This blog post will discuss how important it is for businesses on social media to be open-minded when trying out new things on their platforms — especially if they want growth!

Being Open To Growth

Every business who has a social media presence knows the importance of growth. Whether it’s a small mom-and-pop shop or a major multinational business, the goal always comes back to growth! However, this path to growth might not be as easy as it seems, and there are plenty of companies that have found themselves stuck in a rut with no clear way out.

The first thing you need to remember when you want to grow your company on social media is to take risks. You can’t expect success without trying new things; for example, if you’ve never tried YouTube as a marketing platform before, but you’re not sure about its capabilities, try including YouTube in your marketing strategy.

Although it is true that your audience may be more present on specific platforms, with the volume in audience on each social media platforms, chances are, you can find your people. This may sound a little silly, but to see growth, you have to be open to growth.

You need to let go of some older legacy marketing guidelines that you may have within your business and replace them with something more flexible that allows your team to test the waters.

A/B Testing all of Your Content — Including Organic Content

A/B testing is a way to measure which content, headline, or offer works better. It can be implemented to find out what type of ad copy will work the best with your audience, and then it can be used as a benchmark for all future campaigns. It can also be used to test which video will perform the best vs. another. Which Instagram post will perform better vs. another, and so on.

A/B Testing is one of the best ways to make your marketing work for you. No matter which type of marketing we’re talking about.

It’s time to break out those A/B tests and put them to use! A/B tests will help you figure out the difference between what is working and what isn’t. This is better than doing research and coming up with your own hypotheses. We all want results — not guesses!

So, how do you begin? When you are working on a new strategy, incorporate various formats and copy variations for each post. Once you see which posts perform the best, you’ll have a better idea of what to do next.

Here are some tips for your A/B testing:

• Always include both a video and a graphic to see which resonates the best with your audience.
• Be open to the idea of having to test multiple times.
• Repeat A/B testing on a regular basis to see if new content ideas may resonate best with your audience.
• Always test different copy & keywords.
• Most importantly, be creative and have fun.

Accepting That Your Analytics will Fluctuate

It is true that your analytics will fluctuate. Analytics, don’t tell the whole story, and they change over time. It is important to be easy on yourself when you see a dip in engagement or followers, and even traffic. If you go into it with the idea that the fluctuation is normal, it’ll make it easier to accept.

What you also need to realize is that dips in reporting are often due to external factors. Sometimes it could completely align with your goals. For example, less traffic but more sales could mean that you are actually reaching a more targeted traffic, so your overall efforts are working. Understanding your goals and keeping an open dialogue about reporting is key.

Being Open to Trying Short-Form Videos

In the past couple of years, the use of short-form video on social media has been steadily growing. This trend will continue to grow as new features are introduced, and new enhancements are made to the current platforms offering short-form video.

Short-form video allows for a more personal touch from a brand that may not be possible with a long form video. Short-form videos typically range from fifteen seconds to even one minute or three minutes in length, whereas long form videos can be anywhere from five minutes to ten minutes or even longer.

A short-form video can be something as simple as a few seconds of someone telling their story about how they used the product or service offered by the company and what it means to them. This type of storytelling allows for a more personal feel, and helps buyers in their journey.

Short-form videos are also great for educational content and even to showcase an amazing company culture.

Giving Your Team More Creative Freedom

This is about giving your social media team more flexibility to be creative. You can still make sure they are sticking to the company’s style and voice while being creative.

But you need to allow them to try new things that could really help grow your audience. Your social media team are the ones who are exposed to new trends, ideas, and updates on a daily basis.

Giving your social media team more flexibility also means allowing them to have a little more freedom in creating their own content, images, videos, etc.

If you have some team members who regularly mention their desire to get involved in new projects, allow them to. This is a perfect example of allowing existing talent to feel valued, all while generating great new ideas.

Giving New Platforms a Chance

If you try a new platform, and you only test it for 30-days, it’s likely not enough to see the results that you were hoping for. Think about it, 30-days is only long enough to collect a bit of data and often times not enough data to allow us to make significant changes to our strategy. If you’re going to give any new platforms a try, investing a solid 90-days would be best.

We hope that with these tips, you’ll be on your way to more social media testing in the new year and persevere while trying new platforms.

The post Social Media Growth: Persistence and the Importance of Testing appeared first on Stencil.

You might not think so at first, but that statement has been proven time and time again. There are some basic design principles that you can follow which will result in better graphic designs.

Balance

Make sure your design has a balance of positive and negative space. The negative space in a design is just as important to the overall balance of the graphic. Negative space can be used for breathing room or emphasizing certain parts of your designs, but too much empty white (or black) space will look unfinished and unprofessional.

Negative spaces are often created by using shadows that create depth within an image that otherwise would not have any dimension. This also leads into our next principle – ‘direction.’

Direction refers to how lines go on a surface. Horizontal direction creates motion while vertical direction feels more stable like it’s holding up something above it, like if you were wondering what holds up the sky? The answer is gravity!

Vertical direction can also create the illusion of height in an object, which is often done with buildings and trees. You may have noticed that many tall structures are built looking up towards the sky – this creates the feeling that it’s reaching for something higher than what we see on earth.

Scale refers to how objects are sized in a design. For example, skyscrapers are taller than houses and trees, which means they have more scale. The same is true for smaller objects such as cars – you can tell that the Volkswagen Beetle has less size because it’s shorter compared to other vehicles on display at the car showroom.

Repetition

Use repeating elements to create unity in the design. Repetition creates a sense of harmony and order, which is perfect for logos. I also like it when designers repeat colors or fonts throughout their work because they create cohesion across different sections that might not have anything in common other than color or font choice.

Repetition can be subtle as well – take this post’s header image: there are only two circles with “jazz hands,” but you probably knew what was going on even if you couldn’t see any words!

Alignment

Use alignment to convey a sense of order and organization in your design so that all elements are on one axis or grid. Alignment is great for creating visual harmony because it eliminates any tension between different components.

Align items horizontally with the help of spacing like margins, padding, and line height; align vertically by using leading space (line-height). Remember to use whitespace consciously, so you don’t end up with cramped content.

If everything isn’t aligned properly, then there will be ambiguous situations where the eye doesn’t know which piece of information should stand out more than another – avoid this! For example: when I have a list of points in a paragraph such as “I want eggs” vs. “I want milk,” – the eye will land on I want eggs because that’s where it feels like there should be more content.

Proximity

The proximity principle is one of the rules that can help you create better graphics and improve your design. Proximity has to do with how items are placed with each other.

You want related items close together, but not too close, as this could lead to overcrowding and confusion for users who have a hard time finding what they need. The more logically grouped things are, the easier it will be for people viewing them to find what they’re looking for.

A good example of this would be designing an infographic about coffee shops around town: put all the information regarding cafes under “Coffee Shops” so when someone clicks on that section, everything within it is right there at their fingertips! Try grouping things together and using proximity in your design – it’ll help you create better graphics with simplicity.

Contrast

Use contrast to create interest by placing two different colors next to each other. If you have two very similar colors, keep the proportion of one color much larger than the other.

Contrast is a great way to create depth in your design without it being obvious or overbearing. I often use one technique to take an image and place a white square on top of it using PS with 50% opacity. The result is a layer where each side has its illumination – more pronounced when combined with darker images. Asymmetry will always produce contrast; look at how unevenly distributed these items are!

The Color Wheel: use elements from all three basic color schemes (monochromatic, complementary, and analogous) for maximum impact–knowing which colors work well together will keep your design cohesive

Lights: use a range from dark to light, or just one color. You can also use the same hue of different values (lights and darks) to create contrast without resorting to two colors on top of each other. If you want more depth, go for a light-dark gradient.

Scale

Adjust the size of objects according to their importance within the composition. Scale is one of the most important principles to understand when designing a logo. More detailed objects should never be scaled larger than objects with fewer details. If you do, it will destroy any sense of balance in your composition and ruin the whole thing.

When scaling an object, make sure its proportions remain accurate so that all parts of the design maintain symmetry; otherwise, there’s no point in having them at all!

Conclusion

A good design should be balanced, flexible in layout, and easy to understand. It’s also important that your designs are aligned with the principles of repetition for unity and proximity for clarity.

The final step is making sure you use contrast to create interest from a simple design by adding two colors next to each other or making elements different sizes according to their importance within the composition. Which principle have you used before? Let us know how it went!

The post 6 Basic Design Principles to Help You Create Better Graphics appeared first on Stencil.

1) Create and Deliver Relevant Content

First and foremost, you need to create and deliver relevant content to your audience. If you create content that is not interesting or exciting in some way, your audience will just scroll past it looking for something that will actually spark their interest and pique their curiosity. In other words, you need to find a way to make your content stand out from the crowd or rather of the mass of other content constantly being churned out on social media platforms. Here are some tips on how you can make your content more relevant:

• Conduct proper research and find out what your target audience is interested in. If your subscribers or potential followers don’t show interest in a certain topic, then you simply shouldn’t spend time and resources on making content on this topic. Likewise, if there are particular things your target audience is exceptionally interested in, you probably need to create more content dedicated to these topics.
• Expand your target audience and find readers and viewers who will be interested in the topics you are covering. Instead of only trying to adapt to your audience’s interests, you should actively seek out those who will want to consume the content you already create.
• Experiment as much as you can and look at what your competitors are up to. You will be surprised at the number of places you can find inspiration in. Don’t just take the expected route every time – try to be unique and original with your approaches. After all, social media users are constantly looking for something fresh and new.

2) Encourage Viewers to Share Content

The next thing you need to start doing to make your social media blog special is to encourage viewers to share content. The more your content is shared, the more people will see it and will discover your brand. On the other hand, if your content is only seen by your direct audience such as your current followers, you will never be able to grow your follower or subscriber base and expand your social media reach.

As Natalie Cape from the custom writing reviews site Best Writers Online puts it, “It’s somewhat of a two-way relationship between your content uniqueness and its shareability. When you create something special, it will get shared more. But when you see what gets shared more, you will be able to better understand what makes your content unique and, therefore, you will start making more special content.”

That being said, you can’t just constantly remind your followers and subscribers about sharing your content because it will only make them incredibly annoyed. Don’t always say it in a straightforward way and try to find a balance between too much encouragement and too few and far between reminders.

3) Introduce User-Generated Content

UGC or user-generated content is not as commonly used by brands and influencers, but those that do use it often gain a competitive edge over their competitors when trying to establish a connection with their target audience. To put it simply, UGC can be a powerful tool when you are growing a particular connection with your audience and developing a long-term relationship based on trust, loyalty, and authority. It’s much better to present your brand as a person rather than a lifeless corporation only looking to sell products and increase profit.

Introducing user-generated content into your social media strategy can be jarring at first if you use too much at once, but if you do it gradually, UGC will serve a great purpose. Try to find the most unique pieces you can and then repost them only after getting permission from the owner. You can also leave comments under the original UGC posts but reposts will probably work better for your overall strategy.

4) Diversify and Experiment with Content

As mentioned earlier, experimenting with content should be one of those things that’s obvious and common for your brand specifically, but you should also consider diversifying your content in some ways. Diversification can come in absolutely different forms – from format to topic to design.

As Craig Ericson from the essay writing reviews site Writing Judge notes, “Diversification is usually a good step because it helps you find new things that work for your social media strategy. But at the same time, you need to be cautious. Too much variety can damage your brand image and confuse your audience.”

5) Put Things That Matter into The Spotlight

Last but not least, you need to put things that matter into the spotlight instead of highlighting whatever you feel like. This point is directly related to finding the right topics to create your content for, but it is a bit more subtle. Even when you have a piece of content on a certain topic, there are still aspects of this topic that you will put to the forefront.

For example, you might have a video ready about the most popular matte lipstick shades of the new season. The video will probably be somewhat of a listicle, but you could take a slightly different approach and shift the focus to matte lipstick application. So, at first, you will be listing the most popular shades, but then you will spend a half (or more than a half) or the remaining video length to explain how to properly apply matte lipstick.

Final Thoughts

All in all, planning your social media strategy can be challenging, but once you take the basics and work up your actions to the top, it will become much easier to plan everything out. Use the tips in this article to create your own social media strategy and start creating social media posts that are truly special.

The post 5 Tips That Make Your Social Media Blog Special appeared first on Stencil.

One of the challenges that face families with young children, in particular, is that all of a sudden, they’re home. All. The. Time. (If you have rowdy kids under the age of 8, you are acutely aware of how difficult this can be). On the one hand, it’s great that we get to spend some time very closely with our families right now. But on the other hand, we have responsibilities to our job. The same jobs that pay our bills.

I have 2 kids at home under the age of 5 and it’s been very challenging to carve out time to get any real work done. It’s also tough to focus on job-related tasks when things are changing so quickly around us in the world.

We hope you’re all staying safe at this time and our hearts go out to all the other individuals and business owners who are going through this. But we’re all in this together. In the meantime, a new enemy is emerging, especially if you have kids stuck at home: BOREDOM

So, we thought of a fun and creative way you can use Stencil with your children to help pass the time:

Create Your Own Coloring Books with Stencil

1. To begin, let’s start by opening up Stencil. Head over to the Templates section and look for a category called “Outlines”. OR scroll below where you can click on any of the Outline Templates thumbnails to edit it in Stencil.
   
2. In the “Outlines” category, you’ll see there’s a bunch of new pre-made templates you can use right away. They’re also already set for the optimal size for 8.5 x 11 paper. Have some fun editing them with the kids and you can add their name or any text you’d like. To add your own outlines, head over to the “Icons” section and do some searches. Sometimes adding the word “outline” to your search can help. For example, “fruit outlines”.
   Note: If you want to create your own completely from scratch, use the “Letter” canvas size (for 8.5 x 11 paper) in the canvas resizer as seen here:
   
   
3. Once you’re ready to print, click the Download button to download your image. Use the same settings as seen here:
   
   
4. Open the image on your desktop or mobile device and send it to print! That’s it

Outline Templates

We’d love to see some of the amazing creations you and your kids come up with! Post them in the comments or tweet us @getstencil.

Stay safe and warm wishes from everyone here at Stencil

The post Create A Coloring Book in Stencil – Keeping The Kids Busy During Difficult Times appeared first on Stencil.

Well, for starters, something to remember is that your content should never be 100% about you, yes you need to educate your audience, but quotes are a great way to break up the norm and keep things interesting for your audience. 

Use Quotes to Generate Engagement with Your Audience.

Regardless of your industry, chances are there are quotes and common sayings relevant to your industry. Quotes often spark emotions and emotions evoke reactions; thus, they make for the perfect type of posts to add to your content strategy to help you drive engagement with your audience.

Something to think about also is that the more engagement you have on your content, the more visibility you get for your business. Quotes are often relatable, and what happens when someone can “relate?” Your audience will be more likely to engage and come back for more. You’ll want to take the time to identify the types of quotes that your audience relates to the most.

Always think about your audience, for example, if you are a sports retailer, you’d probably want to use sports-related quotes vs. quotes about cats. Of course, there are many instances where quotes will resonate even if they aren’t related to your industry; you’ll just want to make sure you are strategic about the quote usage. 

Leverage Quote Graphics to Grow Your Email List. 

If you are a creative business, a great way to grow your email list would be to exchange some done for you quote graphics to your audience in exchange for their emails. 

It’s a great way to offer a solution to business owners who may not have a lot of time on their hands to create content and know the importance of creating engaging content. 

Use Them to Educate Your Audience.

Quote graphics don’t only have to be graphics from well-known authors and public figures. Turn your testimonials into quote graphics to help your potential buyers in their journey. 

Graphic testimonials are easy to consume for your audience, and it’s a great way for you to display your achievements and to start building trust with new potential buyers. 

Aside from graphic testimonials, everyone within your organization has wisdom to offer. Ask your team members to provide industry-relevant tips and turn their tips into quote graphics; it’s a great way to showcase your team’s knowledge as well as your company culture. 

Leverage Quote Graphics to Discover What Your Audience Loves. 

Knowing what your audience wants is key to delivering content that they will love and help them become brand ambassadors. A great way to leverage quotes to discover the types of emotions, as well as the types of content that resonate with them, is by leveraging quotes to survey your audience. 

When you share industry-relevant quotes, use the post copy to ask your audience how the quote makes them feel or how they can relate to the quote. You can also take two industry-relevant quotes and ask your audience which one they can relate to the most. You can do this as a regular social media post or even leverage stories and get your audience to vote by polling them. 

Here Are a Few Tips to Remember When it Comes to Using Quote Graphics in Your Marketing Strategy.

• Take the time to analyze the types of quotes you should use in your strategy. 
• Analyze what works and what doesn’t. If you see a quote that gets more engagement, study it and see if this type of quote should be shared more often. 
• Use Stencil to create beautiful quote graphics effortlessly. 
• Remember that you have access to 100,000+ quotes directly in Stencil. 
• Share your own quotes or even client testimonials in your strategy. 
• Don’t forget to survey and poll your audience to get a better understanding of what they love. 

Using quotes in a marketing strategy is a topic that is often the cause of debate, it works for us and many industries out there. The key is to get creative and really identify what your audience loves. 

Do you leverage quote graphics in your marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments. 

The post 4 Ways to Use Quote Graphics For Your Marketing Efforts appeared first on Stencil.

Many of them use the same fonts and can get sorta boring. If you want to create a truly memorable graphic, it starts with using a beautiful font. Doing just this will take your image from good to great. It might seem subtle, but using just the right font will create a unique feel that will make your image stand out from the rest.

Even better, if you can use rare, more obscure fonts, it will give your image a totally custom feel. Here’s a list of some of the best and lesser-known premium fonts you can use in your designs today:

Buckle up Buttercup Marker Font

This amazing font from Maryam Kamal Co is one of the best hand-drawn fonts around. It’s also available in SVG, which is a nice bonus. It’s designed to look as close as possible to natural handwriting by keeping the subtle imperfections on the edges. It’s perfect for many uses such as magazine headlines, high fashion, bold signature branding, classy packaging, eye-catching callouts and stand-out advertising.

Get the font →

The Succulent (Font Trio)

This great font from Andrea De Oliveira is earthy and stylish, but can be used in a variety of situations: wedding invites, social media, scrapbooks, overlays for photos and more. One nice thing is this is actually a set of 3 separate fonts for the price of one. All three work really well together and can be paired for nearly endless possibilities.

Get the font →

Hackney

Hackney is a beautiful font (also available in SVG) from Ellen Luff that really packs a punch. It is an all caps font, with two alternatives for every letter, to maintain the custom made look, without obvious doubles. It includes ALL European language support as well. It’s designed to be an incredibly accessible hand-painted font. It includes three versions of the font to suit nearly any situation.

Get the font →

Sunkissed

Another absolute stunner from Maryam Kamal Co, Sunkissed is an instant classic. It’s also pretty rare to see such a beautiful and unique all-caps font, with a watercolor feel.

This trendy font collection includes an SVG and a regular font file. This font is actually 2 fonts in 1, and they can be matched for all sorts of uses. The realistic watercolor and texture of the fonts add extra originality and character other regular fonts can’t offer. The stylish textured script was designed to complement the watercolor sans font, but it also looks amazing on its own. Don’t sleep on this one!

Get the font →

Avallon

This font from Sam Parrett is great because it includes a newer “OpenType-SVG or Colour fonts” format in addition to the regular TTF format. If you’re going to be using it in Stencil, be sure to upload the TTF only. If you’re using the font outside of Stencil, using the new OpenType-SVG format allows for more detail to the letters than previously possible. This font has an amazing paintbrush effect built-in, as a transparent texture, which just gives it a completely unique look.

Get the font →

Freeday Script & Sans

Freeday Font from Aktab Studio is a modern font suitable for greeting cards, social media posts, blog images or even logo design. It comes with a complete set of standard characters, Alternates, Ligature Variation, Punctuation & has an extra textured version if you’re looking for that more distressed look. Its curves are extremely pleasing to the eye and will keep your audience wanting to see more!

Get the font →

There’s such a wide selection of fonts available now, that we wanted to keep this list short, curated and concise. Be sure to check these out and think about how you’ll be using them to wow your audience!

The post 6 Rare Hand-Drawn Fonts To Use In Your Next Design appeared first on Stencil.

But what’s better than repurposing your content? Repurposing it visually!

After all, 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business.

Repurposing content can help you reach a new audience, tap into a whole new social media platform, or just help your content reach its full potential. Whatever your reason might be, we have a solution for you. 

Here are some ingenious ways you can repurpose your content along with real-life examples! And when we say ingenious, we mean it! 

1) Funny Blog Insights Memes

You can’t blame us for commencing with this one now, can you? 

It’s a well-known fact that memes go viral like wildfire. They increase engagement on social media pages and increase shares as well. Including memes on your social media feed is a sound decision. A better decision would be to create humourous and niche memes that can be shared on Facebook marketing groups that cater to professionals/ potential customers of your industry. Create memes that can be easily copied by people. Once your meme becomes an ongoing reference point, it’s smooth sailing from there! 

2) Blog Posts Interactive Quizzes/Calculators

What did we one piece of content say to another? 

Let’s go interactive!

Interactive content has a reputation for being engaging, personalized and well, repurposed! You can repurpose your old blog posts into highly-converting interactive content pieces. Just published a long-form article on email marketing? Repurpose the content to create an interactive calculator. This can be shared on social media channels rather than just the blogs to spice things up!

Just published a product-based blog? Create a graded quiz and test your customers on their product knowledge. This can be used to engage long-time customers and even increase customer loyalty. You can utilize these interactive experiences to grade your customer’s product knowledge and attach incentives according to their performance!

3) Blog Posts Infographic

This one is pretty common. And pretty important. Blog posts can be repurposed into bite-sized, easily digestible infographics. They are less time consuming and can generate more traffic for your blog. After all, people are more likely to share visual content. Furthermore, infographics can help you reach a wider audience through infographic directories like Infographic Journal, Visual.ly, or Daily Infographics. They can help you garner backlinks through easily-implementable embed codes. Moreover, 65 percent of people are visual learners. This entails that your infographics have a far higher chance of being retained and remembered than your blogs.

4) Expert Interviews/Podcast Images With Quotes

89% of marketers say that ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels. It’d be a waste to not utilize it to its fullest. After you conduct expert opinion interviews/podcasts, repurpose them into small blogs, videos, and images. These images can be shared on your social media channels and newsletter. Not to forget, they would be of special interest to social media marketing groups. 

Have a look at this. Ai Addyson-Zhang, a social media expert interviewed Marketing Guru Seth Godin. She created quotes out of his answers and spread it on her social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter, and Medium. 

Needless to say, this garnered a lot of attention from her fellow marketers to her social pages!

5) Marketing Content GIFs

If your webinars give out product-specific actionable tips, you can convert them into GIFs. The same can be said for How To Posts and Support Docs that are frequently read by your customers. Use these GIFs in between blogs and as a part of your social media content. You can also give quick product tours with the help of GIFs to entice the prospects to engage more. 

We aren’t saying Visme did it right, but that’s exactly what we are saying!

The best part is that creating GIFs is that it is quick and can be created with little to no resource. So what are you waiting on? 

6) Infographics Social Media Images

Worried about creating fresh social content every week? Well, here’s a solution! Your past infographics can be further cut into bite-sized images that can be used for your social pages. This will ensure that your social pages are full of actionable marketing knowledge. 

7) Social Media Images Ads

Do you know what is the best part of concentrated social media marketing efforts? You get to analyze them. In a matter of minutes, you can figure out the best performing images on your social media feed. 

Once you know your high performing posts, you can use them as the thumbnail for your display ads. After all, these tried and tested images have a much higher chance of attracting leads when combined with the right keywords, don’t they?

8) Social Media images CTA

Here is another way those top-performing social posts can be repurposed. Analyze your past posts. Select the captions or text posts that are garnering the most amount of engagement. Is it making people laugh? Does it make people think? Is it doing both at the same time?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you have got yourself a CTA image guaranteed to boost engagement!

You can include these CTAs in your newsletters, emails and even in your blogs!

Source

9) Webinars Recorded Videos (And Vice Versa)

Webinars are reported as one of the top revenue drivers for B2B marketers.
51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
What happens when you utilize both of them together?

Content Marketing Gold

Repurpose your webinars into recorded video and continue to generate leads through prospects who are interested in that topic. You can use those videos to engage your existing customers with your content if it includes actionable tips related to your tool. Moreover, you can cut the videos into smaller parts and share them on your social media pages. 

On the other hand, you can use your marketing videos during your webinar to ensure continued audience engagement. Buzzsumo seamlessly integrated a video of LinkedIn Live in one of their webinars.

Sometimes, listening to an expert speak for 40-odd minutes becomes boring and video interval can come in handy to ensure audience attentiveness. To make it even more interesting, you can include a short video-based quiz at the end of your webinar. Consequently, you can provide the well-scoring audience with a discount!

10) Interactive Polls Original Statistics

Talking of quizzes! You might use interactive polls and surveys for customer satisfaction surveys or market research purposes. But did you know that they can be repurposed to create original blog content? You can leverage the increased engagement you get out of interactive polls to publish original statistics. This kind of original content is shared virally and might garner quality backlinks for your content as well.

11) Company Content Slides

You can repurpose your company’s content like webinars, podcasts, blogs, and infographics into slides. Slides are visual, easily digestible and well, easy to create. SlideShare can help you create, edit and embed slides in minutes. For instance, Marketo used Slideshare to showcase its 2017 marketing predictions. 

Conclusion

Phew! We know that was a LOT of information! The good part is – you can always repurpose it visually!

We hope that you find at least some, if not all, of these tips helpful. And ingenious! What are your thoughts on the same? Do you have more ideas on repurposing content? Let us know!

The post How To Repurpose Your Content Visually appeared first on Stencil.

Much of this creative thinking falls on the marketing team, who’s developing messaging and imagery to engage consumers. Yet being creative all the time is hard—especially when you’re also thinking about data, strategy, content and managing the time you need to get it all done. 

If you’re in a creative rut, or want to take your marketing to the next level, check out these tools. They’ll help you spark the fresh design ideas you need to unearth your innovative ideas.

Blog Idea Generator

It can be challenging to continually come up with unique content ideas, yet that’s what you need to do to keep readers interested and coming back for more. This tool from Hubspot is a great way to get more creative with that content, finding interesting angles and ideas that you may not have thought of otherwise. Once you add up to 5 nouns, you’ll get five ideas that you can flip through. You can also give your email address to download a year’s worth of ideas. 

Stencil

Continuously creating fresh social media images can be exhausting. In our image-based marketing world, imagery is everything, so you can’t let this area of your creativity falter. Use Stencil to keep your creative juices flowing. This powerful image creator gives you access to:

• 2,200,000+ stock photos
• 100,000+ Quotes
• 2,000,000+ Icons & Graphics
• 825+ Amazing Templates
• 2,650+ Google Web Fonts
• 37+ custom sizes for all your needs

Sign up and start playing around. You may be surprised at how creative you feel with so many resources at your fingertips. 

Fontstructor

Instead of choosing fonts that already exist, get creative and make your own. Fontstructor allows you to do exactly that. Whether you actually need to design a font or not, this is a creative exercise in playing with shapes and styles, which may be just what you need to spark ideas for the project you’re working on. 

Color Tool by Material Design

If you’re working on a landing page or building a website from scratch, this tool will help you hone in on color choices. Simply choose the various colors for your palette to see how they look on a web page. You can even use custom colors, if you’ve already chosen your base brand color, and simply need inspiration to find accents. Don’t forget to click through the various interface options to find a page layout that best resembles the one you’re working with.

FontPair

Choosing fonts that pair well together might be one of the most challenging aspects of designing assets for marketing. FontPair isn’t exactly a tool, but it does act as a valuable resource for finding fonts that pair well. Simply choose the type of pairing you need, like Display/Sans-Serif, and scroll to find the font pairings. If you don’t know what you need, check out their featured font pairs, listed on the home page. 

MindMeister

Sometimes creativity comes down to simply finding new ways to organize your thoughts and ideas. A mind mapping tool like MindMeister is perfect for that. As they say on their website, “Mind mapping encourages a free flow of ideas, which makes it the ideal format for brainstorming and creative problem solving sessions.” Being able to add images and links, color code sections and more, ensures that you can turn brainstorming into a truly creative venture.

MyCreativeShop

Staring at a blank canvas is intimidating. Where do you start? Where should the logo and CTA go? That’s where MyCreativeShop comes in. This online editor provides you with a seemingly unlimited number of print marketing templates you can use to get started. They specialize offline materials, like brochures, flyers, menus, and posters, and you can even print with them too—making your life infinitely easier. Simply choose the template you like most and then customize with your own colors, images and fonts.

Smartify

What’s more inspiring than artwork? Instead of just going to the museum, download the Smartify app and let the artwork’s story take you on a creative adventure. Once downloaded, simply scan the piece of artwork to access the story. This is a great creative tool to keep in your back pocket—literally—if you live in a big city, where many of the museums that have integrated with Smartify are located. Check their full list of venues to start your creative journey. 

Coolors

This color palette generator isn’t specific to web design, making it more useful for finding color  pairings for any marketing project you may have. Once you start the generator, you can change each of the five colors until you have a palette you love. If you’re not sure where to begin, head to their explore section, where you’ll find 100’s of premade color collections to choose from or use as a starting point.

Niice

Collect creative design as you go with Niice. This tool allows you to create mood boards by saving inspiration when you see it. Using the browser extension, you can grab and add images. When you’re ready to get creative, open your mood board, and let it inspire you. Your mood boards can also be shared with your team so everyone can contribute and benefit.

Boost Your Marketing Creativity

Use these tools to get out of a creative rut and come up with fresh designs that impress your boss and your audience. With the right resources at the ready, you’ll be ready to take your marketing to the next level.

The post 10 Awesome Tools to Boost Your Marketing Creativity appeared first on Stencil.

If your YouTube video is not garnering as many views as you would like, it may have nothing to do with the content of the video or the SEO optimization, and everything to do with the fact that you are just not managing to pique the interest of the viewers.

When your audience searches for a keyword or stumbles onto a list of videos, the only thing that sets your video apart from the rest is the thumbnail you have created.

This is where the all-important battle of ‘to click or not to click’ is fought and hopefully won by your video. While making a video, there are several things to keep in mind – image quality, sound effects, and content, etc.

Creating a thumbnail may be the last thing on your mind, but that would be an epic mistake. Your video thumbnail is akin to an article title and meta-description – it helps a consumer decide whether or not clicking the link will be worthwhile.

Let’s dive in and learn how to create click-worthy YouTube thumbnails.

Do Not Use YouTube’s Default Thumbnails Still Images

Once your video upload has been processed on YouTube, you have the option of choosing one of three default thumbnails. These are still images snapped from your video and may seem like a quicker and simpler choice. The randomly chosen thumbnails are rarely of good quality and are unlikely to be click-worthy by a long shot.

If You Use a Still Frame, Choose It Manually

As compared to choosing randomly generated thumbnails, manually choosing a still frame from your video is much more likely to work. A thumbnail with no text is still not as effective as we’d want it to be, but choosing your own still frame will be better than the Youtube-generated one.

Alternatively, pick a good representative image and customize it. According to YouTube’s Creator Academy lessons, 90% of top ranking videos on the website have custom thumbnails.

Think of Your Video Thumbnail While Shooting

It is never too early to start thinking of what the perfect video thumbnail would look like. While shooting your video, keep potential images at the back of your mind. You could even shoot a quick still image specifically for this purpose. The benefit of doing this is that you will not have to spend time looking through stills later, and you will have a neat high-resolution image that is ready to be used when you upload your video.

Add Attention-Grabbing Text to Your Thumbnail

You can easily add attention-grabbing text to your video thumbnails using Stencil. Stencil will allow you to fully optimize your thumbnails with text, icons, and your unique designs. As a rule of thumb, keep your thumbnail text to about 4 to 5 words maximum. Your thumbnail text should not be your entire video title; it should be an indication of what your video is about, it’s your chance to grab attention, spark emotions and drive interest to your video.

When you make a viewer wonder what is happening in the video, you have hit click-to-view gold. Action shots or pictures that depict a person showing strong emotions are much more likely to get a click because they evoke a viewer’s curiosity.
As per YouTube’s Creator Academy, face close-ups garner maximum viewer attention. The human brain is wired to focus on the face of another human being. Capitalize on this by putting one in the thumbnail.

Size It Right

YouTube has very clear guidelines when it comes to video thumbnails. Resize your image to fit the guidelines so that the process is seamless and quick. Standard video sizes include 1280×720 and 1920×1080. Keep the aspect ratio of 16:9, and the file size under 2MB.

Choosing smaller sizes is likely to make the thumbnail blurry and not click-worthy, especially when accessed using bigger screens. You can easily resize or ensure that you are using the proper Youtube thumbnail size with Stencil.

Create a Video Thumbnail Template Collection in Stencil

Have you been using Stencil’s collection feature? If not, it’s time to get started. Stencil collections not only allow you to create groups for your designs, one of the ways that our users love to use collections is to create collections by client name or by the platform name. Just make sure that you stay within the 32 character limit for the collection name.

Example:
Youtube Thumbnails – Client Name

As you can see you can label your collections so that they are easy to find and then you can easily access your Youtube thumbnails to modify as needed.

Use the Opportunity to Build Your Brand

For brands using Youtube, one of the essential things to do is to generate brand recall value. Your viewers should associate every single one of your videos with your brand. The video thumbnail gives you a great opportunity to build your brand and familiarize your viewers with it. This is where consistency in not only posting is key but consistency

Don’t be A Click-Bait, be Click-Worthy

There are too many videos and articles out there with click-bait titles that give misleading controversial information just to get one click. Not only will you turn off viewers and discourage them from ever clicking on one of your videos again, but you will also throw the bounce rate for your YouTube channel through the roof.

You may think that there is no difference between the term “click-bait” and “click-worthy” but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

A click-bait is simply that….a click-bait. It doesn’t reflect value and sometimes doesn’t even reflect what the video contains.

Click-worthy is when your thumbnail grabs attention for the right reasons when your thumbnails is an indication of what’s included in your video or at least provides a sense of direction, it sparks emotion and users are drawn to clicking because they want to learn more.

Get The Colors Right

Many of us are visual learners, and one of the first things that viewers notice is the color combinations used in the thumbnails. Balance your overlays well by opting for transparent shades that help the image or text pop. Choose complementary contrasting colors for your background and text. Colors that pop are key.

A YouTube thumbnail acts as a visual call-to-action for viewers. Complement quality content with a visually-appealing, well-articulated custom thumbnail. Ensure that the thumbnail you have in mind is not too similar to those of other videos on similar topics. Be different, allow your brand to stand-out.

Promise a great video with your thumbnail, and deliver on this promise when viewers click through. YouTube recommendations and other traffic sources show you how well your thumbnail is measuring, so you can plan better for the next video thumbnail.

Do you currently use Youtube for your business? Let us know in the comments.

The post How to Create Click-Worthy YouTube Thumbnails appeared first on Stencil.

Are Motivational Quotes a Waste of Time?

Why does it seem that people tend to flock to motivational quotes? Plain and simple…life happens.

Everyone is dealing with something from petty annoyances to life-altering catastrophes. Is there really any wonder why people are seeking motivation and inspiration on a daily basis? If you’re not able to have a personal cheerleader by your side such as a friend or family member, life can be rough. As a society, we look to each other for knowledge, comfort, and solidarity.

Sharing quotes and phrases isn’t a recent phenomenon, people have been sharing their favorite quotes for generations. Well-structured messages can be powerful in changing our thinking.

According to a study in Frontiers in Psychology, they found by using motivational quotes with their digital health technologies it improved self-esteem in a variety of patients.

They categorized a multitude of quotes into eight different categories:

1. Choice (presents the option of acting to change one’s present state)
2. Self-Directed Question (poses a question to the individual that stimulates introspection)
3. Cause and Effect (outlines the positive effects that may result from particular thoughts or actions)
4. Imperative (provides direction and explicit commands for the individual to follow in order to improve wellbeing)
5. Empowerment/“You” (addresses the individual directly with positive affirming statements)
6. Experience of Others/“I” (offers the opinion or first-person account of someone else)
7. Reality Check (disrupts the perception of a perfect world)
8. General (discusses general concepts or situations in life)

What they found was that some motivational quotes are more effective than others, with different types of quotes being better suited to address particular patients. This means you have to know your audience.

This works the same as a business owner or entrepreneur, you’ll find the types of motivational quotes that will best suit your clients. This is why many people get upset when they see others posting motivational quotes haphazardly. The only way your message is going to come across genuine, is if you genuinely feel the motivational quote will be helpful to the audience.

You must choose specific quotes that align with your target audience. For example, Content Marketing Institute provides inspirational quotes specifically for content marketing. This makes sense, right?

The point is, don’t get mislead into thinking motivational quotes won’t do anything for you or your audience. Everyone needs a boost in motivation! It is up to you to take action and that’ll truly make the difference.

Since we now know that motivational quotes aren’t a complete waste of time, we’d like to share some with you.

Motivational Quotes for a Successful Year

For days when you’re freaking out and feel like you’re losing control:

If you own this story you get to write the ending. – Brené Brown

Hope is the foundation for which all successful goals are built upon. – Ellen J. Barrier

It always seems impossible until it’s done. – Nelson Mandela

It’s not whether you got knocked down; it’s whether you get back up. – Vince Lombardi

When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. – Theodore Roosevelt

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. – Socrates

Structure your thought pattern to what you want to achieve and who you want to become. – Agu Jaachynma NE

You become what you think about all day long. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you need to keep going but you feel stuck and need an extra shove to take action:

Successful people do consistently what normal people do occasionally. – Craig Groeschel

Success won’t come from some big step you take in the future. Success starts with small steps today. – Craig Groeschel

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? – Vincent van Gogh

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. – Les Brown

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lead by example, not by instruction. – Jared Matthew Kessler
Find and Use What Motivates You

Hopefully, you’ve found some motivational quotes that will boost your entrepreneurial spirit and inspire you to take action on your goals. Stencil has more than 100,000 quotes in the quote library you can use when you want to create your own quote graphics. Go ahead and explore the Stencil quote library now!

If you liked the motivational images here, we have a free download for you.
[FREE DOWNLOAD]

No attribution needed! If you don’t mind using #getstencil on social, we’ll happily give you a like.

Let us know what quote motivates you in the comments!

The post Motivational Quotes for a Successful Year appeared first on Stencil.