If you have never seen mockups outside of free generic placeholder images, you’re missing out on one of my absolute favorite marketing tools. Mock up template files are made to be highly convenient and easy to use. Not to mention scroll-stoppingly gorgeous.
They can help you reduce your content creation costs, save time, and offer a way to give your brand extra polish to wow your customers. Here are a few of the reasons why it may be time for you to invest in a mockup package for your business.
Mockups save you time and money
Instead of starting from scratch and coming up with brand new ideas for every graphic you make, you’ll be able to begin with your mockup. Using and reusing mockups means you will be able to save a lot of time, effort, and sanity. One of the best days I ever spent for my business was the day I shot and edited my forest mockups. I took some blank paper into the trails behind our apartment (a story for another day is how much I miss living right beside national park trails) and took a ton of pretty photos with the paper nestled into twigs and leaves and pretty forest things. It had rained earlier that day, and the water droplets were just perfection. I’m getting off topic, but basically, I ended up with about 20-30 images that fit my brand perfectly, and that I can reuse over and over. It’s one of the best investments I ever made.
Your mockups are basically templates for your images. Big brands love templates because they save their designers a lot of time and cut down on how many photoshoots they need. All this adds up to a better bottom line. And no, you don’t have to go out into the woods to get yours, unless that’s your thing! Mockups that are tailored to your brand can be purchased in a lot of different places.
Designers and small business owners can also benefit from a mockup’s lower starting costs. They will not need to have as many expensive photoshoots and photographers. Plus, you’ll be able to launch products faster since you can drag and drop your product’s photos. Speaking of which…
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They’re so easy to use and reuse
Mockups that utilize smart object functionality make it easy for anyone to literally drag and drop their images into the scene they want to portray. One of the simplest marketing tools to use, you open up the smart object, drop in your image, and save it.
They don’t need to be a one-time use purchase either. Reusing mockups while keeping your photos fresh only takes a little creativity. So instead of starting from scratch every time you create a graphic for social media, you can quickly produce something on-brand and new.
All from the same mockup.
This streamlined process also gives you the ability to batch content for social media much faster, wasting so much less of your time. Faster images to show off the products you create, equals more time for you to spend on creating the things you love.
Mockups boost your brand consistancy
Brands would not use and reuse the same assets if it wasn’t an effective strategy. Reusing mockups means that all your graphics become consistent. They may all be different but still have the same style that makes them identifiable. My trip into the woods gave me a solid base of brand imagery to build on. My brand has a lot of forest and nature themes, and being able to turn to my collection of photos from the forest helps keep that theme visible and clear.
Being identifiable and memorable is so essential for a brand. A major way to achieve that is consistency. Chain restaurants and franchises work because they can give you the same experience in every location. Whether you go to a Starbucks in Seattle or Germany, you’ll have a very similar experience. Making sales is easier when the customer knows what to expect.
Mockups from Kate Max Stock show how you can keep consistancy through a set of photos.
In this way, consistency establishes you as a brand. You have created an experience that is identifiable and unique. And that’s why mockups lend themselves well to being used across different platforms and mediums. From your email templates, to your blog posts, and your social media, mockups help tie everything together.
Your brand has a look, which creates an experience that a customer learns to expect. Mockups can really be this powerful when used in this way. Since you’re using a set of pre-existing images, you don’t have to worry about getting the perfect lighting, or styling the accessories for each and every product you create. They’re already right there, ready for you to use.
Mockups are kind of like dressing rooms
Dress your design up with some florals, with the help of your brand’s mockups!
Speaking of customer experience, salespeople understand something vital regarding this. When an effective salesperson convinces a customer to purchase something, they will not talk about themselves. They focus on the customer!
Your mockup can be like your salesperson talking about your design with your customers for you. Showing buyers your designs as a final product helps your customer know exactly what to expect. Creating these expectations enables you to make sales. Confusion is the sales killer, so eliminate questions and confusion from your sales process.
Or play dress up with some easels for a wedding sign design.
A customer doesn’t have to wonder what your design is going to look like in real life, and more importantly in their life. With a well-done mockup, without even writing any descriptions or saying a word, you’ve answered this question.
Helping someone imagine the product with your mockup is like letting them into their mind’s dressing room. They are trying out the product and thinking about how it will play a role in their life. Mockups are your product’s dressing room. So dress those pretty products up!
Pin one of these for later!
Mockups can be your brand’s best friend
Creating a brand is an art. Anyone can throw together a brand, but it takes more work to polish your brand into the art it deserves to be. Mockups provide an affordable way to create cohesive, branded content that enables you to streamline your process. Not to mention, they’re gorgeous, and there are a lot of options to choose from on the market. Set yourself apart from your competition!
Be sure to look at our nature-inspired mockup collection on Creative Market. Made to be extremely easy to use, each mockup has a smart object layer that lets you drag and drop any design right in, so that it looks like it is actually sitting right there in the forest.
