Content Creation Resources for Cleveland Businesses

You want to post higher quality content on your social media accounts and websites, we all want that for our business. Cleveland has a high bar of quality content creators and a multitude of spots to film and write about. We have so many tools at our disposal as content creation has never been easier. In this insight we will go over the best resources for content creation to help your Cleveland business thrive online and get in front of your desired audience.

It can be difficult to stand out in Cleveland, especially with powerhouses like the Guardians, Fat Heads, Key Bank, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and so many organizations that draw huge crowds to our neck of the woods. How do we compete? Simple, we strategize and target audiences specifically and with intent.

This insight will provide a list of tools and websites to use when you create content. Many of these applications and services can be used on your phone, and a lot of the tools do not require a heavy-duty computer. If you have any doubt about the power of your phone, check out our insight on mobile marketing. This guide is geared towards small businesses who do not have the means to hire an outright agency, or a dedicated marketing person for a small business who just needs a hand finding some good resources.

Canva
One of the most-used applications for graphic design. It is extremely user friendly but sacrifices more professional graphic design features. It’s perfect for a small content creator or business who want to make a small graphic wishing people a happy holiday or advertisement for a newly published YouTube video. Businesses can use Canva to create many marketing materials like presentations, social media graphics, and images for emails. The drag and drop design is incredibly intuitive, and they offer a paid version with a few more features, but nothing absolutely necessary for a small business owner.

Adobe Creative Cloud
This is the application that is the umbrella for programs like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Adobe also offers free tools for people that don’t cost a dime, like Adobe Express. You might consider this route if you eventually want to hire a marketing person or marketing agency to work on your marketing efforts. Having an adobe account will give you cloud storage and cross-compatibility with all Adobe products. You can drag an adobe PDF right into Photoshop, or and InDesign file right into Premiere Pro. It’s extremely useful.

Crello
Much like Canva, Crello is an image manipulation and creation tool. It’s owned by VistaCreate, and the professional version is $10 per month, not outrageous at all if you create a lot of graphics for your business. It does not have the amount of templates and stock pictures available that Canva has, but it does have more features to make animations and motion graphics that Canva lacks. It’s a trade-off. If you like animated graphics more, this might be your pick over the others.

Video is king, we have said this repeatedly in our insights. It holds more attention, garners more clicks, and keeps people on your website/account/page far longer than anything else. These applications are ranged from beginner to expert:

iMovie
This app is for apple and Mac users only as it is proprietary. It comes preinstalled on every Mac, iPad, and iPhone on the market and is very useful for beginner editors. The desktop version has more features than the phone app, but you may not need extra features. This app is made with beginner video editors in mind. It does not have professional features and is simple to navigate. The best part about iMovie is that it is always 100 free. If you just need to string together some short videos it is perfect for you.

Animoto
This is a video editor directly marketed at small businesses. If you’re in Cleveland and you get a good number of short videos you have taken around your business; you can use this with a template of your choosing, upload your logo, and it will guide you through creating a video in a corporate style. The free version is absolute garbage as it will only allow you to export in 720p and will have their logo as a watermark on your video after you download it. No, Animoto needs a good marketer on their team to tell them why this is unacceptable. However, when you pay the $8 a month fee for the basic version it suddenly upgrades to a semi-professional level with TONS of features, which is what we recommend doing.

Adobe Premiere Pro
This is for experienced video editors and can only be used on a decent desktop. Some laptops can run it well, but they cost thousands of dollars to preform reasonably. It’s a subscription service at $20 a month and has every professional feature imaginable. It is completely overwhelming if you have never edited a video before. Avoid this unless you have already mastered iMovie, Davinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro as it will confuse you with the number of tools and user interface made for professionals.

We are not the next Shakespeare, let’s not kid ourselves. We could all use help in formulating ideas, testing out prose, and compiling our thoughts into cohesive sentences. There have been leaps and bounds in the world of AI and applications are now widely using an integrated version of ChatGPT to read and analyze syntax and grammar. Here are a couple apps to help you get your thoughts on paper:

Grammarly
This application will help you check your grammar and syntax, and the free version is fairly good. You can also ask it to create a block of text from quite a few AI prompts. This is a very simple and easy to use program to check the basics of your writing, you will still need to compose most of what you are writing manually or with ChatGPT.

Hemmingway Editor
This handy app uses AI to highlight sections of your work, tell you they are too complex to read or to use more simple language. It’s completely free and it has a unique design that let’s you use colors to identify and fix problems in your writing.

Google Docs
You have probably heard of Google, it’s kind of a big deal. This is the only cloud-based program in this section, and it has some great benefits if you have multiple people working on a project simultaneously. It’s basically a word document that an entire team can work in at the same time. If you have a small business in Cleveland with a branch down in Akron, it might be worth your time to start up a few marketing docs to get everyone involved with your projects.

Managing your projects and content creation goals can be confusing. There are many moving parts to recording or writing something, editing it, posting it, and analyzing the response. These programs will help you track the progress of projects and assign tasks to your team or use the task system by yourself depending on your situation.

Trello
Trello is a project management system for organizing content creation workflows. It has a dashboard that visually guides you through creating content and posting it, and it also allows you to hold the content for later and keep a repository of things you are working on. The boards and lists can be added to and modified by members of your team. It’s a very powerful tool to keep you organized and on track.

Asana
Much like Trello, Asana is another workflow management system for teams. It is geared towards companies making content workflows for their own clients, whereas Trello was geared towards making a company’s own content. This platform is best utilized by companies that have multiple teams making content for a business.

Basecamp
This paid service has everything from boards to project management systems, and it even has it’s own hour tracking system for employees to use. It’s geared more towards established agencies with multiple teams of people all making content for multiple clients.

The laws around copyrights and photos/videos seems difficult to enforce, and while it is unethical to steal photos or videos for commercial products there are plenty of resources to find free-use photos and videos. Nothing makes your business’ content pop more than good visuals.

Unsplash
This is a free stock photo platform with plenty of options to choose from for social media posts or website aesthetics. They have a paid version so you can utilize more assets that are locked behind a paywall, but honestly the free version is phenomenal.

ShutterStock
Almost nothing on ShutterStock is free, it is a fully paid service that has an impressive library of photos and videos. You can download test images with a watermark to try them out, and the system they use is credits. Each photo or video costs a specific number of credits and they go up or down depending on factors like the resolution or length of video.

Pexels
The absolute best free website for photos and videos, hands down. Here at Acclaim we are always on there looking for images for blogs, client websites, and our own posts. There are tons of free0use videos in slow motion and high definition, and their search function rarely fails us.

Now we come upon the age-old art of creating posts for social media right in the platform. But wait, we don’t want to go into Facebook and make something, then recreate it 9 more times on all the other social media sites. No! We want

Buffer
This nifty application is an incredible powerhouse. It helps you build and flush out content on your phone or desktop, links with all your social media accounts, has AI copywriting help, and can schedule posts. It can get expensive, but a plan with 5 accounts costs around $30 a month. It also has analytics for your posts and their specific social media platform. Buffer is a great way to get your finger on the pulse of Cleveland and with it’s social listening feature it can tell you what is popular around you.

Later
Later can do mostly the same thing as Buffer, but it’s pricing options get a little more customizable. It has options to add people for a small monthly fee, and a fee to add credits for using their AI software in creating social media content. It’s mostly used for Instagram as the visual builder for posts with photos is top-notch, but ti does offer a reasonable deal for $16.97 a month and you can have one of each social media platform connected at a time.

Hootsuite
This is a much more high-end social media content creation and posting tool. Starting at $100 a month it comes fully loaded with every feature imaginable. It has everything from analytics to social listening and has integration with Cavna right inside the builder for ease of access. While the other two limit how much you can post, Hootsuite lets you post to your heart’s content.

We are incredibly lucky to have this vibrant city around us. There are hundreds of interesting places to photograph, film video, or hold events, and creating content for your business can be fun for your whole team. Schedule a time to brew beer at The Brew Kettle, take pictures of your team on roller coasters at Cedar Point, or take advantage of our gigantic library system.

The library system is actually the first resource you will want to check out, they offer the ability for you to set up events or keynotes speeches in your industry. It’s free, available, and accessible by anyone. Most libraries also have dedicated rooms that can be reserved where you can schedule a photoshoot or create video content for your social media accounts. Plenty of libraries all over Cuyahoga county have digital media labs and offer access to programs that you might not have. Take advantage of these, they are a sleeper pick for creative content makers.

Cleveland is also home to a multitude of video and photo studios. It’s easy to schedule an appointment and have your team take professional photos. This option comes with a much higher price tag, but having professional headshots will help your website look more flushed out and polished. Also, having a video created for your mission statement or company values is always useful and can be used throughout your media that you post.

Cleveland also has a robust culture of business expositions that are popping up all the time. It can be fruitful to go to a couple and just shake hands and pass out business cards. Having a general knowledge of the communities in Cleveland make it much easier to collaborate and connect with other brands and businesses that might need your services, or they may know someone who could utilize your services.

There are so many resources at your fingertips when you think of content creation. Sometimes all we need is a little guide to help nudge us in the right direction. Remember to save and share this insight if you enjoyed it or found it helpful. As always, if you ever have questions about content creation or want to see the services we offer here at Acclaim feel free to reach out to us anytime.