Online Flyer, How to Create & Double Your Sales

Visual Composer for online flyer

online flyersTo create an online flyer you should use a WordPress plugin called Visual Composer. As you are practicing making the online flyer, you should go back and forth between this tab and the Visual Composer tab.

The Digital Flyers blog post says: Home renovation chain Rona replaced its printed flyers with expanded digital flyers. As a result, their sales doubled at its stores across Canada. So, it may be worth your while to learn how to create an online flyer using Visual Composer.

Materials required

 Single product

online flyerYour online sales flyer should have one product per row. This post tells you how to create the promotion for a single product.

 

sales flyerYou start your online flyer by getting some eye-catching artwork that tells a story. With the image to the right, there is no question that it is about Facebook.

 

online flyerThen use GIMP eyedropper icon to select the precise colour of the word “like”. Click on the icon and then click on the word  “like”. The colour you see in the bottom has the hexadecimal code of #605FD9. That is the main colour you will use for borders & text.

 

Flyer item on scrap paper

Make a rough sketch of your online flyer and then one ad on scrap paper. Include the wording for the text panel.

In this example, we will be selling the creation of a Facebook Business Page at 50% off. For continuity, there will be a similar style to the other ads in the flyer.

I prefer fewer than six  words in the heading. I chose “Facebook Business Page Creation”. Below that there will be 50% off in a  coloured oval. The regular price will have a line through it. Below that will be the sale price. Below that it will tell people to click for more info.

Create your text panel

online flyerYour entire product promotion panel will be 660 pixels wide.  So, using Image > Scale Image, change the image panel to be two thirds of that amount. (It will be 440 x 214 pixels.) Create a new panel that is the same height but half the width. (It will be 220 x 214 px.)

Using the Rockwell Extra Bold font, give it a title like you see in the example.

Complementary colour

online flyerYou need to find the correct colour for the oval. This will be a colour that complements the text.

To find that, go back to the hexadecimal page.online flyer In the Enter Hex Colour Code box, enter 605FD9. That is the colour of the text. Scroll down and you will find the complementary colour. It happens to be #D7D95F.

online flyer

 

In the GIMP toobox, click the double-headed arrow next to the white & purple to move the purple (#605FD9) to the background colour. Click on the purple box and the Change Background Color panel shows up.

Enter D7D95F into the HTML Notation box. Click OK and the background colour now is yellow (D7D95F). Create a new box that is the same size that you want you text box to be.  It will be yellow.

Make sure your foreground colour is purple (605FD9).  Click on the Text Tool, change the font to Rockwell Extra Bold. Set the size to 100 px.

Creating oval with text

Making sure your background colour is set at yellow, create a new box the same size as the text panel (220 x 214 px.).  Setting your foreground colour at purple, the font face to Rockwell Extra Bold and your text size at 100, type the number 50 onto the yellow panel.  Right-click > Merge Down. Setting the text size at 50, make a percentage sign (%) beside the 50. Setting the text size at 25, make the word “off” below the  %.

vonline flyerUsing the Ellipse Select tool, draw an oval around the text. Click within the oval and then press Cmd C. The oval without the rest of the rectangle will exist within your clipboard. Press Cmd V to paste the oval below the headline.

If the oval is too large, click Cmd Z to delete it. Then click on the yellow rectangle and re-size with Image > Scale Image. Paste the new oval back into the white panel again.

Add prices & CTA

Add $37 below $74 and add a line through the regular price as you see in the image below. You can use the Pencil tool to draw the straight line through the regular price.

Add your “click for more info” text.

Completing the ad with borders

The size of the ad will be 660 x 214 px. So, you create a purple rectangle that size and reduce the height of the 2 panels by 4 pixels each. Copy & paste them onto the purple rectangle. That will have you an ad with nice even borders.

These are the steps you take.

  1. Make sure purple is the GIMP background colour.
  2. Make a new 660 x 214 purple rectangle.
  3. Using Image > Scale Image, make sure that both the Facebook image and the text box are 210 pixels high.
  4. Use Cmd C & Cmd V to copy & paste the two smaller panels onto the purpleonline flyer rectangle.
  5. If you have copied & pasted the 2 panels around properly, you will have a completed ad with borders around them.

 

GIMP

GIMP is a free open source program. Programmers from all over the world collaborated to make a program similar to Photoshop.

Start with a very quick GIMP lesson.

 


Okanagan Valley Quiz

Test your knowledge of the Okanagan Valley

How much do you know about the Okanagan Valley? You have 8 minutes to complete this quiz.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to your 15 Question Okanagan Valley Quiz

1) What is the largest community in the Central Okanagan Valley?
2) How many km of SHORELINE are along the eastern shore of Okanagan Lake?
3) How wide is Okanagan Lake at its widest point?
4) What cities are on either end of Okanagan Lake?
5) What is Kelowna’s average daytime temperature in the summer?
6) Which fruits are first to harvest in the Okanagan Valley?
7) What part of the Okanagan Valley has been described as one of the most beautiful parts of the Trans Canada Trail?
8) How long is the usual golf season in Kelowna?
9) The Okanagan Fall Wine Festival in October is ___?
10) The Kettle Valley Railway Trail in Myra Canyon take you  ___?
11) What 3 minerals did the Kettle Valley Railroad ship from the mountains above Kelowna?
12) How many Kettle Valley Railbed trestles were damaged in the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire?
13) How much did it cost to replace all of the damaged trestles?
14) In what year were the Myra Canyon trestles reopened after reconstruction?
15) Where in Kelowna can you feel a live crocodile?


Name
Okanagan Valley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enhance your social media marketing. Learn how to create this type of quiz. There is no charge.

Okanagan Valley

Click here to learn more.

 

Subject Line Mistakes to Avoid in Your Emails

Subject line 5 times more important

subject lineSo, you have an amazing idea to present to the world by email. Avoid making subect line mistakes.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy once gave an interesting statistic. He said that the number of people who read your subject line is five times greater than the number who read the body. According to the email experts at AWeber, these are 5 subject line mistakes to avoid.

1. Using all caps or too much punctuation

HOW TO CREATE AN ANIMATED GIF!!!!!!! People will ignore it or delete it. All caps will come across as though you are yelling.

Avoid too much punctuation. Special characters can even trigger spam filters.

Using one only of the following is good: period, exclamation point and question mark. They can actually lead to increased open rates.

Click here to learn more.

2. Avoid spam filters

subject lineSpam filters may recognize certain symbols or words in subject lines. Even if your message is legitimate, you can still be filtered.

Avoid $$$, 100% free, cash off, cheap, weight loss and serious cash. Go to this HubSpot post: The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words.

3. Too long

subject lineWith so many of us getting so many emails, we scan the subject lines. If it does not look worth our while, we delete it.

You have only a second or two to attract their attention. Have it a maximum of 50 characters long.

At the same time, it must express a complete thought and add value to the reader. Avoid one-word subject lines. They probably could not express a complete thought.

subject lineConsider this subject line. Why is it a good one?

  • Less than 50 words
  • Sense of mystery in the word “secrets”
  • Punctuation (exclamation mark) at the end
  • None of the spam words above
  • It expresses one complete thought

4. Writing misleading content

Suppose you get an email with this subject line: 5 secrets for making amazing animated GIFs! When you open it, the main thing you see is message trying to sell you some software.

The sender should know this: When sending emails to people in your list, one of the main things to do is build trust. Then, it will be much easier to sell the people something at a later date.

This subject line did the opposite.

5. Including spelling & grammatical errors

Spelling & grammar  errors look unprofessional. They can cause people to lose trust in you. So, before sending, check email for spelling, grammar & syntax errors.

Email marketing & the subject line

When email marketing, please remember the second paragraph in this blog post: Your subject line is 5 times as important as the content of your email. Without a compelling subject line, your email likely will not get read.

In the next little while, look at this list of 5 mistakes before writing your subject lines.




Peter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. He is a social media blogger and author of the free YouTube video-creation tutorial called 7 Day YouTube.

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Adobe Stock Images Review

Introducing Adobe Stock images

Adobe StockI have been using Adobe Stock images for several years. I highly recommend them IF you can reasonably use 10 images per month.

They have tens of millions of images from which to choose. All you have to do is type in the correct keywords and you will find an image you like.

Caveat before you sign up

I found that I was not using enough images. So, I started the process of cancelling my subscription. I got the above cancellation fee message.

They gave me to take the next 60 days at no charge if I would not cancel. So, that’s the option I took.

Why use Adobe Stock images?

Adobe Stock

There are several reasons why you might want to use Adobe Stock images:

  • When visitors find your page, you must grab their attention within seconds. Otherwise they may go to another page and never go to your website again.
  • People are more likely to start reading short lines. If your amazing image covers half of your first paragraph, visitors will read your short lines. Now thatAdobe Stock you have their attention, they are more likely to read the rest of the article.
  • People usually do not read a web page; they will skim it. When you have attractive, pertinent images, it is easier to grasp the concepts while skimming.
  • Video marketing is becoming more popular and more important with every passing month. Having attractive,Adobe Stock pertinent images in your videos & animated GIFs makes people more likely to pay attention to them.
  • They are only $3 (USD) each. You pay $30/month for 10 photos. What you do not use will be accumulated into the next month.

 

How to find an image

Adobe StockLet’s say you are writing an article about a sales funnel. You want to grab the visitors’ attention from the very beginning. You also want the first lines to be short so that people would read them. Then you would draw them in so that they would read the rest of the article.

You remember seeing a picture like the one to the left. So, you would log into Adobe Stock and search for “sales funnel people”.

You would end up with over a hundred pictures from which to choose. You begin the process of Adobe Stockcollecting around 10 or 20 possible pictures you might use.

So, you hover over the bottom of each picture that is a candidate. Click on the Save Preview to Computer icon. All of these watermarked images will be saved in your Downloads folder.

After you have sufficient watermarked sales funnels, you go into your Downloads folder and choose the best image. You write down its unique number. Then enter it into the Adobe Stock search engine.

Your favourite image will show up. You hover over the bottom and select the License & Save to Computer image. You go back into your Downloads folder. Give your new image without the watermark a descriptive name.

Thus Adobe Stock has helped you make a more attractive blog post.

Adobe Stock is not for everyone

Adobe StockFor people who use significantly fewer than 10 images a month, there are better alternatives such as Dreamstime. Instead of paying for 10 images up front, you buy points. Each image costs so many points. Left-over points can be used to pay for part of another image.

Dreamstime also has a number of free images. (They have over 58 million images altogether.) The free ones are often lower quality. However, I have used them in attractive animated GIFs more than once. To access their website, go to bit.ly/nocostimages.

If you go there now, you will see a Free Images tab at the top. Click on it and then enter keywords into the search box. Your free images will show up first. The higher quality images will show up next. You have to pay for images from that group.

Adobe StockI’d like to point out the Stock Footage tab. That’s where you can get super high quality video clips to use as introductions to your YouTube videos. The animated GIF you see here represents how I introduce most videos on my Web Design YouTube channel.

 

 


video marketingPeter Enns has been developing websites since 1996. As a VA (virtual assistant), he specializes in new website development, researching and writing blog posts and creating videos for YouTube and as animated GIFs. He is a social media blogger and author of a free YouTube tutorial. It’s called 7 Day YouTube and will teach you how to make entertaining videos & animated GIFs.

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