Most everyone is familiar with the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” That’s especially true when you are marketing your business. Whether you are tasked with creating marketing graphics for social media, blogs, or email newsletters, you need to use professional looking images. 

Graphics Make Your Business Stand Out

There’s no doubt about it – graphics capture attention.

Think about when you are scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed. What causes you to stop and read a particular Facebook post? Most likely it’s because there’s an eye-catching graphic, or even better, a video. 

Using interesting graphics helps your social media posts stand out from the crowd. 

Marketing graphics are an essential tool for promoting your business. Think about how a simple graphic, like a logo, can help make a brand recognizable. This is exactly why many businesses put so much effort into creating a logo for their company. 

Take a minute to look at these 4 logos below. Can you identify the company just by looking at the logo? 

Easily recognizable logos.

Notice there are no words. Just  simple images. These big businesses (Apple, Microsoft, Google, and McDonalds) have all created logos that promote instant brand recognition. As such, their logo’s displayed prominently on all their graphics marketing material. From social media to the website – their logo’s at the forefront. 

As an aside, McDonalds has done such an especially great job with their simple logo. You merely have to hear the phrase “Golden Arches” and you know exactly what people are talking about. Wow. 

Where to Begin?

Okay, so we get that graphics marketing is important. But, what do you do if you don’t have the tools or talent to create great graphics?

The answer is to start with baby steps.

You don’t need to be a graphics designer (or hire one) and you don’t need to purchase expensive software like Photoshop. Professional software programs not only cost a lot money, but come with a steep learning curve.

Luckily, there are lots of easy ways to get started along your graphics marketing journey. We suggest you start off with learning an easy-to-use graphics program. 

Beginner Graphic Design Tools

One of our favorite online tools is Pablo by Buffer. This free program will allow you to build awesome graphics in a snap. With just a few clicks, you can create a snazzy social media post that includes both text and graphics.

What’s especially nice about Pablo is that it includes a graphics database of 60,000 royalty free graphics. Using their built-in graphics search tool, you can search for any kind of graphic you’d like – snowflakes, mountains, flowers. Best of all, there is no fee for using any of the images.

To add text on top of your graphic, you simply click and type. And for those days when you haven’t a clue what to say, you can use Pablo’s automated quote tool. This nifty feature presents you with a wide range of famous inspirational quotes to choose from.  Social media posts that include quotes are always popular. And more importantly, are the type of posts people like to engage with – likes, comments, and shares.

Facebook Post made using Pablo By Buffer

While there are other great online graphic tools out there, Pablo is the tool we recommend the most for graphic marketing newbies. When you are just getting started with posting on social media, you need an easy-to-use program.

Pablo By Buffer – Demo

This short video contains a quick overview of how to use Pablo. This demo is an excerpt from our Marketing Your Business With Graphics course, we illustrate the process of creating a social media post using Buffer, how to download it to your computer, and then how to upload it to Facebook. 

Next Steps

It’s great that there are free online tools like Buffer to get you started with your graphics marketing. However, you will soon learn that the next step in your journey is learn some graphics basics and what other graphics tools are out there. Which is why we suggest you take a look at the course we created – Marketing Your Business With Graphics.

With our graphics course, you will soon be a pro at accentuating your marketing message with eye-catching graphics. You will learn new ways to use your graphics that will help showcase and sell your products and services.

The Launch4Life’s Graphics Course Will Teach You:

• Where to find free graphics, use them, edit them, store them, and make awesome graphics.
• The do’s and don’ts of using the right set of color and font combinations in your graphics that will either attract or repel your audience.
• Understanding of why your audience will think you are an amateur if using kindergartner font styles. Find out how your content requires professional fonts complemented by the right combinations.
• Tips on how to create presentation slides that will keep your audience involved in your story but can be re-purposed for use in a multitude of ways to continue marketing your message. PowerPoint presentations are a powerful message ally.
• The graphic tools that will enhance your blogs and social media posts to attract new prospects and customers.
• A variety of free online tools to build professional looking graphics, along with the links to these sites.

This online course will give you an easy to understand solid foundation. You will learn where to get the best graphics and the best tools you need to create graphics for all your online marketing needs. 

Last week Gillian and I were fortunate enough to be able to experience a tour of Zappos, located downtown in Las Vegas. For those of you who may not be familiar with this company, it is owned by Amazon but is independently run. It focuses on selling retail products online, from shoes to accessories to clothing. Their motto is “delivering happiness”.

So why on earth would we want to tour Zappos?

Well, because Tony Hseih, the CEO runs his corporation like no other CEO we have seen before. Tony is famous for his entrepreneurial spirit and his focus on customer service. He has written several books. His flagship book that says it all is called Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose. 

The Zappos organization and its people are committed to delivering happiness to all of their online customers. In order to do that, Zappos created a culture that would foster that not only for their customers but also for their employees. Our goal in touring the company was to explore the culture and see how we could apply it to our business.

Here are a few lessons we would like to pass on:

Lesson #1

All Zappos staff must embrace the 10 Core Values*. That is a prerequisite. That is even more important than previous experience or skills. If you fail to embody it in the work environment, they will happily pay you (one month’s salary) to leave.

Every employee must embrace the Zappos Core Values.

Lesson #2

Each employee is empowered to make a difference to the organization in whatever way furthers the mission of Zappos but also enhances the happiness of their own position. Wow what a concept. Almost as if each person is an entrepreneur.

Zappos employees are free to dress up and have fun. Costumes, wigs, and hats provided.

Lesson #3

Different areas all over the Zappos property, which is the old Las Vegas City Hall, are set up to encourage people to engage and create conversations that would further the goals of Zappos and each of the individuals. From cafeterias to a fitness center, to napping pods, to shadowing other employees, to just hanging out on the patio for a coffee, all are based on the wellbeing of their employees and expressing their ideas.

At Zappos lunch is free each and every day.

Lesson #4

People are encouraged to create new services which embraces their entrepreneurship spirit. It also teaches employees how to create their own businesses.

Below are a few stories to demonstrate that culture.

Creating Your Own Job:

Jackie, was our tour guide, her full-time job. Zappos employees are encouraged to bring their dogs to work. Jackie recognized that often times people were so busy they didn’t have time to walk their dogs. So, she set up a dog walking business. Eventually that may become her full-time job as she is quite busy adding more dogs to her list to walk.

Your Passion is Honored:

We were shown a large wall covered with a mural by artist Miguel Hernandez. His story was that he had offered to paint a large wall to make the room more attractive. Before he knew it, his job became resident artist. His work is so appreciated that the Mayor of Las Vegas announced that Miguel would be honored for his contributions to Zappos and the Mob Museum on May 16th, 2016 as “Miguel Hernandez Day”. His entrepreneurial spirit was a contribution to Zappos and inspired his current role as “artist”.

The artwork of Miguel Hernandez, the resident artist at Zappos.

The CEO Practices What He Preaches:

Tony Hseih, the CEO once had a beautiful apartment on the penthouse floor of the building overlooking the Freemont area of Las Vegas. But about a year or so ago, he decided that he was becoming too removed from people and was missing the serendipity moments and collisions (opportunities to meet and collaborate). So, he decided to set up an airstream trailer park and moved into his own trailer with his dog and pet llama. Now Tony is happy as a clam.

The message is don’t remove yourself from your people. Stay connected.

We both walked away from our 90-minute tour feeling very inspired. We realized that we already embody those 10 Core Values and that we want to be known for “Delivering Happiness” and showing our customers a Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose. We want to work with online business owners who feel the same.

Here are the 10 Core Values of Zappos

1. Deliver Wow through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

Whether you are a large corporation, small business, or solopreneur, organizing your tasks and projects may be one of the most important tools for business growth. While some of us can manage everything in our head, most of us are better served using a dedicated project management tool. The challenge is finding the right tool to help us better manage our projects, so we can be more productive. While there are a number of great project management programs available, most of them were designed for large organizations.

Recently, one of our clients asked if Asana was appropriate for solopreneurs? Our answer was – yes, yes, yes! Whether you’re a big company, small biz, or team of one, Asana is right for your business. Launch4Life has been a big fan of Asana for several years. We use Asana to manage both our personal and professional projects. We love Asana for many reasons. It’s easy to use, keeps us organized, and best of all… it’s free.

Asana allows you to take everything you’ve got going on in both your life and break it down into manageable pieces. With a click of a mouse, you can set up an unlimited number of projects. For each project, you can create a list of tasks and sub-tasks that need to be completed. If a task is time specific, you even have the option of setting a due date. Since Asana was initially built as team-based tool, you can assign tasks to team members in your organization and/or external partners/consultants. But, if you are a solopreneur you can simply assign all the tasks to yourself.

Asana is so much more than a well organized to-do list. It’s actually more of a business management hub for tracking tasks and managing your documents. Each task in Asana can include a wide range of file attachments: PDFs, Bitmaps, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and more. What’s especially helpful is that these files can be shared and/or revised online with other collaborators, or even with yourself. This feature ensures you will always be working with the most up-to-date file.

What I like most about Asana is that regardless of the number of projects I have, all my tasks can be viewed together in one area. By simply accessing the MY TASKS tab, I have a birds-eye view of everything on my plate. Better still, all of the assigned tasks can be segmented by due date: Today, Upcoming, and Later. This feature helps eliminate overwhelm when you are juggling several projects simultaneously.

Here are some reasons that you too may want to check out Asana:

Repeating Tasks – If you find you do the same thing each week (ex. write a blog post that’s due on Monday) you can set that up as a repeating task. Each week when you complete the task, once it’s been marked as “done”, the same task will be automatically assigned the following week.

Accessible Everywhere –  You can use Asana on a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone. Being a cloud-based tool, it works easily with Windows, iOS, or Android devices and can be accessed used any internet browser.

Drag and Drop – All of your tasks can easily be moved around using drag and drop.

Export Features – If you need to export project information out of Asana, you can do so using Excel or send it to a printer.

Customizable Workspace – Asana provides you with a customizable workspace. You have the option to color code projects, view tasks that are in-process or completed, and even view your progress. You also have the option to archive any in-active projects, which simply hides a project from view temporarily.

Integrations – Asana integrates easily with a whole host of internet-based programs ranging from: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, MailChimp, Toggl, Zapier, and more.

Cost – It costs absolutely nothing to get started using Asana. While there is a premium version, you might find you never need to go beyond the free version. Unlike other Project Management tools that offer a limited free trial, the basic version of Asana has no expiration. You just can’t exceed having more than 15 team members. If you are a solopreneur, having a small team shouldn’t be an issue.

Flying Unicorns – When you mark a task as complete, you’ll sometimes see a flying unicorn shoot across the screen. While this isn’t really a necessary project management feature, it sure does make using the program fun.

The only caveat about using Asana is, just like any other software application, you need to put in some learning time upfront. While the program is pretty much intuitive, you’ll find you get more out of Asana when you learn all it can do. I highly suggest watching a few of their training videos. You will find that Asana‘s help topics and videos are fairly short and easy to digest.

No matter the size of your business, you will discover that Asana can help you stay organized. It’s a great project management tool that allows you to break down all of your projects into bite-sized tasks, assign due dates, attach relevant documents, and keep track of where you are in the process. Asana is one of the easiest programs we’ve come across and with a getting started price tag of FREE, it will definitely not break the bank for any solopreneur.