lifetime value. It’s always easier to get complex. But complexity doesn’t help you to get organized, connect with your audience, or have those meaningful conversations with prospects and customers. Keep it simple to calm the marketing madness.
6 Simple Ways to Get More Mileage Out of Your Blog Post Posted on April 2, 2014 by Jessica Lunk Keeping up with your business blog isn’t easy. Even for someone like me who enjoys writing, coming up with new ideas and posting consistently is really challenging. So if you’ve conquered inertia, sat down and written a great blog post, give it the finishing touches- and the attention- that it deserves: 1. Add a great image. Whether you’re flipping through articles on Flipboard, or scrolling through your Facebook feed, you’ll find that marketing is becoming more and more visual, and a great image can help grab a reader’s attention. Here are a few ways to whip up an image for your blog post: If you’ve got an artistic side, put your graphic design skills to the test and create your own image. Sometimes a smaller canvas brings out the most creativity. You might surprise yourself. Inspiration is all around you. Grab your smartphone, snap a pic and slap a filter on it for an insta-image. Take advantage of others’ talents and search for eye-candy on Google images, Flickr and more using CreativeCommons image search. 2. Create a post excerpt. It’s tempting to move onto the next thing once your post is in the can, but one tiny extra step can make a big difference in your marketing. Write a short teaser in just a couple sentences. If you already have a great lede that entices your audience to read on, you may not even have to write anything. The content is already there. 3. Add a call to action. Your blog post shouldn’t be a dead end. Help speed up the conversion process by making sure that prospects who have come to your post know what to do next. Link to a related article or page on your website, ask them to sign up for your email newsletter, or point to a free resource that you offer. Don’t let them fall off your site because there was nowhere to go next. 4. Share on social media. Social and content go hand in hand. Content feeds your social media engine, and social distributes your content to a wider audience. Oh, and guess what – you already have a snappy excerpt and eye-catching image to help spread the word. 5. Alert your team members. Amplify your social media efforts by alerting your team members that a new article is up. Pass along your excerpt as well to make it super easy for them to share with their unique groups and networks. 6. Create a value-added email. It’s easy to turn your blog headline into a subject line and to craft your pre-written excerpt into a value-added email that you can share with your prospect list. Do this for every post, and soon you’ll have a great drip campaign that will keep marketing leads engaged. There is no better feeling than wrapping up an interesting, funny, educational, or entertaining blog post. But don’t just click “publish” and forget it. With a few extra steps, your hard work will get way more mileage, reaching a bigger audience with your brand.