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3 Branded Images You Need To Create For A Successful Launch

Here's the truth: the way our business looks online DOES matter.

We don't like to believe it in most parts of our life…but looks always matter on some level.

  • tell me you haven't judged a business or other personality by the way their website looks
  • tell me it wasn't completely jarring to meet someone in person who looked like an unkempt hobo
  • tell me you have refused to buy from someone simply because they didn't seem TOGETHER
  • tell me that you jumped to buy something because of the way the “package” looked

Looks matter because that's often all our audience has to go on to judge our ability to solve their problem.

Sure you can have a solid content strategy, but without the visual pieces in place, that trust you built might lose it's power.

That's why I asked Karen Gunton to write a post for you about how images are an important part of a successful launch.

Enjoy, pass on, and then head to the comments…

– > Karen will be answering questions down there …

3 Branded Images You Need To Create For A Successful Launch

As if you don’t already have enough to do as you plan out your launch, I am going to remind you of one more thing.

Visual content.

You may already have these images somewhere on your to do list, but it is worth having a checklist all in one spot. Whether you create your launch images yourself or hire a designer to do it, it will save you time/money/hassle to work on them all at once, and you definitely want to make sure you don’t miss anything you need!

1. Buttons & Banners

Start by making a list of all the places you will need to put a button or a banner. For instance: your sales page, your email list, your website sidebar, your membership site, your products/services page. Have your attention grabbing headlines and compelling calls to action ready to insert!

Time saving tip:

Make 3 sizes of buttons/banners. A square, a wide banner, and a skyscraper banner.  Use the same background colour, the same headlines/text/calls to action, and the same image… just move them around for the different size formats.

Where to make them:

My favorite free online tool for creating branded images is pixlr.

You can create the exact size image you need, you can use whatever fonts you have on your computer (and you should have your brand fonts installed for your own use!) and you can save the images and edit them later (allowing you to use them again).

2. Shareables

These are the promotional images you use to spread the word about your launch online–for instance: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, twitter, blog, newsletter, group forums etc.

Start by coming up with some compelling content that will draw readers in to click on your link and read more about your launch – like testimonials, inspiring quotes, evocative questions, interesting statistics or helpful tips.

The best shareables resonate with your audience – they will share them online for you and help you spread the word!

Time saving tip:

Make a batch of shareables at once – they can all have a similar look but contain different compelling content. Square images will work on every platform, and save you time allowing you to get the most bang for your effort.

Where to make them:

My favorite free online tool for creating shareable social media images is picmonkey. It is super easy to use, and has a bunch of creative options that will allow you to have some fun creating your shareables.

3. PDFs

PDFs can be worksheets, checklists, printables, guides, ebooks, instructions, lists and more.

Basically anything that you want to offer to your customers as part of your launch – either as a freebie for joining your list or as part of the product itself.

Get your content ready in whatever word processing program you like to use.

Time saving tip:

PDFs do not have to be elaborate! Consider creating a simple banner image as a header, using your brand colors and fonts in your headings and subheadings, and breaking up text with colorful bullets, text boxes, or inserted images.

Once you have created your document you can use it again and again for new purposes – just replace the text.

Where to make them:

I like to use word or open office to create PDFs as they include 2 things that make it super easy! You can create a modified banner image to insert into your header and/or footer which will automatically brand every page of your pdf.

You can use styles to create headings, subheadings and more. Use the inbuilt styles and just tweak them to match your fonts and colors.

One more helpful hint:

If it is not in the budget to hire a designer for all of your image work, but you don’t feel confident doing all of it yourself, consider getting a designer to make a few templates for you.

A “blank” banner template could be used as a banner image, a shareable, and a PDF header.

A square template could be used for shareables and for sidebar buttons. Use picmonkey or pixlr to add text to your templates as you need them.

Branded visual content will set a professional tone for your launch and will also help you to make your launch a success: getting noticed online, engaging with your audience, and drawing them in to find out more about your new product or service.

[divider_short]

Who's this Karen chick? Well – she's the person who's created some very cool images and done some of the design work you'll see inside Fearless Launching…but here's her official deets…

karen gunton is a teacher, brainstormer and visual marketing specialist, and she is passionate about helping business owners SHINE online. take her Karen Gunton's free resources to learn how to create your own branded shareable images for social media.

 

Now get to the comments and make Karen feel welcome (i.e. grill her with your own visual marketing questions!).

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Comments

  1. Vicky Lyashenko says

    October 15, 2013 at 9:53 am

    Karen, this was such a great read! I have been wanting to sit down and make images in bulk but kept puttin it off. You make it so simple and strategic! Thank you! I’ve been making my images and graphics in Photoshop – I wonder if pic monkey will be a quicker option? I know of a few business owners who create their graphics on phone apps such as instaquote, over, and many others but I have never tried.

    Thank you Anne for having Karen! You both are awesome sauce!

    Xoxo
    Vicky

  2. Beth says

    October 15, 2013 at 10:03 am

    Vicky, most apps available do some really great things. I’ve been a designer for 8 years and I have been having so much on-the-go fun with these apps:
    InstaQuote
    PicCollage
    Pixlr
    Pic Monkey
    Fotor

    Just to name a few. You just have to assess how many features you need/want for the design. Pixlr has several versions, one of which is an in browser Photo editor that has a lot of the same features as photoshop.

    It’s great that small business owners can do these things on the go!

  3. Anne Samoilov says

    October 15, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    Thanks for sharing! I’d never tried Pixlr before and now I just might have to do that!

    I love picmonkey for easy blog image editing – and I love that an actually designer uses them too!

    -Anne

  4. Laura says

    October 19, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    This is great!! I always forget to incorporate visuals into my launches and it’s crucial in my field – my customers are artists! *head slap* Thanks for the reminder as I’m in the midst of a launch right now!

  5. Lois Olson says

    October 23, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    Love this article, Karen. So many ideas on how to use free online photo editing tools and our own photography to create a visual brand that fits our businesses. Even though I’m a professional photographer, I often forget about these types of options to add visual branding to my website. Love that you broke it down into types of content, encouraged us to batch process the images to save time, and simplified the process for us all. Thanks!

  6. Lois Olson says

    October 23, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    I so get you, Laura. I forget, too, & I shoot photography as a living. 😉

  7. Lois Olson says

    October 23, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    Beth, I use InstaQuote, PicCollage, & PicMonkey too for my online images. I shoot quite a few of my blog images using my iPhone 5 since I only need low resolution for that type of use. Love that these new online tools make photo editing so quick nowadays.

    Vicky, I recently discovered how fast PicMonkey was compared to Photoshop and have started to use it for all my online photo needs. I use Photoshop for my offline print work and my Canon 5D Mark II for the high resolution photo needs, but for the blog and photo badges, I’ve found the images from my iPhone and the quick online tools to save so much time. It’s much easier to batch process images now.

  8. Anne Samoilov says

    October 24, 2013 at 7:10 am

    Thanks for sharing your process Lois. I’ve never used InstaQuote or PicCollage, so I’ll check those out asap!

  9. Suzie Sandoval says

    October 30, 2013 at 12:35 am

    Thank you Anne for this great article and fantastic tools and resources! The comments thereafter are super helpful. Imagery is vital to my work and communicating my services and impact. I’m always searching for the best of the best and simplicity and there are some new apps I can check out now.

    ZEN + Smiles,

    ~Suzie

  10. Adrienn says

    January 1, 2014 at 6:51 am

    Thank you Lois! I just downloaded Instaquotes, can’t wait to try it out. Btw I love PicMonkey, it is easy, simple and effective. Just what I need.

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