Free Tools and Resources to Market Your Business
It has never been easier or more cost effective to start and grow your business. There are a number of free and low cost marketing tools, which can provide you with real impact. .
1. Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to promote your business and engage with your market for free.
The challenge is that managing even one social media platform can be time consuming. Fortunately, there are tools to assist in scheduling posts, as well as keeping up with what’s going on with your social feeds.
HootSuite
HootSuite allows you to manage up to three social media accounts within one dashboard under its free plan. It provides you with the facility to schedule posts in advance, gives you visibility as to what’s going on in your feeds, as well as creating the opportunity to like, comment, and share within a simple to use dashboard. The Hootsuite free plan also provides you with basic analytics, as well as the ability to work with a number of third-party applications.
For support with social media, we have created a dedicated module to assist you in identifying the best platforms for use, ways of managing them effectively and creating valuable, shareable content which will create followers / fans and appeal to your target audience.
2. Email
Despite the growth of social media and the introduction of GDPR , email still offers small businesses one of the best ways to connect and build rapport with your target audience. Many home-business owners are daunted by the thought of starting an email database and sending out communications, however, there are specialised e-mail systems that provide a free service. They provide some great functionality, ease of use and are suited to first time users.
MailChimp
MailChimp’s Forever Free plan is free for businesses with up to 2,000 subscribers and provides users with the facility to send up to 12,000 emails per month. This platform offers a number of key functions to help you grow your list and market your business effectively, these include sign-up forms, autoresponders and basic statistics about your email efforts.
3. SEO
For many, this is a dark art, but SEO (or search engine optimisation) is key to being seen online. Website analytics let you know the keywords people are using to search for and find your business or product. If you know what these keywords are, you can identify what information you should be sharing, which words are most important in your titles and content to ensure that you maximise your reach to your audience. SEO also helps search engines, such as Google to find and rank your website.
KeywordTool.io
KeywordTool.io is a really great tool that will provide you with up to 750 long-tail keyword suggestions (i.e. sentences people search for about you online, short-tail are individual words or phrases) without the need of creating an account. It is also free, which is a brilliant bonus.
SEO Book
SEO Book offers a selection of free and paid SEO tools. To use SEO Book you will need to register and create an account, but there are a number of impressive benefits. Once registered, you can undertake keyword search, generate meta tags (a special HTML tag that is used to store information about a Web page but is not displayed in a Web browser), and view your website as search engines do, to see how your site is performing for the important messages you are trying to promote.
4. Website/Marketing Analysis
You can’t measure your marketing without being able to review your data. Knowing your numbers, helps you to adjust and tweak your communications to maximum effect. You can find out a lot of information about your audience and potential customer base this way. For example, you can see responses to an email campaign, the number of likes, shares etc. on a social media post and respond where appropriate to comments. It also helps you to identify the marketing tools that are driving traffic to your website and encouraging purchase. By evaluating what is and isn’t working you can adjust and tweak your posts / content to generate better response rates.
Google Analytics
Google has the biggest market share of all of the search engines so is key to your business success. It provides you with a huge amount of free information that you can utilise in your marketing activity. Setting it up correctly and figuring out what information / statistics are most relevant to your business – will help you grow your business. At a basic level, you can get your web person to add the analytic code to your website. Once added, you can review information such as page views, most visited pages on your website, identify where your traffic is coming from and the demographic profiles of the people who visit and interact with your site.
HotJar
As a startup business, HotJar’s free plan will collect data on up to 2,000 page views a day. One of the best features of HotJar is the heat maps. These provide you with information on where your visitors are spending the most time on your site and on what pages they are leaving the site.
Simply Measured
Simply Measured provides users with free tools that provide data on your social media engagement, however, you’ll be asked to mention them on your social media channels in return for them providing you with a report. They cover all the major social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.
5. Graphics/Logos Design
Specifically in craft or product-based businesses your visual content has never been more important. It is a great way to show off your products and provide your audience with a clear reference to the product they are looking to purchase. Graphics create great impact and are far more attention stealing than just text. Including graphics within your social media posts, blogs and e-shots is expected and is essential in achieving impact. Free images and online graphic editing tools can be found in a number of places, we’ve identified two of our favourites, which are popular with ‘non designers’ who are looking to achieve a professional result.
Canva
Canva is useful as it makes creating just about any type of graphic you need easy to do. Whether you are looking to produce a Facebook banner, blog post picture, or ebook cover, you can rely on Canva to help. Another great feature, is that it offers free images and provides you with the facility to upload your own. You can also add text overlays, shapes and more to your image and then download or share it.
PicMonkey
PicMonkey has both paid and free options for its service. Like Canva it’s fairly easy to use. Just upload your image and then edit; crop, resize, add text and more.
6. Video Hosting
Producing video content has also increased in popularity especially as search engines respond favourably to this type of marketing. Whether you are showing your product range, providing a tutorial on your area of expertise or frequently asked questions or capturing client testimonials, you can use video to provide your audience with information about you and your business. Hosting for your videos is important and there are a number of free or low cost options. For most people, YouTube is the first choice, below are other options you can try.
Wistia
Wistia is a free service that allows you ongoing hosting for up to three videos. It has a number of key features including a customisable player, a facility for embedding and sharing your video, a number of lead generation tools and integration with third-party apps such as MailChimp etc.
VidMeUp
VidMeUp has a number of great video hosting features, with nearly half included in the free option. You can add your own domain, upload up to 750 MB files, customise your video page and much more. You can even add Google Analytics and social share buttons.
7. Publicity
Publicity is free and yet can be one of the most effective forms of marketing, positioning you as an expert in your sector. The key to success is getting the media to notice and want to interview you. To make yourself more newsworthy, it helps if you have a unique element to your story or an unusual skill. While you can mass send press releases on a regular basis, there are a number of free resources that make it easier to find publications that want to work with you.
Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
The HARO report matches media and experts. All you have to do is sign up as a source, and then review the three emails sent each week day for media sources who require help on an article. The HARO report covers a number of media outlets including radio, TV, blogs and podcasts as well as traditional print media.
Source Bottle
Source Bottle works in the same way as the HARO report in that it matches journalists and bloggers to expert sources. There is, however, a key difference in that you don’t have to wait for them to contact you, but have the opportunity to search and pitch opportunities online.
8. Feedback/Engagement
There is only one way of finding out what your customers think about your products and business – ask them! A feedback survey is simple to set up and can be anonymous – providing you with great insight about how your customers feel about your business and how you can reach more people. It can also be a great source of unprompted testimonials, which you can use in future marketing activity.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey provides a way of creating a simple questionnaire comprising of multiple-choice and open questions. It also adds up the responses to each question as you go, to provide you with real-time feedback. Their free plan allows you to create surveys with up to 10 questions and allows you to survey up to 100 people.
9. Customer Relation Management (CRM)
Keeping a satisfied customer, is far cheaper than attracting a new one! As well as the opportunities for repeat purchase, they are also a source of valuable ‘word of mouth’ referrals and recommendations. Whilst targeting new prospects, it’s key that you look after the customers you already have. To do this, you need more than a good product and efficient service, you also need to stay front of mind. To do this, keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis. Customer relation management software can help you with this. With it, you can keep a record of each interaction with your customers, including buying behaviour, special dates and anniversaries etc. There are a number of free CRM software products that you can use to help support this activity:
SuiteCRM
Suite CRM is a free piece of software that helps you manage workflow, your sales pipeline, customer service and more.
Really Simple Systems
Really Simple Systems offers a free service for businesses with only two users, 100 accounts, unlimited contacts within the accounts, and 100 MB of storage. Another great benefit is free email and online chat customer support in case you get stuck. It has a number of great features that will help you as you develop your home craft business including sales automation, contact management, custom reports options, and more.
To summarise:
Marketing doesn’t have to cost the earth. The key is to use the best tools for the job in hand. Your goal is to promote your business, in the most professional and affordable way you can. However, each of these tools, will have an impact on your time and you need to be prepared to either give up your time working in your business or find someone who can help set them up for you.
In time, you may need to consider the paid options for these tools as your business grows and develops. However, the money you will make from the growth off your business will help offset some of the expense and there are tax deductions for investing in marketing activity. The best way to find out what works for you and your business is to try them out.
