With the much longed-for Christmas season approaching, one&#8217;s attention naturally turns to the minefield that is Christmas shopping. Christmas presents and festive food seems to appear in shops earlier and earlier each year, and you know that game is on once the dulcet tones of George Michael belting out &#8216;Last Christmas I gave you my heart&#8216; boom out across shopping centres in October!
From a young age, we are presented with the fairytale version of Christmas. A picture-perfect family dressed to the nines sit around a faultlessly decorated table, tucking into delicious Turkey, roast vegetables and all the trimmings, and later enjoying a mountain of expensive presents they had greedily opened under an imposingly decorative and glittering Christmas tree that morning. As adults, we are bombarded by multiple channels of clever advertising and social pressure from family and friends to recreate the perfect Christmas Day with lots of gifts, food, alcohol and decorations.
It led me to think about the reasons consumers buy products and services, particularly during the run-up to Christmas and how marketing psychology is used to tremendous effect to influence consumer behaviour. The key to unlocking why we made any purchasing decisions lies in understanding how the human brain works. The limbic system of the brain acts as an emotional nerve centre. It deals with purchasing decisions, and thus all these decisions tend to be reached as part of an emotional process. Once a purchase has been made, the rational part of our brain jumps in to justify it with logical reasoning. So, with that in mind, when it comes to Christmas marketing messages, to be successful, they must be both captivating and emotionally compelling. 
This year, in particular, adverts are tying into what matters in the population&#8217;s zeitgeist &#8211; against a backdrop of emerging out of lockdown and celebrating with family once again. Many adverts focus on recreating positive messaging, such as being generous and overcoming obstacles together to save Christmas, all with the aim to pull at the emotional heartstrings. The clever combination of eliciting positive memories and pushing a potential consumer&#8217;s emotional triggers reinforces at a subconscious level that you would be letting the side down if you don&#8217;t go all out and make every effort to make this the biggest and best Christmas ever. 
Consumers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from multiple media channels. These include social media, films and television programmes, magazines, newspapers, billboards, television adverts, and to a certain extent, children and teenagers letting their parents know about this year&#8217;s must-have toys, to heap social pressure on adults into carrying out certain buying decisions. In turn, this has the snowball effect of people panic buying certain hyped products not to miss out and disappoint their loved ones on Christmas Day. 
Many leading brands and retailers have developed sophisticated yearly Christmas campaigns. They have drilled down their target customer in terms of demographics, technological knowledge and buying power. For example, since 2007, John Lewis has created a yearly advertising campaign that has utilised the psychological technique of overwhelming stimuli in order to both captivate and compel consumers to press the buy it now button. 
This is coupled with the Halo effect, which defines a situation where a consumer favours a product due to existing brand loyalty. Each advert contains an evocative and memorable song, bright Christmas colours, and a storyboard filled with products. This year’s John Lewis advert, is linked to a webpage showing you where to purchase any products included in the advert from the comfort of your smartphone. By cleverly including bright lights, Christmas themed colours, sounds and music to any marketing message, it has the effect of circumventing our more profound cognitive processing abilities. Thus, we are less inclined to process any buying decisions rationally. 
When presented with an overwhelming number of joyfully presented things that you want (but don&#8217;t necessarily need) on an impulsive level, it can lead to Ego depletion. This is the point where any willpower is weakened when energy from mental activity is low. When consumers are in this mental state, they are much more likely to buy lots of products on impulse rather than what is on their shopping list.  
Christmas is undeniably a magical time of the year, especially for children.  It is a chance to spend time with cherished loved ones, overindulge on chocolate selection boxes, binge-watch classic Christmas films and unwind after an extraordinary year. It has been illuminating to discover the sophisticated techniques advertisers use to sell consumers that perfect vision of the festive season.

5 Minutes To: The Psychology of Why We Buy Christmas Gifts

We know that digital marketing is an integral part of any brand’s promotional strategy &#8211; especially in today’s technology-driven landscape. Equally, a brand must also nurture its offline presence. Sometimes, you have to be innovative to grab your audience’s attention, and one method that genuinely rewards creativity is Ambient advertising. 
This article takes a brief look into the ingenious world of Ambient advertising that truly takes ‘outside the box’ thinking to the next level. 
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<h1>So what exactly is ambient advertising? </h1>
Ambient advertising is fundamentally a form of Out of Home advertising (OOH) &#8211; basically, anything that isn’t online, i.e. posters, billboards, flyers etc. However, Ambient advertising stands firmly on its own. Whilst typical OOH adverts tend to be placed in areas that will reach the greatest audience (everyday places like train stations, shopping centres etc.), Ambient advertisements catapult the viewer from an ordinary space into a parallel world. By utilising unusual objects as advertisements and placing ads in unusual places, consumers are taken by surprise on their everyday commutes. Whether it’s using a plant pot-shaped like a teapot to hang an oversized tea bag (<a href="https://movia.media/moving-billboard-blog/differences-between-physical-and-digital-ooh-ads/">Movia Media 2019</a>) or turning a door handle in a public space into a pint of beer (<a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/33-cool-and-creative-ambient-ads/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=organic">Bored Panda</a>), there are endless ways to engage this method of marketing. The surprise value generated by these adverts lead to greater, longer-lasting impressions, increased positive brand association and an ultimately better chance of future consumer engagement with the brand. Ambient advertising is a perfect mix of surprise and delight advertising that favours the brave and innovative marketeers who choose to use it. 
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<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1390" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-1-300x186.png" alt="" width="300" height="186" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-1-300x186.png 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-1.png 568w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />   <img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1391" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-2-300x199.png" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-2-300x199.png 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Picture-2.png 568w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
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<h1>What makes a good ambient advertising campaign? </h1>
Ambient advertising isn’t always about generating surprise or shock value. Often the most successful ambient campaigns are those that feel seamless within the physical environment. Ambient advertising can be about subtlety. The placement of these ads will still likely surprise the audience. However, they won’t look out of place. The ads should conform to the environment, so whilst it appears unusual, it makes sense. The link between the advert’s messaging, and the ad’s physical manifestation should make sense to the consumer as to why it has been placed there. Take, for instance, <a href="https://www.wundermanthompson.com/work/breaker-benches">Kit Kat’s</a> breaker benches campaign in the Philippines. By installing nearly 500 Kit Kat benches, all featuring different types of break activities (check out the video below), the “take-a-break” brand message was brought to life. 
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In the case of the above, the viewer becomes immersed in the advertisement, which should encourage a memorable and positive association with the brand. 
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<h2>Case study</h2>
If, like me, you were one of the many people who saw 2020’s year of lockdowns as an opportunity to binge on Netflix unapologetically, then you might be no stranger to the show Money Heist. However, if you spent your time more productively and are unfamiliar with the show &#8211; Money Heist is a modern-day Robin Hood adaptation &#8211; but in Spanish. It has one of the most iconic outfits in Television &#8211; the Salvador Dali mask and red jumpsuit combo. What better way to reinforce brand identity than to build a 15-meter statue in the middle of Milan 2 days before the launch of the third series?  
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The installation was erected overnight and took everyone by surprise in the morning, drawing in flocks of intrigued onlookers to take a closer look but, more importantly, prompting them to share the extraordinary scene on social media. I mean, who isn’t going to post a picture of a 15 meter Salvador Dali masked person on instagram. 
In this case, the social media effect was the return on investment from this method of marketing. During the official launch period (18th to 22nd of July), more than 57.3K posts were published, generating over 1.6 million interactions. <a href="https://www.lbbonline.com/news/netflix-gives-a-body-to-italys-most-iconic-middle-finger-with-money-heist-statue-stunt">LBB Online 2019</a>. These are metrics that have a significant impact on any campaign’s success. And while obviously, this example is on a vast scale (and budget), it is a great example that highlights the social media footprint generated from this form of advertising. Whilst digital advertisements generate these metrics directly, there is still a lot to say for physical advertisements as part of any marketing campaign. 
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If you’re thinking about introducing ambient advertising to your marketing campaign or would like advice on how to improve your current marketing strategy, get in touch with Beacon at hello@beaconagency.co.uk

5 Minutes To: Ambient Advertisements and where to find them

I’m trying to recollect what my first memory of Christmas actually is…
Spending Christmas in Devon with my grandparents as a child initially comes to mind. My granny had knitted all five of her granddaughters a stocking. Already an ample size, this knitted tardis would enchantingly (for me anyway) stretch further and further, requiring my Mum and Dad to keep filling it with a host of mini presents so as not to look forlorn on Christmas morning. Said stockings would be greedily devoured while my sisters and I curled up at the base of our Grandparents bed, before breakfast of proper old fashioned thick-cut bacon, sausages, and grilled tomatoes served straight from the cosy Rayburn. Delicious.
Then, of course, there are the firsts at Christmas that come later in life. The first time you spend Christmas with a family that is not directly your own, where the established traditions of your beloved’s family start to unfold, and you are invited to share in their celebrations together. 
The first time you host a Christmas celebration of your own (planning the oven rotation system with military precision).  
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All of these Christmases are vividly memorable to me, but I don’t think there was ever a thunderbolt moment (or, in John Lewis’ case, a rainbow fuelled crash landing) of the magic of the first Christmas for me. 
For example, a few years ago, my Mum started a new tradition with my sisters, and I. Gone are the days of endlessly filling the knitted stockings, replaced instead with the gift of a single tree decoration each year. We have had everything from delightfully delicate cutwork metal bells to a small scene of the holy family. Each year I take out these talismans of Christmas magic and hang them on my tree with great joy and anticipation for the festive season ahead. 
In the hotly anticipated John Lewis Christmas ad of 2021, we are presented with the portrayal of Christmas magic through the encounters of an alien (Skye) experiencing Christmas for the first time under the tutelage of a little boy (Nathan). Nathan shares with his’ #unexpectedguest’ the joys of; Christmas tree lights, how to eat a mince pie, Christmas films and (importantly for John Lewis) gift-giving. All wrapped up as the alien flies away, under the tagline: ‘For a Christmas as magical as your first’. 
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In a post-pandemic world, where former John Lewis ads filled with fluffy characters and short-lived commercial opportunities could feel trite and inconsiderate, this advert displaces our reality just enough to suspend our disbelief and pay attention to the scene unfolding before us. From that first foreboding pulsating sound, we are intrigued… then (of course) comes a healthy serving of that one John Lewis ad staple none of us were willing to live without. The heartwarming soundtrack. This year supplied by Lola Young covering Electric Dreams: “We’ll always be together, however far it seems”,’ she softly sings. 
As a self-confessed cry baby, I was surprised not to shed one single tear watching this year’s effort. On first viewing, I could only really see the most cliche of Christmas references jumbled in with a story about an alien. My second thought was, ‘I wonder if I can stream E.T on Prime… oh, yes, Prime… I really must buy that birthday present, quick!’ (A response I’m sure John Lewis would rather I directed their way).
That being said, through writing this blog post (and single-handedly upping the Youtube view count by approx 1m), I have begun to see hidden gems I didn’t quite grasp during my premiere experience. The joy of sharing, a hint of a child-like first romance and the pain of saying goodbye to loved ones. However, from a quick straw poll, I’m not sure many others will be investing such effort to arrive at this same epiphany&#8230;
John Lewis has chosen to push ‘#unexpectedguest’ as their key campaign message. For me, it doesn’t really provide a shortcut to any of the good stuff to be found in this ad. Perhaps a better option would have been to pay more attention to the lyrics “We’ll always be together, however far it seems” given the current state of the nation.
For my money, the most compelling part was the brilliantly simple tagline: ‘For a Christmas as magical as your first’. I’ll happily go out shopping whilst reliving a highlights reel of all my past Christmas firsts, hoping my purchases will help to create more magical moments this year and beyond. 
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We are looking forward to next year’s ad John Lewis, Happy Holidays!

For a Christmas as Magical as Your First

With Black Friday around the corner, many businesses will be looking for ways to stand out against their competitors. Email marketing is a highly effective channel marketing tool. It allows you to speak directly to prospects, existing customers, and past customers, building stronger relationships at a time that is convenient for them. With the right messaging, email marketing can make a significant impact on customer engagement. Therefore it is crucial that your email marketing for Black Friday stands out from your competitors. This blog will provide you with five tips to improve your email marketing campaigns and help you stand out against competitors to increase customer engagement.
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<h1>Plan Your Campaigns in Advance</h1>
Planning your email marketing campaigns sounds so simple, but it is something that many businesses fail to do. Without proper planning, your content can seem disjointed, and your messaging and branding will seem inconsistent. Always make sure you are analysing previous campaigns and social media posts. This allows you to see what messaging you have sent out previously and will prevent you from sending out any messaging that is inconsistent or entirely contradictory to previous messaging. In fact a study by <a href="https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/customers-frustrated-irrelevant-marketing-messages/">Blue Research</a> found that 94% of consumers have discontinued communication with a business because of inconsistent or irrelevant messaging; therefore, it is crucial that you plan your content in advance to avoid issues like this. 
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<h1>Create Human Campaigns</h1>
Email marketing gives you the power to directly reach out and speak to your prospects, existing customers, and past customers. The campaigns you create need to be engaging. If not, the reader will most likely move on and discard your email. Your content should appeal to your reader, making them eager to learn more about your business or product. One of the best ways to appeal to your audience is by directing the email to them. This can be done by including their name in the subject line or body of the email, which most email service providers can do. This adds a personal touch to your email and makes your readers feel that you are speaking to them directly and not just sending an email to them, which thousands of people have also received.
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<h1>Appearance is Just as Important as Written Content</h1>
While creating consistent messaging and interesting content is essential, many businesses forget the importance of appearance and formatting. Whenever we look at content, from social media to magazines, we always judge what we see first. Creating email campaigns that look interesting is just as important as what is written in the emails. A reader can be turned off instantly just by looking at an email without even having read it, all because of how it looks. Many businesses still don’t fully understand the importance in the appearance of how an email marketing campaign looks despite it being a simple fix. The appearance of an email campaign can be improved by simply adding colour via graphics or images, and by ensuring that font sizes and styles are consistent throughout the email. These simple fixes will help increase your open rate and improve customer engagement.
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<h1>Create Compelling Subject Lines</h1>
The subject line of your email is one of the best ways to improve your email open rate. When deciding your email subject line, you want to create something that will draw your reader in and make them intrigued to click on your email. The best way to achieve this is by adding a question in your subject line. Humans are curious by nature, so if the reader sees a question in the subject line, they are much more likely to click on your email to find out the answer. On the other hand, a poor subject line can vastly decrease your email open rate as readers will not be interested in your email and may not think it is relevant to them.
In some cases, your email subject line may even cause your email to end up in people’s ‘spam’ folders. Emails usually end up in spam folders when the subject line is perceived to be clickbait; this means it could include words such as ‘free’ or ‘sign up now’, or an overuse of emojis. Having a good subject line is important, if people are not engaging with your emails, they are not engaging with your business.
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<h1>Create Interesting Calls to Action</h1>
The call to action is one of the most important parts of any email marketing campaign. It instructs the reader on what to do and encourages them to follow up on your email. The most important thing to remember with any call to action is to keep it concise and clear. Examples of great calls to action include ‘Learn more,’ ‘Register here’, and ‘Get discount code.’ With a good call to action, you will see an increase in click-through rates and a larger number of your audience engaging with your email marketing campaigns. If you have a poor call to action or don’t have one at all, your audience is less likely to engage with your content and, in turn, with your business.
If you’re thinking about creating an email marketing campaign or would like advice on how to improve your current marketing strategy, get in touch with Beacon at <a href="mailto:hello@beaconagency.co.uk">hello@beaconagency.co.uk</a>

5 Minutes To: Email Marketing Best Practices for Black Friday

We all know that social media content is aggregated by mysterious algorithms that decide what you see and who sees your content. But what is an algorithm, and how does it determine what content to show? 
SEO comes to mind; however, not all content is accessed via a search engine, social media is an integral part of any marketing strategy worth it’s salt. Social media platforms act as a proxy homepage for your business, and they are fantastic ways to communicate with potential and existing customers. Still, the question remains: How can you optimise your content to be prioritised within algorithms?
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<h1>What is an Algorithm?</h1>
I should first state that I’m no tech wiz, but I’ll do my best to describe the basics. In its most simple form, an algorithm is a set of rules used to sort data. This data is put through three phases: input, transformation, and output. The input is the data that will be sorted, the transformation is the series of decisions that are made about the data depending on the rules that are programmed in, and finally, the output is the presentation of the transformed data.
Jory Deny, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science, describes it in relation to getting dressed in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-an-algorithm-how-computers-know-what-to-do-with-data-146665">this article</a>:
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<li>Input: What clothes do you have? What is the weather? Do you need to dress for rain or sunshine?</li>
<li>Transformation: You can do the maths from your input quantities and decide that as it is cold outside, you need a jacket. This can then be repeated for each piece of clothing to decide if it is appropriate.</li>
<li>Output: Having made your decisions, you put on your clothes and go about your day.</li>
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This is an extremely simplified version of events, but it describes the process that your data goes through in an algorithm. This happens in social media too. You post your content which is then analysed by the platform’s algorithm. The algorithm sorts your post and decides where to show it on your audience&#8217;s feeds by measuring it against its ‘rules’. These rules are kept extremely secret, and very few people know exactly what each social platform’s ideal post looks like. However, through trial and error, we’ve gotten pretty close. There are hundreds of ways you can optimise your content for each social algorithm. In this blog, I’m going to take you through 5 you may not have considered.
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<h1>How to optimise your content</h1>
Typically when people talk about content optimisation, they are referring to SEO and copywriting; however, there are many ways to boost your online presence without writing blogs.
<h2>Write for humans, not for the algorithm</h2>
This may seem obvious, but when it comes to optimisation, people seem to write what they think the computer wants to read. However, the programme is written by people and is trying to show the people what they want to see. Keywords are important but making sense is paramount. Use clear CTAs and full sentences when writing blogs, captions and even subtitles. 
It’s also worth mentioning that when people search, they are using voice controls more and more often. By writing in full sentences, you can optimise your content for all platforms.
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<h2>Tracking links</h2>
Using links in your content is a great way to link out your content to other pages such as your eshop, business landing page, or other relevant media. But when you&#8217;re using links, it’s a great idea to use sites like Bit.ly, which allow you to track how many people have clicked through and their locations and demographics. For platforms where you are limited in how many links you can post, for example, Instagram, you can use intermediary platforms such as Linktree, which will also show you how many clicks you have amassed. 
Whilst adding trackable links to your content won’t boost your position in the algorithm, it will provide you with a set of data through which you can analyse what your customers want. After all, knowledge is power!
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<h2>Business accounts</h2>
Many social media platforms, for example, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, all offer business accounts for companies looking to use these platforms. Business accounts are a simple way to see your social media analytics. Knowing what your audience is engaging with means that you can produce more similar content and spot any weaknesses in your output. Having a business account also means that you can easily boost your content in a relatively inexpensive way and even use it as a customer service tool.
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<h2>Time of day</h2>
Time of day is hugely important in boosting your place in the algorithm and, as a result, your engagement. If you post your news at 3 am then very few people will see it. This means that the amount of people who interact with it is limited, which means that the algorithm will rank it lower. This means that it won’t appear near the top of people’s feeds which again means that you will get fewer interactions. Poorly timed content is often subject to a vicious cycle of poor performance; however, this is easily solved. Posting at times your audience is online is a great way to boost your engagement. By knowing who your audience is, you can predict (and even track) what times they are most active. For example, 1 pm on a Wednesday might be a poor time to interact with working professionals; however, it’s a fantastic time to engage with a stay at home parents. Knowing your audience is the key.
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<h2>Consistent Content</h2>
Posting constantly can easily boost your positioning in the algorithm, but what does consistency mean? I think these are two important facets to explore: your posting consistency and your theme consistency.
<h3>Posting Consistency</h3>
Posting content consistently is important as it can amplify your platform within the algorithm as it learns to expect your posts. However, it is also important not to overdo it. Posting more than once in a day or ‘double posting’ can actually harm your ranking. An easy way to manage this is to write a 30, 60, or 90 day content calendar. By planning your posts, you can set aside weeks to devote to themes and promotions well in advance and even schedule your content ahead of time, which will save you some late nights. When planning content, it’s important to leave some room for versatility and reactiveness. Your plan may be set in stone, but current events fluctuate daily and addressing current events and trends is a great way to boost your posts.
<h3>Theme Consistency</h3>
Theme can refer to the colour palette of your social channel, but in this case, I’m referring to the theme of your content. Brand identity is a powerful tool and can serve to confuse or engage your audience. For example, If you’re selling smart home products posting content that is relevant to smart home will serve to boost your position as a smart home focussed platform. This will allow the algorithm to push your posts towards people who are interested in smart home technology and result in better exposure. This results in followers who are attuned to your content and willing to engage. Staying on theme is an understated way to build up your brand’s identity.
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And there you have it, five easy tips for boosting your place in the algorithm. If you need help with your business&#8217;s social media, contact Beacon at beaconagency.co.uk

5 Minutes To: Algorithms and Social Media

Welcome to the sweet world of photo manipulation!
Now I realise that some of the first things to pop into your head when I say that are the glitzy, over-edited pictures of celebrities on magazine covers, or tons of influencers posting seemingly perfect images on social media. But I’m here to teach you there is far more to it than that! If we look back in time, traditionally, companies would paint their adverts and murals on walls (as seen below), and whenever a change was needed, the artist would bring their paints and correct the mistakes, or simply paint up a new advert.
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-1358 aligncenter" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="280" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1-300x168.jpg 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1-768x431.jpg 768w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1.jpg 902w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
Moving into more recent times, this has evolved  into printed publications that could be pinned just about anywhere, until, that is, a new one is created and put up to replace the last. We are lucky enough to have the technological tools to hand to not only make updates to existing creations, but also to enhance them! Adobe Photoshop, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a photo editing application that has grown into the industry standard for designers and creators, especially when it comes to photo manipulation. I’m going to introduce you to a few of the basic tools that every designer should have when beginning their journey into photo manipulation. 
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<h1>Clone stamp tool</h1>
This tool will be your best friend in times where you need to quickly remove or duplicate any part of your image. Simply select it by pressing the keyboard letter shortcut (S), then hold (alt) and click on the part of your image that needs to be duplicated. From here, you can paint your image in a new place anywhere on your canvas. To remove, hold (alt) again and select an area of unfilled space and then paint over anything you don’t want to see in your image. This can be a lifesaver when you didn’t mean to capture someone’s hand in your lovely flatlay of products, or can see a pesky microphone above someone’s head in a video thumbnail!
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-1359 aligncenter" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2-300x129.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="215" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2-300x129.jpg 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2-768x330.jpg 768w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2.jpg 902w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
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<h1>Spot healing brush tool</h1>
The spot healing brush tool is the infamous ‘airbrushing tool’, and while you could choose to remove every blemish and spot, it is actually much better put to use removing smaller details in a pinch. Choose the brush using the keyboard letter shortcut (J), and click on the detail you want removed, and voila! Job done! In less than a minute, you’ve rescued your perfect mirror shot from some grubby fingerprints! 
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-1360 aligncenter" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/3-300x129.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="215" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/3-300x129.jpg 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/3-768x330.jpg 768w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/3.jpg 902w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
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<h1>Patch tool</h1>
The patch tool is a good place to start if you quite feel confident with approaching the clone stamp tool yet, or you just want to save yourself some time. In any case, it’s still good to get to know a variety of tools for personal growth.
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<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-1361" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/4-300x129.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="215" srcset="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/4-300x129.jpg 300w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/4-768x330.jpg 768w, https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/4.jpg 902w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
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Select the patch tool by pressing the keyboard shortcut (J) or click and hold on the spot healing brush tool and hover down the mini menu to select the patch tool manually. Draw a frame around the object or area you want to remove, then click and drag from inside the selected area outside the lines, to a part of the image that you want to be replicated within your selection (this will be highlighted by animated dashed lines).
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And there you have it, three quick ways to save yourself reproducing content that was already perfect to work with. Using these tools, you can expect your content to wow viewers and designers alike! But most importantly, you’re saving precious time that you can use to nourish your business in plenty of other ways.

5 Minutes To: The Psychology of Why We Buy Christmas Gifts

5 Minutes To: Ambient Advertisements and where to find them

For a Christmas as Magical as Your First

5 Minutes To: Email Marketing Best Practices for Black Friday

5 Minutes To: Algorithms and Social Media

5 Minutes To: Photo Manipulation Basics