How to Create 16 Visual Content Types You Need Right Now

Wondering how to create visual content?

And which content types your business needs?

There are so many kinds you’ve heard about, and others that might not even be on your radar yet! We’ll cover them all, so you can find the ones that are a perfect fit for your business marketing.

Then we’ll tell you 25 ways to create them easily!

Why Visual Content?

You’re a busy business owner. I am too!

So maybe you need some convincing to invest time into visual content marketing…

 

Visual Content Stats

And there’s more. Here are some compelling statistics uncovered by Hubspot:

• Tweets with images received 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
• On Instagram, photos showing faces get 30% more Likes than photos without faces.
• Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement than posts without images.

But you know this, right? After all:

• 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%).
• 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%).

You’re here for visual content ideas and tools, so let’s get to it!

How to Create Visual Content Your Audience Will Love

Do you sometimes feel stumped on what to create?

Or maybe you’re in a rut – perhaps always creating picture quotes – and need some fresh ideas.

Visual content ideas are exactly what you’ll find here! Not only 16 types of visual content, but a choice of ways to make each kind.

Disclosure: I’m an affiliate for a few of the tools, which means I may earn a referral fee if you make a purchase.

1 | Eye catching, relevant photos

Use photos that are relevant to your business and audience. The best way is to get them is to take your own.

Try these ideas:

• Your office.
• Your team members.
• Behind the scenes at work.
• Sneak previews of upcoming products.
• Customers using your product.

All of the above work great on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Need to make your photos look better?

Can’t take a photo to save your life? Be sure to choose the right stock image.

Here’s where you can download free, high quality photos, with NO attribution required:

• Unsplash.com
• Pexels.com
• Pixabay.com (my favorite – so much to choose from!)
• ScatterJar Free food photos

You’ll find even more options on this ultimate list of free photo sites.

2 | Whiteboard videos

With a little practice, anyone can create whiteboard videos.

Surprised?

Here some tools that can help you make a good whiteboard video:

• Videoscribe
• Explaindio
• Easysketchpro
• Videomakerfx

Above: whiteboard video example.

3 | Explainer videos

These are a great way to simplify a complicated topic.

And there are tools to help you make explainer videos!

• PowToon
• Moovly

Above: explainer video made with Powtoon.

4 | Screencasts

A screencast demonstrates how to do a specific task, step-by-step.

Here are the tools you can use to build and share screencasts:

• Screencast-o-matic.com
• Screencast.com

The video above shows how to create a screencast with Mac QuickTime.

5 | And yet more videos!

The previous 3 content types are all videos, but it’s also great to share videos you shoot yourself with your smartphone.

For the last 5 years or more, we’ve heard that “this is the year of video.”

And every year, they just grow in popularity!

You’ll want to check out these tips to make your Facebook video viral.

Or read these Facebook Live tips.

And since we’re talking visual marketing, be sure you use an eye-catching video thumbnail!

 

6 | Informative screenshots

Try these ideas:

• Share screen shots of your digital product.
• Use them in how-to posts or graphics.
• Show your results with a screen shot of analytics.
• Share a customer testimonial screenshot.

Any and all of these increase customer confidence in what you have to sell.

Screenshots of software, app screens, or webpages work well in an educational or tutorial post. I use screen shots a lot in my writing. I hope you find them as helpful as I do!

Tools that help you snap and markup screenshots:

• Getgreenshot
• Skitch

 

7 | Interesting data visualisations

Data is an excellent way to make a point. Data made visual is even more convincing.

Consider these as mini-infographics. They could even be from an infographic broken into its component parts.

They’re great to sprinkle in your blog posts and share on social media.

You can make these in several tools mentioned in the section below.

 

8 | Infographics

Infographics are shared 3x more than any other type of visual content. They’re perfect to depict data, statistics, facts, and figures in an interesting and engaging way.

Make your own infographics to easily communicate complex data. It’s easier than you think!

Here are some online tools to make infographics:

• Piktochart
• Canva
• Venngage
• Easel.ly
• Infogr.am

You can see 3 infographics examples at the end of this article (since infographics are often quite long, I recommend this placement).

For a deep dive into this most popular visual content type…

 

9 | Instructographics

Instructographics are collages of step-by-step images on how to complete a task.

While infographics are usually graphics-based (charts and diagrams), instructographics are typically comprised of a series of photos.

These are super popular on Pinterest! They’re perfect for DIY projects, recipes, and beauty tips.

Try these tools to make your own instructographics:

• Picmonkey
• Piktochart
• Canva
• Venngage

10 | Branded Images

Your graphics need a consistent look. Also be sure to add your watermark.

Do you even have a brand? While branding incorporates more than the visual, color is what people notice first.

Your brand colors need to reflect your business personality, though.

 

11 | Inspiring Quote Cards

People love to share quote pictures that resonate with them. They work on all social channels.

Include some in your blog posts too, where appropriate. They’re great to share on Pinterest with a link back to your post!

There are many ways to make your own quote graphics. My strongest recommendation goes to Stencil though.

Why Stencil? Because they include over 100,000 quotes right in the app!

They even wrote a blog post for me about how to make quote images that boost your business.

You can find more design app options for your computer or iPhone here:

20+ ways to make quote pictures on desktop.

20+ ways to add text to photos on iPhone.

To find all the awesome quotes you’ll ever need for social media marketing:

12 | Entertaining memes

Memes can be silly and sassy. If this works for your brand, use them on your website and social media. They have the potential to go viral!

Here are some online tools to make your own memes:

• Imgur Memegen
• Livememe
• Quickmeme

 

13 | Tips, Tricks and How-To’s

People LOVE how-to graphics! It can be a simple tip or a step-by-step collage.

Here’s a tip to increase your authority in your niche: Quote yourself!

Create a series of graphics where you give tips, tricks, and how-to’s your audience needs to know about your business and what you offer.

Show that you know your stuff! They’ll be more confident in buying your product or service.

Tips graphics perform best for me on every social channel. Why? I’m sharing expertise my followers need!

The fastest way to crank these out is to use a desktop design app. Try it!

Create a template in Picmonkey, Stencil, or another tool mentioned under Inspirational Quotes. Bang out a dozen or two of your best tips, and share away!

14 | Strong Calls to Action

Your call-to-action is what you ask your reader to do once they’ve read your copy – which could be a blog post, sales page, email, or opt-in form.

It can be something as simple as calling you for more information, signing up for your mailing list, or buying your product. If you don’t tell people what to do, they are less likely to do it.

Even if your copy implies they should buy your product, if you don’t ask for the sale, you won’t make it as often.

So call people to take action! Create it in a visual format for even better results.

15 | Cartoons

Cartoons attract eyeballs because of the anticipation of a good punch line. If you’ve got the sense of humor, try these tools to help you make cartoons:

• Pixton
• Toondoo

 

16 | Thought-Provoking Questions

Questions are essential to keeping your audience engaged and interested in your business – since you are showing interest in them!

Stumped for what to ask?

Or need a way to organize your ideas, and when and where to post them?

Engaging questions and post ideas are at the heart of my Social Media Content Planner.

‘Cause if your audience doesn’t engage, you’re wasting your time making visual content for social media.

Get all the engaging post ideas you need – over 100 each month – including questions to learn more about your audience and how your business can help them.

 

Conclusion: You Must (and Can!) Create Visual Content

If you’re not using visual content, you basically don’t exist online. You’re virtually invisible!

Humans are changing.

Life gets crazier.

The amount of information online is exploding.

Our methods of communicating must change too!

Visual content is the answer.

The content types shared above are a compilation of those on the infographics below, from FastWebStart and Canva.

Try one of the many methods named above to make it!

Let me know in a comment: what else do you need to create visual content?