Just getting started with online marketing for your business? Many of the best marketing tools are free or offer a free version or trial. Here’s 16 helpful marketing tools that won’t cost you a thing…
Content marketing
1. Google Trends
Find out what people are searching for so you can create content on trending topics. Also helpful for working out which term to use – for example searches for “blogging” are dropping but searches for “content marketing” are on the rise.
2. Buzz Sumo
Use Buzz Sumo to see the most shared content on any particular topic or website. Great for content planning and research.
3. Feedly
Add RSS feeds for the blogs in your industry to keep up to date and quickly find content for sharing on social media. You can also use it to keep on top of what competitors are blogging about.
4. Canva
Canva is full of templates to help you create graphics that look good with no design skills. We recommend amending them in line with your business branding so you don’t look the same as everyone else.
5. Hubspot Topic Generator
This won’t do the hard work for you, but it can be handy for coming up with topics or title formats when you’re stuck! Just enter three topics and it does the rest.
Email marketing
6. Mailchimp
We use our own email marketing software to send custom-designed email campaigns for our clients, but if you’re just getting started, Mailchimp is completely free for your first 12,000 subscribers.
Search marketing
7. Google Analytics
We’ve written several blogs to help you get the most out of Google Analytics. If you’re new to Google Analytics, check out our How to set up Google Analytics and Where is my web traffic coming from? blogs.
8. Google Adwords Planner
Although you shouldn’t rely on this tool for keyword research, Google’s Adwords Planner can give you a good idea of search volumes and kick up some search terms you might not have considered.
9. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is essential if you’re trying to increase your traffic from search engines. Here’s why you need it.
10. Moz Open Site Explorer
Easily check backlinks and domain authority for any website – yours and/or your competitors.
11. Screaming Frog
Crawl your website to identify any SEO issues without manually combing through your site.
Social media marketing
12. Tweetdeck
Great for creating columns to keep up with tweets about your business, industry news or competitor tweets.
13. Buffer
Social media scheduling tool with a handy “Buffer button” that makes it easy to share from any website.
14. Hootsuite
Another social media scheduling tool that is free for up to three accounts.
Websites and ecommerce
15. WordPress
WordPress is our content management system of choice and it’s free. All you need is hosting and either a free or custom theme.
16. Woocommerce
We also specialise in Woocommerce, a free ecommerce plugin for WordPress. Read all about why we prefer it.
