Marketing is one of the most expensive tasks in the world. However, there are many free marketing sites and tools which you can use to leverage your business to new heights. No matter who you are or what type of business you have, you should look at these free marketing websites and tools.
One of the best ways to find a cost-effective way of marketing your business is through free marketing tools. Here you will find a comprehensive list of useful websites for marketing your small business, products, and services.
G Suite
A cloud-based platform, G suite includes the simple, adept productivity tools you need to collaborate with or without access to the Microsoft Office 365 software you’re likely used to. G Suite is completely compatible with most Office 365 files, but it’s similar, simpler features only provide the core functions you need to get work done.
Products in G Suite include:
- Google Drive (file storage)
- Google Docs (word processor)
- Google Sheets (spreadsheets)
- Google Slides (presentations)
- Google Calendar (calendar)
- Gmail (email)
- Google Forms (create and analyze surveys)
G Suite products include revision tracking and save-as-you-go features. You can invite collaborators to view or edit files through shareable links, so you can see who is working on the file at the same time.
While you can’t access these products in a desktop app, as long as you have an internet connection, you can access, upload or download your files across the G Suite. Files created and edited through the office suite are saved in Google Drive, which offers 15 gigabytes of free storage.
Certain aspects, such as storage, can be upgraded for an additional fee. Files up to 5 terabytes in sizes can be uploaded in Google Drive and stored for later use.
MailChimp
Email marketing provides one of the highest ROIs (return on investment) of all other digital marketing efforts, simply because collecting email addresses from customers is so simple. With powerful and free tools like MailChimp, it’s also extremely cost-effective.
MailChimp provides more than just campaign building functions, however. Their Forever Free plan is completely free for up to 2,000 list subscribers and up to 12,000 emails a month. It includes:
- Easy-to-use email design and image upload functions
- Media storage
- Email design templates
- List management with easy segmenting options
- Sign-up forms
- Autoresponders
- Drip campaigns
- A/B testing
- Analytics revealing CTRs, clicks, opens and more
- Subscriber data based on engagement rates
- Optimal send time calculations
- Third party app integrations like Google Analytics and social media
Answer the Public
Blogs serve the important purpose of helping your website appear in organic, or non-paid, rankings in search engines, which is an important source of website traffic.
In order to accomplish this successfully, however, you need to know what topics your prospective customers are searching for in relation to your business. Answer the Public is a dynamic tool that helps to discover the perfect blog topics based on the language, or keywords, your customers use.
It works similar to a search engine. Simply type in a keyword in relation to a topic your customers might search for, like “running shoes.” The tool generates trees of topics based on real search queries and trending questions commonly searched in relation to your keyword.
Voila! You have a list of potential blog topics you can use, and the confidence that your blog is answering a relevant question.
Moz Local
Designed for getting your business listed correctly and consistently on the main local data aggregator websites, from Google to Yelp and beyond, Moz Local is the free digital marketing tool for entrepreneurs looking to boost their online competitiveness in their immediate market.
Get critical highlights and data insights about how your business appears across the internet. All in one place, you can see whether your business is listed incorrectly on a website, or if there are duplicate listings.
All available for free, Moz Local also provides you:
- Recommendations for on and off page SEO
- Competitive analysis
- Website crawls
- Organic rank tracking
- Keyword value and competitiveness
- A report of all inbound and outbound links to your website
This free digital marketing tool provides a suite of functionalities for beginners, as well as advanced SEO research, which is incredibly helpful in giving you the competitive edge you need.
WhiteSpark Reviews Handout Generator
Online reviews either greatly enhance or inhibit your online success.
If most of your customers are receptive to leaving you a review, but don’t know how to, this is the perfect free tool to help you get more reviews and take control of the conversation.
With the Reviews Handout Generator tool by WhiteSpark, all you need to find out is which device your customers use to leave reviews. Then, simply type in your business information. The free tool will generate a PDF handout for you to print and give to your customers detailing instructions on how they can easily leave you a Google review from a mobile or desktop device.
Hootsuite
Social media plays a big part in the success of any company, regardless of size, age, or industry. In fact, I’d argue that social media marketing is a must to thrive in this digital era.
Digital marketing tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule social media posts in advance, thus saving you loads of time.
Hootsuite offers tons of features to help you grow your business. For example, you can:
- Identify influencers for your marketing team and leads for your sales team
- Reply to comments and mentions through the dashboard–there’s no reason to visit each individual platform
- Take advantage of pre-written responses
- Schedule posts when your audience is most active (even if you’re asleep!)
Social media marketing is not as difficult as it sounds, especially when you rely on tools like Hootsuite. With this particular tool, you can schedule and manage social media profiles for more than 30 platforms.
Imagine doing this by hand, without a central dashboard to guide you. It would be enough to frustrate even the most experienced entrepreneur, let alone a new business owner. Let Hootsuite take over like the social media marketing manager it is.
Grammarly
Unless you’re a grammar guru or you have a proofreader checking everything you write online, Grammarly is the free tool you need to sign up for today.
An online dashboard that works much like Google Docs, the tool’s interface is very simple and clean. To proof your writing, open a new document in the dashboard and type or copy and paste your content into it and Grammarly will immediately start checking your spelling and grammar. You can also save documents within the tool if you need to reference them for later use.
Alternatively, you can install the tool as a plug-in for your browser. Once installed, Grammarly automatically proofreads everything you type online without having to access the dashboard.
This free digital tool includes:
- Spelling
- Basic grammar check
- Plagiarism check (limited number of times a day)
- Detailed explanations about the reasons why the error is a grammatical or spelling mistake
While there are paid upgraded versions of this tool, the basic function can be a lifesaver for content including blogs, emails, social posts, proposals and more.
Trello
Trello is a digital marketing tool that helps you to manage projects and stay on the same page as your team–a sound digital marketing practice if you want to save time and frustration.
For example, you can share blog posts on Trello before you publish them. This gives others on your team the opportunity to review the post, weigh in with their thoughts and make changes that could strengthen the piece before it goes live.
In the past, before the days of Trello and similar programs, email was the best way to collaborate with your team. While this is still helpful, to a certain degree, it can lead to confusion, missed messages, and frustration.
With Trello, everything related to your online marketing strategy can be shared in the same place. It only takes a few minutes to set up a board. Even better, you can quickly invite your entire staff, all of whom can jump in on the action without delay.
Trello isn’t the only digital marketing tool of its kind, but it’s, by far, one of the best. When it comes to collaborating with others regarding marketing tasks, this tool is hard to beat.
Smylelytics
Unless you’re a statistician, gauging your website traffic can be exhausting. It involves analyzing multiple key performance indicators in to order to reveal insights into how your visitors interact with your website. With this gold mine of performance data, you can better optimize the content on your website to achieve your online goals.
An extremely user-friendly tool, Smylelytics sends you a bi-monthly report of your website’s traffic data, making the process a breeze. By translating your website’s numerical data into fun, personalized photos, you can see at a glance if your site is improving, holding steady or requires your attention.
No more logging into Google Analytics and digging through confusing charts and graphs of statistical data. Smylelytics includes:
- Google Analytics data translation for key performance indicators including: bounce rate, new visits, visits, pages per session, goal conversion rate and time on site
- At-a-glance images depicting good, neutral and poor website performance for each indicator
- Enjoyable, easy-to-read email reports twice a month
- Eight fun, free themes you can choose from for email personalization
All you need to get started is your website’s URL, the email address that is tied to your Google Analytics account (you’ll need to have Google Analytics installed), and an email address for your reports to go to. That’s it!
HubSpot CRM
When it comes to marketing, sales, and CRM software, HubSpot has become one of the top players.
For the sake of this post, let’s focus on its marketing software solutions. The company has this to say about this digital marketing tool:
You know just how important it is for your marketing funnel to be in good working order. With this software, you have access to tools that help with:
- blogging
- SEO
- social Media
- website
- lead management
- landing pages
- calls-to-action
- marketing automation
- analytics
There is no stone left unturned, when you rely on HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing software.That’s why it’s a top choice for those who are starting a business.
With everything you need in one place, you don’t have to pull yourself in many different directions. This will help you to find success in the early days and help you as you grow.
Buffer
Great, paid options if you can swing it: Sprout Social, MeetEdgar
Perhaps our best time-saving tip for social media marketing is scheduling posts ahead of time for your social profiles. You can batch the social media marketing process: Do all your curating and composing all in one go, then spread those updates out across the next day or week.
How we use Buffer: The forever free plan at Buffer lets you connect a profile from each network (one from Facebook, one from Twitter, etc.) and to schedule ahead 10 posts for each network. If you share three posts per day, that means you can stay three days ahead all the time.
We’ve found a lot of value in the hand-picked content suggestions (thanks to Courtney who finds all that great content!), which are easy to read then add.
Also free:
- Hootsuite (free for your first 3 social profiles)
Canva
Great, paid options if you can swing it: Photoshop, InDesign
Over 2 million people trust Canva to help with creating images for social media, blog posts, and practically any other use you can imagine.
How we use Canva: The optimized sizes and built-in templates make it fast and easy to create tall pictures for Pinterest, rectangular ones for Twitter, square for Facebook or Instagram, and any size in between. We find Pablo (another free alternative) to be great for Twitter-sized images of 1,024 pixels by 512 pixels, and Canva to work really well for all else.
Also free:
Google Analytics
Great, paid option if you can swing it: Chartbeat
Google Analytics does pretty much everything in terms of tracking the traffic to your website. It’s a huge, monstrous amount of info, generously given away for free.
How we use Google Analytics: As a social media marketing team, we appreciate the ease with which we can see traffic from the different networks (Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals). We can check the engaged reading time by looking at Time on Page. And for the real-time stats of who’s on our site right now, we can simply click on Real-Time > Overview.
Also free:
- Go Squared (free for the first 100 visitors and 1,000 data points)
- MixPanel (free for 25,000 events per month)
Hotjar
Great, paid options if you can swing it: KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg
Let’s say you’re curious how your visitors are actually using your website—where they click, how far they scroll, etc. Tools like Hotjar can show you exactly what your visitors are doing, via heatmaps, clickmaps, scrollmaps, and visitor recordings. Hotjar also has options to analyze your funnel and to insert messages and surveys to your visitors.
How we use Hotjar: User research can be incredibly powerful stuff. I find great value in seeing how someone interacts with blog posts. How much of the post do they read? Where do they pause? What do they click? Seeing all this information helps me design my posts in a clearer way.
Also free:
- Inspectlet (free for 100 recorded sessions)
- SumoMe Content Analytics
Conclusion
Like any business owner, I’m always looking for ways to get more leads for my marketing efforts. If you’re operating on a tight budget like I am, it can be difficult to find free marketing tools. There are certainly paid options out there but sometimes, the best tool for the job is something that doesn’t cost anything at all.