Launching a online brand can feel like you have to suddenly become a graphic designer and web developer or at least have one on tap to create all sorts of funky designs you didn’t even realise you needed.
Creating a business doesn’t end once you have decide on the look and feel of your web site. You’ll need to make sure your brand’s design aesthetic carries across all your online platforms in order to become a recognisable brand.
As female entrepreneurs, we are constantly reminded of how important it is to have an online presence that is cohesive in content, design, and structure to enhance our client experience and drive brand recognition. But between balancing life and business building, you may find that you don’t often have too much time for creative play.
The good news is that Canva has you sorted. This online software allows you to create professional graphics for your website and social media feeds for free. It even let’s you save templates so you can just tweak the wording and your new graphic is ready to go. You can see I do this for all my blog posts, it keeps it simple for me but also allows my brand to stay consistent and recognisable.
Here are our 7 c’s to using Canva effectively for your social media:
1. The Canva Colour Picker
It’s important to make sure you know the colour “number” code. This is called the hex colour value often seen as “colour code #”. Using the Canva colour picker you can simply type this number into the box and it will match your brand font or background colour, allowing you to design with consistency.
2. Consistency is Key
I recommend you design with consistency in mind. What are the fonts, colours, background images and textures of your brand look and feel? Deciding on your brand style as early on as possible and sticking to these decisions whenever you’re designing in Canva will ensure you create consistent content no matter which pre-made design you choose to work with. It will help to make your brand ‘instantly recognisable’.
3. Create for All Platforms
Canva makes it really easy to select which social media platform you’re working on. Once you choose from a variety of pre-made designs for Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest, you can constantly view “my designs” and bulk design for across all platforms to promote the same update for your viewers.
It’s also a good idea to include your URL address at the bottom of your design, allowing whoever views your content to know where else to find you.
Quick tip: try and design with the platforms you want to share to in mind, for example if you are going to promote something on Instagram stories and in feed you could pick the story template and make sure the bulk of your design is in a square so that the same image can be used in feed.
4. Create Interest
Canva allows for several design layers, fonts, and images to be combined into one design. Make use of this feature when tweaking pre-made designs to create interest. We recommend you use up to three different type fonts, alter the layer transparency and carefully select your copy that keeps your ideal clients interested in your products.
5. Curate Your Own Backgrounds
While Canva has many styled stock images you are able to purchase, this can get costly. We recommend making use of your own stock library, or creating custom brand images or basic coloured backgrounds that suit your brand, to then upload as you design. This helps with your brand consistency but also with keeping your design costs to a minimum.
You can also grab 5 FREE #girlboss stock images by clicking here
6. Build Your Community
Canva makes it’s quick and easy to create visually consistent and shareable images for your brand. By following the colour and consistency “rules” while designing to create interest, your site visitors and social media followers will begin to know your style. Seeing one of your designs in their feed will immediately get them thinking of your business and brand, creating the recognition that results in sales.
7. Don’t Play The Comparison Game
With such a wide selection of pre-made designs and ready-to-use stock images, it’s easy to start playing the comparison game when using a program like Canva. Try to get clear on your own style before starting and always stick to your style guide.
It’s useful to sketch out what you need the design for before starting. Planning ahead and design in bulk whenever possible will save you time and effort and free up your creativity to focus on what you love doing for your business.
