Shiny Object: Canva

One of the interesting things about marketing – as a giant bucket of an industry niche – is that so many capabilities fall under the broad umbrella of “marketing.”

Graphic design? Check. Web design? Check. Ecommerce? Check. Public relations, internal and external communication, branding, advertising, content crafting and sales? In some way, all of these are closely tied to marketing.

However, you as an (above) average marketing strategist, blogger or company leaders may not have each of these skills in your {beware: buzz word!} wheelhouse.  So what’s a smart and highly capable marketer to do?  First, build up a fantastic network of subcontractors or use consultants for special projects if you lack specific talent on your team.  Even more importantly: hone the ability to hammer out some basic marketing materials without your own in-house designer.

Enter Canva.

This sophisticated website is overflowing with intuitive tools to turn a wordsmith into an all-around marketing expert… and I’m certainly not the first to observe its magnificence.

• Need a pin-worthy image for a client’s aspirations to go viral on Pinterest?
• An infographic-esque at-a-glance information sheet?
• A banner for a social media page?
• Presentations, posters or documents?

Full speed ahead.  Canva is gorgeous, smart, simple and makes you feel like a brainiac.

There are plenty of projects that are absolutely worthy of hiring a full-fledged, competent and experienced designer… and that is exactly what you should do when impeccable design is required.  However, once in a while… you just need to churn something out that is smart as well as attractive.

Canva takes me from creating a very plain, white document full of factoids to crafting a highly sharable and visually-appealing resource.  Just nab a template, add gorgeous backgrounds plus text and graphics from a robust search of Creative Commons images to your own photos and uploads and you’ve suddenly taken your vanilla documents from “meh” to memorable.  Voilà:

If you’re still waffling or think that Publisher will do just fine for your needs, thankyouverymuch, allow me to throw some extra fuel on the fire:

Guy Kawasaki has just signed on as an investor and chief evangelist for Canva, resurrecting the famous title he held with, ahem, youmayhaveheardofit: Apple.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m completely smitten with the Canva team, the concept and all that’s possible with this phenomenal tool.  The service is free, but the (gorgeous) enhanced elements are available for your design-y pleasure at a cool $1 apiece.

Get after it.  The world is your oyster, and Canva is going to take all those pretty, Instagram-y photos of yours + all your favorite quotes and make your thoughts viral. You’re big time with Canva, baby!