Free Tools for Better Marketing

Streamlining your work processes is key to any successful business model – particularly when it comes to small businesses with limited staff! As a small agency ourselves, we’ve had to get savvy with leveraging tools that make sense with our workflow. Finding a few key resources that work for you and your business can help alleviate some of the pressures that come with following through with a marketing plan.

These days, the sheer quantity of tools and apps available can be overwhelming – so we’ve put together a list of free resources that we think will be useful for smaller businesses that might not have the budget for a dedicated marketing team (…yet!):

HubSpot

HubSpot is a great all-in-one platform for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. It has a suite of built-in tools for email marketing, CRM, social media management, and analytics. We typically recommend this tool for businesses looking to boost their touchpoints with existing and potential customers. The main caveat is that Hubspot is only as useful as the data you put into it. So if you want to see results, you’ll need to stay on top of your analytics!

Mailchimp

If you’ve ever engaged in email marketing, chances are you’ve already heard about Mailchimp. But as well known as it is, many users still miss out on taking full advantage of all the benefits available through the platform – even on the free version! When you take the time to put some strategy behind it, you can segment your audiences, automate different sales funnels, and become much more effective at communicating with your specific audiences.

Metricool

If social media is a big part of your marketing strategy, you should look into using Metricool. This tool allows you to schedule your social media posts in advance, but even more importantly, it lets you get super granular in your metrics – from your audience demographics, to best posting times, engagement rates, and competitor analysis. Metricool helps you track your analytics across multiple platforms, including your website – giving you key insights into how your audience is interacting with your brand across all touch points.

ChatGPT

The poster child for AI, ChatGPT is a widely used tool these days – especially in the world of marketing. It can be super helpful with idea generation and high-level concepts, but word to the wise: PLEASE, for the love of God, don’t rely on it for your copywriting! Your audience will be able to spot it a mile away and it’s a surefire way to lose your brand voice. Instead, try using it for things like generating blog post concepts that you can build out and write yourself.

Breef

If you’re a business looking to outsource your marketing, but dreading the process of searching, vetting, and interviewing candidates, you might want to look into Breef – a platform that connects businesses with marketing agencies and freelancers for project-based work. Breef vets out and short-lists candidates, streamlines communication and project management, and even handles payment processing. Having been on the agency side of the platform, we appreciate the way it simplifies the entire process, from RFP to execution.

These are just a handful of the tools available to help you carry out your marketing strategy. The examples listed above are a few we find most helpful to OUR business, but you’ll likely learn through trial and error which tools are right for you. When you do, be sure to let us know if there are any we didn’t include on our list!