Six tools to create visually stimulating content
Newspaper Editor Arthur Brisbane first coined the phrase, “A picture is a worth a thousand words.” With an average of only six seconds to capture the attention of your audience, this explains why marketers include visual aids in content.
Here are six FREE tools and ideas for using them. Grab 91 more free marketing tools here!
Add an engaging video
The attention span of our audience is shrinking. It’s why sites like Twitter and Vine were created. Videos creatively engage your audience, and provide shareable content that popular platforms like YouTube, Pinterest and Facebook love.
Camstudio – CamStudio is software created to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard video files.
Here are just a few ways to use this software:
– Create a demonstration video about your product or industry
– Create a video to share a case study or support an educational blog post
– Create a series of videos answering your industry’s most frequently asked questions
– Use it as a customer service tool when helping users of your product or service
– Create a video information product to sell
– Embed a short, on-topic video in an email marketing campaign
Capture the message with photos
Images evoke feelings and emotions, help your audience visualize your point, are highly shareable, and are a valuable SEO tool. Every blog post should include a quality image that shares the key message of the blog and helps tell the story. Social media posts that include an image are shared 50% more often than simple text-based posts. If that’s not enough, the most popular social media channels, like Instagram and Pinterest, were built for images.
Picmonkey – Picmonkey is a photo editor that offers a free option, and a very reasonably priced upgrade level.
Here are a few uses for this software:
– Enhance a single photo for a social media update
– Create a collage to tell a story
– Create a collage to share key points for a blog post
– Create a collage of the evolution of a product or service
– Create an enhanced Facebook cover photo to integrate your marketing across channels
Tell the story through an Infographic
Infographics are a quick and convenient method of conveying complex information. They are especially useful for sharing a process and telling a story.
Canva.com – Canva is an easy-to-use free graphic design platform and offers over 50,000 templates. They offer 284 infographic templates.
Infogr.am – Infogram is a free software offering over 30 chart types. The finished products can be downloaded as a PNG or PDF file for sharing or embedding into web pages, blog posts, or news articles.
Here are a few uses for this software:
– Share the resolution of a problem common in your industry
– Share the many uses of a product or service
– Create an educational tool or instructions
– Create a product timeline or customer journey
Communicate a key message with a text image
If we only have about six seconds to capture someone’s attention, then text images are certainly something to consider with content marketing. Text images communicate a key message in image format, usually with a creative background, like a chalkboard, or photo. They can be used strategically with blog posts that share list content, and with social media marketing.
Recitethis – Recitethis turns a quote or sentence into a masterpiece using one of several backdrops.
Pinstamatic – Pinstamatic ties to Pinterest but can also be used with other channels, like Facebook.
Here are a few uses for this software:
– Create an image of a blog title for easy sharing on image-based channels
– Create an image of an inspirational quote to use with social media channels
– Create images for customer testimonials for use on Pinterest, Facebook and the Website
Capture all key points with a Slideshow
A presentation or slideshow is a perfect medium for telling a story. This shareable content can be used to create sales material, case studies, or visual blog posts.
Slideshare – Slideshare is a presentation host site used to create visually stimulating slideshows for content marketing. Slideshows can be shared on social media channels or embedded in a webpage, blog post, or news article.
Here are a few uses for this software:
– Create a case study demonstrating a client success
– Create a presentation sharing the list of reasons to use your product or service (use customer testimonials for this)
– Create a presentation highlighting blog subheadings, or key points
– Create company awareness with holiday messaging (Mother’s Day presentation sample)
Need more convincing? Read 19 reasons to use visual content in your marketing.
Synnovatia Your posts are wonderful, Jackie. The visual aspect is especially helpful with content sharing. Even if we don’t use a channel like Pinterest, our audience may, and this is where the images and videos are very helpful.
You are genius, per usual. Because my left brain is supersized, I seldom consider the visual aspect to make my posts/content more appealing. Thank you!
jenhavice I had not heard of it either, Jen until doing research for this post. I have used Techsmith before and loved it, but I didn’t know they offered the free version of CamStudio. There are so many possibilities with it!
I haven’t heard of Camstudio before. I’m going to check it out. I’m still planning on putting together a Slideshare for my business and then adding it to my LinkedIn profile. That seems like a terrific idea.