22 FREE DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS TO BOOST YOUR STARTUP
If you are a startup or a small business this is the time when you need to get the word out about your business more than ever.
And preferably for free.
The good news is that the world of online marketing tools have evolved exponentially over the years.
These tools allow me to perform a variety of tasks without depending on programmers and designers.
In this guide, you will find a list of free digital marketing tools that can help you to go online, reach your customers, and measure impact.
So, here we go!
DESIGN AND LAUNCH YOUR WEBSITE FOR FREE
Option 1: WordPress
Start with WordPress. It’s the CMS that runs TechCrunch, BBC America, and Best Buy. It is completely free, easy to learn, and there are tons of free themes available for customization. In addition, there are tons of free plug-ins that allow you to add various dynamic features to your site.
Option 2: Google for Small Businesses
If you are looking for a simpler website Google has a plan for small businesses. You sign up for Google’s ‘My Business’ plan and get a free website and hosting place. This is a template-based service and comes with some limitations.
HOST YOUR WEBSITE FOR FREE
After designing your site, you’ll need a place to host it.
If you need a static website:
Freehostingnoads.net: In their word “It’s absolutely FREE and you can use it for as long you like. Your FREE account will not expire, nor we will force you to upgrade after a trial period.”
Biz.nf: Provides free hosting services with no ads. They seem to be quite popular among review sites.
If you need a cloud service:
AWS Activate: it’s a program offered by Amazon. All start-ups can apply for the Self-Starter package. Includes AWS free usage tier and one-month AWS support.
Google Cloud Platform: Google provides $300 in credit to launch your idea. Using the Google Cloud Platform start-ups can build, test, and deploy applications on Google’s infrastructure.
WEB ANALYTICS FOR FREE
Once people start visiting your website, you’ll need to know more about them. Here are the free tools you can use to get the job done.
Google Analytics: GA Needs no introduction. It’s the most widely used web analytics tool in the world and entirely free.
Open Web Analytics: If you prefer an open-source option, try Open Web Analytics. Since it is open-source, you can customize it to meet your exact needs.
FREE MARKETING TOOLS
Now, let’s make your offerings popular, shall we? Here are the tools you can use to take your product/service to the next level.
A/B Testing: A/B testing is a simple concept that allows you to decide, of two versions, which works best. Here are the options for you:
Genetify: This is the only truly free tool I could find. The developers claim it to be comparable to commercial services like Optimost and Maxymiser. However, I was not able to make the ‘interactive demo’ provided on its homepage work.
Landing Page: If you are running online ads it is always a better idea to drive your traffic to a landing page instead of your website’s homepage.
Mail Chimp: Mail Chimp allows you to create landing pages for free. If you are looking for more, most of the landing page providers give you a ‘one-month free trial.’
Marketing Automation: Marketing automation tools allow you to do multiple tasks such as lead tracking, email, social media management, live chat, and so on from a single platform.
Mautic: Mautic is a completely free open-sourced Marketing Automation platform. Mautic consists of the following modules to support different aspects of your business
- Email marketing module
- Account-based marketing module
- Website tracking module
- Social media management module
- Landing page designer
MailChimp: MailChimp provides a free plan that supports 7 marketing channels and up to 2,000 contacts. If you have a small customer base, this is the tool for you.
CONDUCT VIDEO CONFERENCES FOR FREE
Virtual meetings are no more an option. It is the new norm!
If you don’t want to spend money or not happy with the free plans offered by other paid platforms, try out Jitsi. Jitsi is a multi-platform open-source video conferencing that is 100% free.
ADDITIONAL FREE TOOLS
Here are some more tools that you might find useful:
Wistia: If you are not happy with YouTube for your video hosting needs, try Wistia. Wistia has a free plan where you can upload up to 3 videos per month for free. You can access features like a customized player, interactive video tools, advanced video analytics, and so on with Wistia.
Sixty-three percent of social media is made up of images…Buffer Blog
This means that you need to create strong visuals to go with your content.
Canva is a tool that allows you to create professional-looking visual content without any design knowledge. They even have a series of tutorials to help you learn the basics of design.
Quotescover: Everybody loves a good quote. Quotesover is a great tool to create eye-catching quotes that can bring much-needed engagement to your social media pages.
Keyword Tool: Want an easy way to find what your audience is searching for? Keyword Tool can generate up to 750 suggestions for every keyword.
SEO Tool for Excel: What if I tell you, that you can do all your SEO research right from your Excel spreadsheet? The SEO Tool for Excel exactly does that. It is a completely free, but very powerful tool created by Niels Bosma.
Re:splashed: Hate stock photos? Re:splashed has 600+ free HD images that you can use any way you want.
Freepik: An amazing collection of free to use vectors. Includes logos, illustrations, background images, and so on.
Buffer: Probably one of the easiest Social Media management tools out there. The free plan is more than enough for a start-up
Cyfe: Do you need an all in one dashboard to monitor your key data? Head over to Cyfe and sign-up for their free plan.
CONCLUSION
If you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner you’d probably want to save as much money as possible during these troubled times. I don’t know about other areas, but I can definitely help you save some money in marketing.
That’s why I put together 22 free digital marketing tools that can support you in all aspects of your online marketing.
I hope you will find some value in this post.
Please visit my blog Brandstoremend for more such content.
