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Running a small business is difficult at the best of times.
It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance, and marketing can especially be a big challenge!
Fortunately, marketing and advertising can be made a lot easier with good graphic design software.
However, small business owners don’t always have the resources or money to hire a professional graphic designer or qualified social media manager.
You need an accessible, inexpensive design tool that anyone can use – and this is where Canva comes in!
In this article, we’ll explore:
- The wonders of Canva and how it benefits small business owners
- Easy and inexpensive ideas on how to use Canva for all your marketing needs.
Ready to learn more about the platform? Let’s go!
What is Canva?
Canva is a graphic design tool that allows creators to make presentations, social media posts, business cards, posters, and much more.
Unlike many other design tools (such as Adobe Photoshop), Canva doesn’t require you to get your wallet in order to start turning your ideas into concrete marketing tools. You can even expand brand awareness and cultivate potential customers for free!
Because of this, Canva is fantastic for meeting the needs of small businesses without breaking the bank.
The Amazing Benefits of Canva for Small Business Owners
There are so many reasons why Canva is the best graphic design tool for small businesses. Here are just a few:
- Generous free trial of the Pro version for an entire 30 days
- Completely free version with the option to upgrade to Canva Pro for only $12.99 per month
- Offers Canva for Teams, allowing collaboration and which could benefit your business
- Over 100 million stock photos, audio, videos, and graphics available to add to your creations
- Over 100 design types
- A combined 610,000 free and premium templates for your convenience.
Ways to Use Canva Templates as a Small Business Owner
Canva has tons of incredible tools for content creation, and there are plenty of creative ways in which to use them. Below are some ideas for how you can use Canva as a small business owner:
1. Logo and Brand Building
A good logo is everything when promoting your small business. Your logo is the image that people will remember when thinking of your brand, so you want it to stand out!
With Canva’s logo-building tool, you can create an eye-catching logo with just a few clicks.
When you go to make your logo on Canva, you’ll be presented with a surplus of great templates to pick from. You’re then free to customize these however you want.
There are heaps of tools for customization, so you won’t have to worry about your logo being unoriginal! You can add text, decorate with stickers and graphics, and even free-hand draw on your logo by downloading the “draw” mini app.
2. Business Cards
Business cards are super helpful when promoting your small business. You can hand them out to people, leave them for people to find, or just have them ready for when someone is asking about your services.
Canva’s business card creator tool gets you started with plenty of great templates.
These templates include a side A and a side B so that your card can have your brand logo on one side and important information on the other.
These templates are also great for adding lots of emblems, stickers, and graphics. You then have free rein to modify the templates until you have a card that you’re happy with!
3. Business Flyers and Postcards
Once you’ve captured the eyes of your potential customers with logos and business cards, you’ll need to get a little more information about your brand out there with some business flyers.
Flyers are a perfect way to inform your customers of what services you offer, as well as other details about your brand. Because of this, a good flyer should be quick and easy to read.
Fortunately, Canva also has a great flyer tool for all your needs. Simply choose a template and add as much information and customization as you’d like!
You also don’t have to worry about printing these flyers by yourself, either. Canva offers the option of printing copies and shipping them to you directly without any shipping costs.
4. Website Design
After learning about your brand, one of the first things that customers will do is to look you up online. This is where having an accessible and informative website will come in handy.
Canva has a range of different website tools available for use; you can make a retail website, an event website, a business website, and more. Simply choose one of these options and get designing!
There are also plenty of different website templates available to choose from. These are fully customizable, and you can even change the page layouts and color themes in whatever way you want.
Once you’ve finished your website, turn the site live by just clicking the “Publish Website” button and following the prompts.
5. Social Media Graphics and Cover Photos
Your brand’s social media is the form of marketing for your brand that customers will most likely interact with. Most people look at their socials every day, and you want your posts to stand out to them among the sea of other content.
Canva allows you to make different kinds of social media posts for Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Linkedin. You can also make Instagram and Facebook stories, square posts, landscape posts, and more!
Once you’ve chosen your design type and template, Canva will recommend emblems to you that match the theme of your template. If you have other graphics you need, simply look for them using Canva’s powerful search function.
If you’re happy with how they turned out, it’s time to publish them! Fortunately, these posts are also super easy to share from Canva and straight to your business’ socials.
6. Posters
Posters either offer completely new information about your brand or simply serve as a blown-up size of your flyer. Note that posters are a bigger size than flyers, so they’re more likely to catch the attention of potential customers.
Like other marketing tools on this list, Canva also has plenty of poster templates that are super easy to modify and adjust. For instance, you can easily change the color theme or add stickers and text.
Canva’s poster function is easy to use and features a simple printing process. Just press the “Print Posters” button and follow the prompts to have the posters sent to you; there’s no need to print them yourself!
7. Brochures
Brochures are interactive and informative — you’ll be surprised at how much information you can fit onto 6 individual sections of an A4 piece of paper. They’re also super easy to flick through and will give your customers a whole lot of information about your brand.
Canva’s brochure tool gives you hundreds of templates, all of which feature an A side and a B side that are split into three sections. This means you’ll have plenty of room to squeeze in some great info!
Again, these templates are fully customizable, and Canva offers its extremely handy printing services. Once you have the brochures, you can hand them out to people or leave them on brochure stands.
8. Media Kits
Media kits are really important to the exposure of your brand. Media kits (or press kits) are a collection of promotional information about your brand for the use of news and media companies so that they can write articles about you.
You guessed it — Canva also has some awesome media kit templates available for use. You can add whatever you want to these templates, including reviews from clients, statistics about your brand, and contact information.
Once your media kit is finished, you have the option of printing it as a physical copy or sharing it on your website or socials.
9. Presentation Templates
Perhaps you want to pitch your small business to investors or upload a multi-slide post to socials. In these situations, presentations are extremely helpful and informative to people wanting to know more about your brand.
Canva has an incredible presentation tool with plenty of different presentation design types. You can create mobile presentations, talking presentations, brainstorming presentations, and more.
Canva’s presentation feature is one of the main reasons the software is so popular. Thanks to its better graphics and a range of templates that are much wider than other software, Canva Presentations are always sure to impress.
And once you’re done, these presentations are easy to share, publish, and post online.
10. Infographics
Infographics pack a lot of information onto one small page and have the added benefit of being so easy to post on your socials. Because of this, infographics are a perfect way for customers to quickly consume basic information about your brand.
With Canva’s infographic tool, you’re once again spoiled for choice with hundreds of aesthetically pleasing templates.
Feel free to adjust the color schemes, add design elements, and modify text on these templates to suit your brand.
Infographics work well in tandem with brochures and benefit a lot from being printed or shared online.
11. Email Marketing
Regular emails to your subscribers are a great way to let them know about current deals, news about your brand, and upcoming events. Emails remind customers of your business and keep your brand constantly in their minds!
With Canva, you can use the email header tool to create attention-catching headers for your emails.
Additionally, you also get to add flyers and posters from Canva straight to your emails – making it a lot easier to create a professional and exciting look for your brand.
Aside from headers, Canva also allows you to create email newsletters for a summary and bird’s eye view of any updates to your brand. When done right, email newsletters will generate plenty of interest in your business.
Fortunately, these designs also integrate well with email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, so the entire process will be a lot simpler for you too!
Takeaway
Canva really is a wonderful, accessible tool for small business owners. Other than its generous pricing and massive library of designs, it’s also extremely easy to use.
With such a powerful design platform at the ready, there’s no need to hire a professional graphic designer.
Canva will allow you to create eye-catching and unique content with just a few clicks. You’ll also benefit from the fact that Canva designs are clean and professional and will make your business look great to potential customers!
The ideas listed here are just a few ways that you can use Canva for your business.
There are so many more design types and templates available for all kinds of use cases that you should definitely take the opportunity to explore. Just open up a document and get creating!