You’ve heard of Canva, right? Better known as the design tool that makes social media graphics easy and accessible to small business owners, it is actually so much more. And now that the brand has a team on the ground in South Africa, it’s time you learn how this all-in-one business tool can grow your business.
It’s official: Canva has arrived in South Africa. The internationally renowned digital solution brings the people of Mzansi more than ever before. Locals can look forward to features such as local pricing for premium features and an in-app language setting for South African users (from Afrikaans to Zulu).
All-in-one Positioning
Canva has truly positioned itself as an all-in-one tool for creators, educators and entrepreneurs. Its visual suite encompasses elements such as presentations, images, videos, whiteboards, docs and now also sheets. Its versatility makes it a favourite for all who use it. What’s more, it makes design easy and accessible by providing every user with free templates to build their own designs (regardless of type) or build something from scratch.
Speaking to Bianca Sibiya, Africa Marketing Lead, she explains how important it is to help entrepreneurs understand how beneficial Canva can be in their business. In fact, she notes that South African entrepreneurs are, without a doubt, underutilising this software
“Right now, it is important for the SA team to host workshops and set up training sessions that help users understand the tool better,” she explains. “Our ambition for the market is to move the 1:31 adoption rate to 1:5 people using Canva as their go-to tool.” More than a business goal, this aim enables Canva to make design easy and affordable for everyone globally.
“As we create awareness for our footprint in Africa, we are focusing our pillars of basic education, nonprofits and small to medium businesses (SMB).”
What the team has identified for the SMB market is that it is extremely diverse. “It’s so varied – a creator can be a small business, an elderly person who sells baked goods over the weekend can also be a business owner.
“We focus on how we can provide them solutions and help them understand how to use it effectively to grow their business faster.
“What we understand from our audience is that people are keen to understand how to use the tool to create a business profile, use presentations and leverage social media content. There is an emphasis on social selling, and that is driving a lot of these small businesses; how are they showing up or using personal branding?”
A wonderful use of Canva for small businesses that Sibiya highlights is the WhatsApp toolkit. “It is not unlike other toolkits that you see in the market, but it provides a solution to the businesses that use WhatsApp as their primary mode of communication and interacting with customers can utilise.
“They need their shop information, pricing, etc, available, and for us, it’s important to ensure we provide them with a toolkit for that – especially in the service industry.”
She also notes that teenagers who are starting businesses or side hustles can use these tools to create a cost-effective collection of business documents.
Mobile First For Users On The Go
Adoption and usage of Canva in South Africa is primarily on phones. The software’s design is centred around mobile-first users, ensuring that entrepreneurs can access important files from anywhere, anytime. “Whether it is making changes or starting new designs, users are already using Canva in this way.”
Going Beyond The Platform
Canva also offers a Design School, a resource in the app that helps individuals with zero visual communication background to level up their designs.
“If you look a little bit further down in the menu bar, the design school can be accessed from the app,” Sibiya explains. “When you are in this ecosystem, you can choose what you are looking for: video, to get certified, or just how to get started. In here, there is a variety of courses, between 10 to 30-minute classes, that allow you to also understand where your gaps are.
“We find that users who go through these materials improve their grasp on using the tool much better than trying to figure it out on their own.”
Now that Canva has made Affinity free for all, this understanding of their users’ needs is also extended to the Affinity platform.
“We’ve also always had a very active community for Affinity before its parent company was acquired,” says Liam Fisher, Head of Marketing at Pro-Design. “Our YouTube channel always had many tutorials, but our community members also create a lot of these. So we collaborate with them to build resources on specific workflows.” Fisher adds that there is also a plan to erect a formal design school platform addition or Affinity users in the future as well.
“We’ve ensured that there are about 16 video lessons that users can look into as soon as they join Affinity. This helps designers who have previously used other platforms to understand the software quickly,” he concludes.
