The best free marketing tools for small business
The best free tools to support your small business marketing activity.
From free project management software to free graphic design tools and how to use them to make your social media strategy and digital marketing plans come to life.
Free Project Management Tools for Small Business
Every small business owner has a tonne of things to do, and if you need to share your massive to-do list with other people then it may be time to graduate from pen & paper and move some of those tasks into purpose built software.
Depending on how your brain works you may enjoy the visual post-it-note style of Trello, but personally I recommend Asana which has the option of a visual board to plan work or an old fashioned list with subtasks. Both tools have a free & a premium version but with less than four users you can definitely get away with the free versions.
Free Stock Imagery
It is unreasonable to expect start ups, side hustles and small businesses to have a tonne of photography ready to roll out on their website or social media - especially if you are a services business. While there is a risk of seeing the same stock imagery popping up across multiple brands online, there are ways to edit and tweak the images to ensure they appear as unique as possible. My favourite free stock imagery website is Unsplash which I use to pad out my own social content - and every featured image on this blog!
Free Photo Editing Software
Canva is photoshop for dummies… start by picking the size of the image you want to create (helpfully the list is based on real life examples like Facebook cover photo, Instagram story, YouTube profile header). To get the most out of Canva you can upgrade to a premium account but 90% of the features the typical user requires are available with a free subscription. You can upload all of your own imagery or select from their own free or paid imagery and graphic options.
Free Influencer Engagement Analysis Tool
If you are considering a paid relationship with an influencer or social media personality you want to ensure that their follower numbers are made up of engaged and relevant potential customers. Social Media analytics tool Social Blade allows you to enter the username or URL of any social media account and get a quick check on their engagement and whether they have had any suspicious follower behaviour (huge gains or drops can indicate a less than authentic method of acquiring followers)
Free Email Marketing Tool
Most small businesses should start with MailChimp - a free subscription allows you access to most features and there are simple free workarounds for paid features such as campaign automation. MailChimp is free for up to 2000 subscribers which is what makes it such a popular choice.
Once you have your head around building your list and are committed to your email marketing strategy, then look into paid subscriptions & full CRM platforms such as Active Campaign.
Free SEO Tool
Neil Patel is the oracle of all things SEO and lucky for us has built some fantastic free tools. The SEO Analyzer provides a break down of all the potential issues on your website and instructions on how to fix them. What else could you ask for?
You will need more than a basic understanding of your website to implement some of the suggested changes (and an understanding of the issues that can’t be fixed due to your website’s limitations) but this tool is fantastic for small businesses wanting to DIY their SEO.
Free Search Volume Tool
When it comes to figuring out the demand for your product, service or content the first place you need to check how many people are tapping away on Google actually searching for what you offer. Google Keyword Planner is accessible under the tools menu inside your Google Advertising account however, some people really struggle with the Google Advertising interface.
If you’re looking for a more user friendly option head to Uber Suggest by Neil Patel where you can look at where your website ranks for specific keywords by entering your domain name OR you can enter a keyword and investigate search volumes & ranking difficulty. Make sure you have selected the right country before hitting go, and use this to inform your Google Advertising strategy OR inspire your content planning.