Content Design and Apps to Utilise
In digital content marketing, the way that you visually present your content is almost as important as the content itself – if you can’t entice people to read it and want to share it, what is the point?.
Depending on your content asset, “design” might mean anything from creating a hero banner for your homepage to click through to a landing page or transforming your content to an infographic.
Design for your Audience
Start thinking about design at the same that you’re initially brainstorming your content and defining your audience (persona) you’re creating content for.
The persona and buying stage of your content’s intended audience should have a significant impact on the direction of your design, as should the way you plan to use your content.
For example, if you’re creating content for girls between 20-25, intending to promote an offer of 50% off all black dresses and sending via email and a post on Instagram. The design for that content will be very different than content created for a professional IT Marketers audience, which we intend to promote the latest software or a white paper.
If you haven’t made content for a particular audience before, research your competition, how are they designing content to appeal to those audiences that will be similar to yours?
The Best Content Design Tools
No matter if you're a team of one or five - unless you've got a design agency or freelance designer on hand you're you're going to need a bunch of design apps and tools to 'be your creative team' when it comes to producing the visual assets needed for your campaign or post.
Vidyard Chrome Extension
This extension is likely the way forward in times of pandemic crisis - oh wait we're in one right now. Do you need to to get in touch with a bunch of clients on a personal level but don't have time or headspace to record 15 personalised videos? PLUS you can can create screenshare how to guides - training someone on how to use Linkedin!? simply Vidyard the process and share to a group of people OR embed in an email template.
Canva
Canva works for putting together quick social media graphics, accent images for content you're creating, and is more a helping hand for a team that does not have design as an option.
Placeit
Placeit is a powerful online mockup, video and design template generator. Similar to Canva but for a lot more specific content creation for branding, e-commerce product mock-up's without the hefty cost of photoshoots and graphic design.
Preview App
The Preview App is multi-purpose, you can plan and design your feed in a live app without having to post an image to see if it looks good on the grid.
You can schedule unlimited Instagram photos, videos and albums, for free. Drag and drop to rearrange the order of your posts.
You can also design your posts, Preview App has over 70 filters to create beautiful themes, editing tools, and more.
HOT TIP: The App also has inbuilt hashtag finder. Find the top Instagram hashtags in the app, save your favourite hashtag groups and see your best hashtags.
Stock Images and Videos
Without an in-house marketing, design and production team you're going to want really great quality and cool stock images to go with your content.
Pexels
Why we love it? Every image is 100% free and you don't need an account to use it and it's great for broad, thematic images that fit a more modern aesthetic.
HOT TIP: If Pexels isn't your vibe - simply Google 'royalty free stock photos' and a bunch of other sites will appear for you to explore and find you own favourite
Splice - Video Editor and Maker
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/splice-video-editor-maker/id409838725
Why we love it? Simple yet the best video making app we've ever used. Splice makes it easy to create fully customised, professional-looking videos on your iPhone. Just tap to trim clips, adjust transitions, add text overlays, music and voice! you can also add slow motion effects and filters to create artistic videos. You can also make them in the size of Instagram Story or post so no annoying cropping once you export.