Content Creation Tools

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Tools for ebooks and whitepapers

In terms of tools that can help you create ebooks and white papers, here's a brief overview of some tools that you can utilize.

My personal favorite is Adobe InDesign. The program lets you integrate text, images, and rich content formats that creates really exciting and interesting ebooks. When it comes to content creation tools for images, one of my favorites is Canva. Canva is a brilliant content creation piece for beautiful presentations and images that is so simple to use and it makes it look as though you're a pro designer.

Tools for images

Here's some other examples worth checking out for image creation.

Tools for infographics

When it comes to infographic creation, Canva is another great one to have a look at, but personally my favorite is Piktochart, another great free online tool that you can utilize to create great content.

Piktochart allows that WYSIWYG, as we mentioned before, that what you see is what you get, non-technical designer to create some really fun, interesting, and quirky infographic content for your content marketing mix. We've included some other examples that are worth checking out too.

Tools for long form video

Tools for creating a long form video include Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Adobe After Effects is very much in the motion graphics and animation style whereas Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro are two great tools in terms of being able to utilize, edit, and amend live video content formats.

Tools for short form video

For short form video, the mobile app, Viva Video, allows for some really great content creation around mobile, on the go video sheets. It's quite agile and easy to use.

In addition, Photoshop also has an animations feature that allows you to create short looping forms of video content for getting your message across very quick and effectively. In addition to a lot of these external tools, a lot of the social media platforms themselves have built in editors.

Tools for native video editing

Instagram, for example, has great features built into their mobile video app. They include the likes of slow motion, time lapse, and a great feature called Boomerang where content is played forward and then backwards again.

Have a look at what individual content creation of tools are available via the native social media platforms themselves. Another great example of these native tools includes the YouTube Video Editor.

YouTube video editor

The YouTube Video Editor allows users to add captions, add scenes, change transitions, and also add music and sound effect to your video creation. YouTube also offer a gallery of free production music that you can utilize in all of your brand videos if you find the right fit, of course.

Tools to proof content

Once you've created your content, it's really important to check for grammar errors or typos.

Utilizing much-used programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat can help you do this. Another great service is Grammarly. Grammarly is an online web tool that allows you to sense check your content via a browser extension that can automate and read the content, flagging real time errors and typos for you to amend.

Considerations

While we've discussed a number of content creation tools available for you to use, it is important to assess which tools are right for your intent and right for your business. You can do this in four key ways.

Functionality

Having a look at the functionality, does this tool suit the content that you're looking to create? Will it fulfil the need that you have in your organization for creating a content format that is a part of your content marketing mix?

Ease of use

How easy is the tool to use? Does it require specialist training, continues professional development or upscaling, or is it quite intuitive and easy to use?

Resource

Do you need to dedicate an entire team member to using this tool effectively to create content for your content marketing efforts? It may be the case that you do not have resource to dedicate to this particular content creation tool, and maybe you need to assess other avenues of content creation.

Frequency of use

How much use will you actually get out of using this tool, especially if the tool is a paid resource? Like for example, an Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe is a great tool and is the absolute industry pinnacle however, it is a considerable resource for any business or brand to be investing in. There is no one size fits all and it's important to assess the tools under these headings to assess what is right for you, your business, and your content marketing needs.

Best practices

Best practice across your content creation should follow these considerations regardless of the platform.

Utility

Is it actually providing something useful for your audience? Is it addressing a concern? Is it educational? Or is it providing information or relief for them that actually position your brand as the key to solving their issues?

Fit for platform

Is it fit for the platform? Does it make sense to be using this content format on this particular platform or does it size correctly? Is it relevant in terms of the context of the language that's used? And will your audience receive this content well and do they engage with this content on this type of platform in an ongoing basis?

A general example of this would be a financial report probably wouldn't find its home most comfortably in a B to C audience on Facebook.

Measurable

Is the content measurable? Some content may not be entirely measurable and you may be doing it for the pure brand awareness perspective or an early adopter desire. Just be conscious that all content marketing really should be measurable that you can track back to its successes or its failures, and learn and implement changes.

Consistent

Is the content consistent with what you have happening across your other touch points from a brand guidelines perspective, a tone of voice, and also what's happening in your why your business calendar? Making sure that you have that consistency across the board is key to driving the relevancy and also measuring conversion of your target audience.

Aligned with goals

Is the content aligned with your wider business goals? Is it clear what you're asking consumers to do? And is it clear what you're hoping to achieve with this piece of content?