Who else has been obsessed with Canva lately? *raises hand*
Whether you have hopped on the recent #WhatsOnMyDesk trend on LinkedIn or use it on a daily basis to create social media libraries and other creative, Canva has become the ideal resource for marketers who don’t have the access or skillset to utilize the Adobe Suite.
But if you have the Pro account, you might be missing out on some opportunities to make your time with Canva more efficient while still expanding your creative flow. I originally took the Marketing with Canva course as one of my EOS Rocks, expecting to pick up a few shortcuts and maybe a new feature or two. What surprised me was how many tools I wasn't using to their full potential, despite being in Canva almost every day.
For marketers and designers who handle multiple clients at once, Canva offers a few different branded elements on the platform to help stay consistent across all creative. We already use Brand Kits extensively at TKG, but the course reinforced how much time they save when you're managing multiple brands and need to maintain consistency across campaigns.
Brand Templates: Quickly snag templates for documents, social media, etc. that are already branded and ready for use.
Brand Controls: Manage how your team uses branded elements, such as colors and fonts. You can even adjust design approval settings before publishing.
Magic Design was one of the features I hadn't spent much time exploring before the course. While it won't replace custom design work, it's a great way to quickly brainstorm layouts when you're starting from a blank page.
Along with our lovely Background Remover tool, Magic Studio offers additional tools to help edit your image exactly how you want.
Magic Edit: Fill out the prompt to add/swap/enhance select items in the image.
Magic Expand: Select how much you want to expand the image/background and Canva will generate options for you to choose from.
One of the biggest time-saving features covered in the course is Canva's ability to instantly resize both images and videos for different platforms. Instead of recreating the same design multiple times, you can duplicate your project into the dimensions you need with just a few clicks.
Whether you're creating social posts, display ads or video campaigns, Canva opens each new size in a separate tab so you can make any final adjustments. Shoutout to everyone who has needed the same video cropped for square, landscape and vertical formats for Google Ads!
Step up your social media game with custom GIFs. With Magic Animate, you can create social imagery that’s more than just static images. You can also upgrade simple social videos or video ads with animations using this tool.
Magic Layers makes it possible to edit individual elements within a static image, giving you more flexibility without starting from scratch. Whether you want to move, replace or refine specific parts of an image, this tool opens up creative possibilities that previously required more advanced editing software.
For videos with lots of great content, this feature helps find snapshots to make a teaser-type video instantly without having someone go through hours of content to find the best scenes.
For marketers and designers who utilize multiple languages, this will quickly take your text and translate it. Note: Ensure the translation is accurate before posting, printing, etc.
Elevate your social engagement with public view links or QR Codes to generate interactive content. You can also download the responses and results to not only see what poll/quiz content generated more interactions, but also help you find out more website content/blogs that website visitors might be interested in seeing.
“Describe your idea, and I’ll code it for you,” says the prompt box. One feature that stood out to me was Canva Code. I haven't had a chance to experiment with it yet, but the idea of generating interactive elements directly within Canva is intriguing. Consider this one a "to be continued."
One of the biggest takeaways from the course was a reminder that great marketing isn't always about finding new tools. It's about getting more value from the tools you already have.
Canva continues to evolve far beyond a simple graphic design platform, and features like AI-powered design assistance, video editing and interactive content creation are making it an even more valuable resource for marketers.
At TKG, we're always exploring new tools, trends and strategies that help our clients stay ahead. If you're looking for a marketing partner that combines creativity with practical execution, let's start a conversation.