While larger companies are lucky enough to have visual designers in their marketing and design teams, startups and small companies often deal with the lack of creative professionals specialized in visual design. If the budget is tight, social media content is often the last in the mind of people.
Image Credits: Pexels
Even if simply not using visual material and opting for written content instead may sound like a tempting solution, it is important to keep in mind that most people are visual learners. In fact, our minds understand an image in 1/10 seconds, while processing 200-250 words takes on average 60 seconds, and according to a research, by using text and illustrations a group of subjects did 323% better than a group using text-only directions.
Instead of abandoning the idea of visual content for the lack of a visual design, use some of the easy and free tools available online and maximise your social media performance.
Canva
Canva is a dream tool for non-designers. With a whole heap of free and easy to use content that work with drag-and-drop logic, Canva is a must-use for everyone who wants to create visually pleasing social media pictures with limited or zero skills in visual design.
Canva comes with a layout for various channels and content types from banners and quote templates to videos and social media posts with animated effects. With Canva Pro, you have access to an even larger collection of templates, fonts, and other tools.
Pablo
Pablo is a photo editing tool that allows you to create visual content such as banners and pictures with a text overlay fast and without prior experience in photo editing. While the template selection is not as massive as in Canva, the platform is easy to use, has multiple fonts, and allows you to download your own photos, logos, and other materia.
BeFunky
Much like Canva, BeFunky offers pre-made templates for pictures and other social media material, requesting no prior skills in design. Unfortunately, the selection of free templates is smaller than in Canva and many templates are only available for premium users. In addition, BeFunky brings photo editing in the game, allowing you to edit your own photos to meet your needs.
GIMP
With knowledge in design but no access to programs like Photoshop, GIMP is your go-to program. It is free and fast to download on your computer, offering many basic editing tools that can be found in paid programs. However, if not used to visual design and editing, you may want to watch a couple of tutorials before getting started.
PowerPoint
Surprised by this? Despite many not thinking about it, PowerPoint and its free competitor Google Slide are great for creating infographics and other simple visuals. Open a sheet, add text boxes, change the color, move them around, and take a screenshot when finished.
