CONTENT CREATION 101 Tools Guide for Non-designers By Ganesh Kanade Marketing Strategist 50+ WORLDCLASS FREE PLATFORMS 2nd Edition Ganesh Kanade M a r k e t i n g S t r a t e g i s t M B A - M a r k e t i n g S y m b i o s i s , P G C - M I C A Hey, Amazing you! Thanks much for grabing this small ebook. When you are a marketer and when it comes to content and collateral creation I know the pain. Quickly building the skillsets with respect to content ideation and creation, graphics designing etc becomes intimidated and tedious. But trust me it is not that difficult. It’s not always necessary to have decades of experience of using professional designing suits like photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign to create world-class design work. There are several tools out there that non-designers like us can use to knock up something pretty decent, without requiring years of knowledge in it. I started my journey as a content creator back in 2009, and that time I was totally dependent on Adobe suite as back then no ready-made content creation platforms were available. In this ebook I have curated for all the non-designers out there who are interested in content and marketing collateral creation. I am personally using these platforms. Tried and Tested so don't worry :) Tools mentioned in this ebook will help you to create Social Media Content, PPTs, Reports, Videos, Email Templates, Printables, Documents, Newsletters, Magzine, Resume, Brochures, Certificates, Infographics....Basically, you name it and you can create it:) So this is not only for marketers but for anyone who would love to create amazing content without much effort. Most of the platforms mentioned are freemium but trust me their free versions are just a goldmine. Let me know if you come across other great platforms apart from the list below, Also I would love to hear your thoughts regarding this ebook. It will keep me motivated to create more cool stuff for you. If you really like this playbook, then don't forget to share it with your friends or colleagues. Ps: This playbook will equally beneficial to Non-marketers as well :) Feedback from the Industry Veterans as well as from the Non-designers 01 U L T I M A T E C O N T E N T C R E A T I O N P L A T F O R M S 02 I N F O G R A P H I C S M A K E R S 03 E M A I L T E M P L A T E S C R E A T O R 04 V I D E O C R E A T I O N P L A T F O R M S 05 S T O R Y C R E A T O R S F O R I N S T A G R A M A N D O T H E R S O C I A L P L A T F O R M S 06 R O Y A L T Y - F R E E S T O C K V I D E O S , P H O T O S , M U S I C , I L L U S T R A T I O N , V E C T O R S 07 C O N T E N T H A C K I N G P L A T F O R M S ( M Y F A V O U R I T E ) 08 M O B I L E E D I T I N G P L A T F O R M S 09 U L T I M A T E G U I D E S 10 A W E S O M E Y O U T U B E C H A N N E L S Table of Contents P L A T F O R M S F O R W R I T E R S 11 Ultimate Content Creation Platforms Be it Social Media posts, ebooks, Flexes, Posters, Presentations, Proposals, Newsletters etc following are the 4 full-fledged tools you should have in your arsenal :) 01 https://www.canva.com/ C A N V A PAGE 04 02 https://spark.adobe.com/sp/ A D O B E S P A R K 03 https://desygner.com/ D E S Y G N E R 04 https://www.visme.co/ V I S E M E Infographics Makers You can't do without infographics if you are creating content, reports, presentations etc. It makes often incredibly detailed research and statistics easy to digest. Below are the great platforms to create infographics. 01 https://create.piktochart.com/ P I K T O C H A R T PAGE 05 02 https://venngage.com/ V E N N G A G E 03 https://www.visme.co/make-infographics/ V I S M E 04 https://infogram.com/ I N F O G R A M PS: Infogram's FREE version doesn't allow you to export the PPTs. Hack: Take the screenshot of the final infograph using website screenshot plugin LAMBDATEST Email Templates Creator Email marketing is still the best ROI fetching channel in digital marketing. Check out these platforms to create the great eye-catching Email templates. 01 https://stripo.email/ S T R I P O PAGE 06 02 https://beefree.io/ B E E F R E E 03 https://www.campaignmonitor.com /email-templates/ C A M P A I G N M O N I T O R 04 https://topol.io/ T O P O L . I O Video Creation Platforms Videos are inevitable in content marketing. Video on landing pages is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80% and 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions. Creating Videos is the most time consuming and difficult in the umbrella of content types but the following platforms make it super duper easy. (Most of the platforms add watermarks to your videos. You can hide that watermark by using your brand logo using simple video editing tools) 01 https://animoto.com/ A N I M O T O PAGE 07 02 https://www.moovly.com/ M O O V L Y 03 https://www.animaker.com/marketi ng-video-maker A N I M A K E R 04 https://biteable.com/ B I T E A B L E 05 https://www.flexclip.com/ F L E X C L I P 06 https://www.renderforest.com/pro mo-video R E N D E R F O R E S T Story Creators for Instagram and other Social Platforms Ephemeral content is the new normal in digital marketing. And the story is the most engaging ephemeral short content formate. Check out the following platforms to create kickass stories for Instagram and other social platforms. 01 https://crello.com/create/instagram -stories/ C R E L L O PAGE 08 02 https://placeit.net/instagram-story- video-maker P L A C E I T 03 https://pixteller.com/video-story-maker P I X T E L L E R Royalty-free Stock Videos, Photos, Music, Illustration, Vectors Now you know the wide array of platforms to create great content. But what about the raw material? The following platforms are the goldmine of free stock content that you can use. 01 https://pixabay.com/ P I X A B A Y PAGE 09 02 https://www.pexels.com/ P E X E L S 03 https://www.videezy.com/ V I D E E Z Y 04 https://www.freepik.com/ F R E E P I K 05 https://coverr.co/ C O V E R R 06 https://www.bensound.com/ B E N S O U N D Content Hacking Platforms This is my secret sauce I'm sharing with you. Trust me these 21 platforms will blow your mind. Not agreed, just try them. You might end up emailing me your awesome experience with the following tools :) These tools are the most favorite tools of mine when it comes to Growth Hacking from a content perspective. PAGE 10 02 https://www.goodemailcopy.com/ U L T R A Q U I C K E M A I L C O P Y 03 https://inkforall.com/ A I P O W E R E D W E B C O N T E N T O P T I M I Z E R 05 06 https://iconduck.com/ 1 , 0 0 , 0 0 0 + F R E E I C O N S A N D I L L U S T R A T I O N S 07 https://pablo.buffer.com/ P H O T O R E T O U C H I N G https://resume.io/ B U I L D J O B W I N N I N G R E S U M E 01 https://24slides.com/templates/feat ured A W E S O M E P P T T E M P L A T E L I B R A R Y 04 https://www.squibler.io/dangerous- writing-prompt-app Y O U R W R I T I N G M O N S T E R More Content Hacking Platforms 08 https://coolors.co/ C O L O R P A L E T G E N E R A T O R PAGE 11 10 https://www.designkit.org/methods D E S I G N T H I N K I N G K I T 11 https://www.remove.bg/ B A C K G R O U N D R E M O V E R 13 https://pixlr.com/ P H O T O E D I T I N G 14 https://slidebean.com/ W O R L D C L A S S P P T C R E A T O R 09 https://typographyresources.com/ O N E S T O P T Y P O G R A P H Y R E S O U R C E S 12 https://www.beautiful.ai/ A I P O W E R E D P P T C R E A T O R PS: Slidebean's FREE version doesn't allow you to export the PPTs. Hack: Play the final presentation and take its screenshots More Content Hacking Platforms PAGE 12 16 https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker C O N T E N T I D E A G E N E R A T O R ( F U N T O O L ) 17 https://uijar.com/ U I J A R ( U I I D E A S ) 19 20 https://looka.com/ A I P O W E R E D L O G O M A K E R 21 https://www.notion.so/Notion-Template- Gallery-181e961aeb5c4ee6915307c0dfd5156d G E T A T E M P L A T E F O R A N Y T H I N G U N D E R T H E S U N https://www.ilovepdf.com/ C R O S S F O R M A T E C O N V E R T E R 15 https://fontpair.co/ F O N T P A I R ( T Y P O G R A P H Y ) 18 https://www.lambdatest.com/chro me-extension T A K E S C R E E N S H O T O F A N Y W E B S I T E PS: I am a true believer of "Identity Design". So please just take an inspiration using LOOKA. And ask a professional Graphic Designer to make your Logo. Platforms for Writers Ideation and getting articles written for your blog or customer's website is a tedious process of investigation, research, drafting and writing. Here some kickass platforms to help you save loads of time. PAGE 13 02 https://www.peppertype.ai/ K I C K A S S H E A D L I N E G E N E R A T O R 03 https://contentdrips.com/ M I C O - C O N T E N T F O R P E R S O N A L B R A N D 05 06 https://buzzsumo.com/ F I N D T H E B E S T P E R F O R M I N G C O N T E N T https://answerthepublic.com/ I N S T A N T R A W S E A R C H I N S I G H T S 01 https://contentbot.ai/ A I B L O G W R I T E R 04 https://www.squibler.io/dangerous- writing-prompt-app Y O U R W R I T I N G M O N S T E R Mobile Editing Platforms I am a big fan of mobile content creating tools when you have to create content on the go. check out the ios or android versions of the following platforms. But for the extensive content creation, I would recommend the above tons of web platforms. 01 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=com.adobe.spark.post A D O B E S P A R K ( C O N T E N T C R E A T O R ) PAGE 14 02 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=com.canva.editor C A N V A ( C O N T E N T C R E A T O R ) 03 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details? id=com.thmobile.storymaker S T O R Y M A K E R ( I N S T A G R A M S T O R I E S ) 04 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=com.moonlab.unfold U N F O L D ( I N S T A G R A M S T O R I E S ) 05 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details? id=com.lightricks.videoboost B O O S T E D ( I N S T A G R A M V I D E O S T O R I E S ) 06 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details? id=com.niksoftware.snapseed S N A P S E E D ( P H O T O E D I T O R ) https://apps.apple.com/us/app/canv a-video-layout- design/id897446215#? platform=iphone https://apps.apple.com/us/app/unfo ld-story-templates/id1247275033 07 https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=com.pixlr.express P I X L R ( P H O T O E D I T O R ) https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pixlr -photo-collages-effect/id526783584 U L T I M A T E G U I D E S h t t p s : / / b l o g . h u b s p o t . c o m / m a r k e t i n g / c o n t e n t - m a r k e t i n g h t t p s : / / w w w . s e m r u s h . c o m / b l o g / c o n t e n t - m a r k e t i n g - s t r a t e g y - g u i d e / h t t p s : / / b a c k l i n k o . c o m / c o n t e n t - m a r k e t i n g - t h i s - y e a r CONTENT MARKETING IN 2021 MARKETING COLLATERAL SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT CREATION VIDEO MARKETING h t t p s : / / w w w . s o c i a l m e d i a e x a m i n e r . c o m / h o w - t o - c r e a t e - s o c i a l - m e d i a - s t y l e - g u i d e - b u s i n e s s / h t t p s : / / s p r o u t s o c i a l . c o m / i n s i g h t s / s o c i a l - m e d i a - s t y l e - g u i d e / h t t p s : / / b l o g . h o o t s u i t e . c o m / e p i c - g u i d e - c r e a t i n g - s o c i a l - m e d i a - v i s u a l s / h t t p s : / / b l o g . h u b s p o t . c o m / m a r k e t i n g / v i s u a l - c o n t e n t - c r e a t i o n - s o c i a l - m e d i a h t t p s : / / b l o g . h o o t s u i t e . c o m / e p i c - g u i d e - c r e a t i n g - s o c i a l - m e d i a - v i s u a l s / h t t p s : / / f i l e s t a g e . i o / b l o g / m a r k e t i n g - c o l l a t e r a l / # 2 _ B l o g _ P o s t s h t t p s : / / w w w . f o l e o n . c o m / t o p i c s / 1 9 - t y p e s - o f - m a r k e t i n g - c o l l a t e r a l - y o u - n e e d - n o w h t t p s : / / b l o g . h u b s p o t . c o m / m a r k e t i n g / v i d e o - m a r k e t i n g h t t p s : / / b i t e a b l e . c o m / b l o g / v i d e o - m a r k e t i n g / h t t p s : / / n e i l p a t e l . c o m / b l o g / v i d e o - m a r k e t i n g / These are literally the bibles if you are non-designers and want to learn basics or deep dive more into content creation. So don't ignore these cool guides. PAGE 15 U L T I M A T E G U I D E S h t t p s : / / c o s c h e d u l e . c o m / b l o g / c o l o r - p s y c h o l o g y - m a r k e t i n g / h t t p s : / / w w w . b l a c k b e a r d e s i g n . c o m / b l o g / g r a p h i c - d e s i g n e r s / u n d e r s t a n d i n g - c o l o r - t h e - m e a n i n g - o f - c o l o r / h t t p s : / / 9 9 d e s i g n s . c o m / b l o g / t i p s / b r a n d i n g - c o l o r s / h t t p s : / / w w w . c a n v a . c o m / l e a r n / c o l o r - t i p s / COLOR PSYCHOLOGY TYPOGRAPHY h t t p s : / / c r e a t i v e m a r k e t . c o m / b l o g / t y p o g r a p h y - r u l e s h t t p s : / / b l o g . h u b s p o t . c o m / m a r k e t i n g / t y p o g r a p h y - t e r m s - i n t r o d u c t i o n h t t p s : / / w e b d e s i g n . t u t s p l u s . c o m / a r t i c l e s / a - c o m p r e h e n s i v e - g u i d e - t o - t y p o g r a p h y - b a s i c s - - c m s - 2 6 6 4 4 PAGE 16 Y O U T U B E C H A N N E L S Best Channels I follow https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkoolRocks B a s i c s o f V i s u a l C o n t e n t , U I / U x , B r a n d I d e n t i t y d e s i g n , G r a p h i c s c o n c e p t s a n d m a n y m o r e https://www.youtube.com/c/GcflearnfreeOrgplus/playlists? view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=21 B a s i c s o f G r a p h i c s https://www.youtube.com/c/SatoriGraphics/playlists A d v a n c e d G r a p h i c s D e s i g n i n g GCFLearn Free.org The Futur Satori Graphics https://www.youtube.com/user/socialmediaexaminer/playlists T h e b e s t s n a p s h o t o f a l l t h e S o c i a l M e d i a p l a t f o r m s https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqzYIYj- fRHV6bv16SpEhFQ/playlists T h e b e s t c h a n n e l f o r I n s t a g r a m H a c k s https://www.youtube.com/user/neilvkpatel/playlists B e i t S o c i a l M e d i a , S E O , C o n t e n t M a r k e t i n g . . . H e i s t h e b e s t https://www.youtube.com/c/Kimberlyannjimenez/playlists F o r C o n t e n t M a r k e t i n g Social Media Examiner Later Neil Patel Kimberly Jimenez Content Marketing YouTube Channels PAGE 17 If you genuinely love this ebook then, please share it with your friends and colleagues or anyone you think is a non-designer who will be benefited from this book. If you know more kickass platforms like these then I would love to try them. You can share your awesome feedback hola@ganeshkanade.com or reachout at me www.ganeshkanade.com Creativity is contagious, pass it on. -Albert Einstein A Corporate job with a six-figure paycheck in one of the largest business groups in the world is lucrative but it takes immense courage—and a healthy dose of madness—to put an end to what is potentially a financially stable life to pursue your real calling. I believe, Marketing is my true calling. I truly believe in doing what I love. I'm a creative soul with the perfect mix of right and left brain. Always challenged the status quo and preferred carving my own path rather than following the herd. I have worked with 10+ startups to drive growth and create a recognizable brand image in diverse industries like MedTech, Future Mobility, eCommerce, Restaurants and Hospitality. Currently, helping Early Startups with Data-driven digital marketing. If you want to talk more about Growth Hacking, Marketing Strategy or have something interesting to discuss, hit me up or just email me: hola@ganeshkanade.com Ganesh Kanade M a r k e t i n g S t r a t e g i s t M B A - M a r k e t i n g S y m b i o s i s , P G C - M I C A For More Cooool Stuff FOLLOW ME ON