The strength of content marketing is well demonstrated but creating strong content takes innovation. This means enlisting the help of some simple but powerful tools that combine user engagement and attractive presentation to facilitate brand perception. Here’s a look at eight great resources you can use to take your content to the next level.
If engagement is the key, then ThingLink is the tool for the job. Research shows that images engage customers and resonate to a notable degree on social networks and, for this reason, should be used extensively. But images embedded on web pages should offer more than a reiteration of the graphic that curried the visitor in the first place.
ThingLink can be embedded on web pages and used to mark up static imagery with accompanying videos, social networking buttons, annotations, and more. In addition to making already engaging content more dynamic, each image that utilizes the service comes with attribution, so that users who view your creation over social channels know who’s responsible.
Collaborating on content is no small task. Creative ideas bounce back and forth and expressing visual concepts in verbal language always seems to fall just short. Enter Skitch. The brainchild of note-taking powerhouse Evernote, Skitch allows designers, content creators, and managers to add robust indicators, color coded text, and shapes to screen captures, uploaded images, PDFs, and data copied to the clipboard. In addition to making content commentary more attractive, the myriad options enable visual communication that a Skype call or email simply can’t touch.
Writing copy requires an effective Word processor. While hardly groundbreaking information, the caveats of each copy-writing platform can cause headaches down the road. Solutions like Simplenote offer format-free writing but no formatting options, and Word offers extensive formatting but in its own anachronistic language. Converting copy to web content should be easy and Word2CleanHTML offers exactly that. The platform not only remedies some of Word’s more frustrating idiosyncrasies, but also replaces tabs, bold text, italics, and smart quotes with HTML friendly alternatives, which should greatly facilitate the transfer to your blog.
With design importance rising in the minds of consumers and mobile screens offering unique display challenges, typography is seeing more consideration as a factor in effective web design. Unfortunately, previous attempts at customizing text appearance required that users have the designated font installed on their machine, leaving out many attractive and superior options and replacing them with lesser alternatives. Google Fonts uses their straightforward API to allow you to embed fonts on a page so that your text is displayed as you intended. In addition, the site offers a gauge that indicates how their inclusion will affect page-load times, optimizing both appearance and performance.
Attractive content is replacing informative content as tired eyes judge items on a moment’s notice, but attractive, informative content is the end game. Canva provides this marriage by offering en vogue design resources and a user-friendly interface that makes creating aesthetically pleasing visual resources a snap. The service does provide premium content for $1, but even at this expenditure, the value delivered per dollar may far exceed that of private design help.
Infographics are a hot commodity these days and for good reason. Communicating interesting and valid information through facts provides authority while presenting them in a pleasing manner attracts viewers. But while most of us have information to share, few of us have the design acumen needed to create something worth its salt. Infogram helps shortcut the process with an engine that allows for data entry, expression, and arrangement, meaning high-quality infographics in a short time. The solution is no substitute for distinctive design work, but for firms on a shoestring budget, it’s a resource worth a look.
The boring PowerPoints of old team meetings are becoming a thing of the past. The din of content and information is requiring that firms both internally and externally adapt to the nature of the human psyche which requires a little more than plain text to hold attention. Haiku Deck, like the previously mentioned platforms, offers high-end design knowledge so that you can leverage it to improve content. Offering a gallery of templates, beautiful typographic options, and embed capabilities, delivering high-quality presentations has never been easier.
The web revolves around communications. Sharing on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter may seem frivolous the lion’s share of the time, but real news and real events unfold on these social channels. Storify recognizes this phenomenon and harnesses it to create more engaging content that’s driven by users. By embedding tweets, photos, videos, and more from a wide variety of sources, your blog’s content can carry the extra element of involvement by directly citing web media. In addition, the platform notifies sources that their information has been shared, opening conversations and connecting you with customers.
Putting content on the Internet is a needed first step to attaining greater market share. Doing so optimally, leveraging the power of interactive media and attractive design, will give your words meaning and turn your viewers into customers. Utilize these simple tools to enhance your blog posts and videos and open the door for conversation between your organization and your customer base in dynamic new ways.
By Angel T
