How to Use Placeit.net: Full Beginner Tutorial

At some point every business needs to create a brand image. Logos and design communicate the vision of your business and help customers identify with your products and services. But where do you begin? This is where Placeit comes in. Placeit helps you create high-quality branding and market assets for your business.

How do you use Placeit? The best way to begin using Placeit is to sign up for a free trial on their website. You will gain access to their free template gallery where you can explore their design templates and other features before you commit to purchasing Placeit.

If you are unfamiliar with graphic design tools, or you are unsure how to visually brand your business, Placeit is a great tool to help you streamline the process. I’ve curated the information below to help you understand Placeit’s features and provide you will a full beginner tutorial.

» MORE: Does Placeit Have a Free Trial?

What Can I Do with Placeit?

When you visit Placeit’s website you will find many options in the navigation bar. Don’t let this overwhelm you. While Placeit has many features that can aid the visual marketing aspects of your business, the general services Placeit provides can be broken down into several categories.

“Placeit is a powerful online mockup, video and design template generator. Create all of your branding and marketing digital assets directly from your browser without downloading complicated software.” – From the Placeit website.

Placeit’s services fall into four general categories:

Mockup generation
Template design
Logo creation
Video creation

Let’s jump into some of the features of each of these categories and how to use them.

But first, if you’d rather watch a video tutorial here is a full Placeit tutorial for beginners on YouTube.

Use the Mockup Generator

In case you are unfamiliar with mockups, mockups are templates for your design. Think of a blank billboard or a blank T-shirt—these are mockups. They help simplify the design process by providing you with a canvas on which to place your design or image.

Placeit has mockups for plenty of products. For example, you can use mockups of T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, images, books, stickers and more.

To access Placeit’s mockups, simply select the ‘Mockup’ icon on the top-right of the Placeit’s homepage and begin browsing through their many selections. Then select the particular product you would like design, for example, ‘T-shirts’.

Once you have selected your desired product to mockup you can upload your own image or design, or add text.

To upload an image, select ‘upload image’. Then you can begin adjusting the size and the image frame. Crop the image and select download. Note that once you download your altered image, you can’t make changes.

If you would like to access your most recent images, or all of your previous images, select ‘my drive’ in the top right corner of the screen.

To save or bookmark a markup which you may want to use in the future, select the desired mockup and save it by clicking on the heart icon above the image. To see it later, go to the left-hand side of the menu bar and click on the heart icon.

There are great Placeit Tutorials if you would like more in depth assistance with making mockups which you can access on YouTube. Here is a list of some of their helpful mockup tutorial videos.

Mockups are a great way to streamline the design process when creating products with your brand designs. For more information about pricing, see the sections on Placeit’s pricing later in this article.

Design Templates

Placeit’s design templates will help you design things like flyers, labels and social media images. A design template would be like a billboard or T-shirt with preset design which you can manipulate to your taste. They are like training wheels for the design process.

To access design templates, select ‘Designs’ on the navigation bar and then choose the type. For example, you might choose a template for your Instagram story or a dog t-shirt design. Here are some other examples of design templates featured on Placeit’s design template page.

90’s T-Shirt Template
Kid’s T-Shirt design
Poster Maker
Twitch Banner
YouTube banner
Greeting Card

So, if you would like to design a greeting card. You would select a greeting card template that vibes with your aesthetic taste and replace the preset generic text with your very own witticism. You can also modify things like frame and size, just as with the mockups. You can even change the featured image.

Design templates are a great investment. Not only do they save you the cost of a hiring a freelance designer, they save you time. Placeit’s design templates help you quickly and easily show off your vision for your company.

Make Logos

In the fall of 2010, the clothing retail giant GAP put out its new logo. It changed from all uppercase white letters on blue background, to standard cased letters with a whiteish background and a small blue square behind the ‘p’.

You probably do not remember the latter logo because they reverted to their traditional logo a week later. Why? The public was furious. For so long they had learned to associate GAP’s traditional logo with the products they bought at GAP stores that changing the logo made GAP feel like a different company with different products.

People may recall your business by a cute jingle or a catchy company name, but they will remember it visually by your logo. Placeit will help you to create that logo.

“Each Logo Maker is designed by a team of professional graphic designers so no matter which template you choose, your logo will look incredible. Skilled artists make sure each logo is fine-tuned and will look incredible for your brand or business.” – From Placeit’s website.

To create a logo for your business on Placeit, you must first select the ‘Logo’ option form the navigation bar at the top of the webpage. Once you have navigated to the logo page, select a logo template.

The logo will appear in the center of your screen. On the left side of the logo you will find options to change features like text, font, and color, or remove text from the logo. On the right side of the logo you will find options to change the graphic color, graphic, background, and choose a stock or custom image.

Placeit’s logo design feature makes it simple and easy for anyone to create a logo for their business that they can be proud of.

Make Videos

Internet users are spending large and ever-increasing amounts of time watching tutorials, finding entertainment, and exploring new products on YouTube. There are close to 2 billion users logging on to use YouTube every month. If YouTube is not already part of your marketing strategy, it should be.

Like it’s design and logo templates, Placeit also has video templates. These templates will help make your videos look professionally produced at low cost and in little time. Professional looking videos are a great way to connect with your customers and help them learn about your products or services.

First, go to the navigation bar at the top of the Placeit’s webpage and select ‘Videos’. Then you filter what you would like to create: a video for Instagram, product demos, slideshows, and more. You can even add audio to your videos.

“Skip the ringtone music and use Placeit’s library of professionally recorded and licensed music. Captivate your audience with more than 1,300 different audio tracks. With just one click add everything from alternative beats to soulful jazz.” – From Placeit’s website.

Once you have selected your video template you will be given options on the left to change things like font style, color, playback style, add slides and much more. On the right you can choose music from Placeit’s music library or save the choices you like for later use.

You can also add background images from Placeit’s stock images or upload your own.

According to a survey done by Wyzowl State, 92% of marketers report that video is an important part of their marketing strategy. That’s up from 78% in 2015. And another study predicts that by 2021 the average person will watch about 100 minutes of video online per-day.

For these reasons it’s very important that you make videos that are professional and visually appealing with a service like Placeit.

How Much Does Placeit Cost?

Hiring a graphic designer for your business is expensive. According to freelancer.com the average in-house graphic designers would cost a company about $48,651. In addition to a yearly salary, hiring a graphic designer means you will have to go through the process of finding one.

You could hire a design agency which will cost you about $85 to $100 per hour and freelancer.com reports that the average graphic design job on their website costs business about $140.

While hiring a professional might seem like the most responsible option for an important part of your business, you will have to weigh the pros and cons.

Placeit Unlimited Cost

Consider the costs of a Placeit Unlimited account.

Monthly = $14.95
Annual = $99.95 – That is a 44.29% savings from the monthly plan, or only $8.33 per month.
Single Purchases = Obviously this depends on the product that you are purchasing. For example, one design template runs $2, image mockups are $7, video mockups are $9, and one logo is $39. If you are looking at using a lot of graphic design for your business, an unlimited account makes much more sense.
Discount: All Free Mockups users now get 15% off any Placeit plan!

While you will have to do some work, Placeit makes design easy for those who lack experience. You are paying a fraction of the cost of hiring a graphic designer, and you get unlimited access to a number of features, should you need them as your business evolves.

» MORE: Is Placeit Worth It? Everything You Need To Know

What Do I Get with a Placeit Unlimited Subscription?

Let’s take a look at what you gain access to for the cost of a Placeit Unlimited subscription.

Mockups – A library of over 13,000 mockup templates. Placeit claims that it has the world’s largest mockup library.
Designs – There are over 5,700 design templates to choose from on Placeit.
Videos – According to Placeit, you will have access to hundreds of stunning video templates.
Logos – With Placeit Unlimited you will gain access to over 4,600 customizable logo templates.

Placeit’s already large library is always expanding. The templates on Placeit are designed by experts and you do not need design or video editing skills to customize your templates.

If you want to use Placeit before you make an investment, you can play around with some its features and free mockups here.

» MORE: Can Placeit Be Used for Commercial Use?

How Can I Use a Graphic Design Service like Placeit for My Business?

I have already covered some of the ways which you could use Placeit to help market your business and save you time and money. But let’s dive a little deeper into how you could get the most out of your Placeit subscription.

Get Them to Stay

A study done by Carleton University reported that it takes users 50 milliseconds to determine the visual appeal of a website. By creating a logo and other appealing visuals on your businesses webpage you can decrease the bounce rate, and give prospective customers a sense of your business as quickly as possible.

Get Them to Remember

It is important to create relative visual uniformity for your business so that you are recognizable to customers. People remember much more of what they see than what they hear or read. By creating a consistent visual appeal that shares the vison and story of your company, you can be sure that customers will think of you when the time comes to purchase.

Get Them to Buy

Adobe found that companies ‘that foster creativity enjoy 1.5x greater market share.’

“Top companies are leading with design. Others that aren’t willing to invest in design because they think it can’t be measured or tied to ROI will fall behind. Business as usual is no longer good enough. Mature industries that have focused on more, better and faster now need to adjust their thinking to include design as a key value differentiator.” – John Maeda, design partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

The need for design is skyrocketing. Adobe also reports that 71% of companies are creating 10 times the number of assets than they were just a few years ago. If you want your customers to buy, you are going to have to visually market yourself competitively.

Alternatives to Placeit

There are some graphic design services which are similar to Placeit. Let’s take a look at some of the top competitors.

Canva – This company was created in Australia and has a library of over 10,000 templates. One advantage of Canva is that you can try it for free for 30 days. The Pro subscription is $12.95 and the yearly subscription comes out $9.95 per month. Placeit vs. Canva
Smartmockups – This company has a library with over 23 categories of images. New images are added every Monday. The advantage with Smartmockups is the ability to integrate it with other design apps. There is a 7-day free trial and a $9 a month premium account, $19 a month pro account, and a $69 a month team account. Placeit vs. Smartmockups
Mediamodifier – This company has a library of 2292 templates with more being added every week. They have a free option or you can buy a $15 one day ticket, a $9 a month annual subscription, or a $19 a month subscription. Placeit vs. Mediamodifier

Deciding on a graphic design service for your company is an important decision, and you should recognize your options. However, the great thing about Placeit is its massive library of professional templates, designs, mockups, photos, and more. Try it out and see what you think!