In this blog series, we share technology tools and platforms handpicked by the Launch Marketing team that support the B2B marketing efforts for our clients. From marketing automation platforms to creative development software, our team is here to share a behind-the-scenes peek at what makes our well-oiled marketing machine run smoothly every day.
As a B2B marketer, content development serves as a key function to help achieve your marketing goals. As you produce a variety of high-quality content pieces, visually-appealing images and graphics are also needed to complement your assets. So, what tools can you use to help create these images?
Consider the following handpicked visual tools to support your content development efforts and give your assets a professional and polished look!
Pixlr – Quick and Easy Photo Editing
For easy image editing that make content pieces stand out, Junior Account Manager Leslie Gloria turns to Pixlr, a simple browser-based photo editor that creates stunning, social-ready images with a few clicks.
Think of Pixlr as Photoshop Lite. It has more features and sophistication than Paint but isn’t nearly as complex as Photoshop. When developing a website, or preparing an email blast, use Pixlr to give photos a little more polish or customization.
Pixlr can help you create good-looking photos without spending a lot of time fumbling through the extra features on Photoshop. Anyone who is looking for a powerful photo editor but doesn’t want to spend the money and time investing in Photoshop will benefit from using Pixlr.
Use Pixlr in a web browser, or download for desktop use. There is also a mobile app available that can transform photos on your phone at live events or on the go. The web version is free, but like many browser-based applications you can sign up to pay a small monthly or yearly fee to unlock more features and usability.
Canva – A Simple Graphics Tool for Your Content
To quickly add design elements to your edited photos, Canva is a great visual content development resource that offers free but powerful design tools for social media, website, and email.
Not sure what image dimensions you need for your social post or blog post? Canva will determine what size your graphic needs to be based on the type of asset you are creating. Simply load in your photo or choose one from the Canva library to get started, and Canva will resize your photo to fit within the standard dimensions of posts from the various social media networks as well as standard sizes for blogs, infographics and more.
Add borders, fonts, shadow boxes and effects to your graphic elements with the design studio. If you want to create branded content, you can purchase an upgraded Canva account to store logos, custom color palettes and other branded content.
Want more browser apps for graphics and design creation? Check out our blog post listing our favorite graphics creation platforms.
VSCO Cam – Professional Looking Photos on the Go
If you’re live tweeting an event and snapping photos on your mobile device, you want to get posts up ASAP to stay timely and relevant. You want your photos to look good, but you don’t have time to sit at your computer and edit them.
VSCO Cam is an easy to use mobile photo editor and camera app that has a large following, and has been used in various industries including art and sports. It combines picture taking with a built-in editor, and allows you to adjust the white balance, flash, zoom and shutter with ease.
Once you’ve captured your live event image, you can adjust the exposure, contrast, tint color, grain as well as add a filter. VSCO allows you to save edited photos to your camera roll or share them directly to your social media accounts.
Live tweeting workshops, conferences and talks is one of the best ways to drive engagement on your social media feeds and humanize your company. With VSCO Cam, you can make sure that selfie you took with the amazing keynote speaker will be polished and “re-tweet” worthy.
Death to the Stock Photo – A Resource for Beautiful, Sharp Images
With a significant number of organizations also focusing their efforts on content development, your audience is constantly inundated with blog posts, articles, case studies, etc. and most of them can spot a stock photo from a mile away. While stock photos are necessary to support your brand and content, it is also important to vary your sources and look for new takes to find engaging images.
Death to the Stock Photo delivers photo packs to your inbox about once a month, making it easy for you to find beautiful, sharp and interesting stock photos from a new source. They don’t deliver photos often enough to be your sole source of images, but their photo series are a great tool to use as the basis for a social campaign or email generation.
Creating beautiful images to complement your content development efforts such as blog posts, social media posts and websites graphics is a vital part of a successful B2B content marketing strategy.
What are some of your go-to visual content development tools to create and edit images? Let us know in the comments section below!
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