Test Your Subject Lines

If you never test your email subject lines, you’re doing email marketing wrong. You need to know what works in order to fuel your strategy and the actions that follow. 

How can you test your email subject lines? Many tools allow you to A/B test your subject lines to a segment of your list before sending your email to the rest of your list once the test identifies which one performed the best. 

Always keep track of which ones have the highest open rate, and what words, keywords, or trigger words you used, and let that guide you when you create new subject lines. 

Content that Converts

Creating content that converts for your email list doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you already have content that converts on other platforms that you can use to guide your email marketing efforts. We often hear the saying “work smarter, not harder,” and the same can be true for content creation. 

Where to look for your guidance: 

• Past newsletters that have done well. 
• Blog topics that tend to perform well. 
• Social media posts that get more engagement than usual. 
• Questions that your community may be asking.

While we could share more places to find guidance to create your next email or email newsletter, this will look different from brand to brand. In simple terms, let what’s working now guide you. 

Keyword Research

When creating email content, repurposing content should always be something you are thinking about. Do some keyword research to inspire your next blog content. You can then use your blog content to rest your community’s interest in a particular topic. 

Look at your email engagement as proof of concept for creating a blog post or podcast outline by expanding your email topic in a blog post or podcast episode. 

Keep It Simple

While we all love fresh ideas in the marketing world, if you have a simple concept or email type that knocks it out of the park every time you hit publish, it’s okay to stick with what you know works while testing new ideas in the mix. 

There are a lot of distractions in the world of marketing, and it’s normal to want to be chasing the next best thing; in fact, testing new things is a part of what makes things so interesting. With that being said, it’s also okay to keep it simple. 

So, next time you work on your email campaign, remember that testing your subject lines can go a long way and that you likely already have proof of concept with content you are already creating. 

The post Tips for Crafting The Best Email Content appeared first on Stencil.

There is a lot to consider when it comes to navigating social media, and in this blog post, we share some tips that are easy to implement yet highly effective.

Choosing The Right Social Media Platforms

As a brand, you may be tempted to join every platform and “see what happens,” or you may be tempted to sign up on platforms like TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. 

In order to choose the right platforms, you need to have a deep understanding of your target audience.

Most social media platforms have data on their blogs or in their resources regarding common demographics that use their platforms. This can be helpful data to help you choose the right platform.

If you have a team that can help you, you can adopt a strategy where you test which platforms seem to work the best for you over time. The reality is that although some platforms are sometimes dominated by a certain demographic, you are likely to find your audience on any given social media platform. 

Another factor to consider would be if your brand is local only or if you can serve your audience nationwide. If you’re a local brand, you could research what other local businesses are doing in addition to a Google business profile. 

Your Brand Voice Matters

From the beginning, you’ll want to establish the type of brand voice you want to adopt online. You likely already have a brand style for your website, and if you need extra help, working with a branding professional or a copywriter could be helpful. 

You can be flexible with your copy, but in general, most brands have set guidelines to be followed in terms of how to address certain topics, certain terms to use and some to avoid, etc.

You also generally want to follow a similar pattern when it comes to blog content and other website content. 

Create High-Quality Content

Gone are the days when stock photos would suffice. Brands who are new to using social media sometimes feel overwhelmed by the idea that they would need to learn graphic design.

The good news is, tools like Stencil make it incredibly easy to create high-quality graphics. You can set up your account in minutes and create stunning on-brand graphics. You’ll even be able to save your brand colors and your logo for future use. 

You’ll want to browse the template library as this is yet another perk to help you save time with your graphic creation efforts. 

Engage With Your Community

Growing on social media is not just about posting what you sell. It’s important to proactively engage with your community. The more you engage with your community, the more you create a sense of belonging. 

Some engagement guidelines to follow are: 

• Responding to comments.
• Responding to messages.
• Doing outbound engagement.
• Participate in relevant online forums.

When we foster an environment online where our community feels welcomed, seen and heard, this also creates a ripple effect and allows us to grow our reach even further. 

The post Navigating Social Media: A Guide for New Business Owners appeared first on Stencil.

Here are five simple tips to help you grow and maintain a strong online presence. 

Create High-Quality Content

High-quality content is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience and develop trust. Blog posts, case studies, video content, and podcasts are all examples of this. Make certain that your material is valuable, educational, and relevant to your intended audience.

This will help you establish yourself as an industry authority and keep your audience returning for more.

Optimize Your Website and Social Media Account

Make sure your website and social media profiles are keyword-optimized. This will increase your ranking in search results, making it simpler for potential consumers to find you. 

Let’s review a few examples of where should you include keywords in your content and on social media.

Website: 

• Page Titles
• Meta Descriptions 
• Headings and Subheadings
• URL Structure
• Content
• Image ALT-Text
• Internal & External Links

Social media: 

• Anywhere that is searchable, such as username or account names. 
• In your profile bios
• In your post copy
• In your hashtags
• Video titles and descriptions 

Leverage User-Generated Content 

User-generated content, such as customer reviews and testimonials, can be a powerful tool for building trust and credibility. Encourage your customers to leave reviews and share their experiences on social media. This can help you attract new customers and build a loyal following.

Engage with Your Audience 

Engaging with your audience on social media is an excellent approach to creating relationships and a feeling of community around your company. Respond to comments and messages promptly, and spend time interacting with your fans. 

This will assist you in making a personal connection with your audience and keeping them interested. Brands should have a similar customer service and success process for social media than they have for other channels of communication. 

Collaborate with Influencers & Creators

Collaborate with industry influencers and content creators, as it may help you reach a larger audience and earn credibility. Look for influencers that share your brand’s beliefs and have a significant social media following. This can help you acquire new clients and develop the reputation of your business. 

You can search for content creators manually using various platforms or by working with an influencer marketing agency, or by using tools such as Upfluence. 

You are now equipped with effective tips to help you gain momentum with your organic social media efforts. 

The post 5 Simple and Effective Organic Marketing Tips for Small Businesses appeared first on Stencil.

In this blog post, we’ll cover how to do Pinterest keyword research and how to optimize your account and content with keywords. 

Keyword Research Tools on Pinterest

While there are many tools that can support your keyword research, including keyword research that you do for Pinterest, you can use Pinterest to find the best possible keywords for your brand. 

The Pinterest search bar can give you a surface-level look at what users are searching for. This is where you will start to enter your keyphrases and see what comes up. You can then browse the content and see if any of the keywords used could be relevant to your ideal audience. This particular technique is also great for when you are doing competitor research. 

You then have Pinterest trends, where you can search for keywords and trends in specific regions. This is useful for doing ongoing keyword research to see if there is anything up and coming that you should be using. What’s great about being able to filter by region is that it allows you to narrow down the keywords trending in your target demographic’s regions. 

You also have access to the keywords tool in the ads manager. This tool is quite advanced and will even give you the monthly search volume for each of these keywords. 

Another great resource by Pinterest to help you plan for future keywords and identify trends is the Pinterest Predicts Report. This report is released yearly, and most of their predictions come true. If you’ve never used this resource, we highly recommend it. 

Finding the Best Possible Keywords

With any keyword research efforts, it’s important to understand your audience and their customer journey so that you have the best possible idea of what they would be searching for in order to find your products and services. 

With that being said, you’ve likely done this already, but it’s important to do audience research and competitor research and have a deep understanding of who your ideal client is. Semi-fictional avatars are not likely going to cut it. It’s best to speak to current and past customers or to invite anyone who may be a potential client to help you gain valuable insights. 

Once you start using keywords in your content, you’ll want to review your analytics on a regular basis to see what content seems to perform the best. You’ll also want to repeat your keyword research on a regular basis to ensure that you identify new up-and-coming keywords. 

Optimizing Your Account & Pinterest Content With Keywords

You have keywords; now what? In order to have the best possible experience, you’ll want to implement the following tips. 

• Ensure that your “display name” includes a keyword. 
• Each of your pins should have a keyword in the title and some relevant keywords in the pin descriptions. 
• You should include relevant titles and keywords as text overlay on your creatives. 
• Your board names should include at least one keyword. Your board description should include some relevant keywords. 
• Avoid keyword stuffing. It’s ok to use multiple keywords, but your audience should understand the context of your content. If using too many keywords takes away the meaning of your content, it’s time to take a step back. 

Now that you have a better understanding of Pinterest keywords, it’s time to put what you have learned into practice and start experiencing more Pinterest traffic. 

The post How to do Pinterest Keyword Research appeared first on Stencil.

Long-form blog posts are still very much relevant (and critical) for a strong SEO strategy. A long-form blog post can serve as the foundation for other types of content, such as short-form videos, podcast outlines, whitepapers, presentations and more. 

In this blog post, we’ll review the power of blogging for brands.

Benefits of Blogging

Blogging is still one of the most powerful tools for businesses to increase their brand reach and visibility. By creating quality content through blogging, businesses can reach potential customers in ways that make it convenient for them. They get to access your blog content on an as-needed basis which means when and how it’s convenient for them. This contributes to a positive experience. 

Blog content is also useful in creating relationships and trust with potential customers. Through engaging blog posts, businesses can showcase their expertise, gain credibility and build an emotional connection with their customers.

Blogging is also an incredibly cost-effective way to reach a larger audience, as blog content can be shared and repurposed across multiple channels. If you’re looking to create a content marketing strategy to reach more audience members, using a blog as your content foundation is always a win-win situation.

How to Develop Quality Content

Creating quality content for your blog can be a powerful way to amplify your brand’s reach and increase engagement with your target audience. When it comes to developing content that resonates with your readers, the key to success is to focus on quality over quantity.

Creating content that is both informative and entertaining is the best way to capture your readers’ attention and maximize reach through blog content. Start by carefully researching the topics that you want to write about and make sure that the content is relevant and engaging to your readers. Ideally, you’ll want to create a blog schedule and create your blog post based on your various content pillars. 

Use a combination of facts, visuals, and storytelling to build a narrative that conveys your message. Additionally, make sure to use keywords to optimize your content for SEO.

This will make it easier for readers to find your blog, increasing the chances that they will share it with others. When writing your blog, be sure to keep it concise and to the point. If you can, use bullet points and short sentences to ensure that your audience can grasp the information. 

Too often, people write blog posts that are too long and contain too much information. Try to keep your blog posts around 1000–1500 words, which gives readers enough insight without having to read through pages and pages of information. 

Finally, publish fresh content regularly and promote it across various social media channels. In other words. Don’t post and ghost. This will help your blog gain more traction, further increasing its reach.

Marketing Tips for Blogging

Blogging should be used as an anchor in your marketing strategy to boost your website traffic, lead generation and overall visibility. Blogging offers a unique opportunity to create high-quality content that engages readers, drives traffic, and helps to build trust.

Quality content and SEO go hand in hand when it comes to blogging. Investing in keyword research, optimizing your content with keywords, and building backlinks are all key components of a successful SEO strategy.

By focusing on creating quality content that is optimized for search engine visibility, brands can ensure that their content is seen and read by the right people.

Here are a few tips to note when it comes to blogging as part of your marketing strategy. 

• Create high-quality, informative content that provides value to your audience. This could be in the form of how-to guides, product reviews, or industry news. These can all be published in blog formats or other. 
• Use keywords and meta descriptions to optimize your blog posts for search engines. This will help improve your search engine ranking and drive traffic to your website. Use tools such as Keysearch.co to do your keyword research. 
• Share your blog posts on your company’s social media channels and to your email list to increase visibility and reach a wider audience. You should have a regular newsletter that links back to your blog posts and other website content. 
• Collaborate with other bloggers in your industry to cross-promote each other’s content and reach new audiences. This is a great opportunity to build a backlink network and strategy. 
• Incorporate visual content such as images, videos, and infographics to make your blog posts more engaging and shareable.
• Offer exclusive discounts or promotions to your blog readers to encourage them to make a purchase. 
• Always, always, always have a look at your analytics to see what topics resonate the best and capitalize on that information.

A Real-World Example

In the intensely competitive digital landscape, blogging offers a vital avenue for brands to establish their authority, amplify their reach, and foster deeper relationships with consumers. Consider, for example, an online snowboard retailer striving to increase its visibility and sales. This retailer could publish blog articles that detail the performance and characteristics of popular snowboard equipment, such as Union bindings. By judiciously integrating the keyword “Union bindings” into their posts and product pages, the retailer can enhance their search engine optimization (SEO), leading to higher organic search rankings. When a snowboarding enthusiast then searches for Union bindings, the retailer’s insightful blog post could surface among the top results. This positions the retailer not only as a reliable source of valuable information, but also as a trusted supplier of the sought-after product. The consequent traffic to the retailer’s site not only heightens brand exposure, but also increases the potential for sales conversions, illustrating the dual benefits of a well-executed blogging strategy.

Analyzing Results

Analyzing the results of blogging for increased reach is essential for brands to measure the success of their content. Although measuring success can be difficult, there are a few simple steps that can be taken to get an idea of how effective the content has been.

Firstly, brands can look at the engagement of their blog posts; this can be done by looking at the number of comments, likes, and shares each post has received. Additionally, tracking website visits and page views can give an indication of the reach the content has had. Finally, analyzing the time users spend on each page and the number of returning visitors can help brands understand how much of an impact their content is having.

Analyzing the results of blogging can provide essential insight into the effectiveness of the content and whether changes need to be made to maximize reach. You can typically do this on both your website and by using tools such as Google Analytics. 

There’s no doubt that blogging will be an ever-important part of the content marketing landscape for years to come. 

The post The Ongoing Importance of Blogging for Brands appeared first on Stencil.

2023 Will Be a Year Of Community Building

Social media will continue to be a major part of people’s lives in 2023, we know this is no secret. You’ll see more personalized content, as well as more targeted ads, and you’ll also see social media itself become more tailored to individual users. This will include the creation of micro-communities based on specific interests or hobbies—and if that appeals to you, this is good news! 

Emphasizing community building is more important than ever before, as social media evolves, along with changes in how we conduct business, it’s more important than ever before to focus on community building and leverage the tools which we have available to us on social media to stand out from the crowd. 

Hyper-niched marketing and experiences will dominate.

The overall experience of using social media is going to become even more personalized. Platforms will continue to improve their ability to understand who you are and what you like. 

You’ll see more personalized content in your feed, including ads that are relevant to you. Brands are starting to realize that a larger reach doesn’t equal more money, and that hyper-niched content and experiences can drive growth and better ROI. 

What are some new things brands should try on social media in 2023? 

• Recurring content series. This is when a brand shares educational information during a specific time frame. This can be via videos, blog posts and more. 
• Give your social media team more creative freedom. They’re learning the ins and outs of so many platforms, strategies, and tactics daily. Your team knows best. 
• Diversify your online presence. You can’t put all of your eggs in the same basket. 
• Survey your audience regularly. The best way to know what your audience wants is by asking them. 

Leverage Social Media to Improve the Purchasing Experience 

Brands and consumers alike will benefit from social platforms’ improvement on the commerce side. Things such as livestream shopping and one-click checkout make it easier for consumers to purchase.  

Consider exploring the opportunity to host a livestream shopping event; these events are a great way to build a relationship with your audience and build trust. 

Review your checkout experience and see how you could improve this experience for your consumers, who are more likely to make purchases directly from various social media platforms. 

Short-form video will continue to dominate.

Short-form video is a powerful medium that we’ll see more of in the coming years. It’s easier to produce than long-form video, and it’s also more engaging. And since short-form videos can be shared more easily, they’re likely to go viral—which means more people will get access to your content.

You can map out the type of short-form videos you’d like your team to create by working with them to establish a content matrix. A lot of creators focus on trends, and although trends are great, focus on what makes you unique and create content for your potential buyers at different stages of their journey. 

Consider How Social Media Can Support Other Departments

It’s no secret that social media can help many facets of your business. Since most of the departments within a company are working towards a common goal, make it a habit of hosting inter-company huddles to discuss ideas, questions, and information that could help both your prospective and current customers. 

Sharing resources on social media, answers to commonly asked questions, use cases, how-to guides or anything else to provide value to your audience can be very useful. 

In short, we’re going to see a lot of changes in social media in the next few years. And that’s a good thing! Technology moves at such an incredible rate these days that we often forget how quickly it can change our lives—and how important it is to keep up with those changes. Social media is a great example of this because it has changed so much since its inception.

Think about how much more personalized our experiences are now compared to back then! So keep an eye out for what comes next and consider exploring some of the simple yet effective tips we have shared.

The post Things to Try on Social Media in 2023 appeared first on Stencil.

Click to Tweet

Click to Tweet is a simple way to make it easy for your audience to share YOUR content. You can create unique sharable links that will populate a pre-written Tweet, that is, of course, written by you or your marketing team. At Stencil, we love using this tool in our email marketing campaigns, and we see a significant amount of content shares on a regular basis when using this tool. 

Toggl Track

Toggl Track is amazing to keep track of how long you spend on various projects. Everyone has different time management styles, and there are also various time management categories. Toggl Track created the Time Management Hub, where they share resources to educate their audience about the ins and outs of time management. 

Otter.ai

Otter is amazing for transcribing and when you want to take your content efforts to the next level. It’s great for transcribing live content and turn it into blogs and podcast outlines. 

When it comes to creating content, volume is not always the answer. Being able to syndicate popular content that you have made on various channels will help you increase your reach. Diversifying the content type you offer will also allow you to speak directly to the various demographics you are targeting. 

Insights by Pinterest 

Pinterest always shares incredible insights that can help your brand reach a new level of success. If you take the time to look at their predictions as well as the tools that they offer, that’s a good start. Add in your analytics and audience insights, and you’re in for some serious growth! 

It’s important to remember that looking at your data doesn’t solely mean looking at your standard reports such as traffic, engagement, conversions, etc. You need to get familiar with your audience insights to understand your different market segments. 

Answer The Public 

The best research is your own, and as much as you can, you want to ask your audience what they want from you. Gathering data from your user base doesn’t have to be costly or complicated. To survey your audience, you can do simple things such as: 

• Sending a quick survey link via email. 
• Inviting some of your clients to join you for a Q&A to learn more about their needs. 
• Using polling features on social media. 
• Use a social media post to ask your audience to reach out with any questions, needs, or concerns. 
• Add a survey link to your email signature to gather data over some time. 

When you have little to work with or looking to be proactive with future ideas, Answer The Public is a useful tool. Google Trends is also a great tool to evaluate trends. 

Stencil Use Cases

As a Stencil user, you have access to best-in-class use cases to help you create the best content that will represent your brand. From creating an impactful Twitter banner to creating the best content for various industry types, you’ll find everything needed to create content that converts!

What are some of your go-to tools? Let us know in the comments. 

The post Practical Tools To Consider Using In Your Business appeared first on Stencil.

That simple exercise is a true testament to how powerful a logo can be. It determines how people perceive your brand and enhances brand recognition.

Unfortunately, there are millions of companies and organizations that operate without a logo. This often decreases brand visibility and makes it harder to leave a mark on customers.

In this guide, we look at the importance of logos and provide a few easy ways of designing it yourself.

Let us begin!

What is a Logo?

A logo is a symbol or design adopted by a company or organization. It helps people remember and recognize your company. 

When creating a logo, you need to keep two things in mind.

First, your logo is not your brand. Your brand is the experience and perception customers have when dealing with your company.

Second, your logo does not determine your success. That is down to your business acumen.

There are several types of logos:

• Brandmark/pictorial mark;
• Combination mark;
• Word mark;
• Abstract logo mark;
• Mascot;
• Letter mark;
• Emblem.

Why should you design a logo?

When you think of big companies such as Apple, Google, Toyota, or Coca-Cola, their logos are usually the first thing coming to your mind.

Below are a few reasons why you should follow their example and secure yourself a logo.  

• It makes a memorable impression and piques people’s interest. 
• It distinguishes you from your competitors.
• It fosters brand loyalty. Familiarity with your logo creates the perception that your company is trustworthy. 
• It grabs customer’s attention and communicates your values.

Given that a logo has such a powerful impact on your brand, you should carefully consider all design options.

How to design a logo?

There are several ways to come up with a great logo. You can choose to design it yourself or get help from professional designers. If you choose the latter, keep in mind that communication about your brand is crucial. No one understands the values of your brand like you do.

Let us explore both options. 

Design it yourself

Your business logo is an essential part of your brand. That said, your logo needs to be done right. This is why you should consider doing it yourself. There are some advantages to designing it yourself:

• It is the cheapest way to create a logo. Thanks to multiple logo design platforms and tools (more on this later), you can design your logo with little or no cost. 
• You can accurately express your vision. You have a better understanding of your brand’s vision than anyone else.
• Creating a logo is easy and fun. You can put your creativity to the test or start a logo design competition within your business.

If you’re not keen on design or you’re struggling to define your brand’s identity, there are some disadvantages that come with designing a logo yourself:

• It requires creative and strategic thinking. Imagery can have a profound impact on how people perceive your company. So you need to be careful with the images and colors you select. 
• Designing a logo can be time consuming. If you are the primary decision maker in your business, chances are you don’t have a lot of time to spare.  

Designing a logo is not an easy task. And finding the right reflection of your brand might prove to be difficult. So to make this process easier, we’ve listed some steps you can follow and tools that might make this process easier.

1. Define your brand’s identity. Your brand identity is a reflection of your beliefs, values. Understanding it allows you to create a logo that reflects your company’s personality. 
2. Look for inspiration for your logo. Creating a logo requires a bit of inspiration. You can take a look at several working logos and draw from their creativity. This collection of designer portfolios might be a good place to start.
3. Select an appropriate color scheme and typography. There are several color pallets to choose from. Plus, you need to select the typography/font that best matches your business. 
4. Evaluate logo options to choose your design style. Printful and Namecheap offer a variety of logos for you to choose from. So take your time and select the best fit for your business. 
5. Integrate your logo design into your brand. Print your logo on letterheads, merchandise, products and more.

Below are two design platforms that you can use to make a professional logo for your business.

Printful’s logo maker enables you to create a logo in a few easy steps. You can choose from over 100 customizable logo templates. 

There are several customization features for you to use. Plus, you can tinker with the font, colors and even add some clip art to your logo design. 

Namecheap offers a fast and free way to create a professional logo for your business. All you need to do is answer a few questions, follow a few steps and choose from hundreds of logo samples.

If you have no experience with logo design and you find it too challenging, you can hire a professional graphic designer.

Hire a professional

While hiring a professional might seem like an easy solution, it involves some challenges as well as some upsides. Let’s look at what you’re likely to face when hiring a professional designer.

Experienced graphic designers have first-hand knowledge of what customers want. They usually ask the right questions to determine your brand identity and how to incorporate that in a logo. This experience and graphic design training usually leads to an innovative and iconic logo design.

However, there are some downsides when hiring a professional designer. First of all, it can be time-consuming. You need to shop around for a designer and view different portfolios. Moreover, you will be asked to view several designs and offer feedback during the process.

Hiring a graphic designer requires a budget. Depending on the budget you have for this, you might not get the logo that you envisioned. If you’re looking for consistency in results, then consider hiring an agency.

Seek out a graphic design agency

A professionally designed logo presents your products and services in a better way. Moreover, a professional will have a better eye for the styles, colors, and typography that best suits your business. After all – they’re experienced in logo designs.

You will have a chance to offer regular feedback to designers. This is a huge added benefit as they can use this to create the artwork based on your needs and preferences.

You can go to a local design agency or find one on freelance sites such as Upwork or Fiver. If you’re open to screening loads of ideas and logo concepts, consider using custom design platforms.

Custom design platforms allow you to post your design project for bidding. One such platform is DesignCrowd – a freelance site that hosts thousands of designers from all over the world. 

You will receive multiple design samples to choose from. Once you select a logo you will get full copyright of the design files and the professional design files (so you can alter the design in the future). 

Design your logo today!

A logo is a big part of a company’s identity. It is the image that comes to mind when someone thinks of your company. 

Consider using any of the platforms or methods suggested to create the perfect logo. This will help you cut down the effort and the cost of creating a logo.  

So get your logo today!

The post How To Design A Logo – The Simple Guide appeared first on Stencil.

Idea Pins are a great way to stand out and take your audience on a journey. In this blog post, we will teach you five ways to leverage Idea Pins for your business. 

Showcase a New Product or Service 

Did you recently launch a new product or service? Use Idea Pins to create a series of educational graphics for your audience. Although we cannot add a URL to Idea Pins, your audience will be able to click on your profile and follow you after the last slide of your pin. Idea pins do not get archived after 24 hours, much like “stories” on other platforms. Your hard work gets to stay. 

Introduce The Faces Behind the Brand

No matter what type of business, people want to see the faces behind a brand. Every day we see countless posts, whether it being on social media or a visual discovery engine like Pinterest, we see a lot of content. What about the faces behind those brands? Make it a habit to introduce your team regularly using Idea Pins. We never know who’s watching, and this is a great way to build that deeper bond with your audience. 

Answer FAQs

Is your customer success team feeling the weight of answering a lot of the same questions? It’s time to write content that will answer your audience members’ most common questions before they have to reach out. Gather some regular questions and create some Idea Pin series with answers for them! This is not only something to be done on Pinterest, but on all platforms. We should always be leveraging the tools available to us as a form of customer service. Since Idea Pins can be both graphics or video or a series including both, get creative and leverage both. 

Give Your Audience Industry-Relevant Homework

A great way to engage with your audience is to give them homework. No matter your industry, your ideal clients could always learn a thing or two from you, even for product sellers. If you want to ensure that your audience is leveraging what they have purchased, create some homework for them to do. 

For example, if you sell skincare products, create an Idea Pin series that will teach your audience how to properly use the product while giving them something fun to do.

Using skincare as an example, the Idea Pin series could be called “How to use [enter product name] to maximize your at-home facial experience.” In the first slide or two, you ensure that you first walk them through how to use this product properly and then move on to the fun part. 

Idea Pins can have up to 20 slides. It gives you a lot of room to play. 

Share The Step-by-Step Instructions to Fun Projects 

There are three list types that can be used for Idea Pins. Ingredients, supplies or notes. Choose the one that is the most appropriate for your brand to give your audience instructions. For example, if you are a business blogger and your post is sharing a series of business tips, you will choose “notes.” 

If you are a recipe blog or any business in the food industry, Idea Pins will be fun to allow you to share recipes and other food-related projects with your audience.

We also encourage you to try creating your Idea Pins on mobile since there are some additional features, such as being able to record voice-over audio and add music.

Have you been using Idea Pins for your brand?

The post 5 Ways To Leverage Idea Pins For Your Business 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!

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