Before potential customers have a chance to look through your website or read into your social media captions, the visuals are the first thing they see. Capturing their attention in the first few seconds is what encourages them to read on and find out more about what you have to offer. It’s something Thunderbolt Digital, a marketing web design Surrey based team, keeps at the forefront of their planning when designing and making websites and content.
Considering it takes only 0.05 seconds for users to make an assumption of your website based on their initial viewing, you need to grab their attention quickly, and in the right way. Therefore, it’s imperative that your website is appealing and relevant to your chosen audience, and choosing the right tools to do so can make or break that first impression.
Starting out can be daunting. There are many ways of catching readers’ attention, but what options work best for your business? Our web design Surrey based team want to share with you our favourite free design tools that can help boost the aesthetics of your web pages and social media channels, reaching and captivating your target market.
Canva
Canva is every marketer and advertiser’s best friend. Canva offers a free version with a range of templates and graphics to help you create business cards, logos, infographics, and social media posts. There are options to buy singular graphics or images rather than upgrading to the paid version, making it a great budget-friendly option.
DesignWizard
With its simple-to-use interface and thousands of free templates, DesignWizard has been ranked as one of the best pieces of beginner-friendly free graphic design software.
Blender
If you’re looking for something a little more complex (but for the right reasons), Blender is a fantastic 3D creation tool for animation. Our web design team are always impressed with the huge amount of design options, however, it’s good to know some graphic design basics before diving into this one.
Adobe Spark
The free alternative to the paid version, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Spark is a great place to create videos and posters both on desktop and mobile alike! The drawback is the limited number of features in comparison to the paid version, but this is something you can upgrade to if and when needed.
WordPress
WordPress has become a household name, and quite rightly so. It has many free-to-use features and thousands of available plugins to allow you to create a website that can be entirely customisable. The long list of themes and templates can give you a lot of free reign when designing your website. A downside users find is you won’t get support from the WordPress team on the free version, but our web design Surrey department is happy to help with any queries you may have!
Tiff
Tiff is the place to go if you’re stuck deciding between two fonts. It allows you to overlay one font over another so you can draw comparisons. It supports Google Web Fonts, which is another great free tool to save in your browser.
Pexels
Pexels is full of high-quality stock images that you can use on your website and social media. Simply search the term or the item you want a photo of, and you’ll have tens and hundreds to choose from!
There’s no denying the value of a high-end website, however, these free web design and marketing tools can be a fantastic option for all to use, especially when starting out. If you can find a free tool and achieve the same outcome as with a paid one, you’re on to a winner.
If you’re looking to take designing a step further to revamp your whole website, you may want to look at speaking to a team with expert knowledge. Our developers and web designers in Surrey are on hand to bring your dream website to life. Using a mix of the tools above plus some of our other favourites, we can create an eye-catching website designed with your customers in mind. For more information about this, feel free to call us on 01252 413757 or email us at howdy@wearethunderbolt.com.