Top Canva Mistakes

​Canva is a great tool for easily creating static images, digital posters, and marketing materials. When compared to other professional tools like Adobe Illustrator, it’s much easier to use and much more affordable. Many small business owners fall in love with Canva and unfortunately make many mistakes with it. Here are the top mistakes I see very often: 

1. Using it like a "One-Size-Fits-All" Approach to Content Creation

​Once they get comfortable using Canva, a lot of small business owners abandon other content types for the ease (and maybe a little bit of an addiction) of creating Canva graphics. In Particular, I see a lot of images with text over a picture or graphic. The problem is that these types of posts, do not perform well on Facebook and Instagram, especially when that is all that is used. They have a purpose and can be a great tool for conveying important information, but they shouldn’t be used as the only source of content type. Variety is key! Add some professional photos, candid photos, and video to spice things up! 

When your whole feed is Canva creations aka "words over picture", you lose variety and interest.

2. ​Not Using a Brand Kit 

​Canva’s brand kit feature makes it so easy to keep consistent branding when creating designs. Using a brand kit you can save your brand’s font choices, logo, and colors. And if you create designs for more than one brand, you can have multiple brand kits! 

Canva makes it so easy to have a brand kit! You can even have multiple!

3. Using Templates without Customizing Them 

One of the perks of using Canva is having thousands of templates at your disposal for design inspiration and creation. Here’s the thing though, many of you are using them as is without any customizing! This is bad for two reasons. One, your graphics are identical to every other small business owner who also uses those templates without customizing them. Two, these graphics are diluting your overall brand image and confusing your customers! So go ahead and use the templates as inspiration. And customize any template you start with using your brand kit. 

Canva template

Canva template filled out, but not customized.

Canva template filled out and customized with brand fonts, colors, and on-brand photography.

4. Not Using the Background Remover

This is a fantastic tool on Canva that I believe isn’t used nearly enough. It’s called the background remover and it does what it sounds like. It’ll remove the background of any photo. For best results, the photo should have a clear and focused subject with a minimal background. You can use the background remover on your own photos or stock images. You can clean up product photography or create more brand-cohesive designs using stock images. Here’s a few “before and after” designs using the background remover tool on some stock images from Canva. 

Not using the background remover, I was stuck with the brown behind the candle, even if brown isn't a brand color!

Without the background remover, I was stuck with the white / gray-ish color even if it wasn't what I wanted!

With using the background remover, I was able to place the candle on top of a black background for a striking visual interest!

With the background remover, I was able to place the subject over brand colors to make it pop!

So go ahead and use Canva, it's a great tool! But be sure to avoid these key mistakes! 

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