TRANSCRIPT: Let’s Talk Content Marketing with Stephanie Wium

Hendrik

 What’s at the heart of content marketing?

Why should I even do content marketing in the first place?

How do I get the best results from it?

If these are some of the questions you have, don’t take our word for it.

Let’s talk content marketing with industry professionals.

Discover its power, and confront its challenges, so that you can stand out from your competition.

Join Ethan and Hendrik Baird from Baird Media. And let’s talk content marketing.

Hendrik

Stephanie, tell me how you got into the marketing business and content business, and specifically Canva.

Stephanie

So, when I launched my business in 2019, I was going to be a general virtual assistant that was going to absolutely take the world by storm.

Round about the same time, I also discovered Canva and I started creating my own content, which wasn’t so good.

Let’s just get that out there.

Being a virtual assistant, actually didn’t work for me at all. It was not something that set my world afire.

I was an executive assistant before that, so it made sense for me to launch myself as a virtual assistant and it didn’t work.

And then obviously Canva happened, and I started designing for myself.

I didn’t think, well, this is absolutely fabulous, so I might as well do it for clients as well.

And that’s October 2 that I started designing and that’s been going strong ever since.

So visual marketing is, absolutely, absolutely my passion at this point in time and I believe that every single business owner, be it online, or bricks and mortar, actually need to be visible on social media with marketing material, that they create themselves or that I helped them with.

Hendrik

So, do you have a design background?

If you say you were an executive assistant, do you have any design kind of experience?

Stephanie

Everything I do and everything I’ve learned; I have taught myself.

I have done the whole self-development route and all of that, and I suppose it also helps just having an eye for visual creation.

Nothing formal about my design experience.

Hendrik

I think we’ll get back to Canva on a moment.

And how easy it is to actually become a designer on that platform, but let’s talk about content first ,

You said one has to be very visual on social media platforms and so on.

How important is content for a company’s marketing?

Stephanie

Content is absolutely imperative.

No business can survive without advertising.

Whether it is a leaflet or an advertisement online or a billboard out on the road that we travel on, we need to be visible.

We need to create visuals that will enhance our content, because when you’re on social media, you’re literally scrolling through hundreds of posts.

That’s content.

Content is incredible because content tells your audience what it is you do, who you do it for, and what they’re going to pay for it and how to work with you.

Visual content enhances the plain copy that we share in print or on social media.

Hendrik

I read somewhere that a graphic can tell a story that a thousand-word article probably can’t, just through one glance at it.

Stephanie

Oh, absolutely 100%.

However, I have to just add there, that in order for a graphic to tell a story, you need to understand that less is more.

Because you’re going to throw a whole lot of things at a design, you’re going to be overwhelming whoever it is that’s looking at it.

And it’s going to tell your audience not to work with you.

Because as a member of the audience, I am now going to have to work harder at understanding what your content is all about before I can actually make a conscious effort to work with you.

And when it comes to disposable graphics such as on social media, the scroll very quick.

So, you have to be able to capture your audience in such a manner that they’re going to take those three seconds, just pausing long enough to actually see what your visual is about.

And that’s where your graphic actually tells a thousand words, means more than a thousand words or however you want to say it.

Hendrik

A picture paints a thousand words.

Isn’t that the…

Stephanie

That one!

Yes, that one.

Absolutely.

But you know what?

At the end of the day, creating graphics is for consumption by our audience.

Just as creating content, creating marketing material, is not for us.

It’s for our audience, it’s for the people that we want to attract into our world.

Hendrik

When we do business plans, we create avatars.

When we do podcasting, and we figure out who’s ideal listener, we create a detailed avatar.

Do you think one should create an avatar for your graphics?

Stephanie

Absolutely.

Maybe not for the graphics as such, but for the business that you’re attracting with, the graphics that you’re going to be using.

I don’t want to say it, but I’m going to say it anyway.

While I do subscribe to an ideal client or an ideal avatar, I don’t always design with an ideal avatar in mind.

And in the marketing world they say, you market to everybody, you market to none.

It’s very true, but when it comes to visual content marketing, visual content sharing, you are needing to appeal to a very wider audience.

So, you’re not just appealing to a specific audience, because you might be business-to-business.

Attracting the business that you’re wanting to work is different to attracting the person, the consumer, that you’re wanting to work with.

So, my business is very much B2B, as well as B2C.

When I create graphics, it’s keeping that in mind, that will attract a larger audience.

But yes, I definitely do agree, having an ideal client avatar is incredibly important as a marketer.

Hendrik

It’s only when you have an avatar that you can deviate from it, don’t you think?

Stephanie

Yes. Yes.

If you’re understanding exactly who it is that you’re working with or working for or wanting to work for, and with.

I remember when I first started my online marketing journey, I was incredibly resistant to creating an avatar to work with, because my imagination runs wild when I create visual content, but my imagination is not so wild running, when it comes down to creating something for a specific person.

So, I was very resistant in naming it and giving it a career and giving it a business and giving it a family.

And where do they live?

What do they do in their spare time?

So, an avatar for me was n alien concept.

But once I actually understood how important it was, it became easier.

And then it also became very easy at the same time, now, to not to be kept in a bubble, in just an avatar bubble so to speak.

Hendrik

So, let’s talk Canva for a little while.

Canva has really democratized design, hasn’t it?

It used to be; you need to have expert skills in Photoshop.

And what are all those fancy programs?

Stephanie

Absolutely.

Hendrik

And now it’s opened up for everybody.

I watch the launch recently of their new products and things.

So exciting, all the new things that are in Canva.

So give us an overview of Canva and how it helps somebody like me or a regular business person or even a layperson in opening up the world of graphics.

Stephanie

When you’re going to be working in Canva for your own business.

Canva makes it easy, as you quite rightly mentioned.

Photoshop is very difficult to understand.

There’s Illustrator, there’s InDesign, and a whole host of other very expensive tools.

Keep in mind, Canva is just a tool, so creating a graphic within Canva itself, starts with not needing to be a professional designer.

I am not going to let anybody tell me that a creative designer, that’s what I call myself, a creative designer cannot be a successful graphic designer for clients who work specifically in Canva itself.

Canva is free.

It’s an online drag and drop tool that makes creating your own marketing material incredibly easy.

Do you need to have an eye for design?

Ideally yes, but Canva gives you a whole host of templates that you can work from.

Now I have very strong opinions on templates, but at the end of the day, when it comes to creating your own visuals for social media, using Canva, you do not need to be a qualified graphic designer.

Because what is social media? Everything on social is disposable.

Once someone has scrolled past your visual, unless they actually go to your profile and have a squiz around there and see what’s going on, on your profile, only then will they see what visuals you’ve created.

So, everything is disposable when it comes to business documentation, a little bit different.

But once again, Canva both do to help you with templates as such.

Now let’s just roll back to templates.

I do not like templates and here’s why.

When we scroll through social media and when you work in Canva, you recognize a Canva template.

Recognising a Canva template, your brain automatically tells you, I have seen this content, even though it is entirely new content.

So, your brain tells you, I’ve seen this content, simply because I recognized the template.

So you scroll past and that is why I say start with the template, but then move away from using a template altogether.

Because templates can actually harm your business more than it can add value to it.

Hendrik

So, just to be clear, you’re talking about pre-designed, templates, as opposed to original templates.

So, if I use something that already exists on Canva and I just delete the text and put my own text in there, but the picture and the design stays the same, that’s what you mean?

It’s not, I’ve now created my own templates that I use for my own sort of thing.

Stephanie

A templates in Canva is a template in Canva.

Whether you change the photograph, the colours or the fonts, it remains recognizable as a template in Canva.

I regularly run a build confidence with Canva boot camp for my audience and I teach them.

The one thing I teach them is, when inspiration has left your brain, start with a template, but then take away and add other things and make it bigger.

Make it smaller, position it differently.

So that, at the end of the day, it’s not recognizable as a Canva template anymore.

Templates are incredibly valuable, because when we’re short on time and want something quick and easy and disposable, a template works fine, but then you run the risk of being scrolled over.

And in social media marketing, we do not want to be scrolled over.

We want to stand out, so changing the colours and the fonts and the pictures on a template, doesn’t change the template.

You’ll have to move things around completely, take things away, add other things in, to stand out as an authentic design.

Hendrik

Okay.

So what you saying is take an existing Canva template and squish it and squash it and  and mix it up so it’s not recognizable as a Canva template.

But at least it gives you a starting point for your own design.

Stephanie

Correct, hundred percent. Correct.

Hendrik

So, what if I were to design my from scratch, my own series of templates that’s based on my logo, my company colours, the kind of layout and I use that throughout a campaign.

So, everything is kind of familiar, but not because of Canva, but because of its built around my brand.

Stephanie

That’s brand recognition. Brand recognition is very important in visual marketing for the simple reason., your visual brand consists of but is not limited to your logo and your fonts and your colours, and that sort of thing.

But to create a cohesive brand awareness, as well as being able to be recognized as a specific brand, it needs to be kept in mind that consistency is key in that regard.

So, if you want to create a campaign, yes absolutely.

Create a set of templates that is recognizable as Baird Media or simply on demand visual content creation.

So, it’s all about showing who you are, what you do at a glance.

Hendrik

Would you recommend to getting a professional designer to design those kind of templates for you?

Stephanie

It depends on where it is that you’re wanting to go.

If you’re our brand is in transition, it’s not necessary to get a professional designer.

Let’s be honest.

Professional designers, they come at a premium price.

Canva be designers, such as myself, we kind of like give professional designers a run for their money, because the visuals that we create, the templates that we create, can sometimes

Literally throw a graphic designer on its head.

Yes, we do not have all the fancy tools.

And yes, it’s nice to be able to use a fancy tool to manipulate imagery in such a manner that it is absolutely, 100% not recognizable as a Canva design.

But at the end of the day, a design shouldn’t be recognizable for the tool that has been used in order to create that design.

Hendrik

That makes perfect sense.

Canva makes it so easy also.

I mean, you just use that resize function and you can take one design and it becomes a Twitter designer, you just have to tweak it a bit, obviously.

And it becomes a LinkedIn design and all that sort of stuff.

So that’s for me the pleasure of working with it.

As I say, I also take basic designs and then change them around sometimes and do strange things with them and then you just click of a button and you’ve got all your social media both for the month right there, and then.

Stephanie

Absolutely, it just makes so much easier because I’ve got an established brand presence.

Understand also, just because you have an established brand presence that you cannot tweak your brand.

Your brand has personality and as your own personality develops over time, so your brand needs to develop as well.

But at the end of the day, your brand at its core, is your brand at its core.

So, however you want to change, you can change it however you want to.

Hendrik

I must be completely honest with you, our current logo is just a Canva template that I’ve just put our name in and it works quite well for now.

Stephanie

It looks very well for now.

Hendrik

And it’s very readable.

That’s the one thing that I’ve seen, you know, when they take these combined pictures when you’re on networking groups and there is like 40 people on a screen and Baird Media stands out somehow.

So, there’s also something about visibility and we obviously want to do a major redesign and we’ve got some great ideas, but that for me is one thing that will have to stand out.

It’s still got to be readable from afar, there’s no point in it being so fancy that nobody can see what the hell you’re on about.

Stephanie

Absolutely, and someone at some stage in my design journey, shared that if you were to create a design in Canva and you size it down with the sizing tool at the bottom to 10%, which is the smallest it can go and you can still read what’s on the visual that’s effective design.

If you can still make out to see what is on the design itself.

That is an effective design because sometimes you scroll so quickly, and it’s literally a small little thumbnail like this, that it needs to stand out.

And if it doesn’t, by being made so small, they’ll have to start over again and it’s something that’s literally stayed with me all through the years.

And it’s what I base, all of my designs on. It needs to be easily readable.

Because not everybody give in to Mother Nature and wear spectacles. Some people are ain about it and they won’t wear spectacles, and they need to see what’s on your visual.

Hendrik

Yeah. So, do you have any Canva tips for us?

Stephanie

Don’t be afraid of size.

Do not be afraid to use the white space around you.

Let’s say for argument’s sake, say my screen.

If I were to move myself to the side, I create a lot of white space, don’t be afraid of white space.

And don’t be afraid to actually give your assets, your photos, and your text and all of that, room to breathe.

Room to breathe, literally, we know what it feels like to be in an enclosed space.

We can’t breathe.

We get all anxious and all of that.

Now think of your design in exactly the same scenario.

Everything is squished together at leads to anxiety, not only for the person looking at it, but for the text itself as well because there’s no room to breathe.

So don’t be afraid of size. Size always matters.

Hendrik

Let’s talk about the difference between paid and free Canva.

Stephanie

Free Canva will always be free, but if you use a pro asset on the free version, you can purchase that specific asset.

Everything on the pro version, is everything that you have on the free version plus so much more.

The most notable will obviously be the magic resize button and Canva does call it the magic resize.

You can resize your one design to any platform.

You can schedule content to eight different platforms.

On the free version you’ve got five gigs of cloud storage.

On the pro version you’ve got a terabyte of cloud storage.

It’s little things that really just add up.

If your audience is based internationally, the pro version will cost you in the region of 1299 US dollars.

In South Africa you’ll pay just under 900 rand for a year-long subscription to the pro version itself. 

And as I said on the free version, everything is free, always and forever, unless you make use of a pro asset itself.

Hendrik

We subscribe to be yearlong one, as you said, it’s about 900 and something, rand.

I think the value is just incredible because now they’ve added a ton of graphics, of photographs and they’re all free to use.

We use Unsplash and those sort of places for stock photography and those sort of things and we’re about to start building our own library, because as you say, you know, you see some of these stock images.

I was today again, I think it was an article on one of those South African newspapers about load shedding and they always use the same burning transformer picture.

They, you know, they don’t even change that and I go like, oh, is this an old article or is it a new one?

Stephanie

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And if I can just add in the for your listeners, or your audience.

When you use a stock image, use a reverse search engine. Tineye.com will reverse search the image, or the stock photograph that you want to use.

It will tell you in a couple of seconds, how many millions of times it has been shared in the past and that’s why it is so important to use your own on-brand photography, your own visuals all the time.

Hendrik

You were talking earlier about building your own brand.

You said, Canva is a great tool for that.

What are the tips you want to give us for that?

Stephanie

When you build your own brand on Canva, Canva Premium allows you to build a brand kit.

Now, a brand kit consists of your visual brand, your logos, your fonts, your colours, etc, etc. In the event that you don’t have that, you can create a brand document that allows you to refer back at any stage of your design journey to a specific look and feel that you want a design to have.

Now, having brand guidelines will allow you to easily save the document in Canva, while you have a new tab open, copying and pasting between the two tabs – very easy with in Canva.

So, creating your brand documents, your visual brand itself. it’s copy and paste across.

And as you see things that you like, you can simply just add it into a folder that you have identified as your brand assets, that will be used in all of your brand material going forward.

Hendrik

What I also like about Canva is you can have team members, different team members working on the same page and on the same designs.

So, I could get my designer to go like, I’ve played around a bit, this is kind of what I want.

Can you make it professional, do it, you know Canva-esque way?

Stephanie

Absolutely, absolutely.

Canva for teams is absolutely brilliant.

That’s for where you have two and more people (there’s obviously a premium price attached to that) whereas Canva Pro obviously is just a tad cheaper than the Canva for teams, but the team option makes it so much easier because you can literally sit and collaborate and work as a team on the designs. 

Hendrik

Stephanie’s business called Simply On Demand and for more information, visit her website simplyondemand.net.

For more links and info, including Stephanie’s LinkedIn profile, check out the show notes of this episode.

Hendrik

If you want to join the conversation, find Ethan and Hendrik on LinkedIn. 

Also visit the Baird Media website to look at the range of content services we provide.

You will find all the links in the podcast description. Next time on Let’s Talk Content Marketing:

Nestene

What I had to come to grips with was that if I don’t have people around me that are even better than than me, then this is not scalable.

Then I just have a job.

I don’t have a business.

Hendrik

This has been a Baird Media production.