Psst. Ninjas and monsters are my new fascination, please bear with the sudden references.

If my last post: How To Make A Fairy Tale Convert: The Art Of Storytelling, has got you deep into the storyteller mode, congratulations! Because a good story always brings in more sales.

Considering that it has been some time since I published the post and the fact that most of you would have tried your hand at it, chances are that you have run out of ideas by now.

Don’t fret! I’m pretty sure you’re busy executing other marketing strategies as well and you might not be finding the time to look for inspiration. So are you one of those who has already resorted to the usual copy-paste or are you still trying to offer your audience some originality?

If you lie in the latter category, here’s help and if you’re in the former, please move to the latter!

It isn’t a hard and fast rule that storytelling has to be textual. I mean, haven’t you seen those interactive pop-up story books being offered at bookstores these days? Open a page and a monster comes up right in front of you baring his stupid big buck teeth.

Yes, they are for babies but they’re fascinating nevertheless.

So, before you accuse me of losing my mind because I’m asking you to do what a designer does, here’s a list of tools that will make you a visual content ninja:

1. Canva

This one being a personal favorite, is a great tool for churning out visual content that isn’t just beautiful but really easy to create. Canva offers templates for just about everything — social media posts, blog graphics, mailers, notices, posters, etc. It has a lot of usable elements that come for free and if you’re looking at giving that special touch to your posts, there are more elements that come at a minimal cost of $1.

Need to edit images but your designer’s damn busy and you have no clue how Photoshop works? PicMonkey is for us non-designers. It is an online editing tool that offers basic functions such as cropping, re-sizing, adding text, etc for free; along with a few features that come at a pocket friendly cost.

Need to add a quick quote but are sick of just playing with fonts? Pablo is a great tool for creating such images. Barely taking 30 seconds to create an image, the tool offers a range of backgrounds that you could use across all fields. It also gives you the option of uploading your own background image to make your creative more authentic.

If you have been trying to market your products and services via content for some time now, you’ll be aware of the fact that infographics are ‘the thing’ today. Since it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea to create beautiful infographics on their own, Piktochart is their knight in shining armor. It offers a wide variety of infographic templates and themes that let you jump straight to 80% of your final image instead of starting from scratch.

Another tool for creating infographics, Easely offers thousands of free infographic templates and design elements to help you create visual content. The tool functions on a simple drag and drop, making it easy and quicker to create visuals.

The thing with freelancing is that you can’t really sit in one place and work for hours together. There are times when you just want to move about and work on the go! AfterPhoto (iOS|Android) is a mobile app meant for all of us who want to enjoy their lives and work without being restricted to a table and chair. The app offers filters and other basic functions like cropping, re-sizing, etc along with a wide range of fonts with various effects for adding text to images and creating something that screams out originality from every angle!

Is there any other tool that you think could become my new favorite? Please feel free to add to the list by dropping a comment in the box below, and I’ll try the tool for sure! ☺

Till then, get your freak on!