Do you want to sell your products online but have no idea where to start?
Let me share with you an
online platform that will fulfill all your business needs under one roof.
Yes, I am talking about
Canva. Many entrepreneurs around the world are using it successfully for the
launch of their brands.They also use
canva for the promotion of their products on different social media platforms.
In today’s blog, I will
share how to build a brand in canva from scratch ?
Business owners must have
an idea about what are their goals with their brand. They must be aware of all
four points of branding.
1 - How do you want to be
perceived about your brand by your customers?
It means when people will
buy or show interest in your product, what would be in their mind? Either they
are buying from you because you are very competitive in price or your quality
is superb in the market or if we talk about food,
your food variety or ambiance is unique, etc. You can establish your brand in more than
one category. This story starts with the brand logo.
Below are some of the
Logos of different famous brands, I am sure you can tell what their products
are about, simply by seeing their logo. How have they established their brands?
Let me start with an
example of keeping you within canva. I have created an imaginary brand “Taste
Buddy” and designed a logo in Canva. We have plenty of ready-made logo design
options in Canva. It is easy to edit them in canva and convert them into your
business requirement.
I have made the below logo
for my imaginary brand “The Taste Buddy” with the slogan “The world of
sandwiches”. I wanted people to buy our products because we offer a different
taste of sandwiches under one roof.
When you start a brand, Do
some research first about your competitors. What are they selling and what is
unique in your brand? For example, In my brand “The taste buddy”, I have
noticed that in my area, many restaurants or cafes are selling sandwiches but
if I am launching the same products but adding the uniqueness of different
tastes from around the world then I must have expert chefs or recipes so that
when people will visit my place, they must have what I promised with them
through my brand logo.
In the third step, I need
to create social media channels, and the important part is to create social
media posts. Canva offers a variety of options to create stunning Facebook or
Instagram ads, post template designs, carousals or videos, etc. To promote my
brand, I have made Instagram posts templates for my various products with the
help of canva. Every post shows a unique product name with a price. I have also
given a relevant name to each product for the easy understanding of my clients.
These designs will be published on my social media channels for promotions.
In every business, if you
are not consistent in delivering a quality product as you promised with your
customers or your service level declines with time. Soon you will lose the
interest of your customers in your brand and all your hard work and struggle to
establish your brand in the super-competitive market will be in vain.
Customers always like
innovations or new items in your products, It is important for your growth.
There must not be any compromise for existing product quality or your services.
If anyone buys your product that shows he trusts in your brand. Behind the
success of every brand, return customers play an important role. They become
the voice of your brand.
In canva, You can create
your brand kit. It helps you to save your brand colors, fonts and logo etc so
that whenever you will design any social media post for your products, You find
them very easily under colors or fonts section. This is very important to keep
the uniqueness among all your social media designs that must be relevant to
your brand identity.
Mockups play an essential
role in the life of any graphic or canva designer. It helps them to show their
design work to their potential clients with real-time representation. There are
many online options available that help creators generate smart mock-ups in a
second. Canva team has decided to
provide an added advantage to their users. They recently acquired a website
smartmockup.com and integrated it with their online platform. Now users can
generate mockups for their designs within canva. Though for some of the
options, they still need to open smart mock-up sites. Yet canva has filled its platform with plenty
of mockups options.
In this tutorial, I will
share how can you create smart mock-ups in canva or with a smart mockup website
directly for your various designs.
Mockups bring life into
the designs that increase the sellability of your work or attract more clients
for the future. It also helps clients to view how their product will look with
the design they finalize for their brands or products.
Today I will share one
super element available in the Canva library that is “ Blob shadow frames”. I
learned about it through one of my fellow canva buddies on his Instagram post. I have seen many people in the canva circle sharing their designs under
the tag of cutouts/paper cut etc. All of them were very creative and unique. I
created one design with the help of the cut-out technique and shared a tutorial as well. In this method, I had to get support from photopea.
We can not only make paper
cut effects With the help of blob shadow frames but can also create many other
beautiful designs. Keeping in mind the fall/autumn season, I decided to make a
couple of designs with this element.
Below are the designs I
have created with this element.
While searching blob
shadow frames, I observed many other very exciting elements under the same
category. One of the elements was the mobile shadow frame. We can use it to
create a camera capture effect for any of our photos.
"Learning is
Experience. Everything else is just information". Albert Einstein.
Beautiful Neelam Valley View from LOC
Creativity comes from
experiences but living a stagnant life and doing the same things again and
again will halt your creative approach. So always get a break from your routine
life, this will act as a refresh button in your life :)
At the start of 2021, I
set some personal goals for this year. Having a passion for Canva graphic designing, I participated in the canva challenge for vision board 2021.Winning
this challenge with a second position in the world of the Canva community
motivated me to fulfill every goal that I planned for this year.
One of the goals was to
visit Hunza valley Pakistan that unfortunately dropped from my plan due to some
uncertain circumstances. I have been
visiting Swat Valley since my childhood. In one of my blogs, I shared in detail
why I want to visit swat valley again and again. This time, I decided to
explore Kashmir Neelam Valley.
Since it was my first
experience so I hadn't wanted to take any risk. I started searching for some
reliable tour operators who could arrange my whole customized trip. I had seen
many ads on Facebook for different companies but selected "TheTrekkers" due to their more than fifteen years of experience in this
field. I contacted them through the number they had given ontheir Facebook page. Their quick response and highly professional way of sharing details with
clients inspired me as well.
It was a five days trip
from Saturday to Wednesday. Team "The Trekkers" suggested the
best available options for Hotels to stay. They also shared with me day by day
plan to visit different places in Muzaffarabad and Neelam Valley. It was the
Deluxe package that included...
Sharda - Azad Kashmir
New Model Toyota GLI
Deluxe Hotels in
Muzaffarabad and Neelam Valley with breakfast
Customized stopovers as
per my wish
In this blog, I will share
my experience for each day with the relevant photos and videos. It will not
only inspire you to visit Kashmir but will also help you to select this company
for your next tour.
Day 1 - Pickup from
Doorstep in Lahore at 9:00 am. The driver arrived on time with New Model Toyota
Gli as promised by the company.
Our first stop was at
Kalar Kahar Interchange.
Some points are important to remember while traveling
on motorways or in General. Mark these as check-list for your next trip.
Try to leave early in the
morning. This will help you to avoid the rush hours of the motorway toll plaza.
Avoid stopovers on rushy
terminals like Bhera / Kalar Kahar for washrooms. Otherwise, This will prolong
your stay.
Chew bubblegum while
passing Kalar Kahar range.
Keep sun shades,
sanitizer, umbrella, and prayer mat in the car.
On motorways, You will not
find any PSO or Total pumps, etc so keep a sufficient amount of cash for fuel.
Keep change in your pocket
otherwise you may face difficulty for buying small items from any tuck shop on the
motorways.
Always keep some basic
medicines for flu, fever or stomach issues, etc.
Keep paper soups, Tissue
papers, Toothpicks, and Sunblock. Agree with me or not, You will require these
items while traveling.
Carry your one-bed sheet,
two pillow covers along a towel. Do not compromise on hygiene even if you stay
at a four-star hotel.
Keep a power bank to
charge your cellphones in case of an emergency or unavailability of
electricity.
Keep pair of Sun Glasses
or if you wear eyeglasses then always keep extra pair in your luggage.
Keep extra small Nokia Fone in main luggage for emergency use.
We reached Islamabad
around 1:00 pm. There was some VVIP movement that wasted our half an hour in
Islamabad. Our next stop at Barakoh for Lunch at Usmania Restaurant, that was not
good for food in our experience. Check my detailed review for this restaurant
here on google map.
From Lower topa Muree,
there are two options to reach Muzafarabad.
E75 is the main highway or route to Muazafabad. Unfortunately, it is
still under construction till Kohala. Around 50% of the road was in bad condition.
Better to take the route from Bhorban to Kohala. It was also very crowded but good to avoid hitchhiking and any damage to your car.
The estimated time to
reach Muazafarbad from Lahore is eight to nine hours includes one and half
hours for different stopovers for rest, lunch/dinner, or prayers. We arrived around 7:00 pm in Muzaffarabad.
Our booking was in Kashmir lodges. Unfortunately, they tried to adjust us to
another hotel despite confirmed booking by our tour operator. Here comes the
first quick response from "The Trekkers". Mobeen (Sales and Marketing
Manager of The Trekkers) apologized first and then suggested a couple of
other options for our stay in Muzafarabad. The best thing was, they made our
first stay in Muazafabad complimentary to compensate for this last moment
hassle. These are the services that make
any company best among all others. We stayed in Mir Continental, Muzaffarabad. Check my review for this hotel on Google map.
The second best hotel in
this city is Neelam View. It is way less expensive as compared to a Pearl
Continental. Their food and view are excellent. I witnessed both during my visit
to Muazafabad two years back.
Day 2 - On the second day,
We left for Pir Chinasi after checkout from the hotel around 10:00 am.
Important - Buy SCOM sim
(The only network that works in Azad Kashmir) for Neelam valley or other parts
of Azad Kashmir. You can face networking issues with your family back in your
hometown. In Muzafarabad, Telenor or Zong work better. For tourists, this will
not be helpful as they need to visit the upper parts of Kashmir. In some areas,
Ufone works but for SMS only. Tourists face networking problems in Kashmir.
Wifi is the only option available in few good hotels, during their electricity
hours only that start from evening till early morning.
Road to Pir Chinasi is
good but quite dangerous with steep turns and unusual height in some areas. Do
not drive your car to Pir Chinasi if you feel yourself not a good driver. That
would be very risky.
Pir Chinasi is a cool
place for a short day trip. In winter, You can enjoy the snow in this place.
Check some pictures and videos below.
We arrived at Pir Chinasi
within one hour and stayed there for almost an hour. The weather of Pir Chinasi
was cool and pleasant. We saw many local families there for one day trip. There
is a small Bazar and a few dhabas for Tea, Pakoras, etc. There is also a PAF
base on a bit more height that can be visited with special permission.
From Muazafabad to Keran,
the estimated time is two and a half hours. You may counter herds of goats and
mules several times on the way to Keran. Your total time may exceed three hours
or more. Road condition is good till Keran apart from some patches which are
ignorable.
Places we visited on the
way to Keran or attractions on this route.
We arrived at Keran Neelam
Valley around 5:00 pm. Check-in at hotel keran retreat. Let me share a few pictures and videos of
this Hotel and Neelam Valley.
On the way to Keran, You will witness LOC at Teetwal and Athmaqam Sector twice and then at Keran sector. In Neelam Valley, you will be asked for entry details at every checkpoint that is for the safety of the tourists.
We also saw the wedding on
LOC on the other side of Kashmir. There were some fireworks at the wedding.
Initially grabbed our attention in the surrounding for an unforeseen incident.
Luckily it was the real fireworks at the wedding :) Check the videos.
There was no Wifi at the
Keran retreat. Their location was awesome. It is also a chain of Shangrila
Hotel in Neelam Valley. The beautiful view of the Neelam river and LOC from the
window of our room was amazing.
Keran retreat (Motels) is adjacent
to Valley trackers (Keran resorts). For the location, Food, and other amenities, Both are
the best resorts for Neelam Valley.
Day 3 - After the
complimentary breakfast, We moved to Sharda Valley. The road condition was good
till Dowarian that is around 12 Km. Onwards, it is pathetic. It was the real
test of your car and driving skills. There were no road safety barriers. Driving
on this route with your car is quite risky.
Sharda Valley
We arrived at Sharda Shangrilla Resort around 1:00 pm and decided to leave for Kel / Aurang Kel.
That was not a good time for this area. But to see the beauty of the upper
valley, we hired a Jeep from Sharda. It was not in our package. We managed it
on our own. On the way to Kel, we stayed at Margalla waterfall that was so
beautiful and majestic. Road to Kel was full of hitchhiking. There is only one
way to reach Aurang Kel, which is the local chair lift. Due to our time
constraint, we could only enjoy the ride of Chair lift because we had to arrive at
our resort before sunset. The chair lift also does not operate after 6:30 pm.
That's why we decided to visit Aurang Kel during our next visit to Kashmir.
Kel
Margala Waterfall
Shangrilla Resort is
around five to six km ahead of the main Sharda Bazar. It is built in front of
Kel Seri Waterfall and with a beautiful stream on the backside. Partially fixed
rock in the mountain at the entrance of this resort looks amazing. Checkout my detailed review about this resort on Google Maps here.
View of Kel seri Waterfall from Shangrilla
Day 4 - We left our resort
after breakfast for Sharda. Our next plan was to visit Sharda Peeth (University) and enjoy boating in the river Neelam. Both are good attractions
or activities for this valley.
We returned to Keran
around 1:00 pm and decided to visit Rati Gali or Baboon Valley. Our driver and
another local person didn't recommend this. The best time to visit both places
is to leave early morning because these are the one-day trips.
We decided to visit Valley trackers Keran due to their location. It was very relaxing. We spent around
three hours there. Lush green lawns, a lot of apples, walnuts, and figs trees,
and a view of LOC, everything makes this resort unique among all in the Neelam
valley.
In Kashmir, You will
mainly observe fruits Like peers, Apples, and grapes. We also enjoyed almost
all the fruits during our stay. Walnuts were not ready. The best time for this
dry fruit is October and onwards.
Peers, Figs, Grapes, Apples
Their main crop is corn.
You will see a lot of cornfields in Kashmir while traveling.
Day 5 - There were some
Apple trees in the fields adjacent to Village Hotel. My wife requested some
Apples from the local lady. Those were small in size but best for Apple Jam (Murabba). We wanted to buy but they gifted us some good quantity which showed
the great hospitality of the Kashmiri people.
We left from Village Hotel around 9 am after breakfast and reached
Murree Expressway around 2:00 pm. We had lunch at "The Countryside"
cafe. That was a good option for lunch/dinner or a short stay on the Muree
expressway while returning to Lahore / Rawalpindi. We reached Lahore around
9:00 pm with one and half hour stay on the way to different locations.
Our driver was very
professional, Amir was not just a driver but also a good guide. His knowledge
about the northern areas of Pakistan showed his experience. He was a nice and
humble guy. Overall our experience with "The Trekkers" was excellent.
We highly recommend this company for any of your tours to the northern areas of
Pakistan.
THINK LIKE A GIANT
