Why Photoshop is no longer an "extra" skill for modern marketers
Photoshop used to be considered an “extra” kind of skill for your average marketer. Now, things have changed, and to be a great marketer knowing Adobe Photoshop is not only extremely valuable, but becoming essential for marketing success.
Marketing is no longer about simply being creative with your content and thinking about audience, it’s about actually creating visual content and understanding what type of visual content is going to draw in the right viewers.
Employers want a marketer who is able to work in this new-age marketing world, so the quicker you can learn the basics for marketing, the better.
Five reasons Photoshop is a necessary skill
Consider five of the top reasons that a working proficiency in Photoshop is so necessary for today’s successful marketer:
1) Winning social media marketing
Just having the ability to edit and enhance photos for social media is a skill worthy of high praise these days.
You can absolutely tell the difference between content that has been carefully considered and creatively enhanced on Photoshop vs. a photo that was posted without any attention to detail.
With all of the social marketing taking place, the ability to make content stand out is incredibly important.
In addition to being able to edit your photos and add text where you need it, Photoshop also gives you a lot of control of sizing images, which is incredibly important for social media banners, posts, and profile pictures.
Things just ultimately look more professional when they are sized correctly, and since every social site has an optimal pixel size, you can take control of this and market your brand in the best possible way.
2) Marketers wear multiple hats
Being a marketer in today’s world means that you need to have the ability to wear multiple hats in your day to day.
You may need to design an eBook, PowerPoint presentation, social media image, website banner, advertisement, etc. At this point you might not consider yourself a designer, but trust me when I say, if you can jump in to taking on some of these tasks without having to communicate your vision to a “designer” you are going to be a better marketer.
Here’s a great break down of how to get started with Photoshop from Anum Hussain on HubSpot. I appreciate their perspective on not necessarily being a designer by training, but having the ability to get started with Photoshop as a marketer!
3) Money talks
Businesses are increasingly trying to get a lot of work done in-house rather than outsourced. This is because it saves them time and money. As such, companies are starting to value additional skills in marketers, as they know it will save them money in the long term.
This is a win-win situation because marketers who possess skills like Photoshop generally make more money, and businesses who hire these individuals tend to save money. I would say if there was one reason to invest time into learning this skill, it is the financial opportunity as a marketer.
4) Skill payoff
Photoshop definitely takes time and energy to learn, there is no doubt about it, yet learning how to use Photoshop pays off very quickly for both you as a marketer and the company at large.
If you think about all the times in a day that you could be directly editing, transforming, and altering marketing materials for your company, it is easy to see how the time spent learning this skill could help you nearly every day in your job as a marketer.
Further, improving the quality of images on social media, or presentation of images on your website, also in-turn helps the company at large to be successful
5) Take on new and creative projects.
One of the things I really like as a marketer is the creative projects you can take on once you acquire this skill.
Photoshop is definitely a space for creativity and there are few restrictions on the kind of work that you can do in the program.
Since developing new content is one of the top ways to be a successful online marketer, taking a creative approach and being able to think outside the box using this program is an essential online marketing skill.
What you can DO with Photoshop
Once again, Photoshop is such a valuable skill as a marketer not only because you are likely making more money and saving your company money by possessing this knowledge, but you can be creative with the acquisition of this new skill.
This gives you the ability to wear multiple hats more seamlessly and take on new challenges you hadn’t considered.
But just what exactly can you DO with Photoshop? Here is a list of some things you can do with this skill, many which you’ve probably considered and others that you haven’t:
Edit and enhance photos
Create pixel-appropriate banners and social media images
Develop and revamp your website design and layout
Add more high-quality images to your blog
Use your own photographs in a way that looks professional
Create your own custom documents
Crisp vectors and easy dotted lines
Color fill and text wrap
Design t-shirts and other promotional materials
Restore old photos
Make images and content more vibrant
Correct images that are lacking quality
Develop unique and eye-catching advertisements
Modernize your web design
Unique email marketing designs and formats, designed by you!
This list is not exhaustive by any means, but it gives you a sense of the unique ways you can use Photoshop. Ultimately, you have a powerful tool at your fingertips which can make your business stand out in a marketing campaign.
Other design tools
If you are interested in looking in to free tools, there are 21 free design tools for visual marketers that may also aid you in the process.
My three favorites are:
Google Fonts: A directory of over 600 different fonts (you really can’t go wrong here)!
Pixar and/or Sumopaint: Photo editors that incorporate easily with Photoshop.
Canva: Makes design “drag and drop easy.” Create Facebook cover photos, email banners, posters, event invitation graphics, and more!
Do you have experience using Photoshop as a marketer? What do you tend to use it for the most? Let us know in the comments section below.
Amanda DiSilvestro is the Content Editor at Higher Visibility and a contributor to Search Engine Watch. You can connect with Amanda on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Why Photoshop is Important for Your Web Design Training
Photoshop has become such a huge part of modern culture that even those who have never used it have often heard of it. With Photoshop, students learning web design can manipulate and rework images for a number of purposes, and they can easily apply those skills for when they begin a professional web design career.
Knowing how to use Photoshop is an important component of your web design training, and being able to master the software in a hands-on context will help you grow your knowledge and experience as a web designer. Here are some reasons why Adobe Photoshop is an important tool to learn for your career in web design.
Photoshop Has Many Impressive Features You’ll Learn About in Web Design Courses
Photoshop includes an almost endless list of features and to truly master it takes a lot of practice. These features include creating composite images, isolating objects, layers, typography, and making masks.
You can also use tools like patch, filter, clone stamp and the healing brush to further rework images based on your vision for them or to add various kinds of effects to them.
Your courses will give you a foundation in Photoshop skills that you can build upon throughout your career. In your web design training, you will also learn about how to make high-quality selections and edits within Photoshop so that you can further impress employers.
Photoshop Gives You a Framework With Which to Show Your Creative Side
Once you familiarize yourself with Photoshop’s various features and controls during your web designer diploma, you can then combine those skills with your own ideas and creativity. You can even transform photos to look like paintings, if you so choose, and achieve other impressive effects.
Whatever your vision happens to be, you can showcase your creativity and use Photoshop as an outlet for your artistic passion. As soon as you’ve understood how to master the software, you can maximize your design potential and expand your abilities to make your future in web design that much brighter. Over time, you’ll have a body of work that you can display in your portfolio, which can be used to show employers what you are capable of.
You Can Harness Photoshop in Ways That Will Impress Companies
A demonstrated mastery of Photoshop is a major asset in the eyes of employers. It can help you earn freelance or contract work, or even a full-time position at a web design company or at one of the many businesses in a broad array of fields that need web and graphic designers.
Companies need people who know how to use Photoshop for a number of purposes, such as designing graphics, posters, business cards, banners, brochures, and so on. Therefore, Photoshop skills are very attractive to have on your resume, and you can leverage them to work on various types of projects and in various industries. Furthermore, you can combine other skills you’ll learn in your web designer courses, such as colour theory and typography, with your Photoshop skills to create a truly impressive body of work.
Want to start a new journey in web design?
Top 10 Benefits of Learning Adobe Photoshop Skills
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics designing application software, in which you can edit photos, create art, retouch product photos, images from raster to vector, photo manipulation, and many, etc. you can do in Adobe Photoshop easily and creatively.
The current version is Adobe Photoshop CC 2017.1 and it is developed and published by Adobe System for macOS and Windows. It was created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll and the first release was on 19 February 1990 according to Wikipedia.
My experience with Adobe Photoshop is great. I started using it in 2008 and today. I like photo editing and photo manipulation. I use it for Logo Designing, creative art, blog images, and many other things professionally. Adobe Photoshop helped me a lot in my career and business. I got my first 4-5 projects on Upwork related to Graphics designing and Adobe Photoshop a few years ago. I tried to teach it to my students and they just fall in love with Adobe Photoshop.
Now today, I am writing about Adobe Photoshop and sharing my creativity and experiences.
Why learn Adobe Photoshop?
Adobe Photoshop contains various high-quality graphics design options. The following are the skills that are always in demand.
Photo Restoration
Product Retouch
To add Watermark or remove
Photo Masking
Clipping Path:
Photo Editing
Logo Design
Enhancing
Photo Composition
Color Correction
Banner Design
T-Shirt Design
UI Design
iPhone Apps Design
Box design and 3d Views
Flyer Design
Website Header Design
Website Mockup
Business Card Design
Image background removal
eBook cover page design
Etc.
These are the skills and practices that you can do in Adobe Photoshop. I know there are various other online applications today, that you can use to edit images. But Adobe Photoshop is the foundation of everything (idea, options, layouts, filters, etc.) that you’re seeing in many other applications today on the Internet. In other words, Adobe Photoshop is the daddy of almost all image editing applications.
That’s the technical part, but why learn to practice Adobe Photoshop. So, to become a master in Adobe Photoshop, you don’t need knowledge of all options. But you need to be creative and imaginative to use such graphics designing software. And Adobe Photoshop provides options that explore creativity inside you, students and anyone who wants to do something productive on computers. So, Adobe Photoshop skills are one of the best basic computer skills that will help you in your career and business.
But before discussing Adobe Photoshop’s business and career benefits let’s see the following facts and data.
Some facts about the Adobe Photoshop Demand and Supply
1. You can see the photo editing trends picture below, you can also explore various queries about Adobe Photoshop on Google trends. It’s very helpful to find out the demanding services in the city, country, and related viral topics on the Internet.
2. Photo editing services, monthly searches on Google as per data provided by Google Keyword Planner. It highlights how much Adobe Photoshop skills are in demand, and people looking for Photoshop services offline and online. For example, the Photo editing services keyword is searched by 100-100k people in Google for the last couple of years, till today. I don’t say, it’s totally accurate but I believe that it’s great to get an idea about the demand for a particular thing in the market.
3. Now you can see in the below image, that 100-1K people are searching monthly on Google for Adobe Photoshop Training and all ideas related to Adobe Photoshop training are searched by 1M to 10M people monthly on Google. And I think, this data provided by Google Keyword Planner or Google Adwords, make a conclusion that people in India or overseas want to have Adobe Photoshop skills because of demand.
4. Now look at the demand and jobs for Adobe Photoshop expert on Upwork, I searched it today on 06/07/2017 and there are 1948 jobs found after I searched “photo editing Adobe Photoshop.
Etc.
I think the above-researched data about Adobe Photoshop demand is enough to analyze that Adobe Photoshop is still a very demanding Graphics design application and I believe that anyone can become a master in Adobe Photoshop and they can start their small business from home online and offline.
But the question is how it can help you in your Career and Business. So, let’s understand the following career and business points in detail:-
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1. You can provide Photo Editing Services Offline: –
Photo editing is one of the best ways to start using technical skills to earn money and business. You can start this business from home in India and anywhere. But a few things need to consider such as the demand for such things in your city. My idea, visit the market and see the photo studio and their customers or work with them for a few days or months. After you got the market experience and people skills. Start operating the same business from your home or any small office.
But you need to market your services online and offline. It’s because many people nowadays search on Google before they visit the market. So, it’s really important that you market your business online.
Related: How to grow your small business with these essential strategies
2. You can start a YouTube Channel
Yes, it’s a great idea to teach and show your Adobe Photoshop skills to the world. And if you’re lucky you will get a job and business offer from YouTube too. You can share your skills, you can teach, etc. You can start any type of YouTube channel with your skills and expertise. It just needs to be helpful for people watching this. After that, you can monetize it with Google Adsense.
Learn more about it here: 15 most powerful advantages of the YouTube website
3. You can sell your designs on your own website
You can start your business using Adobe Photoshop by creating an e-commerce website in which you can design and sell demanding content for small business owners, product images for e-commerce websites, business cards, flyers, brochures, web design, and many other things.
4. You can apply for online jobs and projects
As I shared the facts above about the demand for Adobe Photoshop experts on Upwork, it means, you can create a profile on Upwork, then apply for jobs. If you are an expert then you will get plenty of work and get paid directly to your bank account. Upwork is a freelance website, which I used by thousands or millions of business owners, companies, and individuals and in which they post jobs and projects and get the work done by freelancers. So, you can work as a freelancer too.
5. You can apply for jobs offline
In every big or small city, there are shops such as printing presses, photo studios, newspaper agencies, marketing agencies, and web Design Companies. So, if you have skills then visit the above businesses in the market or send your resume to these companies. Show them your portfolio and designs and if they get impressed and inspired by your creativity and designing abilities, they will give the work or jobs immediately.
6. You can sell your design on online marketplaces
If you don’t like to do a job, or don’t want to sell on your website due to many reasons. Don’t worry, just find or search on Google for an online marketplace for designers, or how to sell designs on the Internet. And you will get many ideas and platforms in which you can sell your designing material and get a royalty or one-time payment.
7. You can design images for Social Media Marketing
As you now know the demand for photo editing or graphics designing skills. It’s because many companies are hiring people, web designers or graphic designers to design their marketing material. It’s because images are one of the sources to market your business online on social media and by Google images.
If you want to promote your business on social media, then you can design the marketing content in Adobe Photoshop and then upload and share your content on the internet.
8. You can create an image for your blog
If you’re a blogger or running a website, you can create and design images for your article based on the keywords and topics. Another advantage of designing fresh and new images for your blog, is that it will get a higher rank on Google because you have everything fresh and original material.
Another reason, people often learn nowadays through Google images. For example, if I want inspiring designs or images or quotes images, I do not visit the website, but I only look at the images for inspiration. If I liked the images, I visit the website, because I get the idea about the content before visiting the website from the Google search engine. If you’re a blogger, I know you can understand this and this is another creative idea to increase traffic to your blog.
9. You can do teach your kids
Adobe Photoshop explores creativity in the mind of kids. Kids are already creative but they need direction and a platform to use that creativity for productivity. If from earlier childhood, they use a computer or they use such kind designing software, it will make them mentally strong and skillful. I think Adobe Photoshop is a better application for kids on the computer than games.
10. You can train other people offline
Why not, if you’re a housewife, senior citizen or anyone, you can teach Adobe Photoshop to your neighbors, family members, and other people.
So, as explained above there are various advantages of Adobe Photoshop for school and college students, marketing companies, business owners and I think all kinds of people in the world.
If you want more knowledge or information about Graphics design, please read this article in your free time:
How to learn Adobe Photoshop?
You can learn Adobe Photoshop by joining any computer Institute in your city. Make sure that they teach Adobe Photoshop or graphics designing practically on the latest applications.
You can watch YouTube videos to learn Photoshop skills for free. Yes, after that you can practice those learned skills and ideas at home on your computer.
You can join and get admission to online courses related to Adobe Photoshop. There are various Adobe Photoshop online courses that you can join and you can learn from an expert.
You can install Adobe Photoshop on the computer at home, and practice daily.
You can learn it part-time with any photo studio or printing press or graphics designing studio if they allow you.
You can hire any Adobe Photoshop expert to teach you at your home.
You can also contact Adobe Photoshop teachers online so that they will teach and train you at that particular time.
I hope, this article will help you in your career and business.
