Trying to keep up in today’s rapidly changing marketing landscape is a bit like trying to walk on a treadmill.
Only someone else is controlling it and it keeps getting faster and steeper with every passing minute.
We get it. It’s difficult to stay on top of all of the new technology, design trends, and your customer’s ever-evolving needs and preferences.
How does anyone do it?
We find the best way to not only keep up but stay ahead is to embrace what’s new.
Right now, artificial intelligence is the next big thing, especially AI art generators like DALL-E 2. If you’re looking to stay on that treadmill, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about this technology while it’s still new.
There are other companies already enjoying some success with DALL-E 2. If you’re wondering how you can get in on that action, then wonder no further.
Today’s blog is going to jump right in and tell you all about DALL-E 2, how it works, and how you can harness this technology to give your brand the visual boost you’re looking for.
What is DALL-E 2?
DALL-E 2 is an AI model developed by research lab, OpenAI. Its claim to fame is that it can generate highly detailed and realistic images using only a written text prompt.
How?
To put it very simply, DALL-E 2 takes your written prompt, analyzes millions of images in its database, and then generates a relevant image based on your request.
And you can ask it to do almost anything.
The results vary depending on how detailed your prompt is but are generally pretty impressive.
But surely using technology that advanced comes with a hefty price tag, right?
Not really. While it’s not free, DALL-E 2 isn’t very expensive either.
It uses a credit-based system. When you sign up, you’ll receive 50 free credits for your first month and then 15 free credits every month afterward. You exchange your credits for images and if you run out, all you have to do is buy more credits.
As of today’s date, 115 credits will run you $15. Since 1 credit equals one typed prompt and four images are generated for each prompt, 115 credits will get you quite a number of images for your money.
Is DALL-E 2 replacing designers?
Not just yet.
DALL-E 2 is a great way to generate visually stunning images to use for your marketing purposes, but it has its limits.
It’s not very good at spelling and it sometimes gives odd or inaccurate responses to your written prompts.
That’s because, as cool as it is, DALL-E 2 is still a machine and doesn’t have the complexity of a human brain.
It can’t understand your target audience, it can’t understand branding, and it can’t understand keeping up with your competitors.
You’ll need humans for all of that because nothing that comes out fresh out of DALL-E 2 is going to be ready to go.
Your designers will need to tweak those images into something you can actually use, so keep them around because they are the difference between a typical AI-generated image and an amazing image that is on brand and working for you.
What you can do is have your designers use DALL-E 2 to help them do the following:
Design high-quality product images.
Humans are visual creatures.
We like to see vivid colors, clean design, and just the right combination of lines and shapes.
If you want to sell a product or service, especially online, you’ll have to make it appealing to your customers and exciting enough for them to stop scrolling to stop and check out what you have to offer.
Stunning product images are a great way to do that, and DALL-E 2 can help by not only saving your designers time on the ideation phase but save you the money and time you’d spend on a photoshoot.
Using DALL-E 2, your designers can type out a prompt, like “A happy couple enjoying DesignityLemonade on a beach” and let the machine crank out a relevant image in no time.
Selling something that’s hard to photograph in the element it was designed for?
They can ask DALL-E to generate an image of “my tent on the top of Mount Everest” or “man using a camera to take pictures of an underwater coral reef,” and they can have something to work with in no time.
And if you have a product that’s easy to photograph but a little boring to look at, why not spice it up with a cool AI-generated background to keep your customers excited?
Your designers can take those DALL-E 2 images and tweak them into something truly eye-catching that will stop your customers' scrolling and make them pay attention.
Create a stunning website.
Your website design is like a digital storefront for your business.
Just like the stores at the mall used to put extra effort into their displays to draw in customers, you need to put in some effort to make sure your website is appealing, easy to navigate, and fun to look at.
If you’re going to drive people to your website with your ads, a cool banner would make a great first impression for new prospects who want to see what you have to offer.
And why stop with your banner? It’s crucial for your website to have as many fun and appealing images on everything from your About Us page to the images you use for your blogs.
DALL-E 2 can help your designers whip up something creative and interesting in half the time that it would normally take them. Want to see your store on the moon? Your team surfing in a hurricane? Just type it in and cut your design time in half.
It’s also a great way to optimize your images for SEO. The prompts used to generate them can easily be incorporated into your image description, using the keywords and phrases that will get you to the top of that Google search.
Make your socials shine.
In this day and age, your social media pages are the first thing that a potential client is likely to see of your brand.
Why not make them look great with some AI-generated images to spice up those socials?
The folks who follow your company online love to share articles, products, Tweets, and photos.
If you want the content they’re sharing to encourage even more likes, shares, and follows, then make sure your socials are full of captivating images.
The internet is a funny thing, after all. We never know what the next viral thing is going to be.
From hilarious memes to awesome-looking backgrounds for your employees and products, DALL-E 2 can help your designers create positive and unique first impressions for your new customers as well as help you increase engagement with your existing ones.
And all in a fraction of the time that it would take them to ideate and create on their own.
Use it in the real world too.
Just because DALL-E 2 is a digital tool doesn’t mean its creations have to stay in the digital world.
Already, companies have begun using DALL-E 2-generated images in real-life marketing campaigns, a few to great success.
AI technology is big right now but, as more and more folks get on board, it’ll eventually lose its novelty.
Might as well strike while the iron is hot, right?
Just like Cosmopolitan was able to boast the “world’s first artificially created magazine cover” to much oohing and ahhing, you can take your DALL-E 2 images and use them for your real-life marketing as well.
Magazine covers, brochures, posters, you name it.
Because OpenAI gives DALL-E 2 users full usage rights to sell, reprint, and merchandise the images created with their software (whether it was paid for with free credits or not!) you can do it with the peace of mind that OpenAI won’t be sending you a strongly worded letter about it.
Tweak your images to perfection.
DALL-E 2 is great for not only generating your images but editing them to perfection as well.
Using its editing feature, your designers can easily delete an unappealing part of an image, make your stubborn human model open their eyes, or change certain colors to better match your brand.
They can also add elements to images to better suit your marketing campaign. Need an erupting volcano in the background?
DALL-E 2 can give them a great starting point.
Need to sharpen up an image or add a cute cat on roller skates? No problem, just ask DALL-E 2 to get it started and your designers can finish the job in no time.
It’s like giving your creative team an assistant AI designer and photo editor at their beck and call.
Just be sure you are crystal clear in your text prompts when creating that initial image, because AI tends to be very literal. Editing may take a little bit of trial and error to get right, so be patient.
Or better yet, leave it to your design team.
Get that inspiration.
Not too keen on using AI art-generated images in your marketing campaign?
Afraid your designers will be offended?
Just remind them that it’s here to help them, not to replace them.
DALL-E 2 is an excellent way to churn out a few mood boards without having to spend hours and hours sourcing relevant images that match your mind’s vision.
If it’s the Friday of an exceptionally busy week, full of endless project requests and countless surprises, then it’s perfectly normal for your creative team’s creative juices to slow to a trickle.
The great thing about artificial intelligence art generators is that they don’t burn out like human designers do. And that’s what makes it such a great tool.
Does your creative team need some inspiration to spark their creativity? DALL-E 2 will be happy to provide it.
Want to see how one style of your logo would look versus another? DALL-E 2 can quickly generate both styles so your designers can instantly see what works best.
It’s a great way to find a starting point on those days when you’re just not feeling it.
<div class="c-blog_comp-cta cc-component-1"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-wrap"><img src="https://global-uploads.webflow.com/61cdf3c5e0b8155f19e0105b/6369722e59155470b6840033_Potential-clients.png" loading="lazy" alt="" class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-img"></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-right"><div class="c-blog_comp-content"><div class="c-text-wrapper cc-mb-32"><div class="c-title-4 cc-bold"><strong>Want to save money without sacrificing the quality?</strong></div></div><div class="c-text-wrapper"><div class="c-text-2">Say goodbye to traditional, expensive agencies and unreliable marketplaces. Say hello to Designity.<br></div></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-wrapper"><a href="/pricing" target="_blank" class="c-button cc-primary cc-inverted w-button"><strong>Get Your 2-Week Trial</strong></a></div></div></div>
Just remember not to lean too much.
As we mentioned earlier in this article, nothing that comes out of DALL-E 2 should be considered “ready to go” when you’re generating images to use for your brand.
Be sure your designers have a chance to tweak all images and edit out anything that feels “off” or strays too close to that uncanny valley.
We find the best way to get the full use out of DALL-E 2 is to give your creative team the ideas you’re looking for and let them use the AI as a tool to help them narrow it down to your vision.
Have you ever used DALL-E 2 for your marketing campaigns?
