So, you want professional-looking blog headers for your content marketing, but you’re not a designer? Have no fear….Publisher is here!

Many people work in environments where Microsoft Office Suite or Office 365 is the software of choice. If you’ve never used it, or have used it infrequently, Publisher can make creating content visuals easy. Plus… you don’t need to pay anything more to use it!

Did you know that Microsoft Publisher launched in 1975? As someone who has used Publisher since the 1980s, I feel somewhat qualified to share a few tips with you. 

Creating a Blog Header

Even though I use Adobe products when I am designing client materials, I still use Publisher to whip off my blog headers. I find it faster than using Illustrator.

The first thing you do is develop your blog title. Use Co-Schedule’s headline analyzer to ensure it’s a good one.

Open Publisher and choose the blank landscape template. Most blog headers are wider than they are long.

This is what your blank template looks like:

For this example, let’s say you work for a charity promoting its next golf tournament. Since the organization wants business people to register, let’s use this blog title, “How to Network at Charity Golf Tournaments.”

Notice I didn’t use your specific tournament. I stayed generic to demonstrate how your target audience can benefit from participating in any charity tournament. That way, you can share the title in social media and attract interest from a broader audience. The body content can include details about your specific event.

Now, it’s time to choose an image that will represent your title. If you subscribe to a photo site, you may as well start there. If not, there are many free image sites you can explore.

Here’s a public domain image I discovered on Flickr:

Download the image and save it to your hard drive in an appropriate folder. Next, we’ll import it into Publisher. Click on “Insert” in the top menu bar and then click “Pictures.”

A folder pops up with images in it. If this isn’t the correct folder, choose the one that holds the golf image and click on it.

This what you’ll see:

Now, it’s time to add your blog title. Click “Insert” in the top menu bar and then click “Draw Text Box.”

Using your cursor, draw a text box the width of the image. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly matched. You can fix it later.

Enter the blog title in the text box. The font style will automatically show up in Publisher’s default font.

To change the font style, highlight the title and select another one. You may want to use one of your brand font styles for every post or change them according to the title and content.

To enlarge the title size, highlight the title and click on the font size number to the right of the font name.

Now, decide whether you want your title on the left, middle, or right side of the text box. You can adjust the alignment where the arrow is. I chose to center the title.

Next, decide what color text you want for your title. You may want to choose one of your brand colors or a color from the photo.

I chose blue.

Using your cursor, drag the title text box to fit up against the image. Drag in the text box sides if required.

You can add a fill color to the text box, but let’s keep it simple for now. In order to import the entire image into your blog post, you’ll need to save it and give it a name.

First, click on the title. Hold down the “Shift” button on your keyboard and click on the image. Then click “Group” at the top. This now groups these two images together.

Next, right-click on the combined image and select “Save as Picture.” A folder will pop up. Select the folder of your choice and then click the “Save” button on the bottom right. Give your image a name using lower case letters without spaces. Example: “network-golf-tournaments.”  And, here’s why:

When you have found the right image to use, either an illustration, chart or photo, the next step is to optimize that image for use on your website. Image SEO starts with the right file name. Of course this is the first location to use that keyword. Without even looking at the actual image, you want Google to know what the image is about. It’s simple: if your image is a sunrise in Paris showing the Notre Dame, the file name shouldn’t be DSC4536.jpg, but notre-dame-paris-sunrise.jpg. The main keyword would be Notre Dame, as that is the main subject of the photo, that is why I added that at the beginning of the file name.” (Yoast)

You now have a blog header image to import at the top of your blog post!

This is just the beginning. There are many more sophisticated things you can add to make your headers even more appealing. For now, this is a great start!