Over the last few weeks we’ve touched upon the topic of visual content quite a bit here at Neil Walker Digital. I wrote a blog post last week about how attaching images to your tweets when you’re linking to articles can increase its outreach, and my Rochdalian colleague Chris wrote one a couple of weeks ago about making the most of infographics.
Speaking plainly, there’s no getting around visual content now, in 2014 – nor will there be henceforth (any excuse to use that word). Visual content is here to stay – and it will be pivotal to the success of content marketing in the future, just as much as your use of words are. Quite frankly, it won’t matter how technically good your writing is or how nicely it reads if you don’t also embrace visual content and implement it properly – in each and every piece of content you write. I said that in the future tense, as if it’s something you’ll have to do in the not-too-distant future, but to be honest it’s a bit more urgent than that. You need to start doing it now.
The general consensus now is that just taking stock images from the various sites you can them from won’t really cut it anymore. Inserting semi-relevant stock images into the content every three paragraphs or so is a common trick amongst content writers who want to spruce up their work, and it did work for a while. But it doesn’t now. Many people consider stock images to be quite corny and uninspiring, and I must say I do largely agree with that statement. I think that there are still some good images to be had from stock image websites, but you do have to do some digging to find one that doesn’t look like a stock image, and therein lies the problem.
The way forward, in my opinion, is creating your own visual content. I think it’s going to be an essential part of the procedure in a few short years, and the better you (or your company) are at creating them, the better your content will look and the wider outreach it will have. Whether you decide to adopt an entirely in-house visual content policy and do everything yourself, or use both stock images and dabble in creating your own, you’ll be much better off than you were before.
Not only does in-house visual content make your entire organisation look more professional and creative, but it gives each piece of content a unique stamp. There’s also the fact that your in-house images will be able to mirror exactly the text they’re accompanying. There have surely been times at which we have all had to compromise on a stock image – picking the one that comes the closest to representing what we’re trying to say. “No-one’ll notice,” we reassure ourselves. Well, someone probably did notice, actually – a sloppy stock image choice is unmistakable, and more to the point, quite off-putting.
If the image you use looks like it’s been picked virtually at random and is just plain boring to look at, you could be repelling quite a large proportion of your potential readers. Whenever I click onto an a piece of content (on any website) and am confronted with an obviously stock image, I’ll have a quick scan of the text and decide very quickly whether or not I want to carry on reading. Quite a lot of the time the image will be enough to put me off, but every now and then if the writing’s really good I’ll keep reading.
I think stock images can almost look quite spammy in some instances – especially ones which are wishy-washy in regards to what they say and can be used for many different purposes. The more specific the image is, the more relevant it is – and the latter is why we include them in the first place.
Therefore, we thought we should give you a rundown of some of the best tools which will help you design your own images and give your content a distinct identity.
The best tools for creating visual content
Pixlr
I thought we should probably start with a quite straightforward one. This is a tool that pretty much anybody can use and get something out of, and it’s completely free. What’s more, it’s web-based as well.
Pixlr’s not exactly the most sophisticated image tool out there, but it certainly does the trick. Anyone with half a clue can produce or edit an image with it, which will still count as an original piece of visual content once you’re done. It has all of the usual pencil, paint brush and paint bucket options, as well as marquees, lassos, blurring and sharpening tools.
A really good feature is the ‘History’ box which lies to the right hand side of the image box (at the bottom of the three), as it provides you with a bit of stability and reassurance throughout the creation and editing process. You can basically scroll up your history list and go back to an earlier point – of course, every change you make to the image is saved in the history and becomes a checkpoint to which you can return. This feature is great for those who are either new to it or using a heavy-handed mouse, as it means that every mistake is easily rectifiable and every change to the image is clearly listed.
I’m pretty terrible at using image software (mainly due to lack of practice, or so I like to think), and even I can get something out of Pixlr. I’ve edited a few images and resized them on there, and it’s always a really easy process. The web page has a drop-down ‘File’ menu at the top, from which you simply click ‘Save As’ like you would on a piece of regular software.
Infogr.am
Another marvellous (and gratis) visual content tool is Infogr.am. Again, it’s web-based, and in fact ‘www.infogr.am’ is the web address you’ll type in. As you’ve probably already figured out, you’ll use this for infographics especially, and I’m sure they don’t need any introduction as we content marketers are mad about them about the moment. (We can’t see this being a flash in the pan craze, either – we reckon infographics are here to stay because of how simple and effective they are.)
Infographics are absolutely superb when it comes to helping you illustrate your point. Of course, a lot of us include statistics in the content we write, because numbers talk – readers love figures and percentages because they (rather ironically) spell things out. Infographics can deliver these numbers you desperately want your audience to take notice of, without causing them to recoil like they would if confronted with some insipid graph that looks like it was, for some reason, done on a Windows 97 PC.
Back to Infogr.am itself, it’s really easy to use like Pixlr is and, though you do have to register, you’ll be able to get started really quickly – all you need to do is make up a username, give your email and create a password.
Once you’re in, you’re given the option of creating infographics and charts or accessing your library (i.e. the ones you’ve already created). There’s also an ‘Upgrade to Pro’ option, but most of us find that everything we need we can get in the free version.
Unsplash
Now, what I said about stock images being uninspiring and boring earlier on in this blog post is something I stand by, in the main. It should be pointed out that there are some stock image sites that contain superb photographs that don’t even look stock at all. Unsplash is such a website, and I think it’s a great tool for coming up with ideas for visual content and even pinching the odd photo (though it isn’t pinching, as you have full permission).
It’s basically a very nice Tumblr account run by a very nice person (or group of people) – it contains some magnificent photographs, with around 30 new ones being posted each month. When you get on the Unsplash homepage you’re confronted with what appears to be the bio (or ‘About Us’ section, if you like), which reads: “Free (do whatever you want) hi-resolution photos.”
It’s certainly one to bookmark and keep checking, as one day you may find just the sort of image your piece of content is missing. Of course, if you’re a Tumblr user you can just subscribe to the page and keep your eyes peeled that way.
I’ve just now spent about eight or nine minutes looking at the archives when I should’ve been getting on with this writing, and there aren’t many stock image sites I could say that about, let me assure you. (I can’t wait to get off them, most of the time. Get on the site, get the picture and get off.) Browsing Unsplash is a really pleasant experience – pretty much every picture is one you’ll want to have a good look at, as opposed to scan past impatiently.
Awesome Screenshot
Sometimes you can illustrate a point really well with just a simple screenshot, and for this reason I personally think it can be a very effective form of visual content. However, taking a screenshot, though it should be a simple procedure, can often be quite an arduous and frustrating one.
Awesome Screenshot is a brilliant add-on which will allow you to take screenshots (not just like a printscreen – you can take a screenshot of the whole page if you wish), which you can then annotate if you need to. I use Awesome Screenshot all the time and I’ve tried to take a screenshot of it whilst I’ve been using it, but this has caused things to go a bit ‘Inception’ so I’ve just taken a screenshot of the website that you download it from.
Adobe Photoshop
This is the only tool included in this list that isn’t free. We’ve all surely heard of Adobe Photoshop at some point, and a number of us have arguably used it. It’s an all-encompassing package which will allow you to brush up photos and get rid of their imperfections, as well as create original graphics.
Though the free alternatives do perform their functions very well, Photoshop is the one which means serious business. There’s a reason you have to pay for it – because it’s far more advanced and professional than the free alternatives. Whether it’s worth the money or not will depend on how serious you are about creating your own visual content.
Why you should look to create your own visual content
When it comes to images, the more striking the better. A good idea may be to decide upon the colour schemes you will use for most of your in-house visual content and stick with those in the main. There will be times when other colours seem better than the ones you usually go for, and in such a case you should explore that, but if you establish your own colour scheme within the visual content of your blog posts, you’ll in effect be giving each piece a signature. You want your in-house visual content to be synonymous with your organisation, just as the logo is.
If you’re creating infographics, try not to get too much information in there – it’s not a sardine tin. Instead, think about which figures and statistics are crucial to it, and use just those ones.
As I said earlier on in the post, by using your own visual content you’ll be doing yourself a massive favour. It will give every piece of content you create a striking look and if the images you’ve produced are appropriate (which they will be), they’ll reinforce whatever point it is you’re trying to make.
Given the amount of content on the internet these days – which is constantly multiplying – we must do everything we can to make our content stand out. Having a way with words simply isn’t enough anymore – a good piece of content must be visually inviting or it’ll limit its readership, and that’s something none of us can afford to do.