Guides – Envato https://envato.com Design & creative inspiration Tue, 03 Sep 2019 04:37:21 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1 https://assets.wordpress.envato-static.com/uploads/2016/08/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Guides – Envato https://envato.com 32 32 Envato’s Video Marketing Guide https://envato.com/learn/video-marketing-guide/ Thu, 11 Jul 2019 06:59:15 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=81594 Discover how to create a successful video marketing strategy and start producing great video content with our 10-chapter guide.

The post Envato’s Video Marketing Guide appeared first on Envato.

]]> The post Envato’s Video Marketing Guide appeared first on Envato.

]]> Social Media Marketing Guide: Top Tips For Social Media Content Creation https://envato.com/learn/social-media-marketing-guide-top-tips-for-social-media-content-creation/ Mon, 06 May 2019 03:50:54 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=77788 Discover our guide to social media strategy, including creating content, using social media tools, running social media ads.

The post Social Media Marketing Guide: Top Tips For Social Media Content Creation appeared first on Envato.

]]>

Social media is huge. So huge, in fact, that today almost half the globe is active on one social media platform or another, with more joining in every day. This makes having a presence on social media essential for businesses as a way to connect directly with this large pool of potential customers through social media content.

But how do you make the most of the opportunities out there, and set about creating the most effective content for promoting your goods and services to this audience? That’s where we come in. We’ve created a comprehensive, step-by-step social media marketing guide, with you in mind, so that whether you’re completely new to social media marketing or just need to update your strategy, we’ve got you covered:

  1. Understand the benefits of social media 
  2. Set your social media marketing strategy
  3. Create engaging social media content
  4. Develop social media campaigns

And if video is your focus, discover why and how to create social media video.

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is the process of creating and posting content that you have customized for each social media network, to achieve a specific marketing goal, like promoting your brand, driving audience engagement, encouraging sign-ups for a service, or motivating users to make a purchase.

Chapter 1: The Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Audience At Outdoor Music Festival by monkeybusiness

Audience At Outdoor Music Festival by monkeybusiness

1. Builds Brand Awareness

Using social media platforms is a great way to generate awareness about your brand. In fact, a Nielsen Social Media Report revealed that, for at least 39% of social media users, finding out about products and services is an important reason for using a social network. This finding suggests that, with over a billion users eager to discover new brands and their offerings, every business should take social media marketing seriously.

2. Builds an Engaged Community

Connection and engagement are at the heart of social media, and one of the greatest benefits of social media marketing for a business is the opportunity to interact with customers from all over the world. It’s never been easier to develop a community of dedicated fans who you can communicate with directly and who, once you win them over, will sing your brand’s praises to all their friends and followers.

3. Enhances Brand Loyalty

Not only does using social media support direct communication with potential and actual customers, but a study conducted by the International Journal of Research Marketing reveals that engaging a user through social media forges a stronger relationship between the consumer and the business, and enhances brand loyalty.

4. Shows Off Your Commitment to Great Customer Care

In the past, when we had a problem with a company our only options were to call or write to them directly, or simply vent our frustration to our friends, but now people tend to share their dissatisfaction with a much larger audience via social media. This gives those businesses that are paying attention an opportunity to resolve issues quickly and efficiently, and to demonstrate to hundreds, thousands or millions of potential customers that you care about them and want to provide them with the best possible experience.

5. Facilitates Targeting of Specific Demographics

One of the best things about social media marketing is that businesses can target their messages to reach the right groups of people. That’s because different demographics tend to favor different social media platforms, and vary in how they use them. On top of that, each platform collects a certain amount of information on their users, which allows you to target even more finely tuned messages to particular audience groups.

6. Opens Up New Avenues to Promote and Sell

Social media facilitates a new way to connect with potential customers, known as ‘social selling’. With social selling, a salesperson reaches out to a potential customer directly, via social media, to offer thoughtful suggestions, answer questions, and accelerate them towards a purchase. Unlike cold calling, which has a reputation as annoying and intrusive, selling on social media tends to be received more favorably.

7. Supports Multi-Channel Campaigns

Social media marketing is most effective when applied across several different social media platforms and marketing channels. That’s because it allows you to reinforce your message via multiple social media channels, thereby continuing a conversation with your audience over a period of time.

As you’ve probably noticed, the benefits of social media marketing aren’t all about direct sales, but rather about building brand recognition, generating a community of actual and potential customers, and helping your business to become profitable over time.

Now that you have a good idea of what social media marketing is, and some of the benefits of this approach to marketing, it’s time to look at creating an effective social media marketing strategy.

Chapter 2: Building a Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Statistics Strategy Analysis Diagram Information Concept by Rawpixel

Statistics Strategy Analysis Diagram Information Concept by Rawpixel

A social media marketing strategy is a plan for everything you hope to do and achieve using social media. It’s designed to guide your actions and track whether you’re succeeding or failing.

In this section, we’ll share the ingredients for a successful social media strategy.

1. Set Social Media Marketing Goals

You can’t move forward without knowing what you’re working towards, so your first step is to set your social media marketing goals. Start by examining your company’s overall business goals and then think about how you want to use social media to help you achieve them. Having too many goals can be distracting and counterproductive, so limit yourself to two primary goals and two secondary goals.

Each goal should adhere to the SMART framework, meaning they should each be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-based

For example, instead of your goal reading “Build a loyal following”, it should read “Grow account from 0 to at least 10,000 followers (specific and measurable) in 6 months (time-based and achievable) using high quality images, videos, infographics, giveaways and customer-generated content (relevant).”

Using SMART goals gives you a foolproof way of ascertaining where your social media strategy is succeeding or failing.

2. Identify Ideal Customers

Effective marketing is impossible without knowing who your target audience is, which social media they prefer, and what they care about. The more information you have on your ideal customer, the better equipped you are to create content that they’ll like, engage with and share, and the greater the likelihood that you’ll be able to convert these fans into customers.

The first step in understanding your ideal customer is to create an ideal customer profile, the point of which is to arrive at your best guess at the kind of person who might most readily convert into a customer.

Facebook is a great platform for helping you to develop an ideal customer profile. As one of the largest social networks, with a database of over 2 billion active monthly users, it is a great place to do some audience research.

Start by checking out your competitors’ pages. Click through to the profiles of a handful of their most engaged followers to get a sense of who they are and what they care about. Once you’ve done this a few times, you’re ready to create a profile of the kind of person who is most likely to buy from you.

Details should include:

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Relationship status
  • Location
  • Interests
  • Job title
  • Income
  • Preferred social network
  • Buying motivation
  • Deterrents to buying

Such insights into your ideal customer allow you to refine your social media marketing strategy and think more clearly about what to offer them.

3. Select Your Platforms

There are hundreds of social media platforms out there, and at least 20 that are considered the most popular. One of the mistakes that businesses new to social media marketing make is trying to build a presence on more platforms than they can maintain. But here’s the thing: your ideal customer is most likely using just one to three of those platforms, and probably has one identifiable favorite. For example, they may have a Facebook account that takes up only 5% of their social media browsing hours, whereas they have an active presence on Instagram 60% of the time and on Twitter the remaining 35% of the time. This insight immediately tells you that you need to focus your primary efforts on Instagram and your secondary on Twitter.

Once you’ve selected the platforms you’re going to focus on, you need to create a separate content strategy for each, because every social media platform works differently and manages some content better than others. On one platform, video content is king, on another it will be still images, and on another short text is the way to go. So if you decide to focus on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, you’re going to need specific content approaches for each.

4. Create a Social Media Content Strategy

Now it’s time to focus on your social media content plan. Because content is so critical for businesses, we have dedicated the next entire chapter to our top social media content ideas. Here, we’ll focus on a few actionable steps for creating a social media content strategy.

Conducting a social media audit:

Audit your existing social media channels to evaluate your past efforts and assess whether the platforms you’re currently using are the right ones for you, based on your new marketing goals and target audience. If a platform is no longer viable, given your goals and target audience, plan to pull back efforts on it so that you can spend more time focusing on more relevant platforms. If you’re going to continue your marketing efforts on your existing channels, make sure that all links are updated and that the company information is consistent with your current brand image and standards. Evaluate the performance of your posts and plan to do more of what has worked well and less of what hasn’t.

Check out the competition:

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your competitors’ social media channels because they can give you loads of insights into how your niche performs on different platforms. You can also draw inspiration from your competitors’ social media content plan, uncovering the strengths and weaknesses in their approaches and their products. All of this learning can be used to inform your own strategies.

Decide on the types of social media content you’ll be focusing on:

Depending on the channels you’ve chosen, the types of social media content you use could include images, videos, interviews, company news, etc, and you might also incorporate user-generated content and/or work with influencers. Whatever you choose, your content needs to fit with your company’s voice and your target audience’s tastes. It must be high quality and engaging, and align with the goals and objectives that you identified in Step 2.

Determine posting times:

Your social media content plan should also include guidance about what time of the day/week is best for posting your content. For example, if you’re based in Europe and your client base is in the Americas, posting later in the day may be preferable. You can always test this out by posting at different times to figure out which posts generate the most engagement from your audience.

Establish a posting frequency:

Finding the perfect frequency is critical for engagement. You don’t want to post so much that you annoy your fans or followers, nor do you want to post so infrequently that they forget you.

Create a social media content calendar:

Once you’ve determined the types of social media content you’ll be sharing, the time you’ll be posting, and your posting frequency, create a social media content calendar that outlines how often you will post to each network, which content you will share, and when you will share it.

5. Schedule, Track, Analyze, Optimize

Let’s face it, social media marketing is time consuming, and there just aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up – even if you’re a dedicated manager of your company’s social media accounts. That’s why social media management tools are a marketer’s best friend.

Social media management tools enable you to schedule posts for publication ahead of time, manage conversations and engagement, and track and analyze responses to your strategies to gauge whether your objectives are being met.

Regularly tracking and analyzing data allows you to tweak your strategy to be as effective as possible, course-correcting when results are poor or doubling down on efforts that are successful.

Here are a few tools that will make your job considerably easier:

  • Buffer allows you to schedule posts of all types across any platform. It also gives you the tools to evaluate which posts are most effective and why.
  • Hootsuite is another tool that allows you to schedule posts on a number of different social media platforms and analyze content performance.
  • HubSpot offers a host of tools for social media marketing, content management, web analytics, search engine and landing page optimization.
  • Sprout Social is a social media management tool that enables users to publish content, analyze performance and monitor engagement.
  • Tagboard is a social listening tool that allows you to monitor like brand or product mentions. You simply enter the topic, hashtag or term you’re interested in and you’ll see how the search term is being talked about in the social sphere.
  • Bitly enables you to shorten any URL so that it fits perfectly on your social media channels, and allows you to track responses each time a link is clicked, giving you valuable insights that will help you to optimize your marketing efforts.

Developing a social media strategy is demanding, it requires intentional and long-term investment, but it will be enormously beneficial to you and your company. An intelligent social media marketing strategy ensures that you aren’t just churning out content for the sake of it, but instead proactively moving towards achieving your business goals.

Chapter 3: Creating Engaging Social Media Content

Online Chatting Social Media Networking Casual Concept by Rawpixel

Online Chatting Social Media Networking Casual Concept by Rawpixel

High quality, engaging content is the fuel that successful social media strategies run on. That’s why we’re dedicating this chapter to our top social media content ideas.

What Is Social Media Content?
Social media content encompasses all of the materials marketers use to attract and engage social media users and persuade them to take a specific action. It includes but isn’t limited to images, videos, gifs, drawings, and infographics, which should establish your company’s unique brand and create a connection with your audience.

Here are our top tips for creating shareable content for social media.

1. Develop a Process

As we’ve said before, each piece of content you create should relate to your social media marketing goals and objectives for the platform you’re posting on. With this in mind, establish a process that follows these steps:

  • Select one of your objectives for the platform.
  • Brainstorm with colleagues about the approach and content that would achieve this objective.
  • Assign roles and responsibilities for creating the content.
  • Create content.
  • Schedule content for publication.
  • Monitor and respond to comments and queries.
  • Track and analyze responses.
  • Tweak your strategy to course-correct when results are poor or double down on efforts that are successful.

2. Create Content With Your Audience in Mind

Every form of social media content you create should not only be designed to achieve a specific objective, but should also attract the attention of the ideal customer you identified in the previous chapter. Ask yourself if what you’re planning to create is really something they will engage with, share with their friends or take some other action on.

When you’ve developed your idea, you may even decide to poll your audience to see what they think of it. This kind of approach generates engagement and gives you a valuable insight into what your target audience wants.

3. Develop Your Voice

Developing your voice requires you to marry what your company stands for and represents, with the needs of your target demographic. Knowing your ideal client helps you to develop a voice and tone for your brand that will resonate with them. To find your voice, ask yourself:

  • What kind of personality would your company have if it were human?
  • As a person, how would it treat others?
  • What do you want customers to think about your company?
  • Based on your answers to the above, what is the tone of your company? Serious, funny, knowledgeable, friendly or something else?

Once you’ve decided on the right voice for your company, create a social media style guide to document and formalize all of your decisions about voice, tone, and style. This will be instrumental in keeping your branding consistent, even when you have different people working on your social media team.

4. Trigger Emotions

Human beings share certain psychological needs, so most of us experience the same basic response to certain emotional triggers, which in turn drive our behaviors. Understanding what those triggers are and how to use them to achieve a specific response is the bread and butter of creating great marketing materials. Here is a list of the most popular emotional triggers, with examples of the kind of copy that aims to tap into each emotion:

  • Leadership – Be the first of your friends to discover the power of xyz.
  • Value – It’s our gift to you.
  • Instant gratification – Try today at our risk.
  • Belonging – Join us today and see what you’ve been missing.
  • Fear – Don’t miss out.
  • Guilt – For just $5, you can make all the difference in the life of a child.
  • Time – Offer lasts until midnight.
  • Trust – No hidden fees.
  • Competition – Be the envy of all your neighbors.
  • Trendsetting – Be like your favorite celeb.

5. Create a Mixture of High Quality Content

The best approach to social content is to use a good mixture of approaches to keep your target audience entertained, engaged, and occasionally (even frequently) surprised. The various formats below are just a few of the most popular types of social media content that you should experiment with.

Images
When it comes to content creation, images are hands down the most popular choice. And considering that posts that contain images are shared 94% more than posts that don’t, it’s no wonder. Images are easy to create, they tell a story, they reinforce messages, and they are ultra-shareable.

GIFs
These classic animations can be used to hilarious effect. Though they’ve been around for a long time, companies are just tapping into their potential as a powerful tool for boosting a brand’s position and increasing engagement.

Video
With its irresistible combination of moving image and sound, video is a wonderful storytelling medium that works well in long or short form, across a variety of social media channels. No social media strategy is complete without an element of video content. If you’re worried that your budget can’t accommodate the regular use of a team of video experts, Placeit has a wide and wonderful selection of Video Templates that you can use on any platform. For more on this format, check out our guide to social media video.

Live Content
With the advent of live streaming on Facebook and Instagram, brands are finding innovative ways to use the medium to their advantage. Some of the most effective uses are:

  • Customer support
  • Product introductions
  • Interviews and influencer outreach
  • Live events
  • Behind-the-scenes glimpses
  • Q&As and conversations with your audience
  • Tutorials

Illustrations
Illustrations are a wonderfully entertaining and unique way to attract an audience and tell stories that get your point across.

Slideshows
Instagram’s slideshow feature gives brands yet another creative way to intrigue audiences or tell a story. Your audience can swipe through the slideshow as if turning the pages of a book and, best of all, you can also create slideshows with slideshow video templates.

Infographics
Infographics are interesting and educational. They pull viewers in and keep them hooked. If you need to create an infographic but are not sure where to start, Envato Market and Envato Elements both have some great templates that can help you get started.

Giveaways
Giveaways are a no-brainer when it comes to social content. There are several approaches to offering a giveaway, and your choice of strategy should depend on your objective and the types of actions that you want your target audience to take. The most popular types of giveaways are:

  • Follow/like/comment to win contests
  • Tag a friend
  • Post a specific type of picture
  • Share and hashtag a post

“You don’t have to be a professional troublemaker to take a stand.”—Cecile Richards . . ✨ Giveaway ✨ How do you make trouble? Comment below to enter for a chance to win a copy of @cecilerichards‘ Make Trouble, a tote bag, a bookmark, and Make Trouble pins! There will be five winners total. . . Sweepstakes begins at 10:00 AM ET on Friday, April 6, 2018 and ends on 11:59 PM ET on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Participation open only to legal residents of the United States or the District of Columbia, who are 18 or older as of date of entry. Official rules here: spr.ly/SweepsRules . . @maketroublebook @touchstonebooks #MakeTrouble #MakeTroubleBook #CecileRichards #memoir #socialactivism #nonfiction #plannedparenthood #shepersisted #futureisfemale #preorder #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #igreads #literature #bibliophile #bookworm #booklover #bookish #booknerd #readinglist #currentlyreading #reading #read #giveaway #sweeps #enter #win

A post shared by Simon & Schuster (@simonandschuster) on

6. Exploit Trending Topics

Trends may come and go, but while they’re around they gain a lot of attention. You can ride the wave of their popularity and pull some of it your way if you stay up to date with trending topics and use them to create shareable content when appropriate. Here are a few ways to keep up:

  • Create a stream on Twitter with popular hashtags like #socialmedia
  • Create a Twitter list of key influencers and spend a bit of time each day reading what they’re saying
  • Use a news aggregation RRS feed to centralize news from a selection of different sources
  • Set up Google Alerts on specific terms and influencers to get regular updates when they post
  • Keep an eye on your competition
  • Don’t forget good old networking at local events, conferences and trainings, as well as Facebook groups

7. Use Customer-Generated Content

One of the most popular trends in content creation is to include customers in the creation process. This is known as customer-generated content and enables your fans and followers to become brand ambassadors. There is a lot of power in ordinary people vouching for a brand. According to Adweek, customer-generated content results in 29% higher web conversions than campaigns or websites that don’t use them. This is a good reason to actively encourage your fans and followers to show you how they’re using your product on their own social media and then share their content on your social media platform.

8. Use Online Tools and Templates

Great social media content doesn’t have to break the bank. There are tons of useful tools and templates available online that are cost effective and will help you get the job done quickly and easily. For example, Placeit has a number of excellent ad templates for use on Facebook and Instagram, as well as several cool video ad templates. In addition, if you are proficient in Adobe software you’ll find loads of useful templates on both Envato Elements and Envato Market.

Chapter 4: Social Media Advertising & Campaigns

Office table

Analyzing sales by Pressmaster

As you become more confident with social media marketing, you may want to start dipping your toes into the world of social media advertising. It can be a bit daunting stepping up from an organic strategy to one that requires you to invest your cash, so we thought it would be a good idea to round off this guide by looking at the top things to consider when creating social media ads, and then offering an overview of a few of the different types of social media advertising available today.

Top Things To Consider When Creating Ads

1. Repeat the Steps Used for Social Marketing

Many of the same steps that apply to your social marketing strategy also apply to your social media ads strategy. You must set objectives and goals, keep sight of your target audience, track and analyze data, and measure results.

2. Use the Same Channels That Work Well for Your Organic Content

When thinking about which social channels to use for advertising, the best approach is to use the same channels that have proven effective for your organic content. That’s because channels on which your content already resonates with your target audience are also likely to offer success with your social ad campaigns.

3. Test Multiple Versions of an Ad

One of the best things about social media ads is instant feedback. Create and run different versions of an ad for a short time to see which gets the best response. For example, you could create two identical ads with different headlines, images, copy or call to action, to see which of the two generates the most attention. Just be sure to change only one element of your ad at a time so that you can pinpoint which element has made the difference.

Different Types of Social Media Advertising

Several of the major social media platforms offer advertising options, but not all of them will be the right fit for every marketer. Here’s an overview of the more popular channels for social media advertising, with the type of ads they offer.

1. Facebook Ads

With over 2 billion users worldwide, advertising with Facebook is hard to beat, especially because the social media giant offers filters that allow users to specify their target audience based on factors like age, gender, location, interests, etc. Facebook ads can take a number of forms, including photos, videos, slideshows, etc. They are designed specifically to help brands achieve three types of goals: awareness, consideration, or conversion.

2. Instagram Ads

There are a couple of qualities that make Instagram an attractive platform for advertisers. Firstly, according to Locowise, Instagram’s engagement rate is even higher than Facebook’s – a whopping 70% higher to be exact. Secondly, Instagram offers a lot of variety as ads can take the form of photos, videos, and carousels. In addition, you can create each type of ad for either the main Instagram feed, or as an Instagram Story. Instagram ads support the same three broad categories of campaign objectives as Facebook ads: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

3. Twitter Ads

Twitter, unlike Facebook, is still a viable network for organic engagement. However, with various attractive advertising campaign options on offer, like promoted accounts, tweets, trends and website cards, there’s still good reason to spend a portion of your social media ad budget on the platform. Twitter ads are designed specifically to help brands achieve website clicks or conversions, tweet engagement, an increase in followers, greater brand awareness, etc.

4. Pinterest Ads

With 81% female users, Pinterest is widely regarded as a women’s channel. Pinterest ads are called Promoted Pins. They look and behave just like regular pins but you pay to have them seen by a wider audience. Pinterest offers a strong platform for e-commerce sales, and is useful for driving traffic to your website, building brand awareness, and encouraging audience engagement.

5. YouTube Ads

YouTube is the only social channel used by slightly more men than women. YouTube ads are great for helping you attract new viewers, build brand awareness, extend reach, drive website traffic and grow your subscriber base.

6. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is the platform of choice for those interested in B2B. It connects over 300 million professionals and offers text ads, sponsored content ads and sponsored InMail to help drive website traffic, build brand awareness, generate leads and convert prospects.

If you’re looking to create your own social media ads, Placeit has a number of great templates for Facebook, Instagram and YouTube that will get you up and running in no time, at an affordable price. For those who are competent in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, there are tons of ad templates available for various social media platforms. For example, check out the Facebook Fashion Banner Ads by micromove on Envato Elements, or this collection of 1650 Facebook and Instagram Ad Banners by Hyov on GraphicRiver. Not to be left out, there are also lots of great templates for those of you proficient in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, like this Social Media Ads pack by Madlistudio from VideoHive.

We know that we’ve given you quite a bit to think about and take action on, but the bottom line is that no viable business today can afford to ignore social media. At the same time, we hope you now feel reassured that establishing a presence on social media doesn’t have to be overwhelming and unmanageable. Like so much else in life, it’s all about having a plan, using the available tools and resources to make your task easier, and taking incremental steps towards your goals.

So take a deep breath… Now that you understand how to develop a social media marketing strategy, how to create irresistible content, and how to step up to social media advertising when you’re ready, you are more than prepared for the journey ahead.

Related stories

The post Social Media Marketing Guide: Top Tips For Social Media Content Creation appeared first on Envato.

]]> Logo Design Guide https://envato.com/learn/logo-design-guide/ Mon, 06 May 2019 03:32:37 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=77514 In this guide, we’ll explain the different categories of logo design, look at the qualities of great logos, and show you how to create your own logo.

The post Logo Design Guide appeared first on Envato.

]]>

If you’re trying to figure out how to design a sports logo, restaurant logo or gaming logo, we’re here to help. In this guide, we’ll explain the different categories of logo design, look at the qualities of great logos, show you how to create your own logo from scratch, and share a great tool for logo design online to help you speed up the process and save money.

Your logo is the face of your company. It is often the first thing a potential customer notices about a business, whether they come across it on your business card, your social media profile or your website. It is an essential part of your company’s story and brand identity, and should occupy pride of place on all of your branding and marketing materials.

A well-designed logo is a simple way of creating a great first impression, communicating what your company stands for, and differentiating yourself from the competition.

Logo Design Categories

Logo designs fall into three broad categories. Each category offers its own advantages, so it’s important to take the time to understand their differences and think about which would resonate with your broader brand story before you actually begin to create your own logo.

1. Image-Based Logos

Image-based logos use only a symbol to represent a business. They are either:

Abstract images, like those used by Airbnb, Pepsi, and Microsoft.

Airbnb Logo

Airbnb

Literal images that have been simplified and stylized, like the logos used by Apple, Twitter, and Penguin.

Twitter Logo

Twitter

Image-based logos are simple, bold, and instantly evoke the brand. However, they work best with large companies that have built up recognition over time. They aren’t the best choice for small businesses that are just starting out.

2. Text-Based Logos

Text-based logos use either the company name, like the eBay logo, a monogram, like that of Coco Chanel, or an initial, like the ‘W’ used by WordPress.

Wordpress Logo

WordPress

A text-based logo, using the company name, is a good option for a new business, or a small business with a relatively short name, to get people familiar with your brand. The monogram and initial are not the best choice though, due to lack of brand recognition.

3. Combination Logos

Combination logos, like the logos of Dove, Mastercard (until recently), and Puma incorporate both symbol and text into their design.

Dove LogoDove Logo

Dove

Combination logos are probably the most popular logos around. Most companies that use symbols, monograms or initials combine them with text to spell out the name of the company. This makes their logo easier to remember, especially when a company is new and the logo isn’t recognizable on its own. Once a company’s logo gains widespread recognition, the use of text becomes optional. For example, the credit card company Mastercard recently decided to remove its name from its well-known logo of intersecting circles.

Qualities Of A Great Logo

Now that you have a good idea of the different kinds of logos most commonly used by businesses, let’s look at the qualities that make a great logo.

1. Simplicity

The best logos keep things simple because a simple logo is easy to recognize and remember, and easy to scale up and down without losing quality.

Interior Designer Logo Design Template, Placeit

Interior Designer Logo Design Template, Placeit

2. Relevance

Great logos use fonts, colors and symbols that reflect the image they want their brand to convey. A logo is relevant when it gives viewers a good idea of what a brand is all about.

Organic Food Restaurant Logo Maker, Placeit

Organic Food Restaurant Logo Maker, Placeit

3. Memorability

A logo is an introduction to a business, so it needs to identify and differentiate that business from others, capture a potential customer’s attention, and leave a positive and lasting impression. This is why the best logos are also very memorable.

Woodworking Logo Template, Placeit

Woodworking Logo Template, Placeit

4. Thoughtful Use of Color

Color catches the eye, evokes emotions, and conveys messages. That’s why brands think carefully about what they want to communicate with the colors they use in their logos.

Craft Chocolate Logo Maker, Placeit

Craft Chocolate Logo Maker, Placeit

5. Cautious With Trends

Great logos tend to be classic rather than trendy, so aim to stand the test of time rather than jumping on a trend that may turn out to be transitory.

Logo Template for Bakery Business Logo Design, Placeit

Logo Template for Bakery Business Logo Design, Placeit

6. Versatility

Logos need to retain their quality, whether they’re scaled down or up to be used in print or on the web, so the best logos are versatile and work in every context.

Online Logo Template for Professional Photographers

Online Logo Template for Professional Photographers, Placeit

How to Design a Logo

1. Start With Your Why

Every company has a ‘why’, beyond the obvious one of making money. That ‘why’ could be related to the way the business started, the way it’s run, its philosophy, or something else completely. So creating your own logo starts with your brand identity, and brand identity is rooted in the story your company wants to tell the world about itself.

When we look at the Apple logo, we don’t just see a simplified representation of an apple with a bite taken out of it, we see an innovative and imaginative company that seeks to empower people through technology. That’s Apple’s story—what’s yours?

Take some time to think about why your company does what it does. Who is it there to serve and how? Where will it make a difference? What does it stand for?

What you discover by answering these questions will help to shape the logo design process.

2. If Your Brand Were An Adjective, What Would It Be?

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start generating ideas for your logo by creating a Logo Design Plan.

Take a large, blank sheet of paper and draw three columns. In the first column, write the first adjectives that come to mind when you think of your business. Think of adjectives that describe your business, its style, and the benefits it offers potential customers. Some potential descriptors may be family-friendly, reliable, organic, vintage, fun, adventurous, etc. If you get stuck, think of this from your customer’s point of view. How would you like them to describe you?

3. Sketch Some Ideas

Move to the second column, where it’s time to sketch some ideas. Don’t worry if you’re not the best artist in the world—the point is to record an idea, not prove you’re a secret Michelangelo. And if you really don’t want to draw, then writing a description of your idea will be enough.

Brainstorm and free associate by sketching ideas you think might best capture your brand and the benefits it offers. Keep things very simple and try all the categories of logos we discussed above: abstract and literal symbols, stylizing the name of your company, using a monogram or initial, and trying a combination of symbol and text. Nothing is off limits at this point.

4. Get Savvy With Color

For this step, you’ll need colored pencils or paint. If you have neither, don’t worry—once again, you can write the name of the color in place of the color itself. If your knowledge of color is sketchy and you feel a bit nervous about this step, read this article on the 10 Best Logo Colour Schemes and then come back to this.

Now that you’ve boned up on color and know the meaning and emotions associated with each tone, pull out your paints or colored pencils and, in the third column on the same sheet of paper, add some color patches to represent the adjectives you chose in the first column. Now add a second color to each. Refer back to the article 10 Best Logo Colour Schemes for ideas on color schemes that work, or check out Adobe Colour CC for more ideas.

5. Find Inspiration

You may be surprised that we haven’t put this step earlier on in the process. The main reason is that it’s always a good idea to start out by trusting your own voice and instincts, before introducing ideas from other sources.
Now is a good time to look to successful brands that you like for some inspiration. Ask yourself:

  • What type of logo is it?
  • Is the logo memorable? If so, what colors, fonts
  • or symbols are used to make the logo stand out?
  • What do the combination of colors, fonts and/or symbols communicate about the brand?
  • Trustworthiness, innovation, adventure, or something else?
  • Is the logo relevant to what the company does?
  • What qualities or ideas from these brands can you incorporate into your own design?

Make notes at the bottom of your Logo Design Plan.

Now take a look at the logos of competitor brands. Ask yourself the same questions as above, but at the end of the process, also ask how you can differentiate yourself from these competitors.

6. Get Help

At this stage in your journey, you have a few options. You can go ahead and create your logo on your own, using software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Alternatively, you could seek the help of a professional through an agency, work directly with a freelance designer via Envato Studio, or use an online logo maker. Each option has its pros and cons, and only you can decide which one suits you best, based on your budget, deadlines, and preferences.

If you decide to continue with a design professional, all the hard work you’ve done will stand you in good stead. You’re now in a position to explain clearly what your brand is all about and can use your Logo Design Plan to help guide the designer’s work and increase the odds of a satisfactory outcome.

If you choose to proceed on your own and you don’t have the skills required to work with Illustrator or Photoshop, we recommend using a logo maker like the one at Placeit. A logo maker is a cost effective and low-stress tool that allows businesses or individuals to try out various logo ideas and create your own, quickly and easily.

First, you need to return to your Logo Design Plan and circle up to three adjectives from column one that you think best describe your brand. Now, circle up to three symbols from column two that you feel represent your brand, and from column three, circle two color schemes that you believe best reflect your brand. From your inspiration research, highlight the qualities that you’ll be on the lookout to avoid or embrace. Now you are ready to make the best use of a logo maker to create your own logo.

7. Take Your Design for a Test Drive

Once you’ve followed these steps to create a logo, you need to take your design for a test drive by getting some feedback from potential customers and colleagues. The best way to do this is to use an online mockup tool to add your logo to a few products and share the images with your test group. To make sure you get the most useful feedback, here are a few questions you should ask:

  • What does this business do?
  • Is your response to this logo positive, negative, or indifferent?
  • What about the logo makes you feel this way?
  • What does this logo tell you about the business?
  • Based on this logo, would you patronize this business?
  • Would you remember this logo if you saw it again next week?
  • Does it remind you of the logo of another business?

Based on your test group’s response, you either have a winner or you need to go back to the drawing board.

Design Your Own Logo

Designing a unique company logo that works can be challenging, but you now have a process to follow and some tips and techniques you can use to focus in on the most important elements of logo design. So get started today and create a logo using Placeit’s logo maker, or download a template from Envato Elements or Envato Market.

Related stories

The post Logo Design Guide appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Make a YouTube Outro https://envato.com/learn/how-to-make-a-youtube-outro/ Fri, 03 May 2019 16:29:44 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79623 How can you convert YouTube users into subscribers and future viewers? Find out how with this YouTube outro guide.

The post How to Make a YouTube Outro appeared first on Envato.

]]>

If your audience has made it to the end of your YouTube video, it’s safe to say that they found your content compelling. Don’t just let your video fade to black! There’s so much more that you can do with those last few seconds of your YouTube video to capture and keep an audience’s attention. Read on to learn how to make an effective YouTube outro.

It’s no secret that likes, views, and subscribes matter on YouTube. Whether it’s YouTube’s algorithm or simply viewers browsing the sidebar, these are the video metrics that can help your channel gain more momentum and keep growing. An impactful YouTube outro video can help you grow any and all of these channel metrics. Find out how else you can improve your performance on YouTube with our guide to promoting your YouTube channel.

What is an Outro?

A YouTube outro can take a variety of forms, so let’s think about some ideas that will help you develop an eye-catching close.

The School of Life’s YouTube channel uses animated graphics and thoughtful commentary to illustrate ideas. The videos close smoothly with placards to promote other content from the channel. It’s simple, but it’s easy to find yourself jumping onto the next video.

Some YouTube outros conclude with an on-camera personality asking for channel likes or subscriptions. Other times, channels will use clickable overlays that you can add inside the browser-based tool, with links to other channels. Any of these are an evolution over simply fading your video out.

In short: it’s important to think of an “ask” of your audience. That might be asking them to subscribe, share, or like the video. It doesn’t have to be a direct ask, though; there are tactful ways to promote your other content easily.

All of these “asks” are built on the back of eye-catching visuals. Let’s learn how to build something compelling to tack onto the end of your YouTube videos.

How to Make an Outro

Video production takes knowledge and practice to get right. Most YouTube channels are so well put together now that if you don’t create a professional YouTube outro, yours will stick out like a sore thumb.

The problem is that you may not have the time or interest to learn an entirely new app in order to build a YouTube outro. You’re already spending all of your free time producing engaging YouTube content, and animating an outro from scratch just isn’t the best use of your time.

Let’s learn two ways of creating a YouTube outro in less time than ever before. No matter what level of knowledge you have about video editing, you can build an eye-catching outro.

YouTube Outro Maker

If you don’t want to learn a brand new app from scratch, no problem; the solution is a browser-based tool called Placeit, which you can use to create an outro, hassle-free. If you can point and click, you can create a customized YouTube outro that will help you make the most of those last few seconds of a video.

There’s nothing specific about a YouTube outro video; you need only a few eye-catching visuals and space to promote a subscription button and you’ll see your channel grow.

On Placeit, you can use a number of templates to get a head start in designing your YouTube outro. Here are several starting points you can launch to make an outro easily:

1. Content Teaser Slideshow

Discover the potential that this starting point holds for your YouTube outro video. Even though this might be used for an infographics video by default, I think it makes the perfect YouTube outro, where you can provide a few more key facts and data points to help hook your viewers into future videos.

2. Celebration YouTube Outro Maker

Fireworks and animation combine to hold your audience’s attention at the end of your main video. It’s the perfect backdrop for additional commentary to cap your video, and you can use it to ask for subscribes and likes.

3. YouTube Ad Video Maker

With a bit of customization, this might just be the best choice for making your YouTube outro. Sure, the default view is tailored to building an advertisement with a product photo, but a more compelling use would be to drop that image and use the free space for subscribe cards that you add in YouTube. It’s a great reminder of how flexible Placeit’s templates can be.

YouTube Outro Templates

While Placeit is an outro maker that lives right inside your web browser, it’s not the only option for producing a YouTube outro. If you already know how to use an animation and production app like Adobe After Effects, this might be your best bet. You’ll get complete creative control, but skip much of the work that’s typically involved with animation.

1. Modern Corporate Pack

You don’t have to be a huge company to make good use of this Modern Corporate Pack. I’ve included it in this roundup because the simple, logo-centric design is the perfect way to add your logo with subscription buttons surrounding it.

2. YouTube End Screens Builder

This project sets the standard for a complete YouTube outro builder. There are tons of templates inside this download that you can use to build out a wide variety of outros that fit your channel’s style and branding. Add your assets, customize the text, and – boom! – you’ll have an excellent YouTube outro.

3. YouTube Channel

This package for Adobe After Effects is perfect for bringing a sense of polish to your YouTube channel. One of the best assets is a YouTube outro maker that you can use to provide the perfect segue into an “ask” for subscriptions or likes.

Fuel the momentum on your channel by including a YouTube outro sequence on your next video. Whether you use a browser-based outro maker like Placeit, or exercise complete creative control in Adobe After Effects, use every second of your video to make an impact. And now you’ve got your outro sorted, make sure you nail your YouTube intro too!

Related stories

The post How to Make a YouTube Outro appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Promote Your Real Estate Business https://envato.com/learn/how-to-promote-your-real-estate-business/ Mon, 29 Apr 2019 15:02:27 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79412 From your brand name to your logo, here are some things to think about when you’re developing your real estate business.

The post How to Promote Your Real Estate Business appeared first on Envato.

]]>

Promoting your real estate business is an exciting opportunity. You’re building your brand, creating engaging content for your audience, and helping people to find their perfect homes. Let’s take a look at how you can hone your branding and marketing tactics.

Firstly, here are some things to think about when you’re developing your real estate brand.

Real Estate Branding

1. Choose a Brand Name

Sometimes the simple things are the ones we forget, so remember to choose your real estate brand name wisely, and check that no-one else is using it.

2. Write a Vision Statement

To win clients, people need to know who you are and what you offer. Write a vision statement that sets out the values that you want to define your real estate business, and your business goals.

3. Design a Logo

Making an attractive, recognizable logo is an important part of brand development. You might want to hire a graphic designer to do this for you, or try creating a logo using a template. Remember these top tips when you’re designing your real estate logo.

  • Avoid clichés! They might seem like fun but tons of other businesses like yours will be using them too.
  • Keep it simple and professional.
  • Make sure your logo colors reflect the personality and style of your brand.

4. Create a Business Card

We can all be guilty of making snap judgements, so make sure that when you hand over your business card, you’re making the right impression; you might only get one chance. Using a template to create a real estate business card means you can choose a style and layout you like, with the flexibility to change individual elements and put your own twist on it.

  • Choose a reasonable quality of card. Cheap card feels, well…cheap!
  • Be creative. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show in your card.
  • Keep your contact information simple and clear; only include the essentials.

Marketing Your Real Estate Business

1. Make a Flyer

For promotions that are based in a particular locality, making a leaflet or flyer can still be one of the most effective ways to get the word out.

  • Strike a balance between being eye-catching enough to pick up, and being minimal and easy to read.
  • Make sure your USP is clear – how are you different from the competition?
  • Use engaging images to capture attention. What about aerial shots via a drone, for example?

2. Use Social Media

The internet is where most of us are getting our information these days, so make sure your presence is both engaging and easy to find. You can do this by producing some great social media posts across the most popular channels, like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

  • Make it easy for home buyers/sellers to share pictures by having ‘share to’ links/icons from your website.
  • Sell an area, not just a home. People love it when you big up their hometown and it helps you to sell a lifestyle.
  • Hire a photographer to take great pictures – poor lighting and images can put someone off even the most beautiful of homes.
  • Think about having your happy customers give a testimonial that you can make into a video and share online.

Promoting your real estate business isn’t just good business sense, it’s a chance to have some fun and show the world what you love to do. Your first step will probably be to create your logo. Find out how to nail a design your clients will recognize and love, with our Logo Design Guide.

Related stories

The post How to Promote Your Real Estate Business appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Design a Sports Team Logo https://envato.com/learn/how-to-design-a-sports-team-logo/ Mon, 29 Apr 2019 14:31:38 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79400 A sports team logo will help you build a sense of community with your fans. Read on for tips on how to create your logo design.

The post How to Design a Sports Team Logo appeared first on Envato.

]]>

A sports team logo is so much more than a pretty picture to stick onto kits. Think of it like a coat of arms or a country’s national flag – you want it to build a sense of community and for fans and players alike to wear it as a badge of honor. Read on for trends, tips, and information about how to create your own sports team logo, including sports logo design.

Sports Team Logo Trends

1. Simplicity

Many teams are opting to tone down their logos so that they work well across multiple platforms (i.e. web, print and social media). Take the American Football team the Buffalo Bills, for example, whose logo has evolved over the years to feature much cleaner lines. The team’s name has also been removed now that the club is more established, as fans will recognize the logo without the need for text.

buffalo bills logo

2. Bold Outlines

This is nothing new, but it’s still a strong trend today. Basketball team the Indiana Pacers use this technique, and its popularity could be explained by the fact that it enables sports team logos to work well against both light and dark backgrounds. It also adds stylistically to the design, even if the main symbols or emblems are not particularly eye-catching.

pacers logo

3. Heraldry

This is another trend that is expected to continue growing over the coming years. By calling on elements from your club’s past or your team’s location, you can help to build a strong bond with fans. Take Liverpool Football Club, for example, which features the city’s symbol of the liver bird in its coat of arms. You only have to think of the popular chant ‘Liverbird Upon My Chest’ to realize how influential logos are to fans.

Liverpool Logo

Sports Logo Design Ideas

The world of sport is diverse, so it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to sports team logo design. Having said that, read on for some commonly used tropes:

Football

Many teams tend to incorporate the iconic ball, like Mexican professional football team Club León. Crests are also very widely used.

Leon Logo

Cricket

Characters, animals, or symbols that relate to the team’s name or location are often included. You can see this in action with the UK’s Manchester Stallions, where their namesake animal is proudly featured.

Stallions Logo

Basketball

Many clubs reference the fast-paced nature of the game by including a sense of movement in their logo design. The Los Angeles Lakers make the most of this trick within their typography.

Lakers Logo

Sport Team Logos

Just like the vast array of sports out there, there are loads of different ways you can create your own sports team logo, even if you don’t have any graphic design experience. Read on for some routes that are quick and affordable, without compromising on quality.

Sports Logo Maker

Placeit is a great option, especially if you have little or no design experience, as you can scroll through a huge variety of templates that you can edit in a few minutes, before downloading straight to your browser. There are custom sports logo design templates for loads of different sports, too, including badminton, lacrosse, martial arts, swimming, and wrestling. It’s a seriously simple sports logo maker – just follow these 5 steps:

  1. Visit Placeit
  2. Select your chosen sport
  3. Pick a sports logo template
  4. Customize the logo, text, colors, and imagery
  5. Download to your browser

Sports Logo Templates

This is another sports logo creator option that allows you to download templates and customize them according to the message you want to get across. However, you do need to have access to Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator to make changes to the files and, for that reason, Envato Market is a better option if you have some prior design experience.

If you have a subscription to Envato Elements you can download limitless graphics at no additional cost. This is a good option for a sports club if you want to try multiple logos or if you need other design assets regularly such as flyers and social media images.

We hope you found this how to helpful to bring your sports team brand to life! You can learn more about how to create your own sports logo with our Logo Design Guide.

Related stories

Person sketching a logo
Nona Blackman

Logo Design Guide

In this guide, we’ll explain the different categories of logo design, look at the qualities of great logos, and show you how to create your own logo.

Read More »
May 6, 2019

The post How to Design a Sports Team Logo appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Design a Facebook Cover Image https://envato.com/learn/how-to-design-a-facebook-cover-image/ Mon, 29 Apr 2019 12:53:04 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79383 Discover Facebook cover photo design tips, including inspiration and advice about the best ways to create one.

The post How to Design a Facebook Cover Image appeared first on Envato.

]]>

We’re not going to preach about the importance of Facebook when it comes to getting your brand out there, as we’re sure that’s no surprise to you! But it’s not enough to simply activate your business page and roll with it, as you need to make sure that your social presence is slick, professional, and effectively represents your brand. Displaying a high quality photo or video cover photo is one simple way to achieve just that, while showing that you mean business.

Read on for Facebook cover photo design tips and advice, as well as info about the best ways to create one for yourself, even if you don’t have any design experience.

Why Is Your Facebook Cover Important?

Whether on desktop or mobile, your brand’s cover photo is the first thing a user will see when they visit your page. It’s larger in size than the profile picture and offers an opportunity to display an eye-catching image that sums up what your business is all about.

Which Brands Have Got It Right?

Whistles

Whistles Facebook cover video

By using a video cover photo, this UK-based retailer quickly brings its product catalogue to life. The video, complete with music, depicts women wearing different outfits in various outdoor locations in a way that’s much more compelling than a static image catalogue.

Marmite

Marmite FB Cover Photo

This controversial spread has made the most of its Facebook cover photo by using it as a gamification technique. Changing the cover photos daily, during a competition period, the brand asked users to guess what new product was hidden under a sheet. The act sparked plenty of lively conversation, showing what can happen when you use the cover photo in an innovative way.

Arsenal Football Club

Arsenal FB CoverPhoto

Making the most of the prominent position of the cover photo, this football club uses it to keep fans updated about upcoming matches. It’s a good way to improve user experience by allowing people to find important information quickly, without having to scroll through the page’s content.

What’s The Best Facebook Cover Photo Size?

Cover Image

You have to be careful with your Facebook cover photo dimensions as content displays differently on desktop and mobile. To be uploaded, a Facebook cover photo must be at least 400 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall, and images are displayed at the following sizes:

Desktop

820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall

Mobile

640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall

We’d recommend adding any branding or text to the center of the image to reduce the risk of it not being visible on mobile.

Cover Video

Facebook says video dimensions should be at least 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall, with the recommended size being 820 pixels wide by 462 pixels tall. Content can be between 20 and 90 seconds long, and can loop in any way.

Static Cover Image Versus Video

The great thing about cover photos and videos is that you don’t have to choose just one and stick with it. Regularly updating your banner is a good way of keeping your page fresh, and you can see which format generates the highest engagement rate from your followers. One thing to be aware of is that Facebook cover videos are only available for pages, not individuals, so this can be a good way to catch people’s attention.

Facebook Cover Tips

1. Promote your latest sale

39% of users like or follow a Facebook page in order to receive a special offer, so give your fans what they want by using your cover image to update them on sales and promotions. Clothing brand White Stuff used this tactic when promoting a summer sale on their Facebook header.

White Stuff Facebook Cover

2. Share a quote or tagline

Remembering to avoid using text around the edges of the image (you don’t want to lose any copy for mobile viewers), you can use your Facebook cover photos or videos to display a quote or tagline. Look at Nike’s monochrome cover photo, which simply uses its ‘Just do it’ motto.

Nike FB Cover

3. Promote a featured product or event

With a study finding that Facebook is the primary influencer of purchasing decisions, above any other social network, it’s important not to underestimate its power in converting clicks into sales. Treat your cover image like a billboard to display your latest products or services, and remember to update it as product lines evolve. The singer Adele uses her cover image to promote her latest album.

Adele FB Cover

How to Create Your Own Facebook Banner

1. Placeit's Facebook cover maker

These days you don’t need years of graphic design experience under your belt to create the best Facebook cover photos. With Placeit’s Facebook cover maker, you can scroll through loads of templates that can be customized based on the message you want to portray. The best thing about this Facebook cover photo maker is that you don’t need expensive software to create the templates; instead, just download them to your desktop and you’re good to go.

2. Envato Elements or Envato Market

Recommended for people with some design experience, another way you can create good Facebook cover photos is by downloading templates through Envato Market, which can then be edited in Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator as required. If you have an Envato Elements subscription, you can download new templates as and when you need to.

And there you have it! Everything you need to create striking cover images that will make your page really stand out. Of course, a killer cover photo isn’t the only thing you need to get right, so read on for the Best Facebook Image Post Templates and Best Facebook Video Templates.

Related stories

The post How to Design a Facebook Cover Image appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business https://envato.com/learn/how-to-use-pinterest-to-promote-your-business/ Sat, 27 Apr 2019 06:29:55 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79357 Learn how to use Pinterest for business, from the tips to make your pins stand out to the easy tools to build content that fits the platform.

The post How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business appeared first on Envato.

]]>

When you’re developing your social media strategy, you probably consider the Big Three first: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. But if your business has a presence on these platforms alone, you may be missing out on a highly engaged audience via Pinterest.

If you don’t believe us, check out these numbers:

  • Pinterest boasts more than 250 million active monthly users.
  • Over two-thirds of those active monthly users are female.
  • More than 2 billion searches take place on the platform every month.

In this how-to, you’ll learn how to use Pinterest for business, from the formats that will help your pins stand out to the easy ways to build content that fits the platform.

How to Use Pinterest

Key Pinterest Terms

Before you get started, it’s useful to understand the terminology of the Pinterest platform:

Pins – Think of a ‘pin’ as an individual post on Pinterest. Typically, it’s an image plus a URL. Users will ‘re-pin’ posts to share them (like Pinterest’s version of a retweet on Twitter).

Example: Barneys New York

Barneys New York Pinterest pin

Boards – Pinterest users build ‘boards’, which are collections of pins. Most users will create multiple boards to showcase different ideas, themes, moods, and styles.

Example: Barneys New York

Barneys New York dogs of Barney

Feeds – The Pinterest feed is what users see when logging in. It’s a collection of recent and popular pins from their follower list.

Pinterest feed

Your goals on Pinterest may be two-fold:

  1. Get users to click on your pins (following the URL to your website).
  2. Create content that gets re-pinned (shared among a wider audience).

You can think of Pinterest as multiple collages of everything that users are interested in. Pinners often jump from one topic to the next–from planning a vacation to choosing what to wear to a wedding. It’s the explorability factor that helps you market to a wide pool of Pinterest users.

Pinterest for Business

Pinners expect images in posts, so visual lifestyle brands are typically the best fit for the platform (think fashion, beauty and travel). Creatives such as photographers can also do well.

But these aren’t the only brands and products that can win over audiences on Pinterest. With a bit of creativity, many types of content can shine. A perfect example of this is Greek Yogurt brand Chobani. Their account, on which the company shares recipes and healthy eating tips, has amassed over 100,000 followers and their content is consistently repinned.

Create A Pinterest For Business Account

If you’re a brand and want to use Pinterest, it’s best to create a Pinterest Business account. This unlocks features like analytics, which will help you understand what works and adapt your content. Pinterest for Business also enables the use of Pinterest’s advertising features, including Promoted Pins, which can help you boost your content into the feeds of non-followers.

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

Once you’ve decided to market on Pinterest, it helps to know how to build pins that are likely to be re-pinned and shared. Here are some tips to help grow your Pinterest account:

1. Post Visually

Your content should align with the type of content that Pinterest users are accustomed to consuming. That means that every post you produce should be led by strong visuals.

One of the biggest challenges of running a social account is the need to consistently create fresh content. Instead of designing new pins from scratch, try using Pinterest templates to produce more content in less time. Pin templates are built with Pinterest in mind, catering to the vertical image format.

If you aren’t a graphic designer, try a browser-based Pinterest post maker, like Placeit. Or, if you’re more comfortable with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, download a Pinterest template from Envato Elements (with a monthly or annual subscription) or Envato Market.

For a curated selection, check out our roundup of Pinterest Image Templates.

2. Post Consistently

This might seem like basic advice, but too many brands treat social media marketing as an ad hoc pursuit. If you don’t see immediate traction, it’s tempting to walk away from the platform and re-dedicate your efforts elsewhere. But if you post consistently, your followers are more likely to engage with your content.

As always, you can use analytics as a feedback loop to improve your strategy. Review what’s working, then tailor your future posts to match.

You can also schedule posts in advance and in batches to take the pressure off on a daily basis.

3. Build Searchable Content

Pins include three key elements: an image or video, a URL, and a text description. Ensure your pins are searchable by including keywords that pinners are likely to use when looking for inspiration relating to your category. But don’t stuff your pins with keywords, or use keywords that don’t match the content that you’re posting.

4. Use Promoted Pins

Not many marketers are taking advantage of Promoted Pins. Take it directly from Pinterest’s recent filing to be publicly traded: “We’re still in the early stages of our monetization efforts.”

These ambitions mean that Pinterest’s platform will only grow in time, and using Promoted Pins now will make you an early adopter, giving you a chance to master advertising on the channel before everyone else jumps on board.

Get Started On Pinterest Now

Don’t miss out on the audience and opportunity Pinterest offers. Make an account, design pins using the smart templates, and start sharing them with pinners on the platform.

For more on how to optimize your social strategy, get stuck in to our Social Media Marketing Guide. This single resource has everything you need to start building your brand on social.

Related stories

The post How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Promote your Youtube Channel https://envato.com/learn/how-to-promote-your-youtube-channel/ Sat, 27 Apr 2019 06:05:35 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79349 If you've got a YouTube channel, discover how to promote your videos with our YouTube marketing tips.

The post How to Promote your Youtube Channel appeared first on Envato.

]]>

Increasingly brands and influencers are making use of video as a communication channel, and one of the most effective platforms to do so is through YouTube. However, there’s a lot of competition out there, so in order to promote your YouTube videos you need to invest in YouTube marketing. This includes YouTube channel art, creating effective intros and outros for your YouTube content and distributing your videos on other social platforms. Before we get onto YouTube channel promotion, discover YouTube tips to improve your social media video in our Video Marketing Guide.

How to Promote YouTube Videos

YouTube Channel Art

There are various assets that make up your YouTube channel art:

YouTube Profile Picture: This icon is actually quite small – just 800 x 800 pixels – so it needs to be clear and visually appealing. If you have a long name, think about how you might shorten it, making use of an acronym, or just display the logo itself. How It Should Have Ended, a channel for animated parody alternate endings to major motion pictures have kept their logo clear and to the point, using only a few colors and simple shapes.

YouTube Thumbnails: Our attention spans can be short, so it’s wise to make something that an audience can glance at and instantly recognize. Here are the YouTube thumbnail sizes and specs you should aim for:

  • 1270 x 720 pixels
  • JPEG, GIF, BMP or PNG format
  • Try to keep file sizes under 2MB
  • Aim for the standard video ratio of 16:9

Letting YouTube choose a thumbnail from a still in the video will often result in something less than ideal. You’re likely to end up with an awkward, blurry image. It’s always worth a little bit of extra time and effort to make something that looks great and speaks to what a viewer can expect from the video itself.

YouTube Banner: This is your big visual advertisement when people come to your homepage. It’s quite often the first thing visitors will see, so making a good impression with something striking can win you a lot of points. Something that’s important to consider when creating your YouTube banner is that it’s going to scale to different sizes, depending on where it’s viewed.

We recommend sizing your art to 2560 x 1440 pixels – keeping the size below 4MB – with your ‘safe area’ being within 1546 x 423 pixels. Minimalism works well for YouTube headers, so try to keep your design sleek and simple, drawing attention to your brand name, logo and tagline, if you have one. Make sure any images you use are high quality ones, and if you don’t have anything suitable, consider using a high quality stock image.

YouTube Intro and Outro

Making a consistent intro and outro for each of your YouTube videos is an important detail that can separate you from your competition. It’s a great reminder of your brand and, in the case of your Youtube intro, a way to let your audience know what your video will be about, right from the start. Your YouTube outro is a good opportunity to sign off from your video and offer a call to action, or even to push your audience over to watching more of your videos, or to subscribing.

Keep YouTube intros and outros short, and certainly no more than 15 seconds. There’s nothing more frustrating to an audience than an introduction that waffles on for ages before getting to the point of the video. You might even want to consider slightly pushing your intro into the start of your video, and beginning it with a quick teaser of what’s to come – attention spans are short! Discover how to create a YouTube intro in our how to.

How to Do YouTube Marketing

The great thing about creating video content is that, chances are, you already have the skills to market it too! Here’s a quick rundown of the major points to consider:

  • Write great titles! Research has shown that shorter titles get more clicks and views, so keep YouTube titles concise.
  • Choose well when it comes to keywords and tags. Sometimes, being too broad can be as limiting as being too specific, so think carefully about what your video contains. It might be worth looking at similar, successful videos, and seeing what their keywords contain.
  • Be a community darling. If you have fans who leave comments, acknowledge them and engage with them.
  • Be consistent. Don’t start a channel on fashion only to throw in random videos about car maintenance!
  • Make promotional videos to use across other social media channels, to draw people to your YouTube channel.

Whatever your YouTube channel specializes in, great visual graphics will help you cultivate a loyal and engaged fan base, who will play a powerful role in sharing your content. Get started with your YouTube channel art by creating a YouTube banner on Placeit.

Related stories

The post How to Promote your Youtube Channel appeared first on Envato.

]]> How to Promote Your Etsy Shop https://envato.com/learn/how-to-promote-your-etsy-shop/ Sat, 27 Apr 2019 05:01:16 +0000 https://envato.com/?post_type=sae&p=79339 Let’s take a look at some advice to consider when promoting your Etsy shop, from product photos to social media content.

The post How to Promote Your Etsy Shop appeared first on Envato.

]]>

Etsy is an e-commerce website with a focus on unique, handmade, or retro items. Each seller has an online shop, where they can list items for a series of small fees.

As with all outlets, Etsy marketing is really important. When you start an Etsy shop your aim should be to stand out from the crowd and connect with your market.

It can be hard to know where to start when you’re putting together the right look for your Etsy shop. Let’s take a look at some practical advice that you might want to consider.

Marketing Your Etsy Shop

Etsy Banner and Shop Icon Sizes

First up, here’s an Etsy size guide for quick reference (all in pixels):

  • Etsy shop icon: 500 x 500
  • Etsy banner: 3360 x 840
  • Etsy small banner: 760 x 100
  • Etsy profile picture: 400 x 400
  • Etsy thumbnail: 570 x 456
  • Etsy item listing: 800 x 1000

How to Market Yourself on Etsy

Having a great product is one thing, but you’ve then got to set up your Etsy Store, create strong branding, and promote it… Phew! We’re exhausted just thinking about it. But we know you’ve got this and we hope this short guide will help you get going.

Who are you as a brand and who is your audience? It seems obvious, but it’s often the thing people forget to take into consideration. The answers to these two questions should be heavily reflected in your branding.

Try to be known for, or specialize in, something, and convey this unique attribute across all of your branding. For example, Etsy shop ‘The Baby Galaxy’, by designer Jen Galaxy, does just what you’d expect–it sells items for babies. This is then reflected in the shop’s banner, logo (or shop icon) and name.

Etsy Store

Using a template to create your banner is a time-saving way to get your branding looking great. If you don’t have design software, try an in-browser Etsy banner maker from Placeit.

Taking Product Photos for Etsy

Bad photographs are too often the downfall of a great product. Make sure your Etsy product photos are the best quality possible–and that means thinking about things like lighting, composition and sharpness. You can achieve great results using your mobile phone.

More than this, though, your Etsy product photos should reflect your brand in the same way as your other images. Is your brand serious and sophisticated? Then you should try to aim for the same values with your photographs. Likewise if your brand is fun and playful. Designer Hannah Boulter sells all things cute and handmade on her store, and her product images reflect that, while still showing off her creations at their best.

Hannah Boulter Etsy

Product mockups can be hard to get right–here are some templates from Envato Elements to help, and you can download as many as you like once you’ve subscribed.

Etsy Social Media Strategy

Getting your Etsy shop right is essential, but it’s just the first step–how will people get to know about it? Making good use of popular social media channels like Facebook and Twitter is something that all savvy shop owners are doing right now.

Remember, which channels you use and how you use them should be directly informed by who your audience is and which platforms they exist on. With that in mind, here are some of the best ways to make use of those platforms:

  • Facebook – If you have the time and patience to give your brand personality and heart, then you can really reap the rewards of that on Facebook by engaging in conversations with your audience, as well as testing giveaways and special offers. Check out our roundup of Facebook post templates.
  • Twitter – If you’re a person of few words, then Twitter’s strict character limit might be for you. Proactively connect with relevant influencers to get your brand seen by their followers.
  • Instagram – Home of all things visual, Instagram is perfect if your image game is strong. Make good use of hashtags for a better chance of being discovered, and try posting Instagram Stories for personal and engaging behind-the-scenes content.
  • Pinterest – Another visual platform, Pinterest is great for you if the type of product you sell already has a solid fanbase. Choose a Pinterest post template from our roundup.

Check out our Social Media Marketing Guide for more advice on how to optimise you Etsy social media strategy and create content that drives results for your business.

Related stories

The post How to Promote Your Etsy Shop appeared first on Envato.

]]>