Done correctly, email marketing can be as powerful as any other marketing tactic today. But notice the key phrase: done correctly.
Fortunately, you‘ve get this handy dandy guide you’re reading that will set you up for success in your email marketing strategy.
Without further ado, let’s review the best ways to leverage email marketing. I’ll also cover benefits and statistics that show the importance of email.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves sending promotional messages or newsletters to a list of subscribers via email.
The goal is building customer relationships, promoting products or services, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately driving sales.
In my experience, email marketing allows me to reach my target audience directly with personalized and relevant content. It’s also cost-effective, easy to track, and provides valuable data for analyzing campaign success.
Email has been one of the most highly used marketing channels ever since.
This is because email is a flexible yet cost-effective way to reach many people relatively quickly. I can also personalize my message to target specific audiences and generate leads.
Email marketing can take many different forms. These campaigns can include a single email announcing new content, an ongoing newsletter delivered regularly, or contacting customers about product updates.
Email isn’t as shiny as newer channels, like messaging and social. However, email is an effective way to build an audience that gets results.
“Access to someone‘s inbox is sacred, and for a person to welcome you in, there’s already a certain level of trust that you just can’t achieve with other platforms,” he says.
When to Use Email Marketing
Email marketing remains a powerful tactic to:
Build relationships. Build connections through personalized engagement.
Boost brand awareness. Keep your company and your services top-of-mind for the moment when your prospects are ready to engage.
Promote your content. Use email to share relevant blog content or valuable assets with your prospects.
Generate leads. Entice subscribers to provide their personal information in exchange for an asset that they’d find valuable.
Market your products. Promote your products and services.
Nurture leads. Delight your customers with content that can help them succeed in their goals.
Email Marketing Benefits
87% of marketers say that email marketing is critical to business success.
Email is the third most popular owned media platform B2B marketers used to distribute content in the past 12 months.
There are over 4.3 billion email users worldwide, so if you’re looking for a way to reach your customers, email is the perfect place to find them.
The number of global email users is set to grow to 4.48 billion users by 2024.
As of 2022, email generates $36 for every dollar spent.
51% of marketers say email marketing is the most effective marketing channel, according to our Marketing Trends survey.
53% of marketers are continuing to invest in email marketing in 2023.
33% are increasing their investment in email marketing in 2023.
33% of marketers send weekly emails, and 26% send emails multiple times monthly.
Beyond just the statistics, perhaps the best reason to use email marketing is that you own the channel. Outside of compliance regulations, no external entity can impact how, when, or why you reach out to your subscribers.
Time and time again, email proves to be an unsung hero in marketing.
Email Marketing Stats by Industry
Email marketing rules change based on your industry and who you’re marketing to. Below are some email marketing trends for B2B, B2C, e-commerce, and real estate companies that can inform your email marketing strategy.
Email Marketing Stats for B2B
Email is the third-highest owned-media platform B2B marketers used to distribute content in the last 12 months.
44% of B2B marketers say email marketing is the most effective marketing channel.
B2B marketers say email engagement is the fourth most insightful metric when evaluating performance over the past year, more than social media, search rankings, and lead quality.
Email Marketing Stats for B2C
50% of B2C marketers say growing their email list is one of the biggest challenges in their role.
37% of B2C marketers send daily marketing emails to their subscribers.
Email Marketing Stats for Ecommerce
57.2% of marketers say the e-commerce brands they manage have 1,000 to 10,000 contacts on their email lists.
85.7% of e-commerce marketers say the primary business objective of their email strategy is increasing brand awareness.
Roughly 72% of e-commerce marketers say the biggest challenge they face with email is low open rates.
Getting Started with Email Marketing
I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the vast possibilities of email marketing, so let’s break down a few key steps to get you started building a solid email campaign that will delight your customers.
You can think of these steps as creating a successful email marketing strategy.
1. Create an Email Marketing Strategy
You can learn how to build an effective email strategy and send emails that people actually want to read. It just takes a plan (one that can be broken down into a few key steps).
2. Define your audience.
Effective emails, whether a campaign or a one-off, start with understanding your audience.
Like everything else in marketing, start with your buyer persona, understand what pain points they’re dealing with, and tailor your email campaign to your audience’s needs.
3. Establish your goals.
Usually, before I think up campaign goals, I gather some context.
I always want to know the average email stats for my industry and use them as benchmarks for my goals. This should be your process as well.
4. Build your email list.
You need people to email, right? An email list (we’ll cover how to build your email list in the next section) is a group of users who have permitted you to send them relevant content.
To build that list, you need several ways for prospects to opt-in to receive your emails which we’ll cover in another section in just a moment.
Don’t be discouraged if you only have a few people on your list. It can take some time to build. In the meantime, treat every subscriber and lead like gold, and you’ll start seeing your email list grow organically.
5. Choose an email campaign type.
Email campaigns vary, and trying to decide between them can be overwhelming. Do you send a weekly newsletter? Should you send out new product announcements? Which blog posts are worth sharing?
The answer is subjective.
I like to start by learning about the types of email campaigns, then I decide which is best for my audience.
I also set up different lists for different types of emails, so customers and prospects can sign up for only the emails that are relevant to them.
If you need help writing your emails, consider using AI to help.
6. Make a schedule.
Decide how often you plan to contact your list and inform your audience upfront.
This way, they’ll know exactly what to expect ahead of time. Forgetting this can lead to high unsubscribe lists and even get you in their spam.
In addition, once you set a schedule, be consistent. It will build trust and ensure you stay top of mind for your audience.
7. Measure your results.
This should come as no surprise. As marketers, we measure everything. Being meticulous about every key metric will help you make small changes to your emails, yielding large results.
We’re going to touch on the exact KPIs to monitor in a bit (or you can jump ahead).
Now that you understand the steps to creating an email marketing strategy, we‘ll look at what’s involved in building your email list.
8. Choose an email marketing platform.
An email marketing provider (ESP) is an excellent resource if you’re looking for any support while fine-tuning your email marketing efforts. Depending on your needs and types of campaigns, there are several paid and free email marketing platforms including HubSpot, Constant Contact, MailChimp or other Mailchimp alternatives.
9. Build Your Email List
Now to my favorite part: filling the email list with eager prospects excited to hear from you.
There are many creative ways to build your email list (and, no, purchasing emails ain’t one).
Tactically speaking, list building comes down to two key elements that work cohesively to grow your subscriber numbers: lead magnets and opt-in forms.
Featured Resources
The Email Newsletter Lookbook
How to Create Email Newsletters That Don’t Suck
Here’s how I build and grow my email list.
10. Use lead magnets.
Your lead magnet is exactly as it sounds: It attracts prospects to your email list, usually as a free offer.
The offer can take many formats, should be valuable to your prospects, and is given away for free in exchange for an email address.
There’s just one problem: People have become hyper-protective of their personal information. You can’t expect to receive an email address without exchanging it for something valuable.
Think about a lead magnet that is relevant, useful, and makes your prospects’ lives easier.
Here are a few types of lead magnets you could create:
Ebooks.
Whitepapers.
Infographics.
Reports or studies.
Checklists.
Templates.
Webinars or courses.
Tools.
If you’re short on resources, you can even repurpose existing content to create lead magnets.
11. Create an enticing opt-in form.
Your opt-in form is how you get a prospect’s information to add them to your list. It’s the gate between your future leads and the incredible asset you created with them in mind.
Here are some tips for creating an enticing opt-in form:
Create an attractive design and attention-grabbing header.
Your form should be branded, stand out from the page, and entice people to sign up. You want to excite readers with the offer.
Make the copy relevant to the offer.
While your goal is to get people to enter their information, it isn’t to deceive them. Any information on your form should be a truthful representation of the offer.
Keep the form simple.
This could be one of your first interactions with your prospect. Don’t scare them away with a long long-form several fields.
Ask for only the most essential information: first name and email is a good place to start.
Set your opt-in form for double confirmation.
It may seem counterproductive to ask your subscribers to opt into your emails twice, but some research on open rates suggests that customers may prefer a confirmed opt-in (COI) email more than a welcome email.
Ensure that the flow works.
Take yourself through the user experience before you go live. Double-check that the form works as intended, the thank you page is live, and your offer is delivered as promised.
This is one of your first impressions of your new lead — make it a professional and positive one.
Next, let’s take a moment to cover some universally accepted email marketing best practices regarding how to send marketing emails.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring in a couple of thousand bucks every month by doing something fun and relaxing? Well, that’s exactly this post is about to sell Canva templates and make some money. Pretty cool, right?
Like all new businesses, it took more work in the beginning—designing templates, figuring out what sells, properly pricing my products, and learning to create well-designed templates—but once I figured those out, all I had to do was create a few new templates per month.
Literally, that’s all we have to do these days: create some templates and list them on my shops, and voilà!
So, in this post, let me show you how you can start selling Canva templates and create a side income stream that averages over a thousand bucks every single month!
Let me give you a little background first.
Back in June 2020 when I launched The Side Blogger, I was spending copious amounts of hours trying to design some of the most basic blog and social media graphics with Photoshop. Now, I’m no graphic designer; I’ve never had any formal graphic design training. But I’ve always appreciated good design, and on more than one occasion, I’ve fantasized about being able to create beautiful things — graphics, logos, print layouts, and more.
So, to remedy my longing, I taught myself programs like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. But at the end of the day, I’m still not a pro, and using Photoshop for simple blog graphics wasn’t the most efficient way of spending my time.
So, when an acquaintance introduced me to Canva, I was ecstatic.
It used to take me days to master some of the simplest Photoshop and Illustrator tricks, but with Canva, I was able to learn the entire platform and get going in just a couple of hours! Soon enough, I was designing all kinds of things — social media graphics, Pinterest pins, blog graphics, lead magnets, and things that I had no need for.
In short, I was starting to have fun with Canva!
A few months later, I decided it was time for me to get serious about growing my email list. One of my plans was to create several different lead magnets, also known as opt-in freebies — incentives you give away for free to your subscribers, in exchange for them signing up for your newsletter.
People wanted Canva templates. And so, my new side hustle selling Canva templates was born.
What is Canva
Canva is an online graphic design tool for EVERYBODY! In essence, you can have ZERO graphic design knowledge and still create something beautiful with Canva using its drag-and-drop functionality.
Why do so many people use Canva?
The reality of our time is that more and more people are starting their own businesses, becoming freelancers, or at least starting some kind of side hustle. This means that they need to create a brand, grow an audience, and build an email list or social media presence. All that requires various types of documents and graphics.
But many of these folks are not designers, nor do they have time to design the graphics themselves. So, what do they do? They either hire designers—which can be mighty expensive, or they use Canva.
Why Canva? Because:
Canva is made for EVERYONE! It’s easy! Unlike Photoshop or Illustrator, the learning curve is minimal. Also, there are tons of resources (YouTube videos and Canva’s in-house tutorials) for users to easily learn how to use the tool.
Canva is free to use. Their premium plan — Canva Pro — has many more features, but not everyone needs those features. But even so, the Pro version is still pretty cheap! (14.99 per month, or 119.99 if you pay yearly, as of writing this.)
While Canva may be cheap, it can create high-quality graphics and documents.
Canva has a built-in library of free and pro templates (albeit they’re not on par with third-party Canva templates that we—template sellers—make), a huge free and paid stock photo library, and tons of pre-made elements and high-quality fonts that you can use on your designs.
It is a web-based application, making it easy to access.
It has a desktop and a mobile app too, making designing more accessible than ever!
Who Buys Canva Templates
Often, when I mention selling Canva templates, people have an array of reactions. Some people are genuinely intrigued while others show skepticism.
On the skeptic end, these are some of the questions I get to answer:
Why would anyone pay to buy Canva templates? Canva is already so easy to use, wouldn’t people rather make their own?
Here’s the thing. Not everyone likes to or even wants to create designs from scratch. For some of us, designing is fun. I’ve alluded to it before, but I enjoy working with Canva even when I have no need for it. It’s almost meditative! It calms my nerves and helps release stress.
But that’s not how it is for everyone. For those who do not enjoy the process of designing something, they’d rather pay a little money to get a template instead. This way they can just customize a pre-designed template, and get a unique product in their hands in minutes.
Heck, I’ve had people send me messages and emails asking if I’d be willing to do the customization for them. People, as long as they’re able to afford it, would rather pay someone else to do the deeds they’re not keen on doing themselves. Nothing’s wrong with that. I’ve had my share of ordering grocery deliveries after all….
But doesn’t Canva already have a huge library of templates? Why bother purchasing from elsewhere?
I have nothing against Canva’s huge template library. Most of these are high-quality templates created by talented designers. Heck, I’m one of those designers who contribute to Canva’s native template library. (Here’s my template profile on Canva.)
However, the distinction lies in the uniqueness of a third-party template and quality. For example, anyone with a Canva account can access Canva’s template library. While these templates are awesome, they’re also less unique. As for the quality factor, as someone who both creates templates for Canva’s template library and templates for selling in my shops, I can tell you that spend way more time designing the ones I sell in my shops.
The third reason is in bundling.
Let’s assume you’re looking for some Instagram templates for your business and you want a set of templates with a consistent style. Now what? You won’t get that in Canva’s template library because they have one-off designs, not bundles.
But there are so many people selling Canva templates now; isn’t the market saturated?
Having a healthy amount of competition isn’t a bad thing. On one hand, a lot of people are selling Canva templates because there’s a lot of demand for it. If anything, this is good news! You won’t have to try too hard to find customers. On the other hand, with the way Canva is growing, regardless of how many people are selling Canva templates, there are way more people looking to purchase Canva templates. So the demand is still on the growing trend.
So, who buys Canva templates, again?
Think: anyone who has a business or needs some kind of social media presence.
That’s right, all businesses need graphics and documents. Whether it’s Apple or Microsoft or the dog-walker who lives next door or your kid’s kindergarten teacher. Now, sure, Apple or Microsoft will likely not be your customers, but the dog-walker? Or the teacher? They could definitely use some Canva templates!
Here’s a list of potential customers who would love some customizable and relatively cheap Canva templates:
bloggers and content creators
educators (traditional teachers or online course creators)
coaches
freelancers
authors and writers
small business owners
restaurants
shops and boutiques
real estate agents or companies
independent service providers (dog walkers, pet-sitters, nannies, you name it!)
And more!
Who Should Sell Canva Templates
I think it’s safe to say that as long as you meet the following two conditions, you can start selling Canva templates:
You love Canva!
You are either good at designing, or you are willing to put in the work to improve your design skills.
I’m no graphic designer. My background is in engineering. However, I’ve always loved good design, and have wanted to be able to design things. Putting in the work to develop my style was a process that I enjoyed very much.
Canva Templates You Can Make and Sell
As I’ve said, Canva is an online graphic design tool for everyone. It’s something like a graphic-design-for-dummies thing. So, naturally, you cannot expect complicated design capabilities that you may be used to from Photoshop or Illustrator.
That said, Canva is useful when you need to create simpler but high-quality things for your business. Some examples are:
social media graphics, banners, thumbnails (Instagram posts and stories, Facebook posts and banners, YouTube thumbnails and banners, Pinterest graphics, etc.)
blog graphics (featured images, hero section backgrounds, infographics, etc.)
workbooks
ebooks
media kits
infographics
brochures, posters, and flyers
presentations
resumes
greeting cards
and a bazillion other document-type products. Based on what your audience’s needs are and what you personally enjoy creating, you can create an array of graphics/templates with Canva and sell them.
Just make sure that your products are unique and created from scratch by you. DO NOT take a Canva native template from their template library or somebody else’s template and customize it to make it look different, then sell it as your own.
What is the Cost of Starting a Canva Template Business
By far it is one of the cheapest businesses out there! The investment is minimal, really!
Let’s take a look at what it costs:
Canva account. It’s FREE! (But, I do recommend having a Canva Pro account. A pro account isn’t necessary, but it does unlock more features that you may find beneficial. It’s only $14.99 per month, or $119.99 if you pay annually.)
Photoshop subscription – I use it to design product mockups. Again, you do not need it, but good product mockups can increase your sales. The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan starts at $9.99 per month (as of writing this).
If you’re setting up your shop on a third-party marketplace such as Etsy or Creative Market, then these are all the investments — less than 25 bucks per month, that could potentially earn you hundreds or even a couple of thousand bucks, monthly!
If you’re also setting up your shop on your own platform, then there is an additional cost of running your website. A WordPress site hosted on SiteGround and a custom domain will cost less than 5 bucks per month to start.
How Much Money Can You Make by Selling Canva Templates
This is always a tricky question to answer. In any and all business, how much money you can make depends on a variety of factors.
For Canva template sellers, your income will depend on these factors:
Are you creating well-designed templates?
Is there a demand for the kind of templates you’re making?
How much do your templates cost?
How many new templates do you create per month?
Keep in mind that this is my side gig, so naturally, I only spend a few hours a week (10-20 hours per month) designing and promoting my templates. I know designers who make a full-time living selling Canva templates, but they also put in a lot more work than I do. Instead of making only one or two products per month (as I do), they create a few per week! So, naturally, they sell more too!
Where Can You Sell Canva Templates
While I create Canva templates for Canva’s template library and make some money that way, most of my Canva template revenue is from these three platforms: Etsy, Creative Market, and this website.
These are some places where you can start selling your Canva templates
Creative Market
Etsy
Design Bundles
Design Cuts
Creative Fabrica
I’m sure there are other platforms where you can sell Canva templates than the ones I’ve mentioned. If you have time, you could list your products on as many platforms as you want.
If you’re selling on your own platform, then you can choose from any one of these:
WordPress (WooCommerce shop)
Shopify
Squarespace
SendOwl
Ko-fi
Etc.
Additionally, you can become a Canva Creator and contribute your designs to their template library
Understand that selling your Canva templates on multiple platforms is a good way to earn more money by tapping into a larger pool of audiences. You should definitely look into those platforms if you’re serious about making more money selling Canva templates.
About Setting up Your Shops
Before you can start selling, you have to set up your shops.
Since I know about Etsy, Creative Market, and my own blog, these are the platforms I’ll talk about.
On your own website
As mentioned above, you can set up a shop on WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, or any platform that will allow you to create an eCommerce shop. If you do not already know how to set up a shop on your website, you should do a Google search for it based on your platform or reach out to a developer.
On Etsy
Setting up a shop on Etsy is really easy. In fact, I highly recommend that you create an Etsy shop for your Canva templates. Etsy drives a lot of traffic to shop without me having to lift a finger. If you have high-quality templates and if you regularly add new templates (every month) to your shop, then Etsy will do the heavy lifting of bringing traffic to your shop.
On Creative Market
Setting up a shop on Creative Market involves an application process. In there, they’ll ask you to share a portfolio with them. So, before you apply for a shop on Creative Market, I’d recommend that you create at least 12-15 high-quality products and set up your shop on your website and/or on Etsy. That way, you can use the other shop as your portfolio.
How to Sell Canva Templates: The Steps
These are the steps to selling Canva templates.
Sign up for Canva
Decide which products to sell
Design the Canva templates to sell
Prepare a PDF with your Canva template link (deliverable)
Create product images
Decide on a price
List the templates on your shops for selling
Promote your Canva templates
Note that this section deals with selling your Canva templates on your own platform or on third-party marketplaces. I’ll talk about contributing your templates to the Canva template library in a separate section below.
Step 1: Sign up for Canva
Sign up for a Canva account. It is free 🙂
A Canva Pro account is beneficial for you as a designer, but not necessary to sell templates. A brand kit is a Canva Pro feature. So, even though I do not need a Canva Pro account to create templates and sell them, it makes the design process more efficient and saves tons of time.
If you’re not ready to commit to Canva Pro yet, try out a Canva Pro trial for free for 45 days using this link, or click the button below.
Step 2: Decide which products you’ll sell in your shop
Figure out what kind of products you wish to sell in your shop. Different people come to this differently.
Perhaps you’re a photographer who teaches photography on their website, and you have an existing audience comprised of other photographers. You may ask yourself what kind of products do photographers need? Social media graphics? Social media banners? Photography portfolios and photo albums? Services booklet or pricing sheets? Client onboarding documents?
Or perhaps you’re a blogger who caters to foodies and cooks. Maybe you want to create recipe cards, recipe books, meal planners, grocery planners, cookbooks, social media graphics, etc.
This way of coming up with a product line is helpful when you already have an existing audience. But, if you do not have an audience already, or if you’re setting up your shop on third-party marketplaces such as Etsy, for example, then you could also just go to Etsy and see what kind of digital templates people are selling. Do some research on this, and create a list of product types you’d like to design and sell on your Canva template shop.
Step 3: Create Canva templates to sell
Canva has a lot of pre-made templates that you can take inspiration from. However, it’s one thing to take inspiration from and another to copy something or take a template and make some adjustments.
If you cannot come up with your own designs, then please, forget selling templates for now, and instead, focus on learning and honing your design skills.
However, the thing with pre-made templates is that they’re already on Canva. So, why would someone pay you to purchase a similar template?
Your designs need to be sufficiently different, and of better quality, if you want people to pay you.
So, be careful where you draw your inspiration from.
Step 4: Prepare a PDF with your Canva template link
When you create a design in Canva, you share it with your buyers as a template.
Once you’re done designing, you’ll need to do the following:
Get the sharable template link from the design.
Create a PDF that will contain the sharable template link.
Add the shareable template link to your PDF.
Once done, and you’ve created a product, you’ll set this PDF as the deliverable so that when someone buys a product, they receive this PDF. Once they have the PDF, they can then access your design.
Here are the steps:
Get the shareable Canva template link
In the design window that you’re creating to sell, click on the share button, and then at the bottom of the dropdown that appears, click the three dots.
In the next drop-down window, find and click the tab that says “Template link.”
This will open another section and it has a button that says “Create template link.” Click that link.
This will create the template link. In the next drop-down window, you should see the template link. This is the link you’ll be sharing with your buyers.
Create a PDF document with the template link.
Just like you’d create any design on Canva, you start with a blank US letter-size document. Add some text to this document such as your logo, your business info, etc.
You can also say something like: Thank you for your purchase. Here’s your Canva template link. And then whatever else you want to share with your buyers.
The document should have the template link that you copied earlier from the design (you can either insert the entire link or hyperlink it.)
When done, save the document as a PDF. This will be the PDF that people will receive when they purchase your template. All eCommerce platforms have a designated area for what people will receive when they make a purchase. For digital products, you should see some kind of download file option. Make sure to add your PDF there.
For example, on WooCommerce, when you select “Virtual” and “Downloadable” products, it gives you the option to select a file. That’s where you select the PDF you just created with the template link in it. And on the front end, when someone makes a purchase, they get an email with this PDF.
When they open the PDF, they can click the link, and it takes them to their own Canva account and creates an exact replica (copy) of your Canva design. But since it’s a copy of the design, they can make adjustments on their end, without messing up your master design.
Here’s a video if you need some help with this getting the template link and creating a PDF.
Step 5: Create product images
Your buyers do not see the actual product, and so, to make sure your products are desirable to your potential customers, create stunning product images.
Step 6: Decide on your product price
Having the right pricing is important. Since there is no “established” pricing guide, you’ll need to do some homework and decide for yourself the best and optimal price for your products.
In terms of “doing the homework”, check some of the Canva product prices out there that are similar to the products that you’re creating. You can do this by visiting other Canva sellers’ shops. Creative Market and Etsy — two of the biggest Canva template marketplaces — are good places to start.
Step 7: List your Canva templates for selling
Now that you have everything you need, start listing your products in your shops.
If you haven’t created a shop yet, go ahead and set up those shops, then start listing the items.
How to add your products on WooCommerce
Adding a product in WooCommerce is simple enough, just like adding a post or a page, with some additional fields for product images, price, inventory, etc. Here’s a quick rundown:
Go to WordPress Dashboard > Products > Add New.
Add your titles and descriptions. WooCommerce has two separate description boxes—a short description you typically see next to the product, and a long description that allows you to add more details of your product.
You also have two different places, within the WordPress product editor page, where you can add images. One of them is the “product image”, which is the main product image that shows up on the Shop page, as well as the first (larger) image that people see on the single product page. The other section is the “product gallery”, which is where you can add additional photos.
Towards the middle of the product editor, you’ll see the section where you can do all the fun stuff, like, setting the price, adding the actual downloadable product (the PDF deliverable), etc. Let’s take a closer look!
(Follow the images!)
Choose “simple product”, and check both virtual and downloadable.
Make sure to choose “Simple Product”, and then check both “Virtual” and “Downloadable”.
Under the “General” tab, set your price, and add the files your buyers will be able to download upon purchase.
You can also set a download limit and expiry if you want to. If you do not want to set any limits, just leave those blank.
Set inventory if you want.
Under the “Inventory” tab, you can set up how many products you’re selling. These are digital products, so, technically, you do not need to set a limit or have inventory. It is totally up to you whether or not you want to set a limit to how many of these products you’ll sell.
Also, since they’re all digital, downloadable products, there is no reason to allow backorders.
I also make sure to check “Sold individually”. Nobody needs multiple copies of the same digital product by mistake. It may cause confusion if someone accidentally chose more than one product; then you’ll need to deal with refunds and you don’t want to waste time with that.
You’ll also see places for adding product images. One of them is the main product image that shows on the shop page. The gallery is where you add additional images. Potential buyers will be able to see them on the single product page. These additional photos are meant to give the potential buyers a better understanding of what they can expect from the product.
Add product images.
There are more options inside a product page, but they’re not necessary to start selling a product. If you want to learn more about some of these features, please refer to the WooCommerce setup tutorial for digital products.
Once you have added your product and you have clicked “Publish”, your item will be available for others to purchase.
Please DO check out the post I linked above, as it has more in-depth information for WooCommerce setup and best practices for selling digital and downloadable products, specifically! That post also goes over setting up payment options for PayPal and Stripe.
List your Canva templates on Etsy
Etsy is one of the easiest platforms to set up your shop on and start selling digital products, including Canva templates.
Aside from having a simple user interface that makes setting up shop and listing products super easy, Etsy also comes with its own set of tools to drive more traffic and get more sales. Its algorithm rewards sellers with high-quality products and great customer service. Etsy also comes with its native ads system that’s easy to set up and start promoting products.
What’s more, Etsy takes only a 5% cut of the sales which is much lower than many other third-party marketplaces.
List your Canva templates on Creative Market
Another platform is Creative Market. It’s a marketplace specifically for selling digital products, and many a Canva template seller —has found an audience there. Creative Market’s algorithm seems to be on the side of the sellers. you can get a lot of sales on that platform with minimal to no promotional efforts on end.
The downside, if you can call it that, is that setting up a shop on Creative Market has to go through a vetting process. You have to apply to be a creator first. An actual human will review your application and decide whether or not your products are good enough for their platform.
Step 8: Promote your products
Now it’s time to sell the products!
Etsy and Creative Market tend to drive a fair bit of internal traffic my way, so I barely need to do any promotions on my end.
Etsy even has its own promotion methods where they advertise your products for a daily ad budget that you can set up on your end.
As you may know, getting traction on Pinterest requires creating amazeballs Pin graphics. Make sure to create beautiful Pin graphics that other Pinterest users will be tempted to click on. Hook them with great visuals from start to finish, until a potential customer converts to a buying customer.
Regularly pin your products. Try to aim for at least 3/4 Pins per week, but more is better. Don’t spam though. Rotate out the products you pin on any week.
Aside from Pinterest, you may also promote your products on any other social media platform you use, as well as your email list, if you have one. Let your subscribers know when a new product is out, a few of them will likely convert.
Some Things to Pay Attention to
This wraps up everything you need to know about how to make money selling Canva templates. In this final section, I want to bring your attention to a couple of important things that you need to be mindful of.
Pricing your products
Pricing is super important when it comes to selling your Canva templates. If your products are pricier than comparable templates out there, then you’ll likely lose some customers. If your prices are too cheap, then some customers may be doubtful of the product quality.
Depending on what your products are, make sure to do some research and find out a pricing range for these products. Try to keep your pricing around that range.
Writing product descriptions
This is where you get to describe what the product is. Give as many details as possible:
What’s the product? (An eBook? A pricing sheet? Social Media templates?)
Who it is for?
What the product can be used for?
What’s in the product?
How to use this product?
Etc.
Think about all the questions and inquiries a buyer may have and give that information within your product description.
About product licensing
It is good practice to have a product license document. You can either create a document, or, if you’re selling on your website, you can create a section or a page with the license details.
Some platforms like Creative Market or Design Bundles come with their own license, so you need not worry about creating your own when you sell on those platforms. But if you’re selling on your own website, you may want to specify your own set of licenses.
Personally, I like Creative Market’s licensing terms and have crafted my own that’s similar to theirs. Of course, I have used my own verbiage to write down the terms. But essentially, the terms are very similar. If you’re unsure of what kind of license to use for your products, do give Creative Market license terms a read.
And that’s it!
How to Sell Templates on Canva (as a Canva Creator)
I cannot discuss the details of this program since it is run by Canva. But these are some of the key points you need to know:
First thing first, you must apply to be a Canva Creator.
They have strict rules, and if you’re approved to become a creator for Canva, then I suggest you pay careful attention to these rules or your templates won’t be approved.
All templates must go through an approval process (even if you’re an approved creator) and this can take time. Sometimes the process is pretty fast and other times it’s really, really slow.
You do not actually “sell” your templates on Canva. You cannot set your own prices either. You simply submit your templates, and if Canva approves them, then you earn a royalty based on how many people use your template. The royalty depends on Canva and we don’t know a whole lot about how it is calculated.
How much can you earn as a Canva Creator?
It depends on how many templates you design, how many get approved, and a bunch of other factors. Obviously, the more templates you have, the more money you’ll make.
It is hard for me to say how much you can make because the program is always changing. When I first joined a few years ago, right after they launched the beta program, I was making well over a thousand bucks per month with just a handful of templates.
But with time, even though I created more templates and more people were using my templates, my earnings dropped. That’s part of the reason why I prefer selling on my own shops because I know exactly how much I’m earning from where.
Also, I make way more money from my shops than from the Canva Creator program. And if you want to learn the ins and outs of selling Canva templates on your own shops, then I highly recommend you sign up for my online course — Side Income With Canva Templates.
To be or not to be… a Canva Creator
There’s no harm in joining the program, is there?
Personally, and it really is my personal opinion, I prefer selling Canva templates on my own shops for the reasons I mentioned above. But that’s me. Again, there’s no harm in joining, so why not try it out? If you do not like it, then there’s that.
Is this the right time for you to start selling Canva templates?
So, you’ve learned the basics of selling Canva templates. But are you serious about this new business? Are you ready to create your Canva-template side hustle at this time? If you want to maximize your Canva template side hustle,
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can I really make selling Canva templates?
Depending on how many products you’re selling, where you’re selling, how you’re promoting, how consistently you create new products, how much they cost, and most importantly, the quality of your Canva templates, you can make anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month.
Can I use Canva elements, fonts, or images (free or pro) on my templates?
Yep, you can! But just as a good practice, I prefer to use only free elements and free fonts in my templates. That way, even if a buyer doesn’t have Canva pro, they’re still able to use the templates with a free Canva account. If you use pro elements, the buyer will be able to use them, but they won’t be able to download the design without upgrading to Canva Pro—creating additional cost on their end.
Is it legal to sell Canva templates?
Absolutely! Just make sure that the templates you’re selling are, in fact, designed by you, and not an edited version of someone else’s template, or any of Canva’s templates from their template library/marketplace.
What other legal matters should I be aware of?
The same as running any business. I can’t give those advice here because business rules and legal matters vary from state to state and then country to country. Do you need to pay taxes? Find out income thresholds to see if you need to. Do you need to collect sales taxes? Find out if digital goods are tax collectible or not from your local government website. Do you need to register as a business or can you pay taxes as self-employed? Those are also things you have to find out from your local government.
Who buys Canva templates?
Anyone who has a business or uses social media is a potential customer. Some examples would be: bloggers, coaches and consultants, educators, course creators, small business owners, freelancers, writers, authors, local shops and restaurants, and more.
Does Canva own my designs or do I?
You do! When you sell a template, depending on the license terms you set forth, your buyers will have rights to use your templates as per your terms. But you’re the owner of your designs.
Do I have to be a graphic designer to sell Canva templates?
You need to be able to design beautiful and functional templates. Some people come from a graphic design background, others teach themselves. A graphic design background isn’t necessary to sell Canva templates, but a love for good design and willingness to learn is a must.
Can I still make money selling Canva templates in 2024?
More and more people are starting a business, becoming freelancers, or at least starting a side hustle. That means they need to build a brand, grow an audience, and establish social media presence. Also, with education moving into the online realm, even educators are finding themselves needing documents and graphics that they may not have the skills to create. Canva is easy to learn and use, so anyone can take a pre-made template, and customize it to meet their needs. If anything, the Canva template market is only just beginning! This is your chance to cash in on this new opportunity!
Autumn 