Dear Internal Communications Professional,
We know that creating engaging digital content is a big part of your role. We also know that without the right tools, creating this content can be expensive and time-consuming. That’s why we’re sharing this list of free and cheap content creation tools that we love with you.
With these design, video, imagery, writing, and creative organization tools at your fingertips, you’ll definitely save time. But more importantly, you’ll effortlessly create content that truly engages your workforce. And, your coworkers will be wondering: How did they do that?
Best of all, you won't have to invest a lot of money (if any) to start creating better, more engaging content than ever before!
Make sure to spread the love and share this list of tools with your team and fellow internal comms professionals.
Love, The Sparrow Connected Team
Design
Canva is a design and publishing tool that simplifies complex creative tasks for internal communications professionals.
The platform offers stunning templates and graphics, as well as photo editing and video editing capabilities–enabling creators to make eye-catching communications materials no matter what their current design skills are.
The Canva free account allows users to make and download projects with ease, while the inexpensive pro plan unlocks additional resources and various file download options.
Picktochart enables content creators to make text-heavy information digestible. The platform easily and beautifully illustrates information–especially data sets–and makes applying your company’s branding simple.
With lots of useful templates, like LinkedIn posts and corporate reports, it’s an extremely helpful resource for internal communications professionals.
Picktochart has a range of available plans with corresponding prices based on your needs, and luckily, they offer a free plan.
Video
Loom is a popular video tool that lets you record both your screen and yourself to create and instantly share video communications with employees.
This tool isn’t only a handy way to connect en-mass with your workforce, it also gives staff a more efficient way to consume information, adds a personal touch, and reduces time spent typing out communications or searching for matching meeting availability.
If you’re interested in trying Loom, they offer a free plan and an inexpensive business plan.
Make attention-grabbing communications materials with motion graphics, animations, and videos with the design tool, Jitter.
The templates, pre-sets, and branding customizations make it easy to get started and your productions will be engaging and memorable for employees. Also, gathering feedback on your creations is simple with Jitter’s link sharing capabilities.
Jitter is accessible no matter what your internal communications budget is with their free plan as well as their inexpensive pro plan.
Images
When you need imagery for your communications materials Pexels is a great first place to look.
Its database of high quality imagery and video footage is free to use, requires no attribution, and is easy to navigate. Simply enter your search term and filter the results based on your needs.
In the unlikely event that you are unable to find what you’re looking for on Pexels, check out Unsplash - another valuable resource for beautiful (and free) stock imagery.
Pixlr is a sophisticated photo editor and design maker that makes it easy to apply simple edits to photos. The various editing tools are super easy for beginners to learn thanks to the pop-up explanations that appear when hovering a cursor over each tool.
It's free to use and is supported by ads. The inexpensive premium plan allows you to use the platform ad-free and unlocks additional tools, assets, and features.
Writing
While the spell checking on commonly available word-processing software has improved over time, there are some things they still don’t catch which means mistakes can still make their way to final drafts. Grammarly, an artificial intelligence-powered writing tool, can reduce this risk.
Grammarly reviews copy for more than just spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The tool proofs a text’s clarity, style, and tone for mistakes and improvements based on your customized settings (which you can align to your brand tone and the type of communication). It’s extremely flexible and can be used in web browsers, desktop app, and word-processing programs.
This game-changing tool is available for free and users can unlock additional features by upgrading to one of their inexpensive premium and business plans.
Ryter can make the content creation process faster and easier—leaving more time for other important tasks. It’s an easy to use writing assistant that helps create high-quality and engaging copy powered by artificial intelligence.
After entering the content type, essential information in the form of keywords, and how many versions you would like generated, Ryter instantly creates the communications for you in the language and tone you desire.
When writer’s block hits or you’re behind on a deadline, this tool can be especially helpful to get you started or speeding up your progress.
It is free to use and offers a low-cost saver plan that includes a larger character generation limit and custom use cases.
Organization
If keeping your content (or all your work) more organized is something you want to accomplish, look at Evernote. It’s a powerful tool to help you to achieve that. Popularly used as a productivity booster, the platform allows you to collect and organize many pieces of information, so you have everything at your fingertips.
The Evernote platform syncs across devices and includes to-do lists, connected calendars, note-taking templates, document scanning, web clipping capability, exceptional search functionality, and customization.
Evernote offers a free plan as well as paid plans offering more storage and additional features.
If you are a visual worker or are working on visual-heavy projects, Milanote is an easy-to-use tool that will keep your projects organized. Much like Evernote, it makes it easy to collect different kinds of information, collaborate with others, and sync across devices.
Milanote can help you organize ideas, files, and projects into boards. It's excellent for working on creative projects in a dispersed work environment allowing you to mind-map, manage projects, take notes, and brainstorm.
Try out the free plan or one of their inexpensive personal plans if you need more capacity.
P.S. There’s one more tool we know you’ll love. The Sparrow Connected platform will help you deliver the engaging content you create to your employees on the channels they love and use most. We'd be happy to show you how in a personalized demo. Book your demo today!
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