Marketing is tough, but with the right tools, you can get a leg up on your competition. In today’s Small Business Marketing Tools post, we’ll cover some of the best free marketing tools for small businesses.
In my opinion, it’s important to have an open mind and learn new marketing strategies for today’s competitive markets.
The truth is, marketing has changed, and smart businesses are leveraging the power of the internet to drive qualified leads and increase revenue.
Without a doubt, online marketing has taken over the wheel. Does it mean that traditional marketing no longer works?
Actually, no.
However, if you’re looking to build a thriving community and attract loyal customers to your website or brand, even if you use native advertising, you still need content marketing – because it’s the easiest way to build trust, nurture a raving fan base, and get repeat customers.
And no matter how well-crafted your marketing plan is, without the right marketing tools, you’ll fail. These tools can come in different forms.
A recent study from Constant-Contact shows that 98% of small business owners already use their website as a primary marketing tool
The traditional marketing methods pose the challenge of engaging the customers. Because the ads tend to be pushy, whereas digital marketing strategies (e.g., content marketing, blogging) are welcoming and drive trust to the roof.
On the web, there are several channels that you can leverage to drive customers to your website, like social media, PR, search, display, authority websites, and so on.
Irrespective of the channel you make up your mind to use, you still need the right marketing tool.
Since the sole objective of every business is to make a profit, it’s important to reach out to ideal customers wherever they are on the web.
Your customers are your greatest business asset, whether online or offline. That’s why you need to appreciate and answer their questions with helpful content.
Data from Accenture shows us that 72% of customers have switched providers due to an overall poor quality customer experience.
All marketing channels and strategies are effective in their unique ways. The overall success that you get from one channel (say social media) is essentially dependent on another channel (e.g., blogging).
For example, as you generate organic traffic and leads to your business, you need social media to communicate with them and build strong relationships via email marketing.
Leveraging these lead generation and nurturing strategies only becomes effective and easy when you know and choose the right marketing tools.
As a marketer, do you wish to have “die-hard” customers and fans who will stand for your brand any day?
I know you want customers who will identify with your brand and refer other loyal customers your way. Come on, haven’t you heard that 51% of Facebook fans are more likely to buy the brands they’re passionate about?
Building a loyal fan base doesn’t happen overnight.
Trust me, it’s a daunting task. But the rewards are well worth your time.
The 23 marketing tools that I’ll recommend are powerful enough to help you on the path to building trust with your target audience.
Engaging your audience with compelling content is the right step to take.
Create content that your email subscribers will find irresistible. Else, you’ll be overwhelmed at the rate by which several of them unsubscribes from your list.
Recent statistics from Hubspot found that 91% of email users are unsubscribing from a company email list they once enjoyed.
If they must stay, you have to deliver immeasurable value through content marketing.
Of course, content marketing cannot thrive in the absence of marketing tools.
Free Marketing Tools for Your Small Business
The right marketing tools can help you build brand awareness and stay ahead of your competitors. Here are 10 free marketing tools to help your business.
Marketing is an essential part of building a business, but paying for tools and software can get pricey. If you’re trying to save money, here are 10 free marketing tools you can take advantage of.
LinkedIn is a powerful free tool for businesses, especially for B2B companies. LinkedIn has over 722 million members and is the most trusted social media network in the U.S.
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Over 55 million companies are currently on LinkedIn, so it’s a great tool to help grow your business. It’s easy to create a LinkedIn profile, begin networking with other professionals and start creating thought leadership content.
Buffer
You know you need to be active on social media, but posting regularly can be very time-consuming. That’s why the right social media scheduler can be a lifesaver. Thanks to Buffer and its forever-free plan, you can use social media to your advantage in a time-effective manner.
This plan allows you to add three separate social media channels to your account. For instance, you may choose to add Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. From there, you can schedule up to 10 posts per week.
Google My Business
If you rely heavily on local business, then you need to claim your Google My Business listing. That way, when customers go to Google and search for a business that’s similar to yours, you won’t get edged out by the competition.
Don’t just claim your listing and leave it at that. Optimize your listing by adding photos, updating information about your business, and encouraging customers to leave reviews.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that helps small businesses track website activity and engagement. It can help you evaluate how well your SEO strategy works and give you in-depth information about customer demographics.
Google Analytics can also help you determine what’s working in your current marketing strategy. For instance, you can see how you’re currently acquiring most of your traffic and what website pages visitors find the most engaging.
[Read more: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Marketing Strategy on a Budget]
Social media is important, but you don’t truly own those followers. One thing you do have complete control over, though, is your email list.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is one of the best free marketing tools available for businesses. You can sign up to receive alerts anytime your company is mentioned online. You can also sign up to monitor your competitors’ mentions, so it’s a creative way to engage in competitor research.
Canva
According to Hubspot, 49% of marketers consider visual marketing a very important part of their overall marketing strategy; however, more than 23% of marketers also feel like design and visual marketing are some of their biggest challenges.
Fortunately, Canva makes the process of creating images much easier because it offers templates and optimized sizes. The free plan gives you access to over 250,000 templates, over 100 design types, and thousands of stock photos.
Help a Reporter Out
If you’re hoping to gain publicity for your business, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an invaluable resource that connects journalists to qualified sources. You can use HARO to land free publicity when you get someone in your business quoted as a source in a well-known publication. Plus, you can use it to generate backlinks to your website, which will help you show up higher in Google searches.
MailChimp
Building a robust email list is one of the best things you can do for your small business. Social media is important, but you don’t truly own those followers. One thing you do have complete control over, though, is your email list.
MailChimp is one of the most popular email management services available, and it’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers. This makes it a desirable option for small businesses that are just getting started with email marketing. It lets you send surveys, create tags, and do basic audience segmentation.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
If you regularly publish blog posts on your website, then you want to make sure the headlines entice website visitors to read the posts. You can do that with the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. This free tool will analyze the word balance, word count, and overall clarity of your headlines.
Typeform
Receiving customer feedback is an essential part of growing your business and improving your products and services. Typeform makes this easy by allowing you to create beautiful forms, surveys, and quizzes for your customers and website visitors. With the free plan, you can receive up to 100 responses per month.
Read more: Marketing vs. Branding, and Why You Should Know The Difference]
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Conclusion
It can be quite difficult for small businesses to market themselves online without the aid of powerful marketing tools. A lot of them have no idea where to look for the most effective digital marketing tools. So they’re left looking at expensive options throughout the market that will help them grow their business within a short period.
Many small businesses struggle to find the required funds to hire an in-house marketing team. If this is your situation, do not fall into despair. You can always make use of effective marketing tools to boost your business productivity.