If there is one thing everyone loves, it’s a freebie. That unexpected free piece of cake with coffee, the fiver lost and then found again in the pair of jeans at the back of the cupboard – we all love them. And if you’re the cost conscious owner or manager of a business chances are you love them even more!
At Who Dares Marketing we’re exactly the same and so to help you out and satisfy your inner thriftiness we’ve compiled the top 5 free marketing tools you can use for your business.
1 – Canva (https://www.canva.com/)
Do any research into the most searched for things on Google and its a guarantee that tucked away in there will be “Free online photoshop” – it’s as predictable as day turning to night but for good reason. Photoshop is brilliant! An excellent piece of software that makes editing imagery easy and straightforward. Of course that fluid experience comes at a price and for most businesses the ends don’t justify the means hence the frequency of the above search.
Well fear not because there is an alternative and as it turns out a pretty great one. You may not have heard of Canva before now but from here on in we guarantee it will be a permanent fixture in your favourites list. Perfectly proportioned social media posts? Check. Flexible design options? Check. Download completed designs? Check. Of course it doesn’t have the depth of something like photoshop but for most small businesses it will be more than adequate.
2 – Google URL Builder – (https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com)
Data is a major trend in marketing and indeed the business world right now and for good reason – it helps businesses make better decisions. A company website is a potential treasure trove of useful data but of course you have to collate that first and of course how do you do that? Well the Google URL builder is one step on that ladder and one that will help you evaluate accurately the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through Google Analytics.
Let’s say for example you have a new blog post (much like this one) and you promote that post through various channels online. If you have the one link that goes everywhere it becomes difficult to tell which area your clicks are coming from or if any meaningful actions took place as a result of the post. The Google URL builder solves this problem, putting unique parameters into each link allowing you to be able to judge exactly how effective each part of your marketing is.
3 – Hootsuite – (https://hootsuite.com/)
Social media. Depending on who you speak to its the greatest thing to happen in the last 30 years or its the cause of all the worlds problems. Either way there’s one thing that can’t be denied, it’s value to businesses. After all where else can you speak to potentially thousands of customers all at once. That said it doesn’t come without its challenges with some people doing Facebook but not Twitter or keeping one channel up to date more because after all who has time to update multiple profiles? Well with Hootsuite all those pains vanish and through one simple dashboard you have control over all your profiles in one place. What’s better still is that you can post to all of them at the same time! Assuming you run 3 social media platforms you’ve instantly cut your workload by three, not bad!
4 – Codecademy (https://www.codecademy.com/)
Have you ever wondered what exactly is happening when you open a web page? What the difference is between HTML, CSS and Javascript? Or how that button changes colour when I hover over it? Well wonder know more with the web’s foremost web development teaching site, Codecademy. A wealth of resources, Codecademy will have you grasping the basics of web development in no time at all.
5 – Google Keyword Planner – (https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner)
If you’ve made it this far (and why wouldn’t you have!) you’ll notice that this is the second mention of our friends at Google this time for its keyword planner. A major tool as part of its AdWords platform the keyword planner allows you to research in great detail exactly what and where people are searching related to your business.
Notice an increase in searches for a particular product and service and you can run a campaign targeting these potential customers. It’s also a good tool for looking at trends and can be used to make informed decisions about what customers are interested in allowing you to plan activity in advance.
So there you have it, the top 5 free marketing tools for your business. At Who Dares Marketing we specialise in creating compelling, content oriented, data driven inbound marketing campaigns.
If you you have any questions or would like more information please get in touch today.