Anyone who has attempted creating graphics for real estate marketing would know that there are various kinds of print and digital designs involved in the process. And Canva is one of the handy tools out there to help you tackle all these designs. 

In this blog, we’ll cover some useful tips for using Canva for real estate marketing. 

Canva for real estate marketing – essential designs to promote your brand + tips 

Canva offers two paid plans – Canva Pro and Canva Teams. While the former is suitable for real estate agents the latter works better for real estate companies. With the Teams plan you can add a whole team of realtors in your firm to let them create all the marketing designs required. The design scope and access to premium content are similar for both Teams and Pro plans.

Having said that, let’s now talk about leveraging Canva for real estate marketing designs. 

Print designs 

One of the perks of working with Canva for real estate print designs is that printing services are also available for some of these designs. So, it is easier to create the designs and track the printing status all in the same place. Here are some print designs that real estate companies can create on Canva. 

Business cards 

A business card is a critical marketing asset for a real estate business. From expanding your network to leaving a piece of your brand with your potential clients, business cards bring you numerous benefits. It even acts as a lead-generation aid when placed at the right spots. 

For a marketing design that holds such prominence, you definitely need the best look. And the good news is that Canva has a wide selection of business card templates in various themes, shapes, and sizes as well. 

Take a look at some of the templates available. 

KIMP Tip: Remember to customize your business card with your brand colors and brand fonts. Pay close attention to your brand guidelines and use a high-quality logo file – you do not want a pixelated logo to ruin the appearance. 

The information on a business card is meant to be crisp and clear. In addition to this, you need a clutter-free design that draws attention to the contact details on your card. To ensure that the intended details are captured in the small space, choose simple fonts that are easy to read even in fine print. 

Need help putting together your brand guidelines? Get in touch with the KIMP team. 

Flyers 

There is a lot of local marketing involved in the real estate business. That’s why traditional print marketing designs like flyers are indispensable. When you use Canva for real estate marketing, flyer design is so much simpler. 

Here are some quick tips to make the most of the platform for flyer design:  

• Start with the right template. Canva’s collection of real estate templates includes designs for various categories like property for rent and for sale, an open house, or even additional services like interior design.

• Ensure that you have populated your brand kits in the Brand Hub so that you can quickly access all your common brand photos, colors, and other assets. 
• Stick to using just three or four colors (which will be your brand colors) and two fonts (prioritizing readability because users cannot zoom in on the text in a flyer).
• Work with professional photographers for your listing photos. And use high-quality images that give customers a virtual tour of the property and thus convince them to move to the next step. 
• Go for a clutter-free layout that utilizes ample negative space thus letting the visuals do the talking. 
• Highlight your CTA because you want customers to pick up their phone and make that call or visit your website or social media page! 

KIMP Tip: Don’t forget to include your social media handles and website details on the flyer. A scannable QR code that takes users to a landing page with all relevant links will make their experience much more convenient. 

Postcards 

Direct mail marketing through postcards is a cost-effective marketing aid with great returns for businesses that have a very localized approach, like real estate. 

Postcards are great for real estate companies to nurture leads and to stay in touch with customers who transacted in the past. These postcards can be to announce or notify customers of details like: 

• Neighborhood updates 
• Just Listed/Just Sold 
• Market Updates 
• Open House invitations 
• New agent introductions 
• Referral program details 
• Home maintenance tips 
• Local events 
• Additional services 

When you use Canva for real estate postcards, remember to search for specific categories like the ones listed. The more accurate your search term, the better the selection of designs displayed. 

In addition to all these print designs that you can design on Canva or even get them delivered to your doorstep as prints, you can also create a variety of digital designs for promoting your real estate business and engaging your customers. 

Digital designs

About 41% of homebuyers search online when they are looking for properties. This means that realtors and real estate companies need to have a strong online presence in order to keep their businesses running successfully. And, online presence includes eye-catching online listings, on-brand social media pages as well as a website that creates the perfect virtual experience. 

Let’s look at some of the must-have digital marketing designs for real estate companies. 

Social media designs 

The first question that you have in mind is perhaps “Which social media platform should I prioritize for my real estate company?”. So, here are some things to consider: 

• Instagram is a great place to visually engage your audience. Instagram carousels for listings help potential buyers scroll through the listings, save the ones they like and instantly reach out to you. 
• Facebook business pages are great virtual brand experiences similar to your website. 
• Additionally, you can create groups to focus on different neighborhoods or cities and therefore make it easier for buyers in the local markets to find you. 
• For real estate companies dealing mainly with commercial properties, LinkedIn provides a great channel for outreach. 
• On Twitter, you can post timely neighborhood updates, property market news, etc. 
• Pinterest makes a great choice for real estate companies offering services like interior design, landscaping, and others. 
• And finally, YouTube allows you to post informative videos. These can be educational videos that walk customers through the process of buying or renting properties and the paperwork involved. Content like this help build the credibility of your real estate company. 

Choosing Canva for real estate brings all these designs to one place. And by working with templates you do not have to worry about remembering the dimensions for each type of post on each platform. 

Finding it tough to keep up with the growing content requirements of your brand? How about working with a team of Canva designers to lift the burden off of your shoulders? If that sounds like a good idea, get KIMP! 

Listing images 

When exploring Canva for real estate marketing graphics, listing images are some of the most interesting to create. Because Canva comes with a bunch of features that let you even virtually stage your listing photos. With this, you can convert simple property photos to attention-grabbing graphics that give potential buyers/renters a better sense of what the property looks like. 

For virtual staging, browse from the collection of furniture and furnishing elements in Canva or add your own and use the background remover to seamlessly blend the elements onto your listing photo. 

Once you have the main photo ready, add icons and text overlays to jot down important details that customers might want to know about the property even before they read the text description in the listing. 

For new listings, you can have images that focus on just one property photo, to use as banner images or slideshow covers in website listings or as a collage of many property photos to post on social media or for web and social media ads. 

KIMP Tip: Sometimes, the standard templates and grids available on Canva do not communicate all the essential details you need in your listing image. Working with Canva designers makes it easier to tweak these templates to capture your idea accurately. 

Emails 

Emails are the direct mail marketing versions of the digital world and just like postcards, they are effective tools to continuously engage your leads and customers. On Canva you can create:

• Emails to communicate to specific audience groups about new listings that have opened up in their neighborhood.
• Weekly or monthly newsletters to nurture your leads.
• Email headers to adorn all your communication emails. 
• Email signatures to establish your brand identity strongly with every interaction. 
• Personalized transaction updates 
• Retargeting emails to follow up with leads 

Are all these different emails important for a real estate business? Well, the fact that the average open rate for real estate emails is about 21.7% which is much higher than that for many other industries is a good reason to begin with. Additionally, emails help with sustained communication with your customers and with outreach as well. 

Summing it all up, email is a good investment for real estate businesses and Canva makes it so much simpler to create the different types of emails you might need for your business. 

Real estate marketing designs where custom graphics work better 

While it is good to use Canva for real estate marketing, there are some designs where creating custom graphics from scratch feels like the most practical thing for a real estate company. Here are a few of them: 

Logo design 

Canva does support logo design but you should think twice before using an online logo design tool for your brand. Because this is one graphic that holds paramount importance in representing your brand. You need it to be absolutely unique. It should be an embodiment of your brand’s personality. This is tough when you have to customize an existing design using the existing design elements knowing that your competitors also have access to the same. 

That’s why it feels like a much better decision to work with a graphic designer to get your brand’s logo designed from scratch. 

For example, consider when you have to innovatively play with the font arrangements or negative spaces to create an element of interest, as in the below logo. For such levels of flexibility in your design process, custom graphics are the best option. 

Logo animation 

Similar to designing your logo, animating your logo might also feel slightly challenging on Canva. So, even if you choose to use Canva for real estate marketing designs, working with a professional design team for your logo animations might make it easier to get the job done. 

Because then you have absolute control over what elements you animate and what kinds of animation you use. These logo animations hold a special place in your real estate marketing since you can use them in your social media videos as well as your website content. 

Custom illustration 

For a brand to progress consistently you need a wide range of design types. In addition to traditional graphics you also need custom illustrations.  These can be in the form of a mascot to represent your brand or a set of unique illustrated icons to adorn your website, illustrated stickers for social media, and so on. This is another place where you need a professional design team. 

All of these custom graphics and animation services are covered with KIMP subscriptions. Need to combine the benefits of both Canva design and custom graphics? Get in touch with the KIMP team to get a plan customized to suit your needs. 

Elevate your real estate marketing graphics with KIMP For Canva 

When you create graphics on Canva for real estate marketing, there are plenty of features to explore. You need to thoroughly study them and personalize your designs and add your brand elements. Otherwise, when you niche down and work with templates in particular categories, it becomes challenging to create unique designs that set your business apart from your competitors. 

Canva designers can make it easier for you to customize your Canva designs effectively and create consistent on-brand graphics in various categories.

Want to know how this works? Book a call with the KIMP team for a one-on-one demo!