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Customer Story

How Deborah Tan, Communications Manager at Revolut, Uses Piktochart to Create Content

Deborah Tan-Pink

Growth, Communications & Marketing, Revolut

Company

Revolut
Company Website

www.revolut.com
Business Type

Financial Technology
Location

Singapore
Friends with Piktochart

Since 2013

We live in an age of information and content overload. With the increasing amount of content calling out for attention, content creators, marketers, and communications specialists need to find a creative and sure-proof way to break through the noise.

This story gives insights on how to create content that works, staying on top of the game.

As part of our #PiktoChat series, Wilson had a brief chat over Zoom with Deborah Tan, senior communications manager at Revolut, to discuss the importance of visual communication for content creators.

As a content creator, Deborah has been in the content industry for more than 20 years. Her relationship with visual communication started back in her career with magazine publications such as CLEO and Cosmopolitan in Singapore.

Noticing the growing trend towards online and digital content, Deborah started her own digital content agency in 2013 with three other partners. They focused on creating digital content and worked with notable brands such as Laurel, Shiseido, and Volkswagen to create appealing visual content.

Her journey continued with her venture into the tech scene with SmartUp in 2016. In late 2020, Deborah joined Revolut as a senior communications manager.

Infographics as the solution for content consumption

Back in Deborah’s stint with her digital content agency, she realized that infographics were an emerging way of communicating content beyond blog posts and videos.

She noticed a particular group of audiences who were not interested in consuming content through videos or articles, and infographics were the perfect solution for them.

With that revelation, Deborah searched on Google for a free infographic design platform and stumbled upon Piktochart. She signed up for an account and started creating infographics, and the user-friendliness of the interface convinced her to stick to Piktochart.

“It’s really a no-brainer to use, I would say. People have told me to try another infographics design platform that is very world-renowned, but I tried it before and I didn’t really like the feel and the way it works. Despite several attempts to try to pull me away, I always come back to Piktochart. I think it goes back to the great design of Piktochart.”
Deborah Tan, Senior Communications Manager at Revolut

As a longtime customer of Piktochart since 2013, Deborah appreciated that the interface hasn’t changed much, and the design principles have remained consistent throughout the years.

The importance of visual communication for a content creator

A picture paints a thousand words.

This is true as Deborah found that merely reading content does not work as effectively for some consumers. Moreover, as a writer herself, she was aware that words have limitations.

A lengthy article can explain a concept or idea, but nobody wants to read that.

“If I can design an infographic and make the words pop using colors, it’s going to capture the audience’s imagination and attention so much better. This is why I feel visual communication is so important. It’s not because you’re a designer, but if you’re aiming to tell a story well, visual communication is something you need to learn to master.”

During Deborah’s days with her content agency, she used Piktochart to pitch to her clients to try out infographics that she deems more potent than a 1,000-word blog post.

Certain content may be great for blog posts, but they are more compelling in infographics with pictures to illustrate a point.

“Piktochart has benefited my agency by giving us the ability to put a story and the words behind the story into an illustrated form. Clients appreciated that we don’t just know how to write, but we know how to convey the message in a variety of ways. That was how the agency got its start with many clients.”

In Deborah’s last stint with SmartUp, she used Piktochart to visualize topics such as money laundering, insurance, and digital identity. Deborah notes that when creating content for financial institutions, most clients assume a black and white PDF document which seems ordinary and boring.

However, Deborah had Piktochart under her sleeve to impress her clients with an appealing infographic.

“The unique selling point of SmartUp is that not only is our content team able to take your content and explain it to the audience in layman’s terms to make it easier to understand; we’re also able to hold their attention by designing fantastic visuals. This was how Smartup’s content arm got a healthy pipeline of businesses when I was running the content team.”

Beyond infographics, Piktochart has also enabled Deborah to design ads, podcast cover art, resumes, and much more throughout her career. The ability to customize the visual size according to individual needs makes Piktochart a flexible visual tool.

“Piktochart is a much easier Adobe-like design software, and it’s so much better.”

Unlocking the designer within

With Deborah’s experience as a writer for more than ten years, her primary experience was mainly in writing, and she didn’t have any design background or experience. Discovering Piktochart changed that and unlocked the designer in her.

Now, Deborah no longer sees it as a challenge to design a full-page ad or an e-magazine by herself. While she notes that designs may not be award-winning and still pale compared to the work of a professional designer, Piktochart has made things so much easier for Deborah.

“One thing I could never forget is that sense of satisfaction that I got by putting this new skill to work and to make money for me. It was doubly rewarding.”

She also notes that she has grown to be more independent as a content creator. “Having spent more than ten years as a writer, primarily my experience would be just writing, writing, writing, so I don’t have much design background. But having discovered Piktochart unlocked the designer in me.”

Gone are the days when she needed to rely solely on a designer to create visuals. “When I want to get certain things done and I know that a designer isn’t available to help me with it, I am able to get it out using Piktochart.”

Visual communication tips for content creators

One of the tips based on Deborah’s experience in content creation is to have a story laid out in mind. According to Deborah, most content creators trying out infographics for the first time tend to insert every content into the visual without a clear flow to the story.

Hence, content creators need to cultivate the perspective of having the story in mind intentionally. A simple framework recommended by Deborah would be to have an introduction, main content, and lesson for the audience. This framework helps to ensure the content value is communicated effectively in the story.

Additionally, Deborah also suggests for content creators to be sensitive with font sizes and to look for examples of other infographics online proactively. Doing so allows one to find inspiration from others and to evaluate what makes an infographic successful.

Finally, branding is essential to ensure consistency with the usage of colors and fonts suited to an organization’s branding. The brand assets feature on Piktochart simplifies this process by allowing content creators to set that for all their designs.

Leveling up with Piktochart

Among Deborah’s favorite features about Piktochart are brand assets, which enable users to add brand colors and fonts. She also appreciates the vast amount of stock photos on Piktochart that are integrated with Unsplash.

“The integration of Piktochart with Unsplash was a game-changer. The moment this was introduced, my infographics leveled up!”

All in all, Deborah has found Piktochart useful to create content throughout her career and is still a strong advocate of Piktochart since discovering it in 2013.