Digital Writing
5 Ways How Canva Add Color to Your Blog Post
Visual aids increase readership by 80 percent!
According to digital entrepreneur Jeff Bullas, the total views of articles with images increase by 94 percent. Besides that, recent statistics show that colorful visual aids like charts, graphics, and pictures increase readership by 80 percent.
Sure, when written thoughtfully, words can be very engaging. Constructing phrases with proper use of white space is an art to improve readability on digital devices. And what’s the point of being a writer if you rely a lot on images.
But the bitter truth is… not everyone goes to the internet to read.
Even those who look for a quick guide or solution won’t read an entire piece. In fact, 43 percent admit to skimming blog posts.
So this is where Canva really comes in handy. It’s an essential tool for adding vibrancy to your online publication.
Canva
Canva is a free design tool for presentations, videos, social media, and more! But, of course, the premium plan offers more features than what’s available on the free version.
A couple of my favorites from the paid version are:
- Background Remover — removes background seamlessly.
- Magic Resize — makes it a lot more convenient to change the size without redesigning a completed piece from scratch.
But with the free version alone, there’s a boatload of templates, photos, and graphics you can use to add color to a wall of text.
In this post, I’d like to share five ways how Canva can help you with that.
1. Featured Images
Featured images, also known as cover images, are essential as they are your blog post’s book cover.
Featured images are used as thumbnails on Medium and when you share a link to your blog post on social media.
While royalty-free images are available from sources such as Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels, the categories you’re looking for are pretty limited. Also, many of these images are overly used on the internet.
I mean, how many times have you seen the same Unsplash photo as cover images on Medium?
Besides, you may also want to ensure that the selected image matches the aesthetic of your blog.
So there’s nothing better than designing a featured image to your liking!
2. Infographic
Infographic is a creative way to deliver a summarized version of your blog post to readers. If you think about it, it’s perfect in today’s society, where we often expect instant gratification.
Since we’re constantly plugged in with our devices and the internet, we’re used to the convenience of getting things without waiting.
Uploading photos and videos to social media are just a few clicks away. And you can receive an urgent email from the other side of the globe without waiting for days or weeks.
Though it isn’t wrong to want something promptly, the addiction to instant gratification has caused higher impatience. This explains the 43 percent that I mentioned earlier.
Besides that, data scientists studied thousands of articles by Contently in 2016. They found out that infographics have 54 percent more readers than blog posts.
Also, a study by public safety experts shows that crucial safety data in infographic form improve readability by 50 percent.
But I get it. You don’t have time to pick the suitable color scheme, element, and font to design an infographic for all of your blog posts.
One of the best things about Canva is the available templates! Even without a premium account, you have ample selections to choose from.
3. Charts
Charts are data visualization that’s beneficial to:
- Compare varied sets of data visually.
- Better understand and remember information. Studies have shown that people remember 80 percent of what they see, but only 20 percent of what they read and 10 percent of what they hear.
- Make your points convincing and add credibility to your presentation.
With Canva’s chart feature on the elements tab, you can add attractive visual data for your readers!
These are the types of charts available on Canva:
- Bar Chart
- Pie Chart
- Scatterplot Chart
- Stacked Bar Chart
- Row Chart
- Stacked Row Chart
- Line Chart
- Area Chart
- Histogram Chart
- Donut Chart
- Funnel Chart
- Pictogram
4. Photo Collage
Multiple pictures would require a lot of scrolling on digital devices. But you’d be surprised that too much scrolling can affect user experience (UX), which leads to readers leaving the page too soon. This phenomenon is called scrolling fatigue.
Besides, having multiple images in your blog post slows down the loading speed, especially when a reader has a slower internet connection.
So arranging your images into a photo collage makes your blog post look tidier without affecting the page loading speed.
5. Paint a Picture to Your Story
Are you an avid short fiction writer? Or perhaps, you’re a creative storyteller of real-life events. So why don’t adding some illustrations or comic strips?
Some might say that adding pictures to your stories is straying away from the whole point of good writing.
But you can’t expect everyone to visualize words as easily. While some could, others could not. Illustrations are helpful for readers to picture characters, places, and incidents in a story.
Also, according to research on the use of visual images to promote narrative writing ability and creativity, comic strips improve artistry and imagination.
Plus, you can do all of these on Canva for free. So why not?
Final Thoughts
Canva is a fantastic free graphic tool you should take advantage of to make your blog post more engaging.
You just need to sign up for an account to get started, and you can use Canva directly on browsers. However, I find it more convenient to download the application to my laptop.
I’m sure once you’re used to designing on Canva, you’ll find more than five ways to enhance your blog post.
For those of you who are using Canva, what do you often use it for? And how does Canva spruce up your online publication?
Now that you can’t wait to use Canva to add eye-catching visual aids to your blog post, learn how to optimize your images to improve SEO!
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