Here at Redbubble, we regularly offer discounts and promotions to buyers, and that creates excellent opportunities for you wonderful RB artists to gain more exposure for your work. But in order to get eyes on your art, you need to self-promote.

One of the best ways to ensure the fans of your artwork know about sales and promotions on Redbubble (and purchase products featuring your art) is to create sharable social media promo images. For this tutorial, we pulled together a very simple example of a promo image that you can make to spread the word about any promotion on your various social channels.

Above are a few examples from Redbubble artists Carbine, IRCbyAir, and Kakel. Depending on your graphic design skills, you can make a promo image as simple or as complex as you like. But regardless of how you choose to lay it out, we recommend considering the below steps to ensure maximum sales and exposure.

But remember, make it your own.

1. Consider sizes

Each platform has its own image requirements, so depending on which social channel you’re planning to utilize to spread the word about a promotion, it’s best to create your images at the below sizes to make sure everything looks top notch.

Facebook image posts: 1200 pixels x 1200 pixels
– cover photo: 851 pixels x 315 pixels

Instagram post photo: 510 pixels x 510 pixels
– desktop photo: 612 pixels x 612 pixels

Twitter Shared photo: 1024 pixels x 512 pixels
– header photo: 1500 pixels x 500 pixels

You can find more information about social media image post sizes at this guide over here.

For more: 5 Things to Think About When Uploading Work

2. Collect Your Best Looking Products

Before you begin, ensure your portfolio and shop are looking up to date and ready for visitors. Once you have about 10-15 images uploaded in your shop and they are displaying correctly on a wide range of products, you’re good to begin creating your own social media promotion image. Take a moment to scan through your portfolio and decide on a couple of strong images that work particularly well on certain products, especially if the current promotion is a product-specific one. You could choose different artworks, or decide to showcase how one image looks on a few different products.

Once you’ve decided which products you want to feature, head to the artwork page and enlarge the preview of the artwork on the product you want to show off. Right-click save-as or take a screen shot of the preview of your artwork on a product and save it to your desktop.

Next, open up Photoshop, Gimp, or the editing software of your choice (for this tutorial, we used Photoshop) and create a blank canvas at one of the above sizes.

For more: 4 Reasons Why You Should Upload Different Images for Each Product

3. Decide On Your Layout

In Photoshop, you can use the magnetic lasso tool (or polygon lasso tool) to cut out your products and place them on your background. You can take this time to design your background, add gradients or patterns, and decide on the layout of your promotional image. Try and make sure your images are proportional and that you leave enough space for a heading and other text.

Spread out the images on your image and try to show the range of Redbubble products your artwork is available on. When designing your layout, less is usually more, and it’s better to be sparing and create a punchy image with about 1-3 different products, but really, it’s up to you.

 For more: Self-Promo Image Examples to Help Nab Last-Minute Shoppers

4. Include All Your Details

Make sure you add in the following details in text on your image:

• Your Redbubble username and url of your Redbubble profile
• Information on the promo (such as the percentage off and some snappy copy)
• The coupon code (if applicable)

For more: 6 Simple Ways to Make Your Redbubble Portfolio Stand Out

5. Make Different Versions For Different Platforms

It’s fantastic if you can slightly modify the size of your promotional images so that you can use different images for different platforms. For example, an image in a Twitter feed looks different from an Instagram post, so if you can take the time to whip up a few different sizes that will suit different social media platforms, that would be best.

If you’re looking for a place to start, try using the same color palette and product photos but create different sized images for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This creates the cohesive and professional look of a considered social media campaign for the particular sale you’re promoting. Consult step 1 for proper sizes.

For more: 8 Things Successful Freelance Designers Do Online

6. Post Away

Now you have your custom social media promotion image, make sure you share it as much as you can! Think about a strategy you can employ for posting and consider using a service like Hootsuite to create a posting schedule for the time around the promotion. For example, Instagram posts usually get more attention in the late afternoon and early evening, so try and post to Instagram then.

And make sure you don’t forget to post the URL to your RB shop everywhere you share your image. You want to make it as easy as possible for buyers to get to your shop in as few clicks as possible.

For more: The Importance of Having a Facebook Fan Page

Give your fans 25% off Duvet Covers and Throw Pillows by letting them know to enter the code: DECKOUT at checkout.

Sale ends on March 24 (11:59pm PST)