The Essential Guide to Free Small Business Marketing Tools

With so many marketing tools available today, it can be overwhelming to choose the right ones for your business, especially if you don't have a lot of experience with marketing tools. Plus, marketing expenses can really add up quickly. That's why I've put together this essential guide to low-cost and free small business marketing tools. We'll cover all your basic starter marketing needs- website, email marketing, social media, and analytics. So, get ready to take your marketing game to the next level without breaking the bank.

1. Website Content Management System

A content management system (CMS) is what allows you to manage website content without any programming knowledge. CMS software enables small business owners to create and publish web pages, blog posts, pictures, and products with easy, drag-and-drop technology. The top 3 best and most-often-used, free and/or cheap options are:

• WordPress

• Wix

• Squarespace

WordPress is regarded as the number one CMS in the world. Partially because website developers love using it for its easy integrations with so many other tools and widgets. If you're going to be hiring someone to run your website for you, WordPress is the way to go.

On the other hand, if you're going to try to manage your own website, I recommend Wix. It's totally free, if you can put up with having their branding alongside your own (which I don't recommend, but that depends on your budget), and the tool is robust- coming packed with features for blogs, e-commerce, SEO (including an integration with SEMrush), web forms, email, images (including free access to stock photography) and more.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach out to customers and prospects. I always call email lists the "backbone" of your marketing activities. Email marketing is crucial because you actually own these contacts and can control when and how to reach them. In contrast, relying on social followers, for example, means you are at the mercy of the almighty algorithms that drive them. One tweak and suddenly your followers aren't seeing your content. Or even worse, with threats to shut down TikTok in the US, and with Elon Musk bleeding money at Twitter, one day you could find that the whole thing is just gone.

So trust me when I say, you need email marketing. The good news is that there are a variety of low-cost email marketing tools available, including:

• Mailchimp

• Constant Contact

• Sendinblue

These tools allow you to create professional-looking emails for desktop and mobile screens- and all using drag-and-drop technology so you don't need to know HTML to do it. You can also track basic stats such as open rates and click-through rates. These tools even include some automation- for example, Constant Contact now includes AI content generation, while MailChimp and SendInBlue offer automated workflows. Best of all, MailChimp and SendinBlue offer free versions for businesses with smaller lists.

I used to always recommend Constant Contact for small businesses because they had a free plan, and they also recently added SMS text message marketing for only $10/mo. Plus it's very user-friendly and easy to use. But the free option is gone (replaced with a temporary free trial) and the prices recently increased slightly. That makes SendInBlue very competitive, with 300 email sends per day available on the free plan.

3. Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media is a great way to connect with customers and promote your brand. But if you plan on having accounts spread across multiple platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, etc), it can quickly become a lot to manage. One helpful solution is to choose a social media management platform that will allow you to schedule and manage posts all in one place. It can be a huge time saver for your business.

Many low-cost tools are available that can help you manage your social media profiles, schedule posts in advance, and even analyze your social media performance. Take a look at:

• Later, which offers 5 free posts a month

• Buffer, which offers 10 free posts a month plus an AI assistant

Using one of these tools, especially if you upgrade to a paid version that unlocks even more features, such as analytics and monitoring comments may help you avoid hiring a social media assistant early on, while money is still tight. Or, it can help you minimize the hourly fee by helping them to be more efficient.

4. Free Website Analytics

No research necessary: if you want a free tool that helps you track things like how many visitors came to your site, which pages they saw, how much time they spent, and more, the standard is Google Analytics. There are other great tools out there (Adobe, for example, has a robust option), but I recommend waiting to use a paid tool until your site is really getting lots of traffic and you find yourself in a position to need more data than what the free tool offers.

If you're not very tech savvy, I recommend finding a person who specializes in Google Anlaytics to help you build out tracking and reporting for your most important data and events. Examples of such events could include form-fill submissions, transactions completed, revenue earned, and more. It's a one-time setup fee that will yield a ton of useful information for years.

5. Content Creation

Finally, creating high-quality content is essential for any successful marketing campaign. Thankfully, there are many low-cost tools available to help you create professional-looking content, even without design experience.

• Canva is a graphic design tool that lets you create professional-looking designs without the need for a graphic designer. You can use it to create social media posts, business cards, posters, flyers, and more. Canva has a free version, but a paid version gives you access to more templates, photos, and design elements.

• Animoto is a free video marketing tool that helps you create professional videos using their pre-designed templates. These days, videos are crucial. They can be used to supplement blog and website content, make attention-grabbing social media posts, and sell your products or services by making eye-catching ads. Ideally, a single video can be reused to make edits for all of those purposes. Animoto has a forever free plan, in addition to two cheap monthly plans under $20/mo.

While marketing technology can seem like a daunting field, it's important to remember that there are many free and low-cost tools out there that can make a big difference for your business. By taking advantage of these tools, you can save money, reach more customers, and stay competitive in today's digital age. Remember to evaluate your business needs and do your own research before investing in any tool. Ultimately, your marketing strategy should be tailored to your unique business needs and goals. Happy marketing!

If you would like some help choosing the right marketing technology for your business, please reach out; I'd love to help!