How to Speed Up your Graphics Creation with Canva Templates [Streamline Your Graphics Series - Part 4 of 4]

We made it, friend! We’re officially on Part 4 of the Streamline Your Graphics series. How much fun has this been?! I don’t really want it to end!

So far in the series, you’ve learned: 

1. How to ensure brand consistency in your graphics 
2. How to DIY your graphics without them looking DIY
3. How to Marie Kondo your Canva Pro setup 
4. How to speed up your graphics creation with Canva template (this post)

I’ve saved my very best secret for last, because today I’m going to show you how you can use Canva Templates to build on what you’ve already created, saving yourself ALL the time when creating new content to WOW your peeps online. 

I’m not just talking about the templates you’ll find in The Canva Template Shop. I’m also going to show you how you can create your very own templates, so you can stop wasting valuable time, energy, and brain space starting from scratch every time.

Trust me on this one, babe — it’s pure magic. Ready to learn more? Let’s go!

“Why should I use Canva Templates, Nicholette?” 

A great question, friend, with a pretty simple answer. Do you love saving yourself time? Yes? Then you NEED Canva Templates! 

We use templates for everything else in our lives and business — from our canned email responses to our blog creation workflows, contracts* and websites — so why not our visuals? 

Templates save us from staring at a blank screen every time we want to create content, helping us create faster and look on-brand doing it. 

Trust me on this: all of the influencers and social media superstars you see killing it with their visuals have a system for graphics creation — and you can too! 

Sure, they may have a bigger team or an on-call designer, but ultimately the person responsible for their graphics needs to be able to whip one up on a whim and have it look on brand. And if the person responsible for creating graphics in your biz is YOU, that’s exactly what you need too.

I started creating Canva templates when I noticed that I needed the same graphics more than once. I realized that I could save myself and my clients tons of time and brain space by not starting from scratch every single time.

Because when you template your graphics, you’re not just streamlining your graphics creation. You’re ALSO helping yourself:

• Speed up your content creation workflow (be it for your podcast, blog, or webinars)
• Post more consistently on social 
• Create more freebies + lead magnets to your grow list faster
• Give yourself your time back

Not only that, but they also allow you to batch-create your graphics AND create some serious brand consistency across all your social media channels.

The TL;DR version of all that is: Canva Templates make everything easier.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. Which Canva Templates should I create first?”

Another great question! You’re on a roll, babe! 

You can create Canva Templates for virtually anything — Instagram squares, Facebook group covers, eBooks and more! But I recommend starting with 3 key graphics and building your template library from there:

1. The Square - 1080 x 1080 px
2. The Story or vertical - 1080 x 1920 px
3. The Rectangle - 1920 x 1080 px

Why these templates? Because they are the 3 most versatile graphics that you can easily repurpose to create other graphics. 

One of the main reasons I LOVE Canva Pro is that if you get these 3 graphics down, you can easily resize them to other dimensions and just adjust the design slightly to make it work. 🤯

Let me show you what I mean...

The Square Template - 1080 x 1080 px

The square graphic is incredibly versatile, and not just for the gram.

You can share:

• An inspiring quote
• An exclusive tip to educate your followers (or multi-image tips)
• A testimonial or review
• A graphic to promote your new blog post
• An invite watch your upcoming Instagram Live, or 
• A prompt to shop your sale.

It takes batch creating your visuals to a whole new level.

BONUS TIP: Try to have at least 3 templated “looks” for your square graphics and then stick to them. Not only does this make designing your graphics so much easier (so you can pull a post together whenever inspiration strikes), it also keeps things consistent. Your followers will be saying “Oh wow, that amazing quote graphic must be from __(your name here)__ before you know it.

How to resize + repurpose your square graphics:

• Turn it into a Facebook post
• Create an animated graphic
• Repurpose a quote into a testimonial or tip

Relevant post: You might also like “4 other ways to post on your grid to make a visual impact”. 

The Story Template - 1080 x 1920 px

Your story graphic is great for Insta and Facebook, but you can also easily convert it into a Pinterest graphic, a lead magnet cover, and more!

You can create a stories template and then repurpose your graphic to create:

• A weekly tip
• A testimonial
• A quote 
• An IGTV cover or CTA graphic
• An animation or GIF
• A promo graphic
• A shareable graphic (e.g this or that) 

And you can use Canva Pro to resize + tweak your graphic quickly and easily for your Pinterest Templates, freebie or opt-ins, or sidebar graphics for your blog.

Relevant posts: What is IGTV, how to plan out your IGTV videos and 5 secrets for creating an IGTV channel people love.

The Rectangle Template - 1920 x 1080 px

Email graphics, banners, and posts — oh my! There are SO many uses for a rectangle graphic, and once you have your look down, re-using it as a template for graphics with similar dimensions will be a breeze.

How to resize & repurpose your rectangle graphics:

• Use it as the header for your Facebook page or group
• Repurpose it as a banner for your Etsy shop
• Spruce up your LinkedIn page with a new banner
• Turn it into an email visual
• Create a Facebook post with it

BONUS TIP:

Remember what we talked about in Part 1 of the Streamline Your Graphics series: every visual should have one main goal, and one main goal only! Don’t try to do too many things at once or your graphic will just end up like a Picasso painting — interesting to look at… but at the end of the day, kinda confusing. 

For example, you don’t want to create an image that promotes a new blog post AND tell them about your upcoming sale — you’re just going to overwhelm them. Stick to one message and design your graphic and write your copy around that one message.

“This is LIFE CHANGING! Where can I find more?”

I’m so glad you love Canva Templates as much as I do! Implementing them in your graphic creation process is going to save you so much time and stress, you’re going to wonder what the heck you ever did without them! 

If you’re ready to get your hands dirty with some fully customizable, totally profesh-looking Canva Templates, my Canva Template Shop is stocked full of templates that have been designed with conversion + brand consistency in mind… not to mention they’re easy to use, even if you’ve never used Canva before.

Each template even comes with a video from yours truly showing you exactly how to use them, edit them and adapt them, so they’re 100% on brand, 100% of the time.

That’s all, folks!

Even if you’ve been using Canva for years, I hope the Streamline Your Graphics series taught you something new about using it effectively so you can cut your graphics creation time in half.

By setting yourself up for success, you can stop wasting time tinkering with fonts or trying to figure out how to get your line width just right, and instead focus your time + talents on breathing some fabulously fresh air into your business. 

If my tips have helped save you time, headaches, or even a frustrated tear or two, I’d love to hear from you in the comments! 

I can’t wait to see what magic you make happen, love.

xo, Nicholette

 *these are affiliate links to products and small businesses we love, use and support.