In Design
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Capture Screenshots Quicker and Easier with “SnagIt”
Posted by 
on Monday, September 28, 2009 
at 11:20 AM 
in Since I’ve been working with computers I can’t imagine how many times I’ve hit that “Print screen button”… if I had a nickel 
. The print screen / screen shot key is probably one of the best features on the key board (except for Ctrl + Alt + Del of course). But as helpful as a screen shot can be to show off your software product, latest pc error message to send to IT, or your high score in Tetris it can also be time consuming to bring it into paint, photoshop, whatever you use to edit and crop it down.
So I wanted to bring attention to a piece of software I started using a few months ago to speed up my production on producing screen shots for emails, powerpoints, ect.
A program called “Snag It” by Tech Smith.
Snag It allows you to capture content on your screen in an easier way. You can select the area you want to capture by drawing a square around it instead of capturing the whole screen and cropping it down. Or select the one of your six windows open on your screen you’d like to capture. Even capture a scrolling window instead of piecing it together in an editing program.
Snag It has more options than that and you can see them in the image below but those are the most common functions I use.
Everything is also stored in your Snag It library so if you hit your screen shot key a 2nd time it won’t over ride your first screen shot. The software also allows you to do some minor editing of the images by adding drop shadows, arrows, text, call outs and more.
But you can check out all these features on their website – http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp
Tech Smith offers a free trial download so test it out and see if you like it – if you do let other’s know about your exspeirience by posting in the comments section below.
How LinkedIn Has Helped Me
Recently I was on a quest for a set of icons to use in powerpoints, software, advertisements, everything. I needed something that was sleek, up to date, descriptive but most importantly worked with print as well as web.
Finding an icon set that both offered Print and Web formats is what really was holding me back. On top of that I had no idea where to start searching. Google is always an option but I was getting sent to hundreds of sites most which kept lacking the print formatting.
So I ended up heading over to LinkedIn. I posted the following message:
This was one of my first times posting my own discussion. I posted on a Monday night and when I checked back Tuesday morning I was overwhelmed with the information I received. Not just by the large amount of comments but I received over a few dozen of personal emails with suggestions of websites, freelance designers, references, links, and more.
I was really impressed by the LinkedIn community they were kind, polite, and full of information and opinions about how they went about finding their own icon sets. I even ended up making a few LinkedIn connections in the process!
LinkedIn has completely helped me in this search I’m in the final stretch on determining where I will purchase the icons from (A site that was recommended by three responses to my posting).
On top of that LinkedIn ended up boosting interlinkONE.com’s site hits!
When taking a look at the Google Analytics for the month of August LinkedIn ranked number 3 in the “All Source Traffic” report (Right behind direct traffic to the site and google searches).
It also ranked number one in the “Reference Sites” report – Surpassing other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter that had recently been leading the pack.
So LinkedIn has helped me in two ways – Its users have educated and supported me in my journey for icons but it has also been a great way to drive traffic to interlinkONE’s website.
So if you’ve been weary of LinkedIn in the past I suggest you give it a shot for yourself and for your business.
And if you’re unsure on how to get started or what other features LinkedIn has to offer feel free to check out the “How To: LinkedIn” screen cast below.
Tags Web Safe Fonts – Jazz them up
I was reviewing my work emails last night and I saw an email had come in for me to take a look at changing the type face for a certain webpage. I didn’t give much thought to it other then how it should only take about 5 minutes of my time to pick a font and plug it in.
But as I sat down at my desk this morning I realized how small the universal type face world is.
My best comparison for people who don’t work in design is it’s like this…
You’re heading to a birthday party and uh oh. No card. So you pull into a gas station – you see a rack with about 25 cards. However, you walk over to it and only five of the 25 cards are suitable for birthdays. And guess what? They’re pretty generic —“Happy Birthday Pal!”, “It’s your special day buddy!”, etc… They typically contain phrases that do not reflect your personality, or words that you would ever use when talking to your friend.
There are hundreds of font faces that may exist in the design world. However, when it comes to using fonts that are safe for the web, you only have a handful to pick from. Here’s a sampling of those popular safe ones:
It’s frustrating but sometimes you have to make the best of it. Add your own little flare to take away from how drab it is.
So here are a few suggestions from my experience today that you can keep in mind when trying to jazz up your generic type face for your emails, web pages, powerpoints, and more.
Serif vs. Sans Serif
For me to expand on Serif and Sans Serif fonts would require me to write a few books so here’s the most general way I can explain.
If you’re trying to be a bit more scholarly Serif is the way to go. You can see in the image above that serif have little hooks or feet. Serifs go way back and you will see them almost everywhere – mostly for lengthy readings or more professional letters anything that’s printed.
Serif is a bit more fun and casual and is seen a lot on the web and emails. Why’s that? Well it’s easier to read on a screen. This is because print resolution is higher than a monitor’s resolution so those serif feet start connecting resulting in difficult reading.
Color
Don’t go overboard on your color – mix and matching too many colors and font faces can become a disaster. But! A little variation may be nice.
If you have a white background try out a gray coloring. Gray text is becoming much more common on the web and in emails.
Try making your headers a different color. Look for a color that compliments the rest of your design. If you’re having trouble finding a color check out Kuler - http://kuler.adobe.com/ they can be a big help.
JPG time
I don’t suggest this for blocks of text but if you just need that header text to grab attention to your block of text below go into your design program and pick from one of the forbidden web fonts and save the header as a .jpg and add it in to your design it can be a quick fix if the suggestions above can’t help you out.
ComicSans
I have one final suggestion – but it’s more of a favor I ask.
Please don’t use ComicSans - http://bancomicsans.com/
Sending out a Personalized Campaign? – Some Pre Prep Points
PURL’s or Personalized URL’s are very popular in the marketing scene. It’s a great way to grab an individual’s attention and to track results of a marketing campaign.
But, there are a few things to remember when working with a design that will be incorporating a Personalization or a Personalized URL. Here are a few different points to keep in mind before you execute your next personalized campaign.
Here's an example of a Purl we used in one of our own campaigns. To see the full campaign click the image.
Point One: Real Estate
When incorporating a Personalized URL into your design, make sure it’s legible and prominent!
Direct mailers have come my way and have had my personalized URL within a paragraph of text – bad choice.
When someone is receiving their mail, you have to remember that your mailer is almost never going to be the only piece of paper in their hands. Bills, Ads, Newspapers — people still receive a lot mail. Each piece of mail gets about a 1 second glance before its fate is chosen – desk or trash.
Let your PURL stand out! Give it “prime” real estate, and you’ll increase the chances that people will take action on it.
Point Two: Hello Self!
Always add yourself on your PURL campaigns for a few reasons. This is commonly known as adding a “seed” record.
- It’s a good way to judge how long it took for others to receive their postcard/PURL in the mail.
- It’s an easy way to show off your marketing handiwork to others
Point Three: Dear Mihcelle,
Remember that this is a Personalized Campaign - There’s nothing personal about a misspelled name. If someone’s name is butchered, there’s a very small chance of them ever actually visiting their page. So check and recheck your list before that final launch.
Point Four: The Fundamentals
Always remember – keep in mind marketing fundamentals. If you forget those, a personalized URL is not going to save the response rate of your campaign. You still must ensure that you have a great list, a strong offer, and catchy creative.
Sending out a Personalized Campaign? – Some Pre Prep Points
PURL’s or Personalized URL’s are very popular in the marketing scene. It’s a great way to grab an individual’s attention and to track results of a marketing campaign.
But, there are a few things to remember when working with a design that will be incorporating a Personalization or a Personalized URL. Here are a few different points to keep in mind before you execute your next personalized campaign.
Point One: Real Estate
When incorporating a Personalized URL into your design, make sure it’s legible and prominent!
Direct mailers have come my way and have had my personalized URL within a paragraph of text – bad choice.
When someone is receiving their mail, you have to remember that your mailer is almost never going to be the only piece of paper in their hands. Bills, Ads, Newspapers — people still receive a lot mail. Each piece of mail gets about a 1 second glance before its fate is chosen – desk or trash.
Let your PURL stand out! Give it “prime” real estate, and you’ll increase the chances that people will take action on it.
Point Two: Hello Self!
Always add yourself on your PURL campaigns for a few reasons. This is commonly known as adding a “seed” record.
· It’s a good way to judge how long it took for others to receive their postcard/PURL in the mail.
· It’s an easy way to show off your marketing handiwork to others
Point Three: Dear Mihcelle,
Remember that this is a Personalized Campaign - There’s nothing personal about a misspelled name. If someone’s name is butchered, there’s a very small chance of them ever actually visiting their page. So check and recheck your list before that final launch.
Point Four: The Fundamentals
Always remember – keep in mind marketing fundamentals. If you forget those, a personalized URL is not going to save the response rate of your campaign. You still must ensure that you have a great list, a strong offer, and catchy creative.
Let’s Bend the Edges
What makes a landing page “great”?
Depending on our background, experience, or right/left brain status, we may all have different answers.
Some of us love a bit of flash — some people prefer simple.
In our marketing software solution, we strive to provide templates that meet a wide-ranging spectrum of designs and tastes. (And then of course, you can always create your own pages from scratch).
One thing that you can do to enhance the look of your landing pages is modifying the input fields that collect contact information.
With just a bit of code to define the style, you can really spice up their appearance.
Below is an example of a landing page whose contact fields have been modified.
Modifying the appearance of contact fields
Do you like it? Do you have an idea as to how you would like your contact fields to look? If so, please let us know… We can help you figure out how to change it on your own, or we can do it for you as well.
