Visuals are vital to your content marketing efforts. Humans are visual creatures, after all. We are more likely to recall concepts visually than if we just hear or read them. When you hear information, you’re likely to remember only about 10% of it three days later. If a relevant image accompanies the same information, you’ll retain around 65% of it in the same period!
If you want to boost awareness and make your content memorable, you’re going to want to create more visual assets. But introducing more visuals obviously adds some complexity to your content creation process. Do you have a designer on staff? If so, you’re probably already leveraging their creative prowess. If not, you may need to leverage tools that can help a non-designer still produce quality visuals.
To aid in this endeavor, we’ve compiled a short list of the best tools available to enhance your content quality. Let’s look at the best tools for creating eye-popping visuals in 2020.
What Do Your Visuals Say About Your Brand?
You may have a very engaging content calendar, with topics and ideas that you know your audience wants to learn about, but how will you get their attention?
Your target market is bombarded by content all day long, so you must stand out, and not in a bad way. You need to use tools that allow you to create professional-looking visuals that will get noticed. Your competitors are trying all the same tactics you are, so you need to be in a position to be “extra.”
Text alone can be less inviting and seem too complex for readers. But breaking it up with meaningful visuals as well as creating visual-based content helps you get your message out to more people.
Visual Tools You’ll Love
What makes these tools covetable is that they are easy to use, affordable, and have plenty of features. They can also perfectly complement your content marketing software to ensure organization and efficient collaboration throughout your workflow.
Infographics
Infographics have been a go-to visual format for presenting complex topics and data for years, and they are still very popular. In fact, a 2019 survey by Venngage found that original graphics (infographics) were the best type of graphics in terms of helping marketers reach their goals. They offer you the opportunity to make data more interesting and easier to consume. Infographics are certainly the epitome of blending information and visuals for better retention.
You may find that infographics aren’t always easy to design. Formatting and sizing issues can be problematic. They can also be time-intensive when creating from scratch. That’s why platforms with templates are an excellent alternative.
Easelly is one of the best infographic apps available. Its name says it all because it is easy. It works as a drag and drop platform. You choose the elements you want and move them around as necessary. The selection is huge, with many different backgrounds and objects. You can also upload your images. Easily change colors as well to match those of your brand. You can customize every part of the infographic.
With no design expertise required, you’ll be able to churn out more infographics without relying on designers. With more infographics, you may see a rise in engagement.
Liven Up Your Content with Video Slideshows
Video is likely a critical part of your content plan for 2020. It’s an engaging medium that often pays huge dividends. It’s also one of the harder forms of content to do well, often requiring resources, time and expertise beyond the average marketer’s capabilities. But when you don’t have the time or budget for video, a batch of good photos and some solid tech might be all you need.
Use your images and develop a slideshow that provides a recap of an idea, event, or new product launch. Add it to a recap blog of an industry event you attended. Or share a slideshow of real customers using your product. Another idea is to show off your employees, offering a behind-the-scenes view of your brand.
Do it all with Promo.com. Promo (formerly Slidely) provides a variety of creation tools and templates allowing you to combine images or videos, add filters, add graphic text, and choose background music. In minutes, you can have a professional-looking video, ready to share straight from the app or embed into a blog or email. There is no limit to using video slides to engage audiences.
Promo is also available as an app on your smartphone. You can make killer videos from photos on your phone on the go, which is helpful if you want to post timely content from an event to social media.
Animate Your Stale Presentations
Is PowerPoint still your go-to tool for developing presentations or other content related to product demos or teasers? PowerPoint has undoubtedly evolved over the years, but it has a bad rap. Many people see a PowerPoint and immediately zone out.
Change all that by using animated videos on PowToon. You can create animated videos with lots of visual appeal with the app. It works as a perfect medium for showcasing how products or services work, pitching your brand’s value, or creating short snippets about what’s happening with your brand.
With PowToon, you have a variety of templates available, as well as backgrounds, characters, and transitions. You have the option to edit an existing template or start from scratch. With the template option, it requires much less effort or expertise.
The Skillset of a Graphic Designer in One Platform
Professional graphic designers are great assets. You probably have at least one or use a freelancer. Or maybe some of your writers have a bit of an aptitude for design! The problem with this approach is that you might have inconsistency in your design.
That’s easily addressed for those who aren’t professionals with Canva. Canva is invaluable for those who find the Adobe Creative Suite too intimidating. It’s “easy” factor is only bested by its many options. What’s great about Canva is that it’s easy to repeat a certain style.
First, it has prebuilt template sizes and designs for every social media profile. You can add your brand’s colors and fonts in your brand kit, so you can quickly take a template and recolor it to fit your brand. You have total control over the colors, text, and images you use.
There are plenty of free assets available, but upgrading to a paid account or buying individual photos is extremely affordable.
Ready to boost your visual appeal in 2020? Start by checking out these design tools. For more ideas, inspiration, and (tool) tips like this, be sure to subscribe to the DivvyHQ blog.