Feedback for Media Manager

[James]

Hi Creators, 

You might have seen that there is a new experience called Media Manager. Feel free to leave your feedback on this evolution, here. 

Thank you. 

[Barbara]

When I ran my own business, I would sometimes put a week's worth of work into presentation of a product, then advertise that product, but the hard work truly paid off. I'm not seeing any uptick here in my own sales of products where I've created covers and promoted them. Maybe I'm overly skeptical, or maybe, without real examples from Zazzle, I'm not understanding what they're going for, what they're envisioning.

Colorwash's Home

[Cat]

I love the idea of using Amazon as a model - where you get things like size charts, measurements, etc. But if I'm understanding correctly (and I may not be) once the customer starts to personalize the template, all designer uploaded views disappear. In a certain sense that makes sense because customer changes would not be reflected in those views, but it makes them much less useful in terms of providing extra info for the customer.

[Fiorenzo]

Doesn't matter. You get useful info (such as image sizes) to get started and you can always head back to these previews if you missed something. I didn't test these yet, but I assume it works like the single custom mockups we had until now, and in that case, the preview is still there and selectable. It's basically not much different than editing front and back of an item, in this case you also have to change preview and reopen the form.

[Cat]

Thanks @Fiorenzo  - I understand now. The custom previews don't disappear altogether, Zazzle just makes the standard display into the current one so it reflects the customer's changes. Thanks for clarifying!

[Fiorenzo]

Happy to share useful hints, I heard about this news also by accident yesterday while reading a forum post - not the announcement one. I must say, I'm excited. I use to offer a handful of predefined text styles on various products and now I have finally the opportunity to make them all visible on dedicated previews. A truly precious feature for the ones who like to spend some little extra time.

[Connie]

So is Zazzle expecting us to put non-product images here, like the way we do on Etsy? For example, a plain background with text, explaining that we can make matching products and other colorways?

[Donna]

I've been having those same concerns and questions.

[angelafuller729]

scroll through some of the comments Kate, and you'll find links to how others have done some of theirs - very inspirational 😋

[Mariholly]

I have mixed feelings about all of this!  Months ago, before the official announcement about the covers, I realized that if one of my products sold and I put a cover photo on it, that product quickly sold again.  This seemed good to me and all my best sellers got their covers quickly.  The official announcement came confirming that it was good to do cover photos and since then it seems that I do nothing but do cover photos and more cover photos but very few new designs that also have their cover photos but this does not seem to be helping the sale, quite the contrary, my sales fall, fall and fall... Neither the cover photos seem to be useful, nor the titles, descriptions and labels that take me a long time to create... So, I must do now more cover photos and more descriptions?  As?  If I don't, will it affect me?  I'm not a team, it's just me dedicating a lot of time and in the last few months results are much lower than in previous years.  I'm not a newbie here but I have the feeling that I'm going back to square one again and again... And on the other hand I think that this new option can be very good to show small details of my designs that can go unnoticed and put a description about it at the bottom of the page.  I think of a heart made of tiny hearts or of words that seem cut out of photographs, show it and tell it here it will be good for you.  Well, that reminds me of my Etsy days with a cover photo and several enlargements of the same photo showing the details, I can do it.  I also thought that this was easier to do with your phone while you wait, travel on public transport or any other time of the day away from your computer.  1- I can't do that with my phone because the mobile version doesn't show it, I have to switch to computer view and that's usually quite uncomfortable.  2- Impossible to use the same photo and zoom on it.  I guess I would have to re-upload the photo, which is not on my phone, and see the possibility of zooming.  3- I have used one of the new download options to try to load that photo and zoom in on it and be able to show the detail, I could not load that photo, quality PNG apparently, it refers to a server error.  3-I tried to put a photo caption and nothing happens, there is no new window to write or another option.  There are three... but nothing happens either if I try to tap them, in fact it seems to tap the whole photo.  Well, this was just a maybe bad or maybe a good idea... to take advantage of my time and this new Z resource and I haven't been able to do anything at all or prove anything.  Sorry for this long message and my bad English.

[SwissVillage]

Specifically to your point of adding cover photos to best-sellers in the marketplace, my approach has been not to tamper with what's working.  I've tended to make duplicates of my best sellers that are slightly altered or updated, or use a different key word approach, and then put cover photos on those.  That way I haven't rocked the boat on what is obviously working, and I'm ready to roll with a cover version too.  For new items, I'm pretty much uniformly adding cover photos.  

In general, I'm very excited about this feature, although I have to say I'm putting almost as much time into cover images these days as to adding new art.   I also really like the caption feature under the photos.

[Mariholly]

You may be right, but the recommendation was to create cover photos, because this was going to be prioritized. So I did it. It is possible that in my case it has also influenced the fact that I am not very much in favor of downloads, (although I have to reconvert some designs so that they can be downloaded even if I do not like the idea of ​​unlimited downloads or accept returns, for example) and that it is a cluster of circumstances. In addition to the fact that in general sales have dropped for many designers, as we can read here. In any case, I will also investigate this new tool, I find it interesting to be able to introduce photo captions and explain with our words some aspect that we want to highlight, but I also think that if I want to explain something on the back of my card design, creating a new scene will be redundant for the client because there is already a photograph of the back and it will also take up valuable time. Honestly, I am much more in favor of quality than quantity and I prefer to create one or two scenes of the best quality that I am capable of than ten that contribute nothing. But I don't know how that is going to affect my positioning... And if it hurts me? Then I will have to do it. I don't know, we'll see how all this evolves according to the experience of each one.

[Fiorenzo]

OH. MY. GOODNESS! This is F A N T A S T I C! This opens up so many opportunities... how to present the product, adding useful hints such as recommended image sizes, showing different pre-defined text styles, showing the whole unwrapped image in mugs, a.s.o... 

PRECIOUS! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

Did I already mention, you are the best (don't mind my little rants every now and then)?

P.S. Will check it out ASAP. One nice-to-have suggestion: it would be cool if we could define one mockup for the marketplace and a different one for collections and products. This way we can show beautiful insitu imagery on the marketplace and simpler product views in let's say product collections and listings to avoid customers being overwhelmed and to facilitate navigation and choice.

[LauraLee]

Did anyone else wonder about the Media for the store that we had to complete?  I was a little confused, if this would have anything to do with that.  Maybe not right now, but in the future?  

💡And thinking about this right off the top of my head, why not create different sizes so that we can also use them for social media?  It does require a lot of additional graphic storage on our part, and anything to free up some time like this would be helpful to everyone!  Plus our customers could actually pin or share these images on other social media!  

[angelafuller729]

I agree.  It would be great if we could actually add media that fits Pinterest (longer) - or that have the ability to be used with Canva's "auto size" for social media.  That would just make it so much easier to share different views/sizes on social media!

[Anne]

This is definitely an improvement, thanks.

So now we have to track all previously added cover photos to add a caption?

OMG, I see another huge pile of work coming my way ...

[KC]

I have one current concern, since we need to so widely source insitus now. 

Can it be a content management practice to NOT immediately delete entire product listings based on cover photo images - reason being - it's been widely discussed in these forums that we've seen placeholder images, fonts, and artwork that people have legitimately purchased through POD art sites be "recalled" for an issue sorted out with rightful original owners, etc. 

With 10 images available, that 's a lot of room for something like this to happen within those media/insitus/backdrops. 

I'd hate for anyone's products to be deleted entirely if a component of an insitu is what is being called into question.
Can the uploaded media/cover photos be what is removed and NOT an entire product listing if this happens? 

I'm basing this request on the assumption that a designer has rightfully purchased/subscribed to a service offering insitu images, or using public domain images as backdrops or pieces of these cover photos (NOT as part of the actual product design itself). And also on the assumption that using a background image that you are NOT selling as part of the artwork does not typically "make up the primary value of the item being sold" - but also not quite trusting any artwork supplier to safeguard others from assuming they have copyrights after purchasing the same background at some point.

Hopefully what I'm trying to say makes sense?

[PacifierCity]

Sorry to all to post this twice (https://community.zazzle.com/t5/ask-a-question/new-media-manager-cover-photos/td-p/86085), but as this is the Zazzle sponsored post, I probably should have posted these questions here:

Questions: Does each image need to display the product? Can one image be used to show only part of the product? Can one be used that only displays a store logo and contact info? Can one use the ten to create a how to personalize type slide show? Those are the questions that come to the top of my mind at the moment...

PC

......................

[Mariholly]

In the description that Z provides us, it says to use the 10 images to effectively tell the story of the product. I have understood that it is like putting your description in images and highlighting aspects that you want to highlight. Well, it may make sense. In the mobile version the description is hidden, you have to go look for it, I don't think many customers do it and I think a large percentage of potential customers do their first search on their mobile and maybe save to favorites. But in any case, in the mobile version the footer is not visible either. It seems to only show up when you make the image big.... So maybe we should only use it with keyword phrases for search, although it might be repetitive. I added a few images along these lines to this product yesterday, but I also don't think it's worth spending time re-posting an image with a mobile phone to mention the download in the footer. Maybe being able to add feet to Z scenes was an option. So I think I'll use it if the product requires it. I will now caption all my cover photos.

https://www.zazzle.com/elegant_overlay_gradient_grey_shades_photo_wedding_save_the_date-256237222654...

[Barbara]

Maybe what we need is for Zazzle to explain captions to us--why and when we'd use them and how they'd benefit both us and the customer. Zazzle's captions simply state the aspect of the view: front, back, side, etc., which serves a purpose when front and back views of a product are the same on both sides until images are placed on those sides.

Colorwash's Home

[PlayfulPixel]

Some real examples would definitely help.
For example:  "merchandise products adding call outs" - from the official Zazzle page.

But what can we put in the call outs - and what can't we put in.
What exactly does merchandise products mean in the context?

[Marblewave]

What sort of things should we put in the caption field? Saying why the design is unique, or what it’s inspired by, seems too similar to the description field. Is this nevertheless what we’re meant to do? I have to admit. at first I assumed the caption field was like an ALT tag, which could be read out like an audio tag for people with visual impairments.

[MidnightZazzler]

How is this different from a collection image?

Can I just upload a collection image instead of spending valuable designing time with this new hoop we all have to jump though?

Will we ever be able to download a product image on a transparent image?

[CreativeLeahG]

I've been creating covers with multiple views and text since the start, so I am wondering how having them all separated will benefit me over the one cover image?  Split testing would be the only way to tell. But in all honesty after creating hundreds of covers (at the sacrifice of marketing and new product design) I am uncertain how much time I will have to create 10 images per product ... not much is the answer. Hence sadly this innovation (which I like and can see the promise) I may have to skip .... meanwhile I have 2 questions.

1. We were advised products with covers would rank higher in the marketplace than those without and many have seen great results re this. Will it now be the case that the multi-media images will trump the products with covers?

2. Will people be able to show other items from the collection ie ... RSVP's , Save the dates etc that accompany the invitation re this multi-media set? 

Thank you

[Cat]

I'm having trouble envisioning how this works from a customer perspective. Are there just extra choices in terms of the views/covers? If anybody out there has created multiple covers for a product, would you mind posting a link so we can see how it looks? Thanks!

[tiffjamaica]

Hey Cat... here's one I'm playing with 
https://www.zazzle.com/2024_watercolor_storefronts_medium_calendar-158440783514856380
I'm using the extra photos to show off some candid photos of the paintings I made for this calendar.  I had another photo with my face in it holding one of the paintings... but I deleted it. It seemed TOO personal.  It's hard to know where the line is here!  It would be great if Zazzle could link to some best practices examples.

[Malissa]

I was wondering about adding pics of the art or art in progress.  I think that really tells the story of the piece, but maybe not the product. It seems a little ambiguous in terms of how to use the additional photos, but I feel like extra views of the product itself is a bit repetitive (for what I have to offer) since Zazzle provides them. I like how you did that a lot! 

[Cat]

Thank you so much, that's very helpful! So from the customer's perspective it's just like there are more insitus to look through - somehow I was thinking that the customer was shown a screen with all of the images at the same time or something. Anyhow, your images look great and a calendar is a great product to add more covers to since there are so many different pieces of art to look at. I'm sorta struggling trying to figure out how I'll come up with more than one cover for a wedding invitation - it's already a struggle not to repeat the same covers too many times. Hmmmmmmmmm....

[tiffjamaica]

I’ve done a few invitations (not wedding) and included cover pics showing the front, front and back together, and digital version. I could probably include candids of my artwork being made, but I’m not sure that’s really interesting to someone if art isn’t the whole focus of the product (like the calendar).  I think I read to only include the product you’re listing, but it would be nice fo show off coordinating items…

[Sandra-]

@tiffjamaica great ideas - and I love your paintings!! 

[angelafuller729]

I love this for calendars (you've done a great job!), and can see it working for sticker sheets, scrapbooking pages etc. 

[PAZP]

That's fabulous. You did a beautiful job on each one. 

[Sandra-]

Hi @Cat so far I've gone down the route of showcasing my design on some of the alternative options offered for a product. So for this baby bodysuit, I've also shown it on the baby and toddler t-shirt https://www.zazzle.com/boho_retro_colors_rainbow_little_wonder_baby_bodysuit-256029047454056226 

For this invitation https://www.zazzle.com/modern_script_photo_overlay_qr_code_wedding_invitation-256389342978961612  I've shown it on just a few of the other paper choices and also with the different corner/edge types. In the captions I've said what the paper is and how many papers they can choose from, and in the caption for the pic with the different corner choices I've added a tip that they may have to move the text slightly so as not to be cut away. It's quite time consuming so I'll do it for a few of my bestsellers to test the water and see if it makes a difference to the choices customers make and the impact on sales. Time will tell. Hopefully the option to download the Zazzle mockups with transparent backgrounds will become available (fingers crossed!) as this will save a lot of time having to remove the background for each one (which I mainly do in Adobe Express). 

I'm not sure if this is the best way to go so would also love to see some best practices and whether we are allowed to add like a general text only image with helpful explanations for customers which could then be uploaded relatively quickly to any products to which the same advice applies.  

[Cat]

Oh wow! Those are great ideas - thanks so much for sharing!

[Sandra-]

You’re welcome Cat 👍

[tiffjamaica]

thanks and your covers look great! love the baby tee and showing the design only as one of your covers!  

[Sandra-]

Thank you 😊

[Marcia]

Those look fantastic (but a whole lot of work put in on your end for 1 product...)!

[Sandra-]

Thanks Marcia! Yes it did take a while so I’ll definitely have to prioritise just for certain designs for now and see how it goes.

[Barbara]

It dawned on me while off doing unrelated things that we may have gotten caught in a web of ten, focusing on that number as if it were a goal. What Zazzle said was "up to ten," not the necessity of ten. Some products might do well with a greater number of images, some would neither require it nor benefit from it. We might do better considering how a product image could show this or that and go for it, while at other times, like me and my simple postcards, we'll draw all but a blank after a single cover. Zazzle has given us the freedom of options.

There. Now I feel better.

Colorwash's Home

[Cat]

So, I'm putting this as a separate comment rather than buried in the conversation in the hopes that a mod will see it. I asked folks to post some examples so I could see how it works, but I couldn't see any captions. I was just clicking on the thumbnails to move through the different images. Then, totally by accident, I clicked on the cover photo and it opened in the scrolling thing with the captions - but I never would have seen that if I hadn't accidentally clicked. Maybe it's just me, but it wasn't at all obvious that I was supposed to click on the thing and I wonder how many customers will actually figure it out.