A picture truly is worth a thousand words and the reasons to add visual content to blogs and online articles are truly compelling.
1. According to Trend Reports, between 65 and 85 percent of people describe themselves as visual learners.
2. Articles with images get 94% more total views – Jeff Bullas
3. The average attention span in 2015 is 8.25 seconds – Statistic Brain
So how do you capture and help your readers retain information? Many marketers and writers use stock photography but this is unoriginal. While it may be better than nothing, it isn’t necessarily compelling.
People are more likely to share images they’ve never seen, so why not put in a bit more effort and create your own personalized images online? There are a ton of options out there but here are the best seven tools that I’ve used between my own business and working with multiple clients. And the best part: they are all free!
1. Canva
This online resource is completely free and is fairly easy to use even if you’re design challenged. The templates and images included are easy to overlay with your own text and branding. There’s also an option to upload your own background images, which allows you to create something original and differentiated from everything else out there.
2. Piktochart
This is one of my favorite tools for creating infographics. It’s very easy to use, comes with a variety of graphs and maps, and is completely free for the basic package. It has no usage limits as long as you’re fine with them watermarking your image. If you don’t like that it’s a reasonable upgrade to the pro version. With 4,000 icons you’ll definitely be able to stand out and create something original and effective.
3. GIMP
This open-source program is comparable to Photoshop and relies on a community of volunteer developers to maintain and improve the product. With is free price tag and fairly robust editing capabilities, this is definitely a powerful tool to edit and create your own images.
4. PhotoScape
PhotoScape is a fun and easy photo editor that also lets you create slideshows and animate GIFs. The ability to capture screenshots in order to combine and split images makes this option appealing to those who may be implementing screenshots on a regular basis. There’s also the ability to customize your toolbar, which is a nice feature that not many free softwares offer.
5. Pixlr
The site separates its photo editing into Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, and Pixlr-o-matic. Depending on your needs you’ll probably be fine with the Express version but feel free to play around with the other tiers as well.
6. Pablo
This newer tool was created by Buffer and doesn’t require a login – you can literally overlay your text onto an image and save it in less than 30 seconds. While it definitely isn’t a robust option, it really is that easy
For those of you experimenting with memes this site is a great and easy way to upload and caption pictures in a jiffy. Be sure to give your caption some thought because that’s the only way this marketing tactic can be effective in a professional environment.
Did I miss your favorite tool? Please let me know in the comments below! And if you’re looking for Content Marketing services be sure to check out my agency Acorn Digital Strategy.