Using Canva for Small Business Marketing

Canva for Virtual Assistants

If you haven’t heard of Canva yet, you are in for a TREAT! I’ve been obsessed for the last three years with creating both personal and business graphic designs. I have an account for my Virtual Assistant client work plus my ‘MyBestDayLifec.om’ graphics. I have a separate account for personal designs such as my son’s graduation party invite and personal printables that I create for my Etsy Shop such as DIY wall décor and planner pages. It’s not necessary to have two accounts but with the way my brain works, having them separate helps keep me organized😊. The hands-down BEST part about Canva is that you don’t have to be a graphic designer to create professional looking graphics. The program is very user-friendly and between the tutorials offered right on Canva plus dozens that you can find on YouTube, learning the features and some simple techniques are not hard.

Canva Templates are AWESOME

You can also find TONS of incredible templates for free. Whether you are looking for something professional yet simple, or funky and fun, just scroll through Pinterest and you’ll find freebies that will work.

Marketing your virtual assistant business

As a virtual assistant, you can benefit from Canva graphics to market your business by designing banners, logos, social media posts and more. You can also use Canva to support your clients. If you assist with email marketing, up your game the next time you are drafting or posting an email campaign with some simple graphics that go with the content. If you assist by creating/sharing content to social media channels, rather than using the same image that is pulled from the blog link or the website page, design a few images that you can rotate. It’s a way to re-purpose content. You are posting the same link/content, but you spice up the posts with a variety of images. I have impressed several clients by taking the initiative to design a couple of graphics for their content.

Easy graphic design with Canva All of the images I use on this website were designed using Canva. I use the same image design for all my posts, I just edit the text. Also for my site, I created graphics that include an image and text to insert where I wasn’t able to align my content exactly how I wanted using the available website design tools. For example, the image block below is from my home page. I created it as a graphic which allowed me to add some extra elements, and also allowed me to easily link the entire graphic to my ABOUT page.

Learning how to use Canva I learn new tricks and techniques in Canva all the time. I’ve watched a LOT of YouTube tutorials and even paid for a course recently. Honestly what Canva can do is almost overwhelming, but once you have a handful of graphics and templates that you like, you can always just make small changes vs developing new designs. Insert a new image, change up the font and colors. Once you get more confident with the tool, you may end up slightly addicted like me!

Pro plans are not super expensive, but if you aren’t ready for a paid plan, in my experience you can still design incredible graphics with the free version. As far as images go, you always need to be aware of the license terms when using images that are NOT your own. There are also plenty of sites that sell images with full commercial license rights. You can find some free images online with full usage rights as well. Just please be aware of the commercial terms for every image or element you use.

An added bonus that I did not expect when I first began to use Canva? I REALLY enjoy it! No matter what I am designing, it doesn’t feel like work. Whether you only use Canva for your own small business marketing, or you include some graphic design into your virtual client support services, it’s a great way to spend some time being creative.

Marketing with Canva Graphics

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Katie Bauer started Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC, in 2008. Based out of Northern Virginia, Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC partners with small businesses locally and nationally to give business owners the time they need to focus on core business and revenue generating activities.

With a firm belief that when a client is successful, that reflects on her success, Katie’s goal is to go above and beyond with each and every client task and project.

Over the years Katie has been contacted by aspiring VAs through clients or directly via her website, asking for insight and advice. She realized writing a short eBook to share her experience along with offering some of the documents and tools she uses to run her business could benefit other Virtual Assistants. Click HERE! You definitely want to see all the professional resources & customizable forms available.