Most small businesses have very limited resources for their marketing departments, and that’s if they even have a marketing department.
Whether your small business has a dedicated marketing employee, or you just need some free marketing help, use the five tools to give your marketing strategy a boost. They’re so easy to use, I promise.
Mailchimp
Up first, every business can, and should, leverage email marketing. Whether you want to send sales announcements to your clients or promote upcoming events to fans or deliver a monthly newsletter to supporters, Mailchimp is the best option for you.
Mailchimp has an easy drag and drop interface that lets you design emails that look polished and professional. They’ve got helpful tips for you while you’re building emails, and there’s an extensive knowledge base in case you have any questions.
Start using their ready-made templates today, and use their free plan to e-mail up to 2,000 contacts per month.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides all the backend information about your website that you never knew you needed. You don’t have to be a geek to learn top-level insights like how many people visitor your website, where they come from, and when they leave.
If you want to get more in-depth, you definitely can. There’s a whole class called Google Academy to teach you how you can discover all the secrets to your website traffic. There’s also this awesome Beginner's Guide to Google Analytics.
Tracking and analyzing this information is so important to your overall business. You can use insights from Google Analytics to tweak your website to generate more leads, or change your marketing strategy to focus more efforts on avenues (like social media or Google Ads) that bring the most traffic to your website.
Stop making decisions based on guesses. Start using Google Analytics to make decisions based on facts.
Hootsuite
Do you ever feel overwhelmed trying to plan your social media strategy? It may seem like an easy task, but there’s a lot of factors that come into play, like when is the best time to post to social media and how often you should post.
To help plan out your social media strategy, try using Hootsuite. It lets you draft and schedule all of your social media posts in advance. This way, you can prepare your social media activity for the week on Monday, allowing you to breathe a little easier all week long.
Hootsuite has a free plan that is so easy to use. You can preview your posts before sending them so you don’t end up accidentally sharing the wrong link, like this ESPN analyst who accidentally tweeted a Pornhub link.
Hotjar
Ever wonder how people explore your website?
If your website is set up properly, then visitors should follow a specific path to certain pages on your site. Eventually, this should lead them to convert, whether that’s buying a product or filling out a form to learn more.
For instance, a visitor may enter your website through your homepage, then visit your about page and then head over to your shop, filter to the product they’re looking for and then purchase. Voila! It should be that easy.
Hotjar will show whether or not your website is set up for the right customer experience. Seriously, you can actually record each visitor’s journey on your site to see where they convert or where they leave.
Set up a free account and use this information to adjust the language and call to actions on your site to help nudge visitors in the right direction.
Free Stock Photos
Every business needs to have a great supply of stock photos. Stock photos are professional images that you can use on your website, social media posts, flyers, and anywhere else.
Lots of sites will charge you to use professional stock photos, but there are some sites that allow you to use their stock photos for free.
Pexels and Unsplash are both great resources for free, high quality stock photos. Simply search for any image you want, like “cafe” or “volunteer” or “work out” and prepare to be amazed by the beautiful pictures available to you. All for free!
Start using these images in your marketing to give off professional vibes all day long.
Summary
There are tons of free resources to help small businesses with their marketing efforts. All you have to do is look. Here’s a recap of the five we covered:
Mailchimp - An easy to use e-mail marketing platform
Google Analytics - Backend website data analysis
Hootsuite - Schedule your social media posts ahead of time
Hotjar - View your website visitors’ journeys
Want some more advice on how to use these tools? Or need an extra hand to help with your marketing strategy? Reach out to Jessica Ann Marketing today to start using freelance marketing services.