Are you interested in growing brand awareness or stepping up your businesses Social Media Strategy? Here is a beginner’s guide to designing on Canva.

The Importance of Social Media Marketing

Marketing on social media is so crucial for businesses as it can put your content or ads in front of many people in a matter of seconds.

As of January 2021, 59.5% of the global population are active internet users, and social networking sites are now estimated to have 3.6 billion users. 

It is not as simple as putting an ad on Facebook and hoping for the best. To successfully market your product or service, you need a good Social Media Marketing Strategy. 

Steps To Success

1. Decide what you want to achieve by using social media. Are you looking for an increase in sales or shares and retweets from your followers?
2. If this isn’t your first rodeo using social media, you will need to review your channels and consider what sites your target audience are on. If you find some channels have more engagement than others, update them or consider deleting them altogether.
3. Consider who your ideal customers are. What is their income, and where do they live? What value does your business provide to them?
4. Now, what content would appeal to your ideal customer? Some examples of content are images, videos, and even a fun Gif would not go amiss. 
5. You do not want to overwhelm your audience with content but also don’t want them to lose interest with too little content. Find a balance by creating high-quality, engaging content and develop a content calendar that outlines how often you will post, what channels to use, and what topic you will post about.
6. Last but not least, keep track of your social media engagement and constantly optimise your strategy. Social media is always changing; you must adapt your content and social media presence to appeal to your current audience.

Pretty straightforward, right? Not exactly. It may seem daunting if you do not know the first thing about graphic design, or organising a content calendar seems beyond your capabilities. But don’t worry, Canva‘s got you covered.

Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone to design anything and publish anywhere. Simply make an account and choose your plan; Canva Free has 250,000+ free templates and 100+ design types. Use Canva Pro or Canva for Enterprise to manage your brand assets and campaigns all in one place.

Build your Social Media Plan with Canva

Ready to start using Canva? Great. Here is a beginner’s guide on how to use Canva to elevate your Social Media Marketing Strategy.

• Brand Kit: To keep on-brand, Canva has an option to upload and access your preset brand fonts, logos, and colours. This tool will provide efficiency and consistency, and customers will recognise and remember your brand when scrolling through their feed.
• Designing Content: This is where the fun begins. Canva has preset dimensions to create any social media content that you like; this could be an Instagram story, a Twitter post or a video for TikTok. Once you choose your dimensions, you can explore the creative templates available. Want to take it up a notch? Play around with Canva’s audio and video features to add background music or a short clip that suits your message. Go on, give it a try! When you are happy with your content, make sure to save it so you can upload it to your social media platforms.
• Content Planner: To ensure that your content goes up when you need it to, plan using the Content Planner function. From here, you can click a date and time, add a post and choose what social media channels you want to use. This function saves time and makes it easier for you to be consistent with your posting. If you feel that your current social media strategy is all over the place, the planner is brilliant to keep everything organised and ready to go.
• Canva Learn: Still a bit lost? Canva has the solution for you. Explore Canva Learn to find online courses on Social Media Marketing and read their marketing blog to find valuable tips to ace your Social Media Strategy.

Key Takeaways

Good luck on your journey of elevating your Social Media Marketing Strategy using Canva; you will not be disappointed. Here are some Key Takeaways from this post:

• For businesses, it is crucial to have a solid social media presence as 59.5% of the population are internet users, and you can have your product or service advertised in front of customers in a matter of seconds.
• Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy that is customer-focused by creating engaging and consistent content.
• Canva is a graphic design tool that you can use to create content and schedule posts to upload whenever you want.
• If you want to learn more about Canva or Social Media Marketing, go to Canva Learn to explore the different options available to you.

Sources

Canva. 2021. About Canva. [online] Available at: <https://www.canva.com/about/> [Accessed 21 April 2021].

Canva. 2021. Canva Learn – Marketing. [online] Available at: <https://www.canva.com/learn/marketing/> [Accessed 21 April 2021].

Digital Marketing Blog. 2019. Why is Social Media Marketing Strategy Important and How to Create One. [online] Available at: <https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/effective-social-media-marketing-strategy/> [Accessed 21 April 2021].

Johnson, J., 2021. Internet users in the world 2021 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/> [Accessed 21 April 2021].

Tankovska, H., 2021. Number of social media users 2025 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/> [Accessed 21 April 2021].