Each time a business owner sits down to create content for their blog, website or social media, they face a binary choice:
Option 1 – they can put in the hours and create stunning high-quality content
Option 2 – they can get the job done quickly and move onto other things (like running their business)
The trade-off is even worst when planning visual content such as infographics, e-flyers and posters. The need to display enormous quantities of information in a logical yet visually attractive manner is no small feat. This challenge is paramount to success as it determines whether readers can quickly assimilate information. Online attention spans are minuscule. If you lose your audience in the first couple of seconds, they will never come back! Traditionally this type of visual content cannot be quickly put together unless you are a design expert with a great depth of experience in creating visual graphics.
Naturally, these issues have led to the development of several new software solutions which promise a third option. That promise is the ability to create 5-star quality content in a matter of hours (or indeed even minutes). These companies are making big claims. After all, high-quality content is the difference between a vibrant, active digital presence, and a barren online wasteland where many an entrepreneur’s dreams go to die.
We’ve written about one company offering such a solution before. Readers who have been following us for a while will remember that we previously reviewed the software Visme. We have firsthand insight into this software as we use it to create infographics for our clients and our internal projects.
The good news is that Visme recently published a significant update. Considering that it is a tool that we use every day; we decided to release this updated review highlighting the new changes and our feelings towards the product.
Background
In their own words, Visme’s mission is ”to enable anyone to easily translate their thoughts and ideas into engaging content all the while saving time and the costs implicated in acquiring expensive programs or hiring an expert to do it for them”.
Visme believes that: ”Visual content such as infographics, presentations, graphics and videos are much more engaging forms of content in comparison to text”.
So what is Visme exactly? In short, it is a graphic visual tool that enables its users to create 5-star quality content quickly and easily. The great appeal of Visme is that you don’t need any design experience to use it.
The company goes to great lengths to help users maximise utility from the tool. At the time of writing this article, there are more than one hundred tutorials provided on their YouTube channel. These videos provide clear instructions that anyone can follow. Combined with the user-friendly software itself, anyone can become a competent graphic designer.
Lift Off
When you first log into your Visme account, you’re greeted by a dashboard (see the image below). From here, you can easily edit your projects. As Visme saves all your projects online, you can easily access them from wherever you have an internet connection. Imagine that you left your laptop at work, you would still be able to logon from a different device and pick up where you left off.
Click on ‘create’, and a whole array of possibilities appear.
Each option comes with templates that you can change according to the needs of your latest project. The countless colour palette combinations allow you to change the feeling of your work from the very first look. With endless possibilities, you can decide which colours best suit the aesthetics of your latest creation.
For example, the image below is an infographic that we created and published using Visme.
The Latest Version
Visme has been in development for over seven years and has undergone continual upgrades and refinements. Early this year, after a year and a half of new development, Visme has rolled out its most significant release to date. Their latest update brings new features to the platform not yet seen within any other tool. The updates are based on reviews and feedback from over 4.4 million users from over 120 countries.
One of the significant updates provided in the recent release is faster and more robust overall editor performance to boost load times. Building on their previous success, the latest version of Visme provides several new templates to spark inspiration for your projects. The app remains user friendly, interactive and easy to learn.
What New Features & Assets Does Visme 2020 Contain?
Visme has listed the following new features and assets:
- Over 500+ customizable animated illustrations, characters and gestures created by our expert design team to help your content stand out.
- Expanded offering of project export formats to include editable PowerPoint export and the much sought after GIF and video!
- Thousands of HD-quality videos and audio clips to help you jumpstart your video content creation.
- Three massive presentation themes, Simple & Creative, each with over 325 slides across 20 categories.
- Magic style tools to apply existing styles to other objects.
- Upload vector graphics (SVGs) and use in your projects (In addition to JPG, PNG and animated GIF’s)
- Collaborate on content and graphics within a team with annotated comments and notifications to improve content creation and editing workflow with your teammates.
Our Favourite Features
When we create infographics for our clients, we use a wide array of images to illustrate the ideas we’re trying to communicate. The fact that Visme has added more than five hundred customisable animated illustrations, characters and gestures has helped us tremendously. The 3D elements created by their expert design team help our content stand out.
The image below shows a selection of images. There is everything from fast food to hyper-realistic technology creations. We love being able to combine aesthetic styles creating an eclectic presentation.
In one of our projects, we created an illustration which contained people from different professions. Each character was thinking about how to use technology to promote their business. The fact that Visme provided suitable templates saved us a considerable amount of time and perhaps even money. Little additions like this may not seem like much, but they keep the designer from needing to create the graphics from scratch. Similarly, they may also save the company from having to pay inflated prices for the graphics from a third party.
Manage Your Branding
As a content marketing consultancy, we understand the importance of seamless internally collaboration. Visme has the functionality to support teamwork and group projects. Team members can add annotations, comments and notifications to projects which significantly assists the creation process and simplifies internal creative workflows.
In terms of branding, Visme helps our audience recognise our content in the crowded online market. The screenshot below shows how you can customise your brand identity such as your type, logo, colours and visual characteristics. All those details are vitally important for ensuring consistent imagery, so your brand remains unique and sincerely yours!
Distributing Your Content
Visme allows you to download your content in the following formats:
- Images, e.g. JPEG or PNG
- PDF documents
- Videos in formats such as MP4 or GIF
- Presentation documents opened in Microsoft PowerPoint or HTML
We find this array of download options useful as our clients have different needs and often request our work in various formats.
The option is also available to share your content online:
- You can publish for the web
- You can share privately or with your team.
- You can add your project directly onto your website.
Pricing
The basic Visme package is free. You just need to register with your email address, and you can start creating your first project straight away.
While most features are free, to get a 100% out of the software, you have to sign up for one of their monthly plans. Considering what you get, these plans are more than affordable, starting at just $14/month when paid yearly ($25/month monthly). The premium plan includes access to all the fantastic features such as downloading projects for offline use, password protection, access to premium widgets and templates.
To clarify, we are not paid to promote Visme, and this article contains zero affiliate links. We would never recommend a product that we don’t use ourselves. Simply put Visme is a great product that will not only save you time and headaches but help you to produce some of the best visual content you’ve ever created.