In the Club
Design an advert for your club’s newsletter
If your club has a web page that promotes an upcoming event or meeting, it’s a good idea to create an advert in your emailed club newsletter that links to it. Anyone who clicks this advert will be directed to your web page - similar to clicking linked text in an email or website. It’s worth noting that not all email providers let you link graphics to your websites - Yahoo and Outlook.com, for example. But we’ll show you how to do this using Gmail, the Outlook PC program and Thunderbird.
Your options
You can design an advert from scratch, but this will take time unless you’re adept at using online design software like Adobe Photoshop or Indesign, which cost nearly £20 per month. Instead, use a site that lets you design adverts for free by selecting, then customising templates. These websites also include paid-for templates. We found some very good templates for about $1 (75p), which is still cheap compared to having it professionally designed.
The first thing to consider when designing an advert is its size. Too large and it will cover your entire email; too small and people won’t see it. The ideal dimensions are those used for Facebook ads (1200x628 pixels), which our suggested websites offer by default.
Websites for designing adverts
A simple online search will reveal many websites that let you design adverts for free, but we’ve chosen three that are particularly easy to use. Each one requires you to create a free account and offers paid-for options, but these are clearly marked so you can easily avoid them.
On all these websites, you can use the search icon to search for specific templates (such as Facebook Ad), after which you drag and drop elements (text boxes, dummy images, shapes and more) on to the template. You can then customise each element. For example, you can enter text in the boxes then edit it; add images from your PC; adjust the shapes, and more. When you've finished, download the advert you’ve designed as a PNG or JPEG file and save it on your PC.
Crello ( www.crello.com) and Canva ( www.canva.com) are two brilliant websites that work this way. In Crello you need to specify your template dimensions (1200x 628 pixels); in Canva, search for and select Facebook Ad as your template size.
You’ll now see buttons on the left for customising your template. By default, Canva lists all the free templates first, but in Crello you need to select Free at the top left to achieve this. We used Crello to design our Easter Party advert (see screenshot above) without paying a penny. Both websites have Download buttons at the top right, letting you save your file in various formats.
Bannersnack ( www.bannersnack.com) first asks you to choose a banner size. Select Social Media, then click Facebook Ad. Next, use the search button at the top left to search for a relevant template. On the left, you’ll see options to change the background colour, and add text, images and shapes. You first need to save your advert using the green button at the top right, after which you’ll see options to download it in different formats.
Link your advert to your web page
To link your advert in Gmail, open a new email, then drag and drop your advert into it. Click the image to see three sizes at the bottom - Small, ‘Best fit’ and ‘Original size’. Select ‘Best fit’ to let Google automatically resize the image so that it’s the ideal size for your email. Now highlight your advert (as you would highlight text), click the ‘Insert link’ (paperclip) button at the bottom (see screenshot below) or press Ctrl+k, type the web page address you want to link to in the field provided, then click OK.
If you use the Outlook PC program, open a new email window, click inside the body of your email (where you want to insert your advert), click the Insert tab, Pictures at the top right, then select your advert to upload it. Now right-click your advert, click Hyperlink, then copy and paste your web page’s URL.
In Thunderbird, open a new email, click in the body of the email, click the Insert tab, then select Image. In the window that opens, click Choose File, select your advert, then select ‘Don’t use alternate text’. Next, click the Link tab, type your web page’s URL, then click OK to see the linked advert in your email.