Running a nopCommerce-powered web-store requires some quick graphic tasks to be done: to decorate a newsletter header, make a poster for a quick sale, make an eye-catching promotional social network post. Because of that content managers usually are required to be jacks-of-all-trades. The same person must be skilled in writing content, doing mundane shop tasks, be aware of the tastes of the target group, and having the ability to produce engaging graphic content. The creation of graphic content requires separate competency from content managers who usually tend to have either copywriting or marketing background. It is a tricky task to produce even basic visual content for people with representational systems other than visual.
But can technology help with this task? We've chosen four tools which should simplify the creation of the visual content for social networks and newsletters.
Canva
We created the picture for this post without the help of the designer, relying solely on our taste and the helpful app called Canva (www.canva.com).
What it is:Speaking roughly, Canva is a tool for satisfying most immediate graphic needs: it is a hybrid of templates library and a simple, but effective, graphic tool. It stores most popular templates and enables the user to build neatly-looking graphics in minutes.
Instead of giving the user functionality of the full graphic tool, Canva emphasizes on customizing ready-made graphics. Built-in templates have the right size, and their number is huge: you can create almost everything from a custom collection of buyable pins to custom mail.
PROS:Canva templates are looking good. They are very trendy-looking and speak the most popular graphic language: the fonts that are stylized to look like custom lettering, photos have Instagram-like filters, the photo collage frames are perfectly balanced. The workflow looks super-simplistic: get one of the templates, replace the sample logo with your company’s logo, type in your discount and it’s done.
CONS:Though Canva really streamlines the process of creating simple graphic images and their results are looking neat they are very cliched. Most of the image templates reflect the modern day design trends, but come on, everyone uses them and your competitors are no exception. The graphic communication represented in the freemium version is suitable for small “hipster” business, like microbreweries but I would not use them if I owned a bigger serious.
Verdict:You must act fast on social networks, and here Canva saves: thirty minutes and flash sale ad is ready. But social networks require to stand out and draw the attention of the user. Also, the social network channel requires consistency in visuals too and here the professional designer’s help is vital.
Unsplash
What it is:Unsplash is a collection of free hi-res photos. While hi-resolution photos are still king of the visual content due eye-catching properties everyone is fed up with stock images. Most of the existing photo banks share same over-used images and hold many copyright restrictions. Unsplash stores free high-resolution photos under Creative Commons license. This means that you can copy, alter, redistribute and even use their photos commercially.
PROS:The site stores hi-quality, artistic images that are submitted by freelance photographers collective called “Crew”. This means that they are not overused and creatively shot. Using unique photo is a huge advantage on social networks. Also, the interface of the site is showing the number of likes under each picture, so it is a very helpful function when it comes to choosing most engaging content.
CONS:Unsplash is not as huge as Depositphotos or Shutterstock. Also, there is some kind of limitation due to artistic nature of photographers: expect to find three pages of results for keyword “sunrise” and only one photo for keyword “sale” (pictured).
Verdict:Unsplash is one of the great alternatives to well-known stock images sites. Though the choice is somewhat limited, the photos on Unsplash are great. Look no further for a great image for your brand-related inspirational post.
Autre Planete’s Social Media Image Maker
What it is:Social Media Image Maker is a simple tool doing the routine job of resizing pictures for different social networks. Image Maker has a wide array of social networks templates and a simple interface.
PROS:It resizes images for all wide-spread social networks in two clicks.
CONS:None, except the dark design of the site.
Verdict:Being a “one-trick pony”, Image Maker is still really helpful tool. It simplifies social manager’s and designer’s job and leaves more time for complex , creative tasks and interaction with potential customers.
Easel.ly
What it is:easel.ly is a tool for creating infographics. Infographics may be the only way social network users consume numeric data because they make bare digits visible and fun to share. Easel.ly has a big number of ready-made templates you can easily adapt to your needs.
PROS:The number of free templates is very impressive and the editing tool is intuitive enough to transfer all kinds of numbers to accessible graphics.
CONS:Infographic is a tricky tool. Everyone seem to love them, on the other hand, it requires a genius level of marketing to put your commercial content to the infographic. As it was mentioned, Ease.ly’s has a huge number of ready-made templates, but they are very chaotically presented and require sorting.
Verdict:Ease.ly greatly does the basic job of creating a simple infographic or making a sketch for more advanced graphics. Ease.ly will be great for school presentations, but shareable and likable infographic on social networks requires talent and effort. You need to stand out in social networks even when it comes to infographics.
Conclusion
So can these tools replace a designer, enabling a non-visual person to create graphics? No, not fully. Though these graphic tools can create cliched visual content in several clicks, the massive success in social networks still requires services of the designer making graphical content that stands out. In the age of templates and ready-made color schemes, the unique content is more valuable, because the audience gets used to widespread graphic language very fast. So we must conclude that nothing beats a good designer, but four of these tools can simplify his mundane tasks or help content managers and social managers to make decent, but not breathtaking visual content for urgent needs.
But there is one more crucial thing in content making: time factor. Genius Cyber Monday sale poster, that stands out is useless on Christmas. If your team is short in time, or you are to make a flash sale based on some breaking news these four tools will surely help.
Author: Vladimir Lokhanin, nopCommerce team
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