What is Canva and Why Does My Business Need It?
There once was a time when getting quality marketing materials to promote your business meant either paying an expensive designer or learning some complex graphic design software.
Canva is a popular platform that solves that problem, making it easy to create your own professional designs for everything from business cards to brochures and even websites.
But what exactly is Canva, and why is it such a useful tool for your business?
You’ll find the answer to these questions and more besides, below.
.What is Canva?
Canva is a popular online platform that makes professional design accessible even for those with no prior experience.
Available in both premium and free-to-use versions, the service combines a plethora of attractive, customizable templates with effortless drag-and-drop editing and a host of advanced features to create the ultimate one-stop shop for all of your marketing and branding materials.
What Designs Can Be Made With Canva?
If you imagine it, there’s a good chance you can create it with Canva.
Here are just some of the common ways that most businesses use Canva.
1. Social Media Content
If you always wondered how your competitors create those stunning Instagram posts or attention-grabbing graphics on Facebook, Canva is probably the answer.
Since it first launched in 2012, Canva has earned a reputation as the go-to graphic design tool for creating visually impressive social media posts with minimal effort.
Along with Facebook and Instagram, you can also choose pre-designed templates to create posts, stories, ads, and profile graphics for:
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- TikTok
and more.
Related: Canva Vs. PicMonkey
2. Logos and Stationery
You can make a logo with Canva using any one of over 58,000 logo templates with options for just about every type of business.
Related: How to make a logo with Canva in under 5 minutes
Each template can be fully customized with colors, illustrations, and text that best reflects your brand before adding it to a range of business stationery including:
- Business cards
- Letterheads
- Event Invitations
- ID cards
- Invoices.
and more.
Related: How to make a business card in Canva
3. Print Marketing Materials
Whether you need eye-catching flyers and posters for an upcoming event or a beautiful brochure to help you land new clients, Canva offers scores of templates to suit your needs.
4. Presentations and Whiteboards
Canva can help you eliminate the cost of paying for tools like PowerPoint thanks to its 12,000+ presentation templates that are designed to look just as good in the boardroom as they do online.
The platform even enables you to add audio and video content to those templates, making it easy to create pre-recorded presentations that you can share via email, social media, or online.
5. Websites
Canva has started to compete with some of the best drag-and-drop website builders with mobile responsive themes that you can publish either to a free Canva domain or your own domain name with just a few quick clicks.
As a bonus, Canva will even host your new website for free.
6. AI-Generated Content (Magic Write)
Canva offers an extensive library of free photos that you can use in your designs or online, but if none of them quite cut it -or if you’re simply sick of using the same stock photos as everyone else- you can always create your own using the text-to-image generator.
Type in a few words describing the image you want to create, choose whether you want an illustration or a photo, and the platform will harness the power of AI to create a unique image that you can use however you like.
As part of the new Canva Docs feature, the platform also offers an AI-writing tool known as Magic Write.
Although still in Beta mode at time of writing, this handy tool can automatically generate everything from blog post drafts to social media posts at the click of a button.
Simply tell Magic Write what you’d like it to create (for example, “Write five top tips to market your new business”), and the tool will do the rest. The generated content appears in Canva Docs, where you can enhance it with Canva-generated graphs, images, and other content.
7. Videos
You can create videos up to one minute in length on Canva, making it ideal for coming up with creative social media stories, YouTube shorts, and other promotional content.
Related: How to make money with Canva
Canva’s Top Features
1. 1 Million+ Templates
No graphic design tool I’ve ever encountered offers as many templates as this one.
Free users can take advantage of 250,000+ pre-designed layouts, while those on the Canva Pro plan have at least another 750,000 to choose from, all designed to a high standard, and all offer unlimited customization.
2. Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Editor
Ease of use is one of Canva’s biggest selling points, and it’s all thanks to the editor. Not only does it make it a breeze to completely transform your chosen template, but you can also use it to quickly access a vast library of assets including icons, photos, and filters that you can add to your designs.
Beyond that, free users can also take advantage of powerful-yet-simple photo editing features such as toggling the brightness and saturation of their images and adding effects such as blur and shadow.
3. Brand Kits
Canva’s Brand Kit feature saves time when it comes to creating designs that match your business’ branding. You can use it to save any fonts, colors, and visuals that you use on a regular basis and automatically apply them to your creations.
4. Direct Social Media Publishing
It’s possible to connect Canva to your social media accounts so that, once you’ve finished creating a new post, you can publish it automatically without having to leave Canva.
If you’re like me and enjoy getting ahead of your social media publishing, you can also use the dashboard to schedule all of your posts ahead of time.
5. Free Video Tutorials and Resources
Canva’s learning curve is minimal at best, but there’s so much you can do with this vastly versatile tool that you may still need a helping hand from time to time.
The good news is that there’s an extensive range of free resources that guide you through everything you could possibly want to do.
Canva Free vs. Canva Pro Plan
Canva’s free plan offers enough templates and design assets to make it a great option for most small businesses on a budget, but to really use it to its full potential, you’ll need to Canva Pro plan.
This costs just $99.99 per year with a free 45-day trial. The plan includes unlimited access to all templates, photos, icons, and more, as well as features not available to free users such as the ability to add team members, a handy magic resize tool, and 1 TB of storage to store your work.
Canva Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Invite other users to work on design collaborations
- Over 100+ design types
- The ease of use makes it a great choice for beginners.
Cons:
- Many of the stock photos and graphics are somewhat generic
- Although you can upload your own elements, there’s no way to create them within Canva.
Canva FAQS
Is Canva for education free?
Yes. Canva is always free for teachers and students from K1 – 12 as long as you meet the eligibility reliability requirements.
Are Canva designs copyrighted?
You own the copyright to designs you create on Canva, which feature all your own original work. This means you can do whatever you like with them, even selling your designs on Etsy and other marketplaces.
However, if your designs use stock photography or other third-party assets, then those assets are the protected copyright of their respective creators.
What devices is Canva available on?
Canva is available on all major Microsoft, Apple iOS, and Android devices.
Can you cancel Canva Pro at any time?
It’s super easy to cancel a Canva Pro subscription. Just go to your Account Settings and select the Cancel Subscription option, and your subscription will at the end of the billing period. Your account will revert back to the free plan, so you still have access.
Top 3 Canva Alternatives
Looking for graphic design software but finding Canva isn’t the right fit? You may enjoy these top alternatives.
Adobe Creative Suite
Featuring Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and a wealth of other tools, Adobe Creative Suite is a comprehensive package for creators of all types.
Related: Canva vs. Photoshop: Which is best?
VisMe
VisMe is a popular online alternative to Canva with similar levels of user-friendliness.
Snappa
Snappa is a smart and intuitive online graphics creator with an impressive library of over 5 million quality stock photos.
Why You Need Canva for Your Business
It’s perhaps fair to say that no other software helps you do more for your business than Canva.
Its all-in-one approach means you can forgo other software options such as video editors, presentation tools, and social media scheduling services and do everything you’d do on those platforms from one easy-to-use dashboard, all for less than $10 per month.
Plus, with a free 45-day trial available, you’ve got more than enough time to create stunning visuals for your brand without handing over a penny.
