Content Creation Tools For Small Business

As a small business owner, you’re often wearing many hats and simultaneously managing a variety of responsibilities and tasks. Who has time for content creation, right?

Content creation is a must, and the only way small business owners can efficiently do it is with repurposing. Luckily, there’s many content creation tools for small business to help you get it done.

As helpful as such tools are, the sheer quantity available can make it overwhelming to figure out which one(s) you need.

The latest research shows that almost everyone is jumping on the content marketing bandwagon, with 90% of B2C and 88% of B2B marketers using it (according to a study by CMI and Marketing Profs). Content marketing has gone beyond simple blog posts to include different types of media to engage audiences. Visuals like infographics and video have shown to dramatically increase viewer retention, making them indispensible in any marketer’s toolkit.

These are some of the tools I use in my business and to help my clients with their content marketing needs:

Canva

WHAT IS IT?

Canva is a tool loaded with easy-to-use features and functionality that anyone can create a variety of engaging content that gets shared. I’m not a graphic designer but I can quickly and easily create beautiful and engaging graphics with this tool.

EXTRA FEATURES

Canva’s collection of content types continues to grow. For example, they recently introduced templates for both eBooks and resumes.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

It’s (mostly) free – you can pay for images if you want to. Their drag-and-drop functionality make it so easy to use. Tons of images and fonts available. And you can collaborate on designs – ask for comments and open to edit.

Design Wizard

WHAT IS IT?

Design Wizard is your go-to tool for high-quality visual content creation. It’s perfect for social media marketers, party planners and business owners. At present, there are over 1 million images and tens of thousands of video templates.

EXTRA FEATURES

Standout features of the tool include a custom color palette, free font library and resize feature. There are also excellent integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, Buffer and Intercom.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

Unlike Canva, Design Wizard allows you to edit both high-quality photos and videos.

Yay Images

WHAT IS IT?

Direct access to millions of premium stock images, vectors & illustrations for download  and streaming. A great tool for adding images to your posts and online marketing. The price? Streaming web images are as low as $9.90 /month, and there is no limit on how many images you can stream.

EXTRA FEATURES

The ability to browse and/or search based on many criteria so you find the exact image you’re looking for.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

So easy and inexpensive. Choose what size you’d like – type in the topics you’re looking for, have a dig through tons and tons of great photos, and stream or download them. Done and done.

Go!Animate

WHAT IS IT?

If, like most businesses, you don’t have the budget or technical resources to make professional videos with actors, props and special effects, you don’t have to live a video-less existence. GoAnimate lets you make a highly-customized animated movie for your business. Choose from different settings, styles, and characters then just add audio. The characters will even lipsynch to your voice.

EXTRA FEATURES

The basic GoAnimate plan includes 1 user and 720P resolution videos with light GoAnimate branding. For more users, HD resolution, and white label videos, they have two other plans that can also include team collaboration and commercial rights transfers to clients.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

Like everything on this list, GoAnimate is simple! With the user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you don’t need a degree in graphic design to put together a good-looking video. You can also import your own graphics, publish to different channels and devices as well as collaborate on a project with your team.

QZZR

WHAT IS IT?

Marketers that want to build on the success of Buzzfeed’s simple quizzes finally have an attractive option. Qzzr has been around less than a year but has already become popular with sites like Mashable. The quizzes are very visual and the setup process is fairly simple. Even though Qzzr is in its early days, new features are being added constantly, like social sharing and statistics.

EXTRA FEATURES

The free version includes most of the necessary features, but companies wishing to remove Qzzr branding need to upgrade. The paid version also includes more lead captures, click throughs to offers and customer support.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

Unlike most survey tools, Qzzr has a strong focus on visuals and fun results by scoring or categorizing the respondent. Here’s an example of a quiz I created: “What Hawaiian Shirt Are You?”

ImgFlip

WHAT IS IT?

ImgFlip is a simple and fast website for creating and sharing images. They specialize in memes and GIFs. The ImgFlip image generators are designed to be insanely fast and provide powerful customization, while still being simple and easy to use.

EXTRA FEATURES

Images created on Imgflip can be made “private” if you just want to download the image and save it for yourself (which is what I do), or they can be saved on imgflip.com where you can share them with friends and track their popularity. If you think your images will be appreciated by most imgflip users, you can submit them to be featured. Imgflip users and/or moderators can then vote on your submitted images, and the best ones will make it to the homepage.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

In minutes, I can create an animated GIF. Browsing the memes shows what’s popular and provides great ideas that can be “swiped and deployed” to get more engagement on social.

Vimeo

WHAT IS IT?

Vimeo is a video-sharing website in which users can upload, share and view videos. I use it as a video hosting resource.

EXTRA FEATURES

You have the ability to determine who sees, comments and/or rates your videos whereas on YouTube they’re all public. So if you have a membership site that includes videos – like I do with the Daily Deals for Massive Profits Training Program – using Vimeo allows me to secure access so only paying members can see the video.

WHY DO I LOVE IT?

Never have to worry about hosting. Load times are fast. Very flexible and easy to use. Great analytics.

(NOTE: These are all great tools, but they’re just that – tools. What’s important is IMPLEMENTATION . . . taking these tools and using them to GET YOUR MARKETING DONE. If that’s something you struggle with, and want to discuss outsourced marketing solutions, contact me.)

About Stacey Riska

Stacey Riska, aka “Small Business Stacey” is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about saving small business and rebuilding Main Street. She helps small and local business owners become a #SmallBizMarketingWiz by teaching them marketing strategies that get MORE: MORE leads, MORE customers/clients, MORE sales, and MORE money. Stacey is the founder of Small Biz Marketing Specialist, THE go-to place for marketing tips, techniques and strategies that get results. Stacey is also the creator of the Daily Deals for Massive Profits Training Program, an online video training program that teaches small and local business owners how to use daily deal sites like Groupon to skyrocket their business growth and get massive profits. In this program she teaches from experience, as it was the key strategy that transformed her coffee and smoothie business from being $500K in debt to a 7-figure profitable business. When not saving the small business world, she enjoys sipping red wine, eating chocolate (who doesn’t!) and spending time with her amazing husband.