Khanh Tran, Negosentro | Who says a great design has to cost an arm and a leg? Well, that actually is the case if you have no design skills, no useful tools and have to outsource everything. Is it really impossible to have a great artwork at an affordable price? In this day and age, every post on Facebook or Instagram needs to be beautiful. If you have to set aside a budget for every single post, the accumulated amount is unthinkable. Good news for marketers on a budget out there, there are design tools to ease your pain. The best part? You don’t have to be an expert in graphic design to use them. These tools are made with marketers’ needs in mind, so they are extremely easy to use.
Canva is arguably one of the best go-to tools for marketers. There are many perks for using this. First of all, it’s a freemium tool, meaning there’s a free option if you want to try the service before deciding. Second, there is no time limit for the free account. You can keep using Canva for free as long as it meets your design needs. Third, there are pre-made templates for multiple purposes. Isn’t it time-consuming to double check the size of a banner or a newsletter header every time you want to create one? Canva has already prepared the right sizes for you. All that’s needed is to choose the design. There are many images, icons and illustrations for you to choose. You only need to select the one you like, drag and drop them onto the canvas. It’s that easy! Last but not least, when you think that you need has outgrown the free offerings, the paid subscription plan is pretty affordable!
Piktochart provides the same user experience as Canva, and it specialises in infographics. Need to visualise your data? This tool will be your friend. Similar to Canva, it’s a freemium service that utilises drag-and-drop actions to create a beautiful design. However, the number of free templates is quite limited, so you may not be able to find what you need with a free account. However, it’s always possible to get inspired from Piktochart’s gallery or Visually Community to have an idea of what you want to create. Then, the tool makes it extremely easy to represent date – simply choose the design, a pie chart, a bar graph, a map and whatnot, input the data, and they will be automatically reflected in the design.
An important factor that makes a visually-pleasing design is having the right colours. While we can easily recognise a bad colour combination, we don’t know which colours will work well together. It becomes more challenging when you have a brand colour to use. If you have already had a colour scheme, then stick to it. But if you have only one colour, then you will need to find others to go with it. Paletton is a simple tool that allows you to find the right colour for your designs. It is built based on colour combination theories, so you won’t go wrong with it. Simply key in the code of the main shade, the tool will find others for you. The price? It’s free.
Unless you have a very specific design requirement, you don’t need to spend a big sum on stock image. Pixabay offers over 900,000 stock photos for you to choose from, free of charge. They are royalty-free, so you can use them for commercial purposes. However, do note that you may need to spend a bit of time to find the right fit. Other free stock sources include:
With these tools, you can start creating visually engaging designs at a low cost. No complicated software, no exorbitant bill, for marketers on a budget, these tools will satisfy your needs.
The article is written by Khanh Tran from Samui-Villa.com.
