Getting the most out of Canva
Getting the Most Out of Canva
Hey there! Ready to make some marketing magic? If you're juggling business marketing solo or with a small team, Canva is your new best friend. Let’s explore how this super tool can sprinkle some of its fairy dust on your projects, making your business shine brighter.
Meet Canva: Your Creative Genie
Canva isn't just another design tool; it's a wish come true for busy marketers. Since its launch in 2012, Canva has been transforming the design world with its user-friendly interface and treasure trove of features. Whether you opt for the free version or the fancy Pro and Enterprise subscriptions, Canva is like having a design studio at your fingertips
My Favorite Features
If you want to know just how many amazing tools Canva has, I highly recommend watching a few YouTube videos. I can't go into all of them here, but I did want to share with you a few of my favorite ways to use the Canva digital marketing tools.
Wireframing - when I need a quick event website or landing page made, I use the canva website option to quickly throw together what I'm basically looking for. I don't publish it, I just make it and share the link to my design and development team so they have a really good understanding of my vision. This saves at least 2 rounds of revision in most cases
Mood Boarding - Whether we are crafting a brand identity or designing an event, I love using the Whiteboard option to drag and drop all of my ideas into one space. From here I can collaborate with my team, ask questions, test concepts, and get an accurate idea of the atmosphere we are creating even before we have a final style scape.
Pitch Decks - Whether you are selling products, services, or sponsorships, pitch decks are a great way instantly create interest in your offerings. It may seem like a small thing, but being able to click a link for a live deck is so much easier than downloading a Powerpoint (especially if you don't already have PowerPoint) or a pdf and then opening it. Most people wont' take those extra steps and are wary of downloading anything onto their computer.
Video Content - Videos are like the fireworks of digital marketing—bright, engaging, and totally captivating. Canva’s easy-to-use video tools mean you don’t need to be a tech wizard to create your own. I use Video to create hero videos for websites or landing pages, thank you/appreciation videos for clients, and even social posts from a string of photos.
Brand Kit - Every business needs a sprinkle of uniqueness, right? Canva’s Brand Kit feature is here to make sure your brand sparkles consistently across all your designs. Think of it as your magic wand to wave your brand colors, logos, and fonts across all your creations.
Tricks of the Trade
Comment Section - I love using the comment section to collaborate with the team. In the old days, we'd have to screen grab the design paste it onto a google doc and comment there...
Brand Tone - this is found in your brand kit. You can add in your brand tone which automatically feeds into the Canva AI. This features helps quickly put together the copy for your marketing pieces that actually sound like your brand. Not sure how to explain your brand tone? No problem, you can type in sample text and Canva AI will create one for you. Be careful using this as AI isn't an exact science and you'd want to make sure your brand pillars, core values, and persona are added into the sample text, but it's pretty darn good.
Folder Organization - I love this option because rather than having to download everything into a drive, you can organize your media (which let's be honest, takes up most of your drive space) right on the app
Templates - I love, love, love using the template features. We crate brand templates in a variety of ways. We use them to create our podcast guest speaker brief, so all we have to do is swap out the info per episode. We also use them as a social media bank to draw from. We have several templates for announcements, quotes, tips, carousels, etc. This helps ensure our social grids look well thought out and allows us to produce a ton of content lightening fast. Often times to save our clients money, we'll go in and make a template for them, so instead of having to hire us to make every little thing, they can just drag and drop their details into our designs. This gives them that polished look every time, without breaking the bank.
Photo Editor - I love this feature for quickly removing backgrounds, erasing things in a background I don't love or expanding the background on a photo that was maybe too narrow for the space I wanted to use it. It isn't perfect, but it's solid and a good option for those of us who don't Adobe.
Asana Integration - Y'all know what an Asana fanatic I am. For those of you who don't know what Asana is, it's a project management software that we use to do everything from plan events to projects. Well Canva integrates with both Asana or Monday.com if that's your platform of choice. This means, if you ware working on planning an event and you have a canva mood board for it, or save the dates you are working for, you can link it up directly.
What I don't love about Canva
Although there is much to love about Asana, here are the things I don't recommend you use it for.
Logo Creation - Just don't... Trust me on this one. I could go into all the reasons, but the bottom line is your logo is way too important to DIY. As Boars Head puts it, "Compromise Elsewhere".
AI Image Generator - It's really not great. I believe they'll eventually get there, but at this time it is usually an exercise in frustration. I recommend either using Midjourney or Adobe for this.
Mockups - these are another tough one. If your mockup is straight forward, it works okay, but they don't allow you to add in the details that make a mockup look real, such as texture, shadows, etc. You also are limited in how you can rotate it, so often the angle looks off and weird, making the whole thing look cheap and obviously fake.
So there you have it—a peek into how Canva can bring a touch of magic to your business marketing and production. It’s not just about making things look pretty; it’s about creating a space where your ideas can dance and your business can thrive. Embrace Canva and let it transform the way you work—where your process fuels your purpose and every piece of content you create is a spell of success!
