Staying on-brand across all of your marketing collateral can be tough when you’re working solo but, when you have a team, it can feel nearly impossible to create consistent collateral day in and day out.

It’s no secret that I love Canva, maybe an unhealthy amount. I sing the praises of this website to anyone who will listen, but why? There is no shortage of answers I could give to that question but today I’m talking about two features that are absolute godsends when it comes to streamlining content creation and staying consistent while working as a team. 

Brand kit

Without a doubt the most important Canva feature for creating consistent, integrated marketing collateral. Canva allows you to add logos, colors, and fonts to your brand kit. The elements you add to the brand kit are then easily accessible any time you go to pick a color or add some text to a Canva design. 

Colors: Canva allows you to add your brand colors by hex code but, if you don’t know the hex code, the color picker tool can help you figure it out in seconds. 

Fonts: Canva has a variety of fonts for you to choose from but, if your favorite isn’t available, you can download it here. 

Logos: Canva accepts a variety of file types for logos but I recommend adding a SVG file, this will allow you to easily change the color of your logo to suit your design. 

Brand Templates

Brand templates would be a strong contender for first place if Brand Kits weren’t SO convenient. Brand templates differ from Canva templates in that Brand templates are created by a member of your team and only made available to other team members, unlike regular templates that are open to anyone. Templates are most useful if you’re working with a team as they allow to share designs throughout your organization so the collateral stays consistent, no matter who makes it. If you’re working solo, templates are still a super convenient way to store designs you use time and time again.

During my internship at Guide Property Services, I introduced Canva to the organization and created a number of templates for my colleagues. The YouTube End Screen Template and YouTube thumbnail templates have gotten the most use. 

Canva is one of the most utilized tools in my tool belt, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you need to. I think you’ll be surprised by how much you can create and how easy it is to stay on-brand.