Ever have a hard time getting the right image for your email marketing campaigns? Ever thought about creating it yourself but you were too afraid to do it? I know, I struggle sometimes too but I've got a workaround that might help you out. All you need for this is Powerpoint or Google Docs (which is free) and your computer!
Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer
The first trick is to make an image from anything you see on your screen. Here's how you do it.
Mac: "Shift + Command + 4" gets you cross hairs, then just click and ›drag over the area you want to take a picture of and it makes a camera clicking sound. It's saved as a PNG called "Picture 1" or "2" or how ever many you already have. Click on the icon on your desktop and it will open up, then click "Save As" in your "File" menu and save it with the format of JPEG. You've just created your own image without any expensive software!
PC: This seems a bit trickier, but it's probably because I'm a PC moron.
Press "alt + print screen" which copies the active window to your clipboard. Go to "start>all programs>accessories>paint" and paste contents into a new paint window (control + v). In paint you can select the portion of the image and crop it, then save it as a jpg. Thanks to Paul our Customer Service Manager for that one...whew!
Want to take it further?
Drag your new image into PPT if you have it or insert your image into FREE Google Docs under Presentation and create something even further. Got a great picture from the web but need copy to go with it? Type copy in a text box in either of these programs then take another picture and repeat step 1. You've just become a graphic designer. (Ok not totally).
Here's an example...
I was creating fake logos and graphics for our all new pre-designed layouts in our Email Canvas tool. That's right, if you use one of these, chances are it's designed by myself or Carol, our Direct Marketing Manager. I needed a "No Sushi" graphic for the sushi haters and a "Downtown Sushi" logo.
I simply used the fancy "NO" symbol already available in PPT (you can find these images free on the web I'm sure), made it red, typed in "No Sushi" into a text box, then moved the text box over the symbol. Then I took a picture and saved it as a jpg. Voila.



For my Downtown Sushi logo I typed the words "Downtown Sushi" and found an image of a single piece of sushi. I took a picture of the sushi then positioned it right below the copy. I duplicated and arranged it 7 times then I matched the words with the color of the sushi.
Then I took a picture of the final outcome. Pro-fessional!
Check this out, I needed
a graphic about Josh for a blog post. I dragged his image onto PPT, used the "balloon" graphic from PPT (again I'm sure you can find these images free on the web) and typed copy into a text box, then snapped a picture and saved it.
Cheesy? Maybe, but I got what I needed without having to bug our designers. Got a workaround that lends itself to marketing? Bring it on!
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