DIY Digital Marketing Cheat Sheet
(Mostly) Free Resources for Marketing Communications on a Budget
What does it mean to be an entrepreneur with a young business? For many of us, it means that we can’t afford to hire marketing staff or outsource our marketing functions.
It means some of our job titles include copywriter, graphic artist, social media manager, blogger, SEO Specialist, and the list goes on.
Someday we’ll have a snazzy marketing department staffed with the most creative and brightest talent but alas, today is not that day.
But fear not. The DIY Digital Marketing Cheat Sheet is here to save you from embarrassing grammatical errors, blurry or unfocused photos, and ads that look like they were created using — *facepalm* — Microsoft WordArt from 2007.
1. Free Hi-Res Photos
Don’t have money to hire a $500 per hour professional photographer or to spend tons on royalties for stock photos?
Unsplash.com has an extensive catalog of FREE, beautiful, high-quality stock photos that don’t even need attribution! Use them however and wherever you want.
Unsplash also has a mobile app version that you can download from your mobile app store.
Other good options are Pexels and Pixabay.
Yeah, you’re welcome.
2. Free (and Easy) Photo Editing
Notwithstanding the exorbitant price of Photoshop, using Adobe’s most famous product can seem like it requires a double Master’s degree in Graphic Design and IT to the uninitiated.
Ain’t nobody got time for that (unless, of course, you’re a graphic artist or IT specialist, in which case, you wouldn’t need this cheat sheet anyway).
Photoshop Express, the mobile app version of the program is both free AND easy-to-use. Make your brand’s images pop and automatically resize your images for your different social media accounts.
Little to no technical skills needed. If you can use a smartphone, you can use these apps. The Enhance app by HootSuite is also a good option for easy photo editing.
3. Free Drag ‘n Drop Graphic Design
Need to create a flyer, infographic, invitation, social media post, or any other marketing material?
Check out Canva.
The program has tons of themed templates for you to choose from or, if you’re feeling creative, you can start from scratch. Canva also has loads of fonts, shapes, frames, and illustrations to choose from.
Some tools like resizing, along with certain images, require payment, but the free version is VERY useful.
4. Free Spell check
Bad grammar can negatively impact your business’ credibility. Write with confidence, knowing that Grammarly will catch and correct your errant spelling and grammar for whatever you type on your computer — whether it’s your social media posts or business documents.
The program is available for free for both Mac and Windows. There’s also a paid version that does a more complex review but the free version works just fine.
5. All your marketing communication needs for $5+
Finally, outsourcing you can afford! Sometimes, you get what you pay for — C’mon, did you really expect to get a cinema-quality video edited for $5? — but most times you can get quality services for excellent value, starting at $5+.
Fiverr has freelancers from around the world who offer services in digital marketing, graphics, web design, SEO, writing and translation, video and animation, and much more.
You can either purchase a gig directly from a particular service provider or post the details of your project and let the pros bid for your service.
Happy creating!
Do you have more resources to add to the list? Share them in the comments below.
Kristle Gangadeen
Trinidad & Tobago
YLAI (2017) Alum
