Students can easily use these 11 online design tools to create stunning visual content.
Visual content plays an enormous role in today’s digital marketing. According to HubSpot, 80 percent of marketers use visuals in their social media marketing.
Many marketing students have the desire to learn how to create visual content, but not all of them have the opportunity to take classes in graphic design. Students don’t need to be designers to create relevant and appealing visual content.
Most of these online design tools offer a free basic version along with premium versions at an affordable rate. Keep reading to learn how students can use these 11 design tools to create appealing visual content online!
Online Design Tools
1. Canva
Type:
Graphic design tool
Price:
Canva — free, Canva Pro — $12.95/month, Canva Enterprise — contact for pricing
Canva provides design capabilities for all kinds of visual content. Students can create professional layouts for documents, flyers, social media posts, infographics, and more using Canva’s convenient drag-and-drop feature.
Users have access to:
- Photo filters
- Icons
- Thousands of layouts
- Hundreds of fonts
- Millions of images
2. Adobe Spark
Type:
Graphic design tool
Price:
Adobe Spark Starter Plan — free, Adobe Spark Individual — $9.99/month, Adobe Spark Team — $19.99/month
Adobe Spark allows users without experience to design visual content in minutes. They can start from scratch or use templates and galleries to get inspiration.
Users can create the following with Adobe Spark:
- Social graphics
- Web pages
- Short videos
3. Figma
Type:
Interface design tool
Price:
Figma — free, Figma Professional — $12/month, Figma Organization — $45/month
Figma allows users to create images and interfaces and provides tools for design, prototyping, and code-generation. It also allows teams to collaborate and work on different phases of the design process.
Figma provides users with:
- Team libraries
- Components
- Styles
- Prototypes
4. Stencil
Type:
Graphic design tool
Price:
Stencil — free, Stencil Pro — $9/month, Stencil Unlimited — $12/month
According to Stencil, it is an “easy-to-use graphic design tool for bloggers, business owners, and social media marketers.” It gives students without design experience the power to create beautiful visuals.
Users can enjoy the following features on Stencil:
- 100,000 quotes
- 300,000 graphics and icons
- 1,100,000 background photos
- 600+ templates
- And more
5. BeFunky
Type:
Photo editor, collage maker, and graphic design tool
Price:
BeFunky — free, BeFunky Plus — $6.99/month or $59.88/year
BeFunky allows users to access three design tools:
- Photo Editor
- Collage Maker
- Graphic Designer
BeFunky builds digital media tools to help users without advanced technical skills create stunning visuals. The Photo Editor can be used to alter and enhance images. The Collage Maker allows users to choose from a wide variety of templates to build collages. The Graphic Designer helps users create all kinds of visual content, from invitations to blog resources.
6. Infogram
Type:
Infographic creator
Price:
Infogram — free, Infogram Pro — $19/month, Infogram Business — $67/month, Infogram Team — $149/month, Infogram Enterprise — contact for pricing
Infogram describes itself as “an intuitive visualization tool that empowers people and teams to create beautiful content.” It provides engaging infographic templates, animations, and interactive charts and maps. Infogram allows users to track the performance of their designs through its analytics.
Users can create the following with Infogram:
- Infographics
- Reports
- Slides
- Dashboards
- Maps
- Social media visuals
7. Visme
Type:
Infographic creator
Price:
Visme — free, Visme Student — $30/semester, Visme Standard — $14/month, Visme Complete — $25/month
Visme specializes in helping users create presentations and infographics. It provides templates, content blocks, and color schemes to make content creation a breeze. It even provides a Visme 101 Training to help users create content that powerfully communicates.
Visme gives users access to:
- 500+ templates and color schemes
- 50+ charts, data widgets, and maps
- Interactivity
- One-click publish and download
- Privacy controls
- Engagement and measurement capabilities
8. Wistia – Soapbox
Type:
Video creator and editor
Price:
Soapbox — free, Soapbox Solo — $300/year, Soapbox Teams — contact for pricing
Wistia’s Soapbox allows users to easily create video without all of the equipment and hassle. According to Wistia, “With Soapbox, all you need to create a great video is our Chrome extension, a webcam, and something to say!” Soapbox videos seek to help users with product marketing, content marketing, and outreach.
Users have access to the following video creation and editing tools:
- Webcam recording
- Screencasting
- Transitions
- Editing
9. Snappa
Type:
Graphic design tool
Price:
Snappa Starter — free, Snappa Pro — $10/month, Snappa Team — $20/month
Snappa is designed to help users create online visual content, specifically for social media, ads, and blogs. It even provides users specific image dimensions for all kinds of social media platforms, ad types, and blogs.
Snappa provides users with:
- 1,000,000+ stock photos
- 200+ fonts
- 100,000+ vectors and shapes
- Photo effects
10. PicMonkey
Type:
Photo editor
Price:
PicMonkey Basic — $7.99/month, PicMonkey Pro — $12.99/month
PicMonkey seeks to help users create visual content that attracts customers. Users can edit photos, create designs, and enhance portraits. It even provides tutorials to help beginners understand photo editing and design.
Users have access to:
- 3,000+ graphics
- 200 fonts
- 100+ textures
- 2,400 customizable templates
- 70 pre-set blank canvases
11. Gliffy
Type:
Diagram software
Price:
Gliffy Personal — $7.99/month, Gliffy Team — $4.99/month per user, Gliffy Enterprise — contact for pricing
Students can use Gliffy to build diagrams via shapes, or they can choose from templates and themes. It can be used to create diagrams for design, business, and software engineering.
Gliffy allows users to create:
- Flowcharts
- Venn diagrams
- SWOT analysis
- Mind maps
- Network diagrams
- And more
Teaching Visual Media Marketing
Teaching graphic design in a marketing course isn’t always easy. Students often have a difficult time adjusting to different design tools and concepts. Have your students try these online design tools to get their feet wet. They can design infographics, images, social media posts, even videos.
If you need help teaching graphic design for marketing, request free instructor access to “Visual FOCUS.” This textbook provides the principles, tools, and background necessary for success. Students can then implement what they learn in Visual Media Marketing, the companion courseware that features hands-on learning, student projects, and step-by-step video tutorials.
Request free instructor access to “Visual FOCUS” and Visual Media Marketing to provide real-world experiences for your students.
