Did you know that brains can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text? The fact is that visuals are more engaging and converting than written content. This is because visuals are easy to digest by your ever-hungry-for-things-to-look-at brain.

Unfortunately, creating an array of eye-catching visuals and crafting on-brand visual content is not something marketers look forward to, because it is more time-consuming and more expensive than, say, a traditional blog post. Save Canva Slides

Thanks to our favourite visual creator, Canva, creating visual content is faster and easier than ever, and getting started is free. Canva offers thousands of templates and an extensive content library to meet the needs of every B2B marketing project. Canva is commonly used among marketers, helping teams to lower costs by simplifying design and making it accessible to all.

Canva has ready-to-use content formats in the right dimensions so that you can get started with your design right away–no over-thinking necessary. Here are templates that we absolutely love using:

1. Social Media

Canva recently launched a new content format that lets you create animated social media visuals adapted to all the go-to platforms. Now that is a welcome addition to our arsenal! Animated social media posts act like video—they start playing automatically and viewers are sure to stop, engage with the visual, and even interact with your post (hello engagement!). These animated posts have a proven track record of netting higher engagement rates on different social media platforms like Twitter (10x engagement), Facebook (3% higher), and Instagram (21% more than photos).

Marketers can also use these templates to repurpose their content for different social media platforms. Canva has templates for each platform that are optimized by size to make it easier for users to quickly put their designs together without worrying about the content getting truncated on social media.

Find Canva’s social media templates here.

2. Pitch Decks

Every business needs a dynamic, streamlined pitch deck to show off to potential partners, investors and clients. Putting together an on-brand, professional presentation can be a real chore. Thankfully, Canva has templates designed to take the guesswork out of organizing the best content and designing the ideal way to present it. All the templates are customizable and the style choices are vast and varied.

Get started on your pitch deck with these templates.

3. Sales Presentations

Begone, Powerpoint! Whether you’re pitching a new product or delivering media strategy ideas to existing clients, you need a presentation that showcases all the essential information in a show-stopping, give-me-your-money way. Canva has a wide array of templates available to get the job done, all customizable to your unique needs as a business. Choose from a range of presentation styles, from ones with paragraphs or texts to ones that are suited for image-centric decks.

Get your templates here.

4. Email

Most email service providers have an in-built template library but most of the good templates are locked behind an upgrade. Even so, you don’t have to compromise on your email’s design just because of this pesky limitation.

Canva has email content formats to let marketers put together a pleasing newsletter to send out to their email contacts. With logically-flowing email templates as well as styles for different marketing requirements, you never have to think too hard about putting together a solid email. Once again, Canva saves you time with its customizable and highly specific templates that fulfill your email objectives.

Check out the email templates here.

If you’re just starting out with visual content, don’t get overwhelmed with doing too much too fast and turning every content into a visual. Instead, the best strategy is to identify current content areas that have lower engagement rates. Pinpoint and list these content pieces and start slow by turning them into visuals.

With Canva’s extensive list of templates for every project, creating visuals is now easier for you!

Hopefully, you’re inspired and excited to bring more visual content into your business. But a word to the wise: be careful not to spread yourself thin by trying every visual format in the book. Instead, choose a format that suits your business and is sure to deliver high engagement— whether it’s a quote graphic or an Instagram carousel of tips or a screen recorded gif— and perfect it.

Once you’ve nailed one kind of post, try out different formats to test audience engagement. This way you can polish your visual content strategy, increasing engagement and growth smartly.

Need help using visuals for B2B content marketing? Looking for guidance in building consistent branding across all your visual content? Megan Killion Consulting is an experienced marketing team with the expertise and experience to help you get the most out of Canva. Book a chat today to get started on addressing your unique business needs and how we could help move your brand forward together.