How to Avoid Canva Design Mistakes by Entrepreneurs.
Is Canva Design Mistakes by Entrepreneurs something to laugh at, or should one do your duty and help the poor souls who are trying to do their own advertising? During the past 30+ years in the advertising and communications world, I have seen some pretty interesting stuff happening. Sadly the design mistakes that entrepreneurs make using a program such as Canva are on the increase, and we do believe it is our duty to help.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
“Just because you can, does not mean you should!” These were the words of my first boss, Phil Wharton, back in the Ideadata days when Harvard Graphics for DOS came out and every Tom, Dick & Harry with a computer started designing their own 35mm Presentation Slides. Today, 30 years later, history is repeating itself. On Steriods!
I get it. You are trying to save money by doing your own adverts, or by grabbing the closest Dick & Harry who claims to be a brand-building and digital marketing expert. And guess what? They are all using Canva.
50 Shades of Grayer Than Gray Advertising
If I page through my Art Direction Textbooks such as Hey Whipple, Squeeze This and I view some of the advertising material that passes by on Social Media, I feel like the hairdresser in the movie Just Go With It. “It’s dull, it’s dead. No, no, no hope.” OK, maybe this is a bit overdramatic, but what the hell happened to creative advertising material?
The reality is that in the world of the traditional entrepreneur, there is almost no such thing as art direction. Lateral thinking is almost non-existent and same-old-same-old is the name of the game.
If you are keen to learn more, addVentures Business Club’s Academy have a training module called “Is my Story worth the Click: 7 Steps to Skyrocket your Creativity” where we talk about creative techniques such as the Disney Model, Famous50, Mind Mapping & more to ensure that your advertising material is not grayer than gray.
The AIDA Concept
I often feel like a broken record when I start to explain the concept of AIDA, but somehow there are still people out there who do not know the typical elements that a good advert should possess. And the AIDA model is one of the easiest ways to ensure you avoid Canva Design Mistakes for Entrepreneurs.
A = Attention
First and foremost, the first element that people see in your advert is the big header or the big picture that draws their attention. In the Western world, people read from the top left in a flowing zig-zag motion to the bottom right. Your attention-grabber should thus be somewhere towards the top left.
I = Interest
The next element should get them interested after you have grabbed their attention. A subheader or intro text normally works well here.
D = Desire
The next element should create a desire so big that your target audience automatically moves over to the next element.
A = Action
Where can they get in contact with you? And yes, this sounds so incredibly silly to have to repeat this, but your action element should be the last message that is left in their minds. Contact Christél today. This is her number. This is her email. And this message should keep on lingering in your head until you think “oh sherbet, why the hell have I not contacted Christél yet?”
The most basic Canva design mistakes for Entrepreneurs
Apart from not giving a hoot whether you are focusing your advertising on a specific target audience or whether the content is counter-narrative in any way, the most basic mistakes entrepreneurs make when using Canva as a design tool are:
- No consistent design theme
- No consistent color schemes as per your corporate identity manual
- No consistent fonts as per your corporate identity manual
- Alignment
- Spacing
- Way too much information
If you are keen to learn more, AddVentures Business Club’s Academy has a module specifically on helping you to get these basic Canva design mistakes by entrepreneurs.
We see it as our mission to help you to help yourself avoid the basic design mistakes that entrepreneurs make when using easily accessible technology such as Canva.
Contact Christél today. Your success when designing adverts for traditional media or digital marketing depends on it.
