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Imagine this…

You’re seeing everybody talk about going viral on LinkedIn and Twitter over the past year. They’re getting followers, opportunities, and (seemingly) cash in the bank.

The FOMO is real.

“That’s it,” you say to yourself. “It’s time to take my social media content seriously.”

Your first step?

Audit your social media profiles. If you’re going to put more effort into getting people onto your Twitter and LinkedIn profile, you wanna ensure you make a good first impression.

After quickly comparing your profile to a few thought leaders in your niche, you commit to upping your game.

Your LinkedIn banner image is “meh.” Your Twitter bio isn’t persuasive and you’re still using a random header image from 4 years ago.

If you want to convince more people to follow you, this ain’t gonna cut it.

You make a list of everything you need to streamline your look—from new banner images, to choosing brand colors, to reusable templates for social media posts.

You have two options:

1. Pay a graphic designer a pretty penny to do it all for you
2. Do it yourself

You decide to DIY.

After all, everyone you know seems to be raving about this awesome—and free—graphic design app.

You’ve heard that it’s easy to use and even has templates to help you get started.

You open up your web browser and start typing: C-A-N…

What’s the name of the app you’re looking for?

In today’s special edition of Why We Buy, we’re analyzing a well-known company to see how they’re using buyer psychology principles in their business.

This week, we’re diving into—you guessed it—Canva.

Let’s get into it.

🤑 A Look Inside Canva

Canva is a robust graphic design platform that helps businesses make anything from online videos to print products.

Canva launched in 2013 and today it’s valuated at $40 billion with over 75 million monthly active users.

These numbers are impressive, but here’s where the true success story is told…

Canva isn’t one of those SaaS platforms that you subscribe to, barely log into, and only use every once and a while. It gets used.

In 2021, users made 3.5 billion designs.

Companies used the platform to make 227 MILLION presentations!

On average, 150 new Canva projects start every second 🤯

How did Canva pull off its graphic design dominance?

🧠 How Canva Uses Buyer Psychology

Getting Canva to where it stands today didn’t involve one great marketing strategy.

It was a team effort of multiple buyer psychology principles working together to turn the Average Joe and Jane into graphic design masters.

Snag some of their proven marketing methods:

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Zero-price effect

Getting people in the door by offering free trials is the oldest trick in the SaaS marketing playbook. Why? Because it works.

People want a chance to experience products before committing. With a free trial and their Canva free option that gives access to limited features, Canva brings people into their ecosystem and shows them why they’ll want to buy a membership or upgrade to a paid subscription.

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IKEA Effect

People are more proud of things they built themselves than bought pre-made. When somebody compliments the logo you created in Canva, it’s a much more special feeling than a compliment given to the logo you outsourced on Upwork. What are the chances that your response to their compliment will be, “Thank you, I made it!”…? 😉

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Job-to-be-Done

People don’t just wake up one day and decide to try a new app. People login to their Canva account because they have a specific job to do—like enhancing their social media profile or designing a logo for their new company, or creating a feature image for their blog post.

Canva understands this. That’s why they make it suuuuper easy to start a new project (or complete an existing one) by asking users what they want to create.

With a few clicks you can have a perfectly sized document ready to design. But they don’t leave you staring at a blank canvas. Instead, Canva provides thousands of pre-designed templates you can use for inspiration and customize to match your brand.

Unsure what colors or fonts to use? Try Canva’s color wheel tool or explore their ultimate guide to font pairing.

Canva understands what users are trying to accomplish and designs elegant, easy-to-use solutions to help them get the job done.

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Bandwagon effect

People look to others around them to inform their actions. In the beginning, many “professional” designers were slow to adopt Canva. They used specialized software that took years to learn and scoffed at the idea that “everyone could be a designer.”

To get graphic designers to jump on the Canva bandwagon, the platform created a new Canva Creators marketplace that gives designers the opportunity to create designs that they can sell. All they needed was a few professional designers to hop on the wagon and the rest is Canva Creator history.

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Delight

This is the buyer psychology principle that Canva is built on. Non-designers can go from login to a finished design lightning fast. It creates the moment of “Wow!” that makes people want to keep using their platform.

​🤔 Thinking About Your ​Business

You don’t need 75 million monthly active users to add these buyer psychology principles to your business.

Ask yourself:

Q: How can you offer a free sample?

Free samples aren’t just for food or drink companies. Digital service businesses can create free content (newsletters, social content, blogs) that help buyers ‘taste’ what they’ll get if they buy your products.

Q: Do you understand the jobs your customers are trying to get done?

People want outcomes—not features. Create a buying experience that makes it clear what people will get from using your products and then help them post-purchase to get that outcome as quickly as possible.

Q: Do you have a “Wow!” moment in your buying journey?

The “Wow!” moment is the end-all-be-all of marketing. This is where testimonials, user-generated content, and referrals are born. Create a moment that is so positive and exciting that your customers look forward to telling somebody about their experience.

💥The Short of It

Canva has dominated the DIY graphic design space by deeply understanding their users.

They use buyer psychology principles to turn nervous newbie designers into raving Canva fans.

Canva knows how to delight users. And it’s delight—not satisfaction–that earns people’s loyalty and encourages them to refer you to their friends.

And based on the responses to my recent tweet, Canva is downright delightful.

Until next time, happy selling!