How to Use Canva: An 8-Step Guide to Creating Visual Content

 Back in 2014, Peg Fitzpatrick and Guy Kawasaki penned a post for the HubSpot Marketing Blog that approached the topic of visual marketing as the “next big thing.” But since then, it's gone to “here to stay.” After all, articles with an image 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 simple online platform for graphic design -- stressed the importance of including shareable images in blog 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's time-consuming and requires multiple tools. That is, without Canva.

It might seem like you need myriad resources to create just one 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 image library -- in one online design platform. Even better, it comes equipped with a collection of templates that can be applied to a number of different industries.

Download our full collection of blog design examples here to inspire your own blog design.

But whether you'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's promotion of its weekend adoption fair as an example, 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 think you have to go through the whole process of creating Gantt charts and editorial calendars -- though they can keep you organized -- it's important to identify your content goals, and the platforms that will best suit them.

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

2) Browse the templates library to find 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, you 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.

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

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