StartUp Over Coffee

Navigation
  • About
  • Contact

Recent Posts


  • How to scale tech startups with PR
  • Don’t wait for VCs to save your tech startup – Use PR to jumpstart growth
  • When Should You Start Doing PR for Your Early Stage Tech Startup?
  • How marketing leaders can measure the impact of startup PR
  • Advantages of working with an international tech PR agency network

Recent Comments


    Copyright © Startup Over Coffee. 2020 • All rights reserved.

    Hydra WordPress Theme by EckoThemes.

    Published with WordPress.

    Related Articles

    Filter by Category

    • Austin Startup(99)
    • Tech Startup(39)
    • Startup Founder(29)
    • Uncategorized(21)
    • PR Tips(19)
    • Startup Accelerator(17)
    • VC Firm(11)
    • Content Marketing(8)
    • Business Management(7)
    • Marketing Strategy(6)
    • PR Agency(4)
    • Media Training(4)
    • Houston startup(2)
    • CMO(1)
    • Health and Wellness(1)

    Filter by Author

    • Dave Manzer (16)
    • Gabriel Hyde (3)
    • Kennedy Nuñez (16)
    • Lara Tanner (22)
    • Mary Jenkins (9)
    • Michelle Vernaza (37)
    • Sam Lauron (6)
    • Sarah Gagliardi (11)
    • Savannah Mazanowski (49)
    Back to Latest Articles
    Content Marketing

    6 reasons to use Canva for your startup or tech pr agency

    Canva, the online graphic design tool, is quickly becoming one of the most valuable apps for tech startups– and tech PR agencies like Swyft! –who are looking for a...

    Posted on 7th October 2020 by Mary Jenkins

    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 3 Austin Startups to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in...

    Posted on 6th October 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    PR Agency

    When is it time to fire a tech PR agency?

    Just as important as deciding when to hire a tech PR agency is deciding when it’s time to let one go. No matter whether you are in an early stage startup in Austin, San Francisco...

    Posted on 29th September 2020 by Mary Jenkins

    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 4 Austin Startups to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in...

    Posted on 28th September 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    Tech Startup

    PR tips for pre-IPO tech startups

    With recent news of Snowflake’s record-breaking IPO, more tech startups are considering an IPO for their company. We put together 10 general pointers to help startups...

    Posted on 24th September 2020 by Mary Jenkins

    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 6 Austin Startups to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in...

    Posted on 21st September 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    Houston startup

    Houston’s Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies

    Since 1982, Inc. Magazine has been producing a list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States, providing an avenue for hardworking and dedicated entrepreneurs...

    Posted on 14th September 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 4 Austin Startups to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in...

    Posted on 10th September 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    PR Agency

    [Infographic] Pros and cons of using an RFP for your tech startup

    If your startup is interested in hiring a PR or marketing firm, you may have heard that using an RFP, a request for proposal, is the best way to narrow down your options. Swyft, a...

    Posted on 4th September 2020 by Mary Jenkins

    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 4 Startups in Austin to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you in...

    Posted on 3rd September 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski

    View Latest Posts
    Content Marketing

    6 reasons to use Canva for your startup or tech pr agency


    Mary Jenkins
    6 reasons to use Canva for your startup or...
    Posted on 7th October 2020 by Mary Jenkins

    Canva, the online graphic design tool, is quickly becoming one of the most valuable apps for tech startups– and tech PR agencies like Swyft! –who are looking for a simple way to elevate their branding on a lean budget. 

    Canva’s easy-to-use platform is even rivaling Adobe Suite thanks to its user friendly interface, accessible templates, and diverse design elements.

    If your tech startup is looking for an effective yet inexpensive way to boost your visual marketing content, then look no further than Canva. 

    If you happen to be in a tech PR agency, then this is a great way to convert your clients’ written content into eye-catching visuals to share with media outlets and on your social media channels.

    Here’s what makes Canva an essential tool: 

    Affordability 

    Whether your tech startup is pursuing paid, earned, or owned communications, you’ll need visual and brand-driven content to acquire all three. With Canva, you can not only churn out this content quickly, but on a budget.

    Approximately 11.2% of a startup’s overall gross revenue feeds into their marketing budget, but early-stage startups tend to lack the revenue needed to support a higher marketing budget. Lucky for your startup, Canva offers a free (yes, free!) subscription. If your company has a couple of extra bucks to spend, you can opt for Canva Pro. For only $12.95 a month or $9.95 a month with an annual subscription, Canva Pro offers more design elements and services. It’s a bargain at any level. 

    It’s intuitive 

    If your startup, or your tech PR agency, is working with a slim marketing budget where employees wear many hats, it’s likely that you won’t have a professional graphic designer at your fingertips. Advanced graphic design applications like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator require significant training and expertise. Canva, on the other hand, is a graphic design tool for the less design savvy among us. If you know how to drag and drop, you’re pretty much all set. Even better, it comes with a library of templates. Even your most design-challenged employees can create a beautiful graphic in a pinch. 

    Keep your branding consistent 

    Startups cannot ignore the importance of branding. As disruptors, brand identity is essential for standing out in existing marketplaces and amongst well-known products and companies. Just like Wonder Woman’s golden ‘W’ or Captain America’s famous shield, your startup’s brand identity is its superpower.

    Enter Canva’s Brand Kit. Canva’s Brand Kit allows your company to select its color palette, fonts, and logos which can later be applied to any of your graphics. Using this tailored approach, you can ensure that all of your content is consistent and recognizable to both your audience and potential investors. For a tech PR agency working with multiple startups, this can speed up the process of adopting startup brands into a visual communications design offering. For startups, however, the Canva Brand Kit is a no-brainer, allowing you to generate a multitude of designs with consistent branding at a pace that would make Madison Avenue ad agencies turn green with envy. 

    Digital marketing and content creation made easy 

    Internet engagement is on the rise and consequently so is the effectiveness of digital marketing, especially on social media. It’s no coincidence that Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr—the most visual of all social media platforms—are also the fastest growing. 

    Posts that include visuals have a 650% higher engagement rate than posts that are text only. Visuals not only prompt more engagement, but they also result in more conversions. 

    Visual content is eye-catching and effective, perfect for startups looking to disrupt. You can boost your startup’s blog posts, website, and social media with infographics, tip sheets, gifs, and visuals all created on Canva. 

    Enable your sales team

    The success of your startup’s sales team is dependent on the content that they have at their disposal. Canva is a great resource for Sales Enablement and can provide sales teams with the resources they need to promote your company and close deals.  

    Using Canva, your startup’s team can create graphically appealing case studies, whitepapers, briefs and responses to RFPs to send to potential clients, investors, and consumers. Using the Canva’s brand kit and built-in templates will ensure that your sales team has branded content to distribute and a better chance at gaining qualified leads. 

    That explains why many tech PR agencies now support sales enablement as an extension of their core communications offering — it’s the perfect blend of great storytelling, branding and demand generation.

    Increase LinkedIn engagement 

    In this time of global crises, it’s wise for startups to play the long game. To do this, many startups are further legitimizing themselves by disseminating thought leadership content in hopes that qualified leads will return once circumstances are more opportune. And with so many people using LinkedIn, it’s the perfect platform for your startup to publish thought leadership content. 

    LinkedIn content will not only allow your startup to engage with its target audience but it will also attract talent that can help your startup grow and succeed. Many tech PR agencies, Swyft included, have started using Canva to craft authentic, informative, and visually appealing LinkedIn posts to better establish their startup clients as thought leaders in their respective industry. 

    Canva was tailor-made to help tech startups share their latest insights and offerings in a visually appealing and easy to understand way. 

    It’s simple and easy to share these graphics you create on Canva right to your company’s LinkedIn page. 

    If you are interested in more trips and tricks for Canva, check out Swyft’s Canva tip sheet here. 

    About Mary Jenkins: Mary is a Senior Communications Associate for Swyft, which is a tech PR agency in Austin and Houston and a top digital marketing and PR agency in Denver since its founding in 2011. Swyft recently opened a satellite office where it offers tech PR in San Francisco. Swyft was also listed as one of the top tech PR agencies in Texas by the B2B services review site, Clutch.co.

    Mary Jenkins
    • Canva
    • Canva Austin
    • Canva tips
    • tech PR agencies
    • tech PR agency
    • Tech Startup
    • Share Article:
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • LinkedIn
    • Reddit

    Related Articles

    Content Marketing

    25 Reasons to Blog for your Brand

    Blogs number in the hundreds of millions on the Internet, and there are millions of blog posts each and every day on platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, LiveJournals, Blogster. With...

    Posted on 30th November 2015 by Dave Manzer
    Austin Startup

    Weekly Roundup: 5 Austin Startups to Watch

    Want to stay up to date on the latest startup fundings, launches, and expansions in Austin? Startup Over Coffee’s weekly roundup of startups to watch in Austin will keep you...

    Posted on 23rd July 2020 by Savannah Mazanowski