Are you struggling to stay consistent or spend WAAAY too much time creating different designs
for various platforms each time you want to post?
No worries, I have a solution for you!
I'm going to show you how to speed up the whole process by using Canva templates!
But, that's not all, I have a whole section on how you can actually make money with them!
Are you in?
Let's do this!
Hi my lovely humans, it's Natalia and welcome to my channel where I share super actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneur and creatives.
In today's video, I'm going to show you the step by step process on how to create, use,
share and monetize Canva templates.
If you've not heard about Canva, check out my 10-minute tutorial where I explain what
it is and how to use it.
But we're focusing specifically on Templates today which are basically a shortcut to a
great design.
With Canva's simple drag-and-drop tools, it's super easy to customize a template once it's
created and it let's you create multiple similar designs out of that one template.
But before I get into the tutorial, let me tell you WHY it's worth using Canva templates:
- first of all, it's a huge time saver because with templates, you can batch create content
very efficiently and it makes creating content is so much faster
- the second reason is keeping a consistent brand identity.
when you create your own unique templates, you can make them perfectly align with your
overall brand image.
this also means you won't need to use any generic Canva templates and having your brand
image all over the place - and last, but definitely not least, you
can actually make money with them by creating your own digital products.
make sure to stay to the end of the video as I'll explain what you need to know to do
it yourself.
A word of caution before we start, because I don't want to waste anyones time - Templates
are a Canva Pro feature which means that are not available for free users.
I will talk about this a bit more later on but there is an upside for those of you who
don't want to pay for Canva monthly.
If you sign up for a free Canva trial for 30 days, you can actually create your own
templates and their are yours to keep and use after the trial expires.
If you'd like to try Canva Pro yourself, you can sign up using my link which I'll leave
for you in the description box down below.
Alright, on to Canva!
1.
How to create templates
First, let's go to Canva and create a set of graphics.
Today, I'm going to design Instagram posts for an imaginary lifestyle blogger.
We'll start off with updating the Brand Kit and this is where you can update all the components
of your visual brand identity so your logos, fonts and colors.
A consistent brand identity is an important component of your overall brand strategy and
it helps shape how your brand is perceived by your audience.
If you'd like me to talk more about how to create a consistent brand identity and how
it can help you transform your business, let me know in the comments below.
It's a subject I'm very passionate about so I can record another video for you.
So once we update the Brand Kit, we'll be able to use the exact same colors & fonts
across all designs which will make our brand easily recognizable.
For the lifestyle blog, I'm going to go for a rose gold palette and I've chosen the following
colors to complement the style.
Let's choose Old for our headings, Open Sans for the subheadings and Open Sans Light for
the body text.
Next, we're going to create our design and I'm just typing in Instagram Post to get the
correct dimensions.
Ideally, you'll want to have a variety of graphics for different types of content or
even your content pillars but for the sake of this video, I'll just create a quote, a
blog post teaser and a single tip post.
You can then go ahead and design a few other varieties of quotes, an educational carousel
or other types of content that your brand needs.
Let's begin with a quote so I want a pretty plain design with a few interesting elements.
First, let's choose a background which will be a bit more textured that a solid color.
And since I'm going with rose gold as a theme, marble will be a good match.
This one looks good, so let's drag it to our background.
It's a tad bit too dark for my liking but not to worry, I can manipulate it so since
our background color is white, I can just change the transparency of this photo and
it will become brighter.
40% seems like a good fit.
Next, I'm going to search for some frames in the Elements.
This one looks pretty good so let's add it.
I'll stretch it out a bit to give the design a little definition near the edges.
Great, and onto the text.
Let's choose this heading font which we've previously updated in our Brand Kit since
it's quite decorative and will work great for a quote.
I've got my quote ready here so let's paste it.
Brilliant, that's our quote here, but since people may want to share it, let's make sure
we include our IG handle or website so that it can lead more followers back to us.
I'm going to choose the subheading this time.
We could leave it there, but since it is a quote, we can make it even obvious and add
a special quotation mark.
Canva has plenty of options for these in the Elements but I want to use my own rose gold
ones so let's drag them to Canva and they pop
up instantly.
Alright, so onto the second template which is a blog post teaser.
I want it to revolve around a photo but not like a classic Instagram Post which fills
the whole space so I'm going to use a grid to put it
in place.
Grids and frames are the best way to showcase how customizable your template is.
Although you can drag a photo over an existing photo on the design and it will swap it, grids
and frames act as a placeholder for your photos.
This way, if you're sharing a template with someone (which I'll discuss later in the video
so make sure to watch till the very end), they can have a blank design and not get distracted
by existing pieces in a design.
I'll place it just beyond the middle line.
Great, now I'll change the background.
I want to go for something sandy and neutral to go with the theme sot his lightest hue
is great.
Next, let's add a box to make our little blog announcement.
I could go for a solid color element but I want to stay on brand and use the same marble
texture as with the previous design.
Let's make it a bit wider, great, and since I changed the opacity of the previous one,
I need to add a white element below it to have the same sort of effect here, too.
Let's go to elements, pick a square, change it to white and I'll just make it the same
size as this marble texture.
As you can see, it just kind of snaps in place so you know it's in the correct position.
Now, let's push it behind the marble, great, unclick, select the marble and change the
transparency to 40%.
Onto the text now.
Again, to stay on brand, I'm choosing our Open Sans Light font for the New Blog Post
subheading.
Then, let's pick Old Standard as our heading and let's say it's a blog post on 10 favorite
books of 2021.
I'm making sure these two are aligned properly and that's us done with the text.
But I want to introduce another element to emphasize the rose gold theme, so let's search
for rose gold again.
Scrolling down...
This leaf will work.
Alright, let's rotate it, and here is a good place for it.
We can push it back a bit behind the marble box and we're done with the second one.
And finally, let's get going with the single tip post.
I'm not going to design a whole educational carousel post here but if you'd like me to
show you how to do it in another video, just give me a shout in the comment section down
below.
I want to keep it very simple so let's go ahead and choose this light pinkish background
color.
Great, now I'll get a white square in the middle, as a backdrop for our marble.
Stretch it out to fit the frame and hold alt to make it smaller from both sides.
Fab, now let's add the marble again... crop it out to match the white square, alright,
transparency down to 40% again, and we've got our next layout.
Now I need something to act as a heading so I'll search for some rose gold washi tape.
This one fits so let's stretch it... but I want to crop it a tiny bit to make it more
narrow.
Let's go to crop, drag it from the bottom and that looks great.
Next, I'll add some text.
It's Open Sans this time, let's make it bold and all caps and let's say top 3 skincare
ingredients.
Ok, let's make it fit.
I'll select both the elements and make them bigger together.
Great, now onto our 3 ingredients.
Let's add a square element and choose a color.
This darker pink is going to work and I'm dragging the square into a rectangle.
Alright, that seems to be the perfect size.
Now let's duplicate it twice.
Snaps in place, great and I'm placing the lowest one where I want it to end up.
Then, I'll select all three by holding shift each time I click and now that they're selected,
I'll go ahead to alignment and hit Tidy Up which well, tidies it up and makes it spaced
out evenly.
I absolutely love this feature, makes it all so much quicker.
Now let's add the tips so text, Old Standard, make it dark and italic and let's say retinol
is going to be the first.
And yes, for my skincare fans out there, these are actually my top skincare ingredients so
I may not be a lifestyle blogger but I love me some retinol.
Let's copy that, alright, and let's change the text.
Perfect, I like it but now love it so I need more definition with some additional elements.
Let's go through rose gold elements again, scroll down and I actually like this one.
So I'll rotate it, stretch it out, great and again, snapped in place.
So that's our last one here.
2.
How to export & share templates Alright, brilliant, so now that we've got
our three designs, let me show you how to turn them into a template.
What you want to do is to go to the top right corner here, hit the three dots and type in
template.
You then go ahead and choose a folder that you want it to reside in, I could simply go
for the team templates but this time, I'll choose the Rose Gold Lifestyle Blogger template
to keep all of these templates in one place.
And that's as simple as that!
You have your first template saved.
If you want to share the template for others to use, which I'll explain in a moment why
it's worth knowing how to do it, you hit share, then here at the bottom choose share a link
to use as template and this way you have a copied link to an editable design.
You can share it with others and they will be able to edit it as they please.
When they click on the link, they see this wee screen and they can click Use as Template
and that copies it into their Canva.
The great thing is, they don't need to have Canva Pro to use your template.
But beware, if you've used any Pro elements or photos, they will have to pay for them
when they go to export it so that's definitely something to keep in mind if you're planning
on designing to share.
3.
How to use templates
To use a template we've just created, we'll go to the folder it's in (or just search for
it in all your designs tab), and as you can see, it's marked as a template in the top
left corner so you know that it's not your regular graphic.
Let's go ahead and click on it and instead of being opened as a design which would pop
up in a new window in the Canva Editor, we now have the pop up with two options - you
can either Use This Template or Edit the Original which means you can always play around with
your existing templates and adjust them.
But if you just want to create a new design with this template, hit the purple button
and this creates a copy of this template.
By the way, before we hit that, you can see that you can also share this template from
this here so you don't need to actually go into the Editor again to be able to retrieve
the link.
So in more general terms, how do I actually use templates.
Well, first and foremost, I use them to save time and batch create content.
Whenever I plan content for a month, two weeks or a week, whatever timeframe suits, and I
know what content I'm creating, I then go to Canva to choose from a variety of different
templates which I created at the beginning and churn out tons of posts for different
platforms from these various templates.
This may be a lot of work at the beginning but it's definitely a huge huge HUGE timesaver
in the long run.
If you'd like me to show you how I plan and execute content for a month in one day, let
me know in the comments and I'll record a video for you
And by the way, if you're working with clients or thinking of starting your own social media
agency, this is exactly what I would do at the very beginning with them during the onboarding.
You can initially create a bunch of different templates in line with their brand, have your
client approve them, and this way there's no hassle when you're actually creating content
for them regularly.
My tip is to always create these templates from scratch for yourself or for clients to
make them as original as possible but I do understand that not everyone feels very comfortable
as a graphic designer in which case you can use different Canva template sets so not just
a bunch of completely different templates but the ones that are available in a few versions.
And even then, do change them, update them with your brand colors and fonts, and your
logos or elements, so putting it simply, make them your own.
And speaking of making things your own, that's another reason why I use templates and how
I use them.
Any templates I create are helping me keep a consistent visual brand identity and by
having tons of those designed means they can be infused with my overall brand image.
Again, this is done with colors, fonts, logos, elements etc.
By the way, if you're creating your own templates when you're testing out Canva Pro on a 30
day trial, they are yours to keep after the trial expires and you're no longer a Canva
Pro user.
This is actually pretty amazing!
You won't be able to share them, sell them or create new ones as a free Canva user, but
for content creation purposes, this can be quite helpful to you in any case!
There is another way to use templates and that's actually to make money (katching!).
You can actually sell templates to others and create profit this way.
This brings us to point 4...
4.
How to monetize templates Selling digital products is always a great
way to create a stream of income and templates work like a charm.
You can create your own templates and sell them on Etsy or Gumroad, use them to form
sales funnels, offer them to your email lists or sell them through Facebook Ads or on Pinterest.
You can also use them as lead magnets and try converting your followers into warmer
contacts!
But before you jump at this opportunity, make sure you read through the Canva rules.
There is a brilliant document which goes in detail on what you can and cannot do and I'll
leave it in the description box for you to look through.
It's called the Free Media License Agreement and to give you a few pointers or a bit of
a TL;DR:
- all free media on Canva can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use
BUT
- you cannot sell unaltered copies of any photos, elements, music, videos, templates
created by Canva as a physical product without adding any value.
And the without adding any value bit is pretty important.
Basically, to give you an example, you cannot go, choose one of Canva poster templates,
play around with it and then sell it.
It's just a changed copy.
I'd say start from scratch, create your own unique designs and then sell them.
But of course, there's quite a bit more to it, so if you're looking to sell digital products
created in Canva, definitely read through their guidelines carefully.
Once you have your templates designed and ready to sell, you can share it by creating
a link as I showed you just a moment ago.
Then simply create a nicely designed PDF with this link to send to your customers.
You can make it as a simple link or get a bit more fancy and create buttons.
Of course, you can simply send the links to your customers in an email as well.
4.
How to monetize templates Selling digital products is always a great
way to create a stream of income and templates work like a charm.
You can create your own templates and sell them on Etsy or Gumroad, use them to form
sales funnels, offer them to your email lists or sell them through Facebook Ads or on Pinterest.
You can also use them as lead magnets and try converting your followers into warmer
contacts!
But before you jump at this opportunity, make sure you read through the Canva rules.
There is a brilliant document which goes in detail on what you can and cannot do and I'll
leave it in the description box for you to look through.
It's called the Free Media License Agreement and to give you a few pointers or a bit of
a TL;DR:
- all free media on Canva can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use
BUT
- you cannot sell unaltered copies of any photos, elements, music, videos, templates
created by Canva as a physical product without adding any value.
And the without adding any value bit is pretty important.
Basically, to give you an example, you cannot go, choose one of Canva poster templates,
play around with it and then sell it.
It's just a changed copy.
I'd say start from scratch, create your own unique designs and then sell them.
But of course, there's quite a bit more to it, so if you're looking to sell digital products
created in Canva, definitely read through their guidelines carefully.
Once you have your templates designed and ready to sell, you can share it by creating
a link as I showed you just a moment ago.
Then simply create a nicely designed PDF with this link to send to your customers.
You can make it as a simple link or get a bit more fancy and create buttons.
Of course, you can simply send the links to your customers in an email as well.