Text on cover photos? Marketing?

[carulcards]

I would have liked to add some text to the cover photo below, something like Choose your own colors. 

The text, I thought, would help customers understand the idea of the design, that they can actually recolor each part of these svg sunflowers and create a pillow that better fits with the color choices of their own homes.  I have made quite a few designs like that, and I kind of like the idea, but it is difficult to actually show people what they are able to do. This cover photo is an effort to do just that. 

Finally I decided to remove the text, hoping that the top row of flowers would still create the right impression. I had started to think that a text like Choose your own colors may not be allowed. I would think of it as informative, but perhaps it would be considered marketing?  What do you think? What does it actually mean that we can't add marketing texts? What is a marketing text?

Decorative custom sunflowers Inspirational CC1073 Accent Pillow
by carulcards

[Windy]

I would like to read where it says we can't add marketing texts so that I can see what I think it means. Do you have a link?

[carulcards]

Hi Windy! 

I don't have a link, you can see the text only when you upload your cover photo (it is not in the Cover Photo Guide). The text after the third check mark (below) says: Cannot include logos, marketing text, or website links.

What do you think it means?

[Windy]

I think the whole instruction is confusing. Adding a link to a photo would be useless, so I have no idea why the instructions specify "cannot include website links". Also cannot include logos? A lot of designs here show a sample logo. So does the instruction mean not to make any custom cover photos for any product which uses a sample logo? as for "cannot include marketing text", who knows. All of the instruction needs a rewrite or supporting information.

[Malissa]

I take it as you can't add your own brand logo or website address to the cover photo and any extra text that is not actually a part of the design, but designs that contain logos are fine.  I think they want clean cover images like the ones they provide.

@carulcardsI think it would be a good idea to reply to the cover photo invitation email, if you still have it, and directly ask the team in charge of cover photos.  They will be the ones who know for sure. 

[carulcards]

That's a good idea, Malissa. I kind of hoped the team would jump in here and tell us what they meant. That is also why I didn't click on the button 'Accept as solution', because we're all just guessing. Reading everyone's thoughts, I still feel pretty sure that we shouldn't add any text to our cover photos.

[ColsCreations]

I take it to mean any text because that could be super confusing with text that is part of the design and they used "marketing text" as a brief way to explain it.

[CrazyMermaid]

If everyone who has that ability added marketing text, it would look terrible in the search results. Very spammy. 

[carulcards]

Perhaps it means that we should include no text at all? 

[CrazyMermaid]

I could just as easily include that for 90 percent of my products and that goes for most other Zazzlers as well. If you start doing it, then you give yourself an advantage over me. So I will do same and probably most would. I really hope Zazzle decides against this. 

[KeegansCreation]

That could be marketing text so best not to include it.  But you could alter the title to read "Decorative Customizable Color Sunflowers" instead of "Decorative Custom Sunflowers". And then expand a little more in the description. You tell them how to get into the design tool. I would suggest telling them what to do once they are in.

[DesertSky]

My impression was that they simply want an InSitu photo, similar to the InSitu product views Zazzle provides on some products. It's my understanding that there shouldn't be any additional text, real logos or website addresses added to the photo. In other words, they don't want us to post an ad. I agree with Keegans Creation, it would be best to explain how to customize in the description and use "customizable" in the title. Another option is to make multiple color variations yourself (changing the color theme only, nothing else) and let the system group them. That way the customer will be able to click on the color theme dots and see various options you've already created. The thing is, I'm not sure that grouping is working right now, many of my items haven't grouped in quite a while. 

[carulcards]

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful input 🌻🌷🌼

If you're interested, I have gathered all my 'customizable color' designs in this collection