Content marketing comes in many shapes and sizes, but written text isslowly losing its spot at the industry forefront.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, visual content is growing,with 51% of marketers now prioritizing the creation of visual content inmarketing materials. Furthermore, a study conducted by Brain Rulesindicates that seeing really is believing: while only 10% of a social media text post can be recalled three days later, 65% of a social post that isaccompanied by compelling images will be remembered by readers after 72hours.

However, creating visual content that resonates requires a little more thanheading outside with a point-and-shoot. These visual content creation tools can help you create stunning images and videos that make a mark, improving the caliber and quality of what you have tooffer.

Canva

A simple drag-and-drop design platform, Canva makes it easy to createprofessional-quality graphics on a budget. With 8,000 templates, over onemillion photographs available for $1 each, and countless graphics andfonts, it's possible to make social media images, infographics, posters,and more in a few easy clicks. Users can also upload their own images for acompletely personalized final product.

Canva is an appealing tool due to its easy learning curve and user-friendlycontrols, allowing marketers to create content from scratch without existing design skills. The following free and paidversions are available, providing flexibility for any budget:

• The Canva Free version offers two folders for organization with 1 GB of storage and collaboration between up to 10 team members.
• Canva for Work which runs $12.95 a month, features unlimited folders and storage, collaboration for up to 50 team members, and more custom features.
• Canva for Enterprise , which requires a custom quote, incorporates all Canva for Work features as well as advanced analytics, a dedicated account manager, and enforcement of brand standards.

Unsplash

Unsplash is a stock photography website that boasts over 500,000 photos taken by 70,000 photographers. Celebratedas a pioneer of the copyright-free photography model, Unsplash makes imagesavailable without the need to seek legal permission.

It's free to join Unsplash, and all images are free to download thanks tothe referral relationship they have with their parent company, Crew.Although the images vary in quality and professionalism, they're allavailable for commercial and non-commercial use in any project, article,publication, and/or advertisement. After download, you are free to utilize the content creation tools ofyour choice to edit or alter images as you see fit.

Adobe Spark

A product of renowned editing enterprise Adobe, Adobe Spark is an app-basedplatform for storytelling and graphic design. Downloadable to iOS devicesand available online, Adobe Spark is made up of three distinct parts: SparkPage, Spark Post, and Spark Video.

• Spark Page is a creative tool for web stories, like travel journals, photo albums, and more, mixing text and imagery in innovative ways.
• Spark Post is a graphic design suite that leverages the abilities of Photoshop and InDesign.
• Spark Video is a video editor that helps users create animated videos and presentations using text, graphics, images, icons, and pre-existing clips.

Adobe Spark is available in a limited free version that allows for mostmajor functionality in Spark Page, Spark Post and Spark Video. There isalso a $9.99 per month Individual subscription that offers improvedbranding and support functions, and a $19.99 per month team subscriptiondesigned for corporate use.

Piktochart

Infographics are a big draw in visual content, but constructing compellingimages is often easier said than done. With Piktochart, however, it'ssimple to assemble creative, impactful infographics without anyprofessional design experience.

A cloud-based design suite, Piktochart offers an intuitive editor,ready-to-use graphics and images, a full inventory of fonts, andcomprehensive creative capabilities. With a few clicks, you can creategraphics that are ready to publish on your social media profiles or website, providing unlimited possibilities.

Piktochart is available in four subscription models:

• The Free Lifetime Account offers unlimited designs, access to images and icons, and download privileges.
• The Lite Plan costs $15 a month and provides access to all 600 templates, large file uploads, and high quality downloads.
• The Pro Plan costs $29 a month and gives users 400MB of storage for their own photos, as well as PDF downloads, branding capabilities, and the ability to remove the Piktomark watermark.
• The Pro Team Plan costs $39.99 a month and is for enterprise use, boasting many of the same features as the Pro plan in addition to custom color schemes.

Content marketing is a big part of running a successful business, and theright content creation apps can make or break your campaigns. Even if youdon't have professional design experience, the web-based tools availablecan still make a difference, providing a fast, effective way to turnconcepts into high-quality images. From social media to web design, thesevisual content development platforms can take your images, video clips, andinfographics to the next level.