There are two places to find free marketing tools for small business. The first is at companies who make it part of their mission to offer free tools to help businesses succeed. The second is at “free” business services where there is a catch, like signing up for email or filling out surveys. Our blogs draw on both of these sources and more – we also do our own research – and we present them without bias, including opportunities that we come across, even if we can’t tell you that they’re great (because we haven’t used them).
Business marketing is tough! One of the best tools is your website. From there you can appeal to many types of customers through social media, blogging, search engine optimization, Adwords, video production and more. The biggest challenge most business owners have is finding time to devote to it.
Mailchimp
No matter how large or small your business is, email marketing should definitely be a part of your overall strategy.
When a customer signs up to your mailing list, they’re inviting you straight into their inbox. That’s why email marketing on average offers a higher ROI than any other marketing activity.
To get started with email marketing, you need a service that will enable you to capture emails, manage your lists, send out emails automatically or on a schedule, and analyze engagement.
Mailchimp is an ideal choice if you’re just starting out or if you are running a small business. Mailchimp’s basic service is free until your list hits 2,000 subscribers. It offers the main functionality you need without making managing your email marketing too complex.
Plus, Mailchimp now offers a slew of features and digital marketing tools (some under paid plans):
- Segmentation and personalization
- Landing page builders
- Form builders
- Audience insights
- CRM tools
- Predictive insights
BuzzSumo
Your content strategy shouldn’t consist of wild stabs in the dark as you cover topics you think your audience will engage with.
That’s why 60% of B2B brands with the most successful content marketing have a documented strategy. Meanwhile, only 21% of the brands with the least successful content say they have a documented strategy.
To be successful in content marketing, you need to do your research properly, and this is why BuzzSumo is one of my favorite content marketing tools.
BuzzSumo shows content that is trending across social media based on searched topics. Following your search, you can analyze the results that are returned to see what’s so appealing about them and to get ideas of subjects to write about.
But BuzzSumo is moving beyond just basic content research and viral posts. Today, BuzzSumo offers tons of digital marketing tools like:
- Keyword research
- Influencer search
- Topic-based social media feeds
- Content analysis
- Crisis management
- Brand monitoring tools
Buffer
Want to Tweet 24/7 from your social media account without having to be on Twitter at all times? Buffer is a great social media marketing tool for that, it makes that possible across all your social channels via scheduled posts.
Price: Free for one user, 3 channels, and ten posts/day.
Paid plans are $15-99/month.
Pros:
- Browser integrations make it easy to share content you find online.
Cons:
- High per-user cost.
- Analytics are just okay.
Image: Buffer
Kissmetrics
Helps you analyze the conversion funnel from the time a visitor arrives on your page to the time they convert. Instead of using old school link tracking software or a link tracker this tool enables you to identify prospects and nurture leads—a powerful marketing tool in the right hands.
Price: $299-499/month
Pros:
- Designed to give you insights that will help you get the most out of all your marketing tools.
- Goes beyond just a regular click tracking software, allows you to group your audience to buckets according which actions they have taken and where they are in the conversion funnel
- Example: If you are running an ad campaign in facebook or a ppc ad you can create a funnel and view:
- everyone who clicked on the ad into first bucket
- of those in first bucket everyone who visited your landing page into second bucket
- of those in second bucket everyone who bought into third bucket
Cons:
- Not very useful if you’re starting out and don’t have a lot of leads yet.
- If you already know who your customers are (like if you run a small-town bakery), a lot of browsing data is meaningless to you.
- It’s a tracking tool so you do need to install an additional tracking pixel on your website
- Price.
Followerwonk
Do you plan on spending a lot of time on social media marketing?
While this is a great way to engage your audience and send traffic to your website, it’ll only work in your favor if you have a solid plan in place.
Tools, such as Followerwonk, are designed to help you improve your social media marketing strategy, such as by digging into your Twitter analytics data.
I included this digital marketing tool on the list for two reasons: it’s easy to use and it’s extremely effective.
Followerwonk breaks down its service into three distinct categories:
- Find: Use the tool to search Twitter bios and compare accounts.
- Analyze: Breakdown your follower list by bio, location, who they follow, and many other criteria.
- Optimize: match your strategy to follower gains and losses, to understand what type of content performs best.
The only downside of Followerwonk is that it can’t be used with other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. However, if you have big plans for Twitter, this is a digital marketing tool you should use often.
Even though you may not use it on a daily basis, it can come in handy from time to time. After all, it’s imperative that you understand your audience.
Conclusion
Each of these Free Business Marketing tools are designed to help you grow your business. These are great tools for small businesses looking to save money, or new entrepreneurs who are just getting started.
Business-Ready Our inbound marketing software helps business owners drive more customers to their websites, convert prospects into customers, and keep customers coming back for more.