Even More Free Marketing Tools To Promote Your Business
It’s been a full year since my last Free Marketing Tools post and I’ve stumbled across some more helpful tools that can make your business stand out. And best of all, they’re free!
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo allows content marketers to find other relevant content that’s currently performing the best in search engines. It’s perfect for generating new blog ideas since you can get a statistical overview of each links’ overall engagement, social shares, backlinks and evergreen content score. Although the amount of links shown is limited, it should be enough to give you an idea of what topics are trending based on your search. If you plan on going pro, it may be worth it for the unlimited searches, mention alerts and custom feeds to keep up with trending topics.
Google Trends
By simply typing a search term, Google Trends can show you user interest over time, interest per region, related topics and related queries. You can narrow trends by country, date, category and search type. Searches can be performed with no limit and you can compare multiple search terms at once. Google Trends is another way for you to view popular relevant content, but only for Google searches.
Friends+Me
Friends+Me is a simple social media management system that allows you to schedule content across several social media platforms for free. The free account provides the same features as the paid account besides Pinterest, priority support and a limited number of scheduled posts and team members. The application is perfect if you only need basic automated posting for multiple social channels.
Linktree
Linktree is a content manager which uses one link that leads to an unlimited number of links. Simply add links from your blog, website or online store to Linktree and it automatically creates a single bio link that you copy and paste to all your social media. That link will provide all the content you want to drive your visitors to. Linktree is free to use, but for $6 a month, you can schedule links, set priority links, add images, timed links, social icons and add an email signup section.
MailChimp
MailChimp is more than just an email marketing platform. You can also build landing pages, Facebook and Instagram ads, schedule social posts, create a marketing calendar and more. The free version allows up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 monthly email sends. The pricing for the essentials and standard are also very reasonable for what they offer. MailChimp is the perfect starting point for any new business.
RiteTag
RiteTag can get you instant hashtag suggestions for images and text for all your social media posts. Hashtags are chosen based on real time engagement, which makes it easier to choose the best hashtags and save time on research. The free version allows you to do a hashtag search on their website to get unique tweets per hour, retweets per hour and hashtag exposure per hour. RiteTag is a great way to get a general overview of which hashtags could work best for your brand.
Bitly
Bitly can track and measure audience interactions using their popular link shortening software. Understand the who, when and where of users clicking your links so you can make tactical decisions as to how you communicate your brand. The free version keeps the bit.ly address, but if you want to upgrade and pay for the service, you can create and share branded links. As a small business, the bit.ly address will suffice. Once your business grows, consider branding your links to increase engagement.
Stencil
Stencil is an easy-to-use graphic design tool for social media. The application is similar to Canva, but with a few more extras and fewer clicks to completion. It has millions of royalty-free photos, icons, graphics and templates. With a free account, saving your designs are limited, but you can create what you need and delete what you don’t. Stencil is also integrated with Buffer for easy scheduling in one window.
Sumo — Share
Not to be confused with BuzzSumo, the Sumo Share app is a simple and incredibly helpful tool for your website. It’s a column of social media share buttons that make it easy for visitors to share your content with their friends. The more people share, the more visitors you get and it’s free to use. If you decide to go the Pro paid option, you can view which share button is actually binging you back traffic, customize your mobile preferences, download stats and remove the Sumo branding.
Website Grader
Website Grader from HubSpot scores your website out of 100 based on categories such as performance, mobile, SEO and security. It can calculate your site’s strengths and weaknesses and provide suggestions on how to improve in each category. The application is incredibly detailed from calculating browser caching and page requests to headings and meta descriptions. Its free so go ahead and try it for yourself.
