Don't feel like you're "artistic"? Don't let that hold you back from easily creating great visual images to include in your email campaigns!
Last week, we had an engaging webinar with award-winning designer and online educator Pamela Wilson and discovered:
Three simple ways to make searching for images fast (and efficient)
Three "Design Laws" that make your visuals look polished
How to use the Constant Contact built-in image editing tools to add high-impact visuals that get your messages read
In this post, you can watch the webinar in its entirety and read some of the questions asked by our attendees.
Interested in our free, future webinars? Sign up here to stay informed!
For more information on Pamela's visual marketing training, get her free IMAGE Method Cheat Sheet. You’ll get an inside look at the framework she teaches plus a special Constant Contact-only discount on her Image Lab course.
Where can I find stock photos to use in my campaigns? Can I use photos pulled from my internet searches?
We discourage using images saved from internet searches because you may not have permission to use an image found during your search and this could have legal consequences! Included in your Constant Contact account is access to our stock image library with 225 million paid and free images, thanks to an integration with Shutterstock. You can enter a search term or browse by a category if you work in a specific industry and add them into your campaigns. If you were looking for something different, you can do a basic web search for stock photo sites.
Can I use my own photos rather than working with stock photos?
Your own photos are even better to use. You can still apply these same tips and rules to those images as well. Take photos at events or include photos of those who help make your business or non-profit run! People will respond stronger to faces and facial expressions.
When you put text over an image in the editor, does it automatically generate the alt text?
My images look a little blurry when they are uploaded into the Library. How can I make sure they look great before they are sent out?
We have a great Knowledge Base article about preparing your images for upload! The best tips that we have are to upload the image as a PNG and to also make sure the image is no larger than 800 pixels wide.
Can images created in the image editor be saved for use outside of Constant Contact?
Yes, as long as the image is your own. Stock images from the Constant Contact stock image library cannot be edited or used outside of your account as they fall under the Constant Contact Website and Product Terms and Conditions.
What's your rule of thumb for the amount of text on a graphic?
We recommend no more than one short sentence so the graphic is quick and easy to read. If you plan to use the graphic as part of a social media ad campaign, some platforms like Facebook have restrictions on how much text can be used. Be sure to double check that before you create a graphic.
When doing an email campaign for an event and there are multiple emails being sent, is it best to use the same image over and over for recognition or switch it up to keep people engaged/gain new attention?
It could be useful to use the same image so people begin to associate it with the event. That said, you could also create a series of visually related images. For example, if you have multiple speakers at your event, you can change the speaker image and name from image to image, which switches things up and provides some variety.
Since many emails are being viewed on phones now, how can I make my photo look great on a mobile device?
Today, most emails are opened on mobile devices and it’s very important to make sure your images look great on them too! Images that are uploaded at 480 pixels wide or larger will display full-width when viewed on a phone. If you want your image to appear smaller, you will need to upload the image at a smaller width or resize the image using the image editor. All of our third-generation editor templates are mobile responsive so we suggest previewing your email in the Mobile view to give everything a look over before sending.
My contact is not seeing an image in their email client or needs to click to download them. Any idea how I can make the images download automatically?
Depending on their email client and security settings, images may not be able to download automatically. If your contacts can change their email client settings, they can enable images to display.
How can I find the hex code from my logo or brand to use in my emails?
Although we do not have this software available in Constant Contact, there is third-party software available to download that is able to pick up the hex code on a selected image. You will want to search for a “color picker tool”.
How can I use GIFs in my emails?
GIFs are a fantastic way to make your email a little more exciting and you can certainly use them in your campaigns. You can upload GIFs to your library just as you would an image! They are images so you will want to consider many of the same rules discussed in the webinar. Don’t overload your campaign with them and keep in mind that some email clients may display them as static images. Check out our Knowledge Base article for best practices when using GIFs
I read that spam filters focus on emails with images. If so, how do we minimize this restriction?
Great question! You want to avoid image-only or image-heavy emails that can land in the spam filter. Keep in mind the “Rule of 3” that is mentioned during the webinar. Stick to three or fewer images and make sure it is balanced with your text (a good rule of thumb is one image for 20 lines or less of text).
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