Giving a freebie, or a free download, to your subscribers is one of the easiest ways to build your email list. They give your subscribers an incentive to sign up and join your list. Today, I wanted to give you a really practical tutorial on how exactly you can create an email freebie in Canva. You can join Canva for free HERE so you can follow along and create your PDF! 

Canva Tutorial

For the tutorial today, I’ll be showing you how to create a PDF that will then be linked or added to your email delivery system. When you’re ready to begin, you can choose “create a design” in the upper right hand side. Then select the size of the document you want to work on. There’s a ton of options, but for a PDF I’ll select “book”. Make sure that it’s 8.5” by 11”. Of course, there’s other sizes and document types you can use depending on the type of freebies you’re creating. For example, I created my free Instagram Reel covers on Canva under the Instagram templates! 

Once the document is created, you’ll begin to design your PDF. You can upload your own photos on the left hand side so you’re always on brand! Canva also have graphics, text, and shapes available for you there too. They makes it so easy to design your documents! If you’re on the pro version, you can even add your fonts and brand colors so it’s super easy to design within your brand. 

One of the things I love about Canva is that you can hyperlink text in your documents. This means you could link to your website, your social media, or something else. When creating your free downloads, you want to be able to send your new subscribers to more of your resources or how to connect with you. I usually link to my Instagram and shop. On Canva, when you highlight text, you can add links using the two “chains” that are linked together in the top right. When this is saved as a PDF, your subscribers will be able to click the link and go wherever you want them to go! 

When you’re done designing…

Hit “share” in the upper right hand corner. There’s a few options here! First is link sharing. If you have a freebie that’s something people will use as a template, you can share the link. The link that you copy can then be added into your email marketing system. If you view that link outside of Canva, you’ll see that they have the option to “use as a template”, which means they won’t be able to alter the original design. If you want a PDF, hit “download”, then select “PDF standard” and it will save the document to your computer! 

How to Add to Flodesk

After your PDF is done, you can use your email marketing platform to distribute your freebie. You’ll want to create a delivery email in your system and then you can upload the file to the email or add the link, if it’s a template. It’s super easy and I talk more about using Flodesk in THIS VIDEO! It’s seriously my favorite platform for email marketing!! 

That’s it! That’s how easy it is to create a PDF freebie in Canva. Downloads like this are one of the easiest ways to grow your email list. If you want more ideas about how to start and build your own email list, read THIS post! It will give you a great overview about why email lists are important and why you should definitely be building one for your business!