If you’re just starting a business, looking for ways to market your business that are free or at least require minimal investment can feel like you’re looking for a diamond in the rough, it’s almost as if all the tools out there require you to sign up after so many days.
In this post we wanted to give you some of the tools that you can use today, for free to begin marketing and pushing your business on daily basis.
With most of the systems a pro version does exist which enables you to have more features and benefits, but you can achieve some great results with the free version as well.
Canva
Canva is a cloud based design and illustration tool, perfect for creating everything from magazines through to business cards, social media posts and even stickers. Canva allows you to create and download your designs in a variety of formats.
You also have access to a range of stock images that you can use both in your designs and also on your website and in publications.
You can sign-up to Canva for free, however, for some of the pro elements you are required to pay a monthly subscription of £10.99pcm.
Animoto
With Animoto you get a whole host of tools for free and it enables you to create animation and video as well as editing in the cloud.
The best way to think about Animoto is it is like Canva but solely for video editors and animation creators and it is a great tool to use if you’re creating video or looking to have an animation created.
You could, potentially design your graphics on Canva and then import them onto Animoto to create an animation sequence to help promote your business.
Mailerlite
When it comes to getting traffic to your website, not all traffic is created equal, some of it we have control over, but a lot of it we simply, well don’t.
Mailerlite, is an amazing email marketing platform that will allow you to sign-up to and begin collecting those all important email addresses. By building your email marketing list you’re essentially taking control of your own website traffic.
You can send your first email using Mailerlite for free and then pay for the pro version as you grow or as your needs dictate. Mailerlite also allows you to create landing pages and automation sequences to drive growth both in your email marketing sign-ups but also in your business.
A must have tool for anyone who is starting a business or has a website.
Bit.ly
If you’re constrained by character limits, like we are on platforms such as X or Threads then having a URL shortener can certainly help share those all important links and keep you within your character limit.
Bit.ly is a great tool to use if you want to shorten those long URLs, it is also a great way to track the engagement on your links as Bit.ly comes with analytics tools.
As always a pro version does exist that enables you to have a custom URL shortener powered by Bit.ly technology.
A worthwhile tool to have if you’re sharing links on social media.
Buffer
Social Media can be a right time suck, one minute you’re scheduling posts, the next you’re watching cat videos at 3am, yeah we’ve been there.
To avoid this we highly recommend you use a social media scheduling tool, something like Buffer to essentially create and share social media posts throughout the week. You can get a free version of Buffer by simply signing up which gives you access to 3 social networks.
Simply choose the social networks that your target audience is on and link them together, before you know it you’ll be creating content for your audience base without ever having to look at another cat video again.
Buffer also comes complete with a URL shortener as standard, which will save you a few pounds and pennies as well.
G-Suite by Google
Having a reliable email provider is vital.
G-suite, whilst not free, is a great tool and can be setup for just £6pcm per user.
With it you will gain access to the whole Google Workspace platform enabling you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and access Google Drive – for seamless sharing between devices.
If you think of G-Suite as a similar tool to Microsoft 365 then you won’t be too far away from the truth. You can also wire up your own domain name so that your email service is provided by Gmail.
Docmail
Finally, if your business requires that you send out monthly letters or perhaps you reach out to prospects using direct mail, Docmail is the tool for you.
You can begin sending letters to your prospects from as little as 0.85p, so it can become quite expensive, however if you’re dealing in bulk this is a great way to reach out to a variety of contacts using direct mail.
