Some Uploads Are Still in Progress Canva

Back in 2014, Peg Fitzpatrick and Guy Kawasaki penned a post for the HubSpot Marketing Blog that approached the topic of visual marketing every bit the "adjacent big matter." Just since then, it's gone to "here to stay." After all, manufactures with an prototype once every 75-100 words tend to get 2X social shares than articles with fewer images.

But in the previous article, Kawasaki -- chief evangelist for Canva, a remarkably unproblematic online platform for graphic design -- stressed the importance of including shareable images in web log posts , and regularly creating custom, relevant visual content for Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts. Admittedly, following that advice is easier said than done. It'south fourth dimension-consuming and requires multiple tools. That is, without Canva.

It might seem like you demand myriad resources to create simply 1 custom graphic: Photoshop to edit an image, InDesign to lay it out, VSCO for filters, and a multitude of stock photo sites. But Canva combines all these editing and publishing tools -- plus a comprehensive epitome library -- in 1 online design platform. Even meliorate, it comes equipped with a collection of templates that can be practical to a number of different industries.

But whether y'all're creating a Facebook banner for your retail store, or an infographic for your law firm, you might wonder where you should begin with Canva. That's why we put together this walkthrough of how visual marketers -- at any knowledge level -- can use Canva. Using an animal shelter'south promotion of its weekend adoption fair as an case, we'll guide you through the eight steps of creating visual content with these tools and templates.

8 Steps for Creating Visual Content With Canva

1) Begin with a content marketing strategy.

While we don't remember y'all have to go through the whole process of creating Gantt charts and editorial calendars -- though they tin can go along you organized -- it'due south important to identify your content goals, and the platforms that will best accommodate them.

For the creature shelter's weekend adoption event, the primary purpose is to let people -- like social media followers -- know about the issue, and make them desire to share it on social media. In this instance, we want to create a mail to share on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and a visual that would work as a poster to print and brandish locally.

ii) Browse the templates library to discover and create the right content.

Canva has a collection of specific, professional templates for a wide variety of content. The templates page is arranged into categories -- types of content -- and subcategories for themes or topics. For example, y'all tin can choose between templates for posters and or presentations, based on the content marketing strategy your formulated in the previous step. Plus, each one is already optimized in the right dimensions for things like banners, headers, and cover photos for specific sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Proceed in mind that these templates are meant to exist your springboard to start designing. For many artistic professionals, from writers to designers, starting with a blank canvas can be one of the biggest challenges. With these templates, you lot don't have to create your content from scratch, or hire a professional person designer just to create your day-to-day graphics.

For our animate being shelter example, we'll beginning with this social media graphic template:

In the next steps, nosotros'll bear witness yous how to edit this template using Canva's elevate and drib blueprint tools.

3) Find the right visuals to go with your post using Canva's born photograph library.

Visual content is 40X more than probable to get shared on social media than other types of content. And since we want our pet adoption fair to get a lot of engagement on social media, like comments and shares, we have to include the right kind of visuals in its promotion. Using Canva's built-in media library, we'll look for a movie of a cute kitten to take hold of people's attention -- and hearts.

To start, blazon a keyword or 2 into the search bar, and cull from any of the photos or illustrations -- that ways no more Google prototype searches. The extensive photo library hosts a wide variety of subjects and themes, like abstract images, textures, landscapes, people, and animals. Once yous've institute the perfect paradigm, simply drag it over to your design, and drop information technology where it needs to go.

Canva besides allows you to upload your own images and employ them on your blueprint, which is perfect for adding your logo and other branded visuals to content. (Y'all'll observe the text has changed in the prototype below -- nosotros'll become to that in our next step.)

4) Marry image and text through typography.

Now that we've got a cute kitten image to draw attention, we demand to give our audience some details almost the adoption fair. And since we're already working with a template, nosotros can just edit the placeholder text and add in the right details.

The best social media content is a marriage of visuals and text -- think the statistic we cited earlier virtually the shareability of copy that includes the right corporeality of imagery. Notwithstanding, making sure your font complements the rest of the visual content can be tricky. While some professionals have years of feel to help them pair fonts, Canva provides a shortcut: The font pairing tool.

Starting time, selection your starter font. Then, this handy tool shows you the all-time font combinations for your chosen typeface, too equally real-life examples from the web.

5) Enhance your image with a filter.

Filters are a great tool for easily changing the tone of an image. Plus, applying a custom filter beyond your various posts can help to create a theme and tie your entrada together, boosting consistency and recognizability.

To add a filter, select your image, click on the filter button, and then cull from any of the fourteen custom filters available in Canva. Apply the slider to control the intensity of the filter. There are likewise advanced options that permit you to play with different settings similar brightness, contrast, and saturation, or to add effects like a vignette.

6) Resize your whole design to fit diverse platforms.

We're done creating our visual. That was quick, correct? Now, we have to postal service share it across various social media networks, and print our poster. That also means we might have to resize for those various outlets -- but rather than going back and re-designing the unabridged visual co-ordinate to the dimensions required by each one, we can use Canva'southward Magic Resize tool.

The Magic Resize tool is available for Canva for Work users -- a paid program starting at $12.95 per month. But if yous're using the complimentary tools, fear not, as nosotros've included some alternative resizing directions below.

That said, Magic Resize is quite a fourth dimension-saving feature that lets yous copy and resize ane design into formats for diverse channels. Just click on "File," navigate to "Magic Resize," and then choose the different formats you want to apply to adapt your visual. And then, click the "resize" button, and you're done.

Users of Canva's gratis tools can yet resize their designs by creating a copy of the original visual. Click "File," "Alter Dimensions," and select the format to which you'd similar to resize the pattern.

7) Collaborate with a squad, or post the visual to social media.

Canva allows you to collaborate with your squad or design partners on a visual, within the same platform. Merely click on "Share", navigate to "Link," and choose the "can edit" option to generate a link that allows others to edit your design. Alternatively, y'all may choose the "can view" option to allow someone to see your design, without the ability to edit it.

Otherwise, y'all tin can mail service your final design directly to Facebook or Twitter. There's too an embed selection, which generates the lawmaking to embed your blueprint into your blog or website.

For other channels, or if you want an offline copy of your design, you tin can download an epitome file in a JPG, PNG, or print-ready PDF format. For our animal shelter visual, we'll download the flyer version of the blueprint every bit a high-quality PDF file, to enhance its printed appearance.

8) Larn to create amend designs with Canva'south gratuitous, interactive courses.

Nice piece of work -- you've made a neat pattern, with amazingly unproblematic tools. Simply mayhap you want to acquire more virtually blueprint -- and Canva's Design School is just the place to do information technology.

The Design School is a resource hub for learning the nuts of design -- everything from essential pattern tools, to typography, to photo editing, to consequent branding. Some of the most popular offerings are Canva's 30 "Design Essentials" tutorials, covering fonts, layouts, and images. Plus, you tin can track and share your progress as you make your manner through the different lessons.

Starting with the following tutorials tin assistance you lot hone your skills in some of the visual content design steps we've covered today:

1. Marrying Text and Images
2. Brilliant Backgrounds
3. Choosing the Correct Font
4. Enhancing Images
5. Fantastic Photograph Filters

Information technology might as well exist worthwhile to check out the daily Design School web log, which takes a more in-depth look into specific subjects, like designing for social media, creating better email headers, design principles, and even design psychology.

Draw Inspiration

Despite the options we've covered here, there are actually many more than designs and tools to explore in Canva. In addition to promotional visuals like the animal shelter instance we used, you can create presentations, infographics, brochures -- and a lot more.

One of Canva'due south most differentiating factors, however, is that the to a higher place steps are pretty much the same beyond these unlike types of documents, thank you in large role to the ready-made templates. So don't let visual content blueprint intimidate you. It's more than achievable -- and nosotros can't wait to encounter what yous come up with.

What are some of your favorite visual content creation tools? Let us know in the comments.

Originally published Apr 18, 2017 6:00:00 AM, updated April 18 2017

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Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-use-canva

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