Five Free Online Tools to Create Your Restaurant’s Visual Content

Visual content is the driving force behind the internet. It’s what makes the likes of Instagram and Snapchat so successful. It’s what keeps people on your website for longer and it’s the reason why we’re all so well connected. Words are simply not enough, visuals help to tell a story. In addition, it sets you apart from your competitors. Colours, shapes, fonts and images create your brand and make it unique to anyone else’s.

The number one obvious place to share great visuals, (video clips, images, infographics) is across social media. A tweet with an image garners 18% more clicks than those without. A Facebook video will typically be seen by twice as many people when compared with an image. The world wants something to look at, so make sure you can give it to them. The same can be said for your website, more visuals will send visitors packing. So here are five free tools to start creating fabulous visual content.

1. Canva

Canva is so simple to use, it’s designed specifically with your average Joe in mind. What we mean is, if you’re completely new to design and you’ve never used anything to create a graphic before, Canva will guide you through. Don’t struggle away with Photoshop when you’ve got everything ready-to-go with Canva. Grab free templates and edit them to fit your requirements. Overlay different images, text and icons to create something striking.

(Source: Canva)

2. BeFunky

Another photoshop alternative, BeFunky is a no-brainer. Edit images like a professional, all for free. If you’ve taken a photo but it’s not quite up to scratch, easily make touch-ups using BeFunky. Edit brightness levels, remove fuzzy areas and change the quality completely with the click of a button. There are also some fun tools like the pop art feature to add some creativity to your visuals and make them a little more… funky!

(source: BeFunky)

3. Infogr.am

This tool is geared more towards infographics and charts. It’s perfect if you’re looking to share statistics on about your restaurant. Whether you’re hoping to share visuals with a potential investor, or you simply want to share some fun stats with your customer’s, infogr.am can help. Bring normal text updates to life with charts and get creative with simple things, like opening hours or a ‘meet the team’ page. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to use infogr.am, so save on costs and try it for yourself.

Here are some ideas:
Show how many people visited your restaurant year on year in a graph
Show your most popular dishes in a pie chart
Show your peak times in a graphic
Show your fastest delivery times by area

(source: infogr.am)

4. WhatFont

Often the key to a great visual is the font overlay. Good fonts can be hard to come by, especially ones that fit with your branding and work well when laid over an image. You can end up spending a good chunk of your precious time searching for a font, before you even have chance to put something together. WhatFont is ideal for grabbing awesome fonts that you come across on the web and wish you could have! In one easy click you can identify the name of the font used. Then turn to a website like dafont to search for it.

(source: WhatFont)

5. Pablo

A tool designed with social media in mind. Pablo believes everything you post out should be beautiful. This tool has over 50,000 images and 25+ fonts you can search through and use in your designs. There is a great feature allowing you to resize the end result so it’s in the correct format for the different social media platforms. It’s the small touches like this that make using Pablo a breeze. Create effortless visuals that look as though you’ve paid a top designer to produce them.

(source: Pablo)

When you first start using tools such as these above, it might seem a little overwhelming. Especially if you’re new to design and content marketing. However, we’ve selected these for their simplicity, so stick with it for 5-10 minutes and you’ll feel like a pro once you’ve mastered the basics.