If you wan to survive in the wild world of digital marketing, heed this words:
Free templates will kill your chances to stand out from the crowd.
It’s just as granpa used to say…
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”.
In the marvelous, and yet dangerous world of marketing, there are also no free results.
Free stuff will end up making you spend more than you had planned.
Everything Has a Cost
If you don’t pay it with money, you’ll end up paying with your time, or even worse - with your reputation.
Sure, creating a quick post on Canva ain’t no rocket science.
But think about it for a minute.
Why is it free?
Because:
- It ain’t good; or
- It was already sold to a bucketload of people and no one wants to buy it anymore; and/or
- It’s bait to lure you in and upsell you some other stuff (that eventually will make you spend even more money or time on it)
Doesn’t matter why those templates are free… they ain't worth it.
Businesses shouldn’t rely on free solutions forever. That would be like relying on free samples to feed your family.
There are lots and lots of businesses out there falling prey to this very same pitfall you might be considering jumping into right now.
They’re even thinking about using the same template you liked!
Nevertheless, you shrug all the evidence that shows you this is a trap.
You start working on your post using that free template.
You feel like things are moving forward! In a few minutes, you have a post and you publish it.
The whole venture takes about an hour, and you feel great.
And then you do that again. And again. But now it’s getting harder and harder to find some decent templates. Why?
Because the next step is forcing you to buy a “premium pack” with all the pretty images and stickers and whatnots that aren’t available for freeloaders.
What once took you an hour and made you feel great, now takes two hours and you feel miserable.
What Can You Expect From Free Templates
MAYBE one or two likes. No shares. No comments. No leads. No conversions.
You can expect the feeling of a lonely ball of hay rolling up and down your page…
Stare your free template long enough and you might even hear that ominous “ah-ee-ah-ee-ah” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the background.
When you thought things couldn’t be worse, you can expect your feed to look like everyone else’s and their dogs with posts like these…
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER
We’re not saying stock photos are bad.
Stock photos can be great. Especially when you need to portray something very specific like a woman merrily throwing spaghetti up in the woods. Who knows?
We use plenty of stock photos ourselves. Well, not these.
Our skilled designers are very picky and they only use images that make sense with the topic, that isn’t overused, and the end result is always a branded, unique artwork that won’t dilute your message.
All we’re saying is that, if you fall into the “free template” trap, sooner or later, you’ll run out of ideas.
The chances of posting something bad, bland, or both will only grow.
Those free templates that looked like a solution were just a palliative for the same symptoms you had before and still do: the lack of a reliable and affordable resource for professional marketing campaigns.
Why You Should Avoid Free Templates
After a couple of weeks or months into free templates, what will you have?
Many wasted hours, weak results, and a watered-down feed that makes your brand look like a thousand other brands.
And your problem is still there.
Now, let’s think about another marketing sci-fi scenario. In the unlikely case you’ve become the Lord of the Templates in a fortnight, and your templated posts got some decent numbers.
If that ever happens, we have three recommendations:
- Pinch yourself to check if you ain’t dreaming;
- Please drop by on our HR and let’s talk about rates so you can provide us consultancy;
- Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, as the kryptonite of free templates is about to get you.
If you’re immune to sarcasm, recommendations #1 and #2 are jokes.
And recommendation #3 is about an enemy all-time marketers’ enemy we’re always looking to avoid.
We call it “creative fatigue”. You can call it “free template’s kryptonite”.
What Is Creative Fatigue?
Creative fatigue is a phenomenon that happens the more a stock photo or template is used by different advertisers.
The more an image is used, the faster people blatantly ignore ads using that image.
Maybe your dentist or your gardener uses that very same “shaking hand” template you did. And so did hundreds of other businesses. And their dogs. And their brothers.
Everyone seeing an image many times will cause ad fatigue, and that means no one will really see it anymore. As in, they will see it, but it won’t spark interest. Or joy. Or any other reaction.
In other words - pure lethargy.
That image will be unconsciously registered by people’s brains as just another piece of spam.
Do you know how spam emails go to your spam box? That’s how it works for creative fatigue.
Your brain has a spam box for overused photos and templates, so it can ignore and direct your attention to something relevant, like a video of a cute cat or a groost-made ad.
“I thought free templates would help me ramp up my marketing. Instead, I ended up spending more and more hours trying to make it happen. I even upgraded my account to Premium because the free options were just painful. I was six weeks and countless hours into it when I saw two different ads from my competition using the same images I used for my own ad. It made me realize that not only I wouldn’t ever get good results from that, but I was also harming my brand” Gabriel, Personal Trainer
You’ll come to understand that professional graphic design is essential to get people’s attention and spark feelings.
As is compelling copywriting. Templates without great copy are just bland, generic images that will be ignored by your audience.
If you still want to give it a go, burn away your time and money on ads you made using free templates as creatives.
You’ll see what should be a “free” solution becoming an expensive problem. Though it’s not even free anymore because you had to upgrade your account to “premium”. And still do all the work by yourself.
The Anatomy Of a Successful Ad
To beat ad fatigue, you need to understand the anatomy of a successful ad. That way, you can make sure that it won’t happen to your campaigns:
- A compelling headline that will make people curious
- Eye-catching artwork that will make people stop scrolling
- A professionally written caption that will make people take action
- A media buyer who can bullseye your audience
If you can do all that by yourself, we’ll ask again that you come by to our HR so we can crown you the groostmeister, and gather everyone around a bonfire so you can teach us the ways of doing all the work of a full marketing team using free templates… while running your business.
If not, be ready to see your audience cold-shouldering your content and scrolling away without even spending 3 seconds looking at your ad.
Because that’s how much time you have to lure them in.
3 seconds.
The 3 Seconds Rule
The first seconds people see your content are so important that Facebook considers a video view when people stay at least 3 seconds.
“If you have stayed on a video for at least three seconds, it signals to us that you are not simply scrolling through feed and you’ve shown intent to watch that video.” Matt Pakes, Facebook Product Manager
Needless to say - if a static image can hold your audience’s attention for 3 seconds or more, that’s a clear sign of success.
Thus, we would like you to take a glance at the ad below.
This is a real ad. That really sucked. So much it made into a post listing 5 examples of bad ads.
Be honest: if you saw that ad while scrolling through your feed, would you stop to see what it was?
Do you really think that this kind of post will make anyone want to look at it for more than a few fractions of seconds?
It’s not even worth an eye roll. All it will get is sheer indifference.
Why would you launch a campaign for your brand with a free template that looks just like that?
Even if you had the greatest template ever, it would flunk without all the other parts that constitute a great ad.
If all that isn’t enough to stop you from using templates, here is the biggest problem you might have from it.
It will make your brand look “meh” - a big no-no as 81% of consumers revealed that brand trust is a deal-breaker when they consider a purchase (resource: Edelman Trust Barometer)
Brands that maintain consistency significantly increase their trustworthiness.
GOOD consistency, though. Not bad, watered-down consistency.
Consistently using templates will just make your brand boring and uninteresting.
Instead, try having consistent quality content and ads. Your audinece will notice the difference and get hooked into your brand.