Make Your Own Marketing Materials
As a new or small business, you may not have a lot of money available to pay a marketing professional. Luckily with the tools available, you can be your own marketing specialist. Today we’ll talk about Canva, the visual suite that allows you to create all your basic marketing materials with ease.
What is Canva
Canva is a free to use online template editor that helps you create social media graphics, print materials, marketing materials and more, with an easy to use interface that will make those who have no digital design background feel like a pro. Canva has been around since 2013.
What makes it easy to use
I’ve got some basic graphic design skills but was never very confident in what I could design from scratch on my own. Once I discovered Canva, it took my skills on what I could produce to the next level.
Huge Library of Templates
No matter what type of design material that you are trying to create, Canva has a gigantic library of templates that can fit your businesses style and theme. Often free templates offered through these types of services can be low quality – but what Canva provides includes modern and fresh designs that look like they are created by professionals. They are all fully editable and allow you to change all the colors, fonts, graphics and images.
Drag and Drop Design
Once you find a good template to start from for whatever you are producing, whether it be a business card, a poster, or a social media ad design, using the drag and drop online editor is pretty easy and intuitive. You can drag items around and Canva will provide guidelines and rulers so that everything lines up properly. It’s easy to select the elements of the design you want to modify, and move them forward or back in the layer list so that they overlap easily. The user interface of Canva is great for amateur designers as well as those who have a bit more experience.
Icons, Graphics, Animations and More
When modifying the templates that are available, you need a full library of icons and graphics to make that marketing design fit your business offerings. Again Canva offers a huge library for you to choose from and use – although this is where you might run into limitations with the free version of Canva. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been designing something and find the perfect icon to use in the Canva library, only for it to be for Pro (aka paid) accounts only.
But often with enough searching, you can find something in the free library of icons and graphics to be able to suit your needs.
Printing Services
Are you designing a physical item that you want professionally printed? Canva offers great printing services directly from your design once you have put your finishing touches on it. Prices are very comparable to services such as Vista Print, who I’ve used for printing services in the past, and I’ve received very high quality printing productions from Canva’s printing services with quick turn around times.
But if you have another printing service that you prefer to use instead, it’s easy to download and export your design files for free from Canva, so you have lots of options.
What kind of materials should you build
As a new business owner, there is only a finite amount of time that you have to create your marketing collateral. It’s good to focus on a few things that will help your business get started
Business Cards
Business cards were the first items I designed in Canva when I started my business. My business is local based and I do a lot of outreach to local clients, and having a professional looking business card is a must. I found a great minimal design template, and was able to integrate my business logo and colors for a very sleek design that matched my business website.
Rack Card
When looking to provide potential clients with that next level of information, a rack card (single back and front vertical length card) is a great item to have on hand. I was able to provide clients with a very brief overview of the services I provide, giving them just enough information to get them thinking about my services, and prompting them to either follow up or go to my website to get more in-depth information.
The rack card templates offered were professional looking, and I was able to line up the design with my business cards for a cohesive branding experience for my business.
Vehicle Magnets
Depending on your type of business, and how local your client base is, Canva can make it easy to turn your personal vehicle into a moving advertisement. I designed a straight forward magnetic mat for my car that helps build my brand around town. When I go to meet with clients, they always comment on my car branding and helps to establish the legitimacy of my business. I highly recommend something like this for those with a city specific business.
Great Tool for Small Business
Overall, I’ve found Canva to be a great asset for my small business as it was getting off the ground. There is no affiliate links or paid partnerships here – this is just a product that I use for free that I highly recommend to others. If you are looking for a low cost (free in most cases) marketing material platform, this technology is for you!