There are now over 7,000 marketing tools on the market. We’re willing to bet as a small business you don’t have time to look through all of these. If you’re looking to get started with a simple yet effective marketing plan these are the top 5 best free marketing tools we would recommend:
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the best email marketing providers in the world. It’s been around since 2001 and is one of the oldest email providers. There are lots of email providers out there, but we recommend MailChimp to small businesses for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it’s free for those with less than 2,000 subscribers and don’t send more than 10,000 emails per month. Secondly, it’s easy to use, includes automation and has templates to get you started. Thirdly, because it’s so popular, it already integrates with most other platforms and programmes.
For more complex marketing efforts, Mailchimp would feel limited. But for small businesses it’s the perfect starting point. To get you started with email marketing, check out our beginners guide here.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is completely free software which provides valuable insights into who is visiting your website and what they get up to once they arrive. It’s really simple to set up and use, but gives you powerful insights.
With google analytics you’ll be able to monitor all of your website visitors and what actions they take on your site. You’ll also be able to get in-depth demographic and interest information about your site audience. All of these things help you to gain a better understanding of your website audience.
Furthermore, you can see what traffic sources your site visitors are coming from. This allows you to see which of your marketing efforts are generating quality traffic and which ones need improving.
Canva
Canva is an amazing design option for small businesses. It’s suited to those who need design to be easy and don’t have the budget for a graphic designer. The free plan has lots of great options and templates while the pro subscription is more suited to those with more complicated design needs.
You can create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other visual content. Users can choose from many professional designed templates, and edit the designs and upload their own photos through a drag and drop interface
Optimized for mobile, it’s easy for amateurs to navigate with visually appealing drag-and-drop features.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a fantastic marketing tool that small businesses can use to schedule social media. The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard for easy use. Hootsuite supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Social media scheduling tools are a good choice for small businesses who don’t have time everyday to post content. It can be much easier to find half an hour a week to schedule for the next 7 days than remembering every day.
With the Hootsuite free plan, you can link 3 social media accounts and have 30 scheduled posts at any one time. It’s a great ‘getting started’ tool for small businesses that don’t have a big budget but need to keep on top of their social media. For useful social media advice you can also read our beginners guide here.
Bitly
Bitly generates unique links to your content and allows you to track and analyse traffic sources. If you post a link on social media using Bitly, you can compare your reach across various platforms.
With Bitly’s free account, you can modify the back-half of your shortened URLs, track click rates, and get information about your top referrers for 1,000 non-branded links per month. This makes the free account perfect for small businesses.
Every link created using Bitly is encrypted with HTTPS to maximize protection. This protects you against eavesdropping or tampering by third parties.