My son is the KING of engineered efficiency. If there’s a way to do something faster, easier, better he will find it. When he was 7, I mentioned how frustrated I was that everyone kept leaving the gate open because the dog was escaping into parts of the house where he still needed supervision. Later that day, my son built a “gate closer” from his rubber band bracelet kit (with an added army guy to make it cool.) Problem solved.
While the gate closer couldn’t stay forever, unless we wanted to limbo into the living room, the idea was fantastic. I’m all for automating things to solve a problem. Especially if it makes life easier and gives me less I have to think about. Which brings us to today’s post…
FREE Marketing Tools to Make Growing Your Business Faster & Easier!
I know, none of these marketing tools are as amazing as a colorful rubber band bracelet gate closer with an army guy accent, but I they’re pretty fantastic for a business on a budget!
Automation:
- Zapier – Help your different marketing tools like your calendar and autoresponder talk to each other!
- IFTTT – More automation awesomeness coming your way!
Social Media:
- Buffer – Save time on your social media marketing by scheduling your posts.
- HootSuite – Another social post scheduler to help you save time!
Email Marketing:
- MailChimp – Email marketing for small businesses! Perfect for those just getting started!
Graphic Design:
- Canva – Do you like making pretty things? Canva is a free photo editing/graphic design software with built-in templates and social media image sizes!
- Pixlr – Want a bit more design power, but don’t want to invest in Photoshop? Pixlr is a great free tool that does a lot of what you can do in photoshop!
WordPress Plugins:
- WordPress – My favorite – of course! This is the best CMS out there – and it’s free for everyone.
- WooCommerce – Wanna sell stuff? Woocommerce is a free plugin for Wordpress that will allow you to do just that!
- Yoast SEO – Help the search engines show your site to the people who are looking for you with some basic SEO on your blog posts & pages! (Get a green light? You did it right!)
- Beaver Builder – Skip those CSS and HTML classes you’ve been meaning to take. Build gorgeous pages on your WordPress site with Beaver Builder, a free plugin that works with almost any theme! (Free will do the trick but the paid upgrade is totally worth it though!)
- Pixel Your Site – Don’t get puzzled by pixels – get the Pixel Your Site plugin and simplify your Facebook tracking! (The paid version works with WooCommerce)
- Formidable Forms – Want fancy forms on your site for client questionnaires or surveys? This plugin will do the trick nicely!
Calendar Tools:
- Calendly – Stop the back and forth email madness! Get Calendly and let your leads pick which time works best for them!
Video Recording/Conferencing Tools:
- Zoom – Video conferencing, recording your webinars, screen sharing and more! Zoom’s amazing for all the things!
- Use Loom – Want to record quick screen share videos to send to clients, your website designers, etc? Use Loom is free. The basic plan is pretty basic but you can quickly earn more features by sharing this freebie with your friends!
Project Management Tools:
- Evernote – Keep your thoughts, clipped articles, insurance cards, and business ideas organized and safe!
- Asana – Powerful project management for Fuh-ree!
- Trello – Oh, Hello Trello! Check out my beautifully organized visual dashboards of all my amazing projects & ideas.
Here are my favorite paid marketing tools that are totally worth the money!
So while I love the free tools above, some are really best for people just getting started in their online business. Many free tools have stripped down features and just aren’t powerful enough to scale with your business. So, here are my faves that I’m using now in my own business. I’m including a few marketing tools I’ve been able to experience as well, because they are ones my clients are using. I have personally tried all of these and can recommend them confidently to you.
Email Marketing:
- ActiveCampaign – Client tagging, multiple automation series, and an easy to use dashboard make Active Campaign the platform I chose to use in my business.
- Convert Kit – While I don’t use ConvertKit personally, I have lots of clients who do. This is a great email marketing tool that is easy to use and offers more power than MailChimp.
Scheduling:
- ScheduleOnce – The reason I chose Schedule Once for my funnel is simple – it was the only platform I could find that would allow me to redirect someone to a new page after they booked their appointment.
- AcuityScheduling – Lots of my clients use and love AcuityScheduling. It’s easy to set up, add client questionnaires, create packages for different session groupings, etc.
Miscellaneous:
- Dubsado – My newest LOVE! Dubsado is a business management tool that includes workflows, forms, invoices, client portals, and bookkeeping.
- MeetEdgar – Want to know how to create LESS content but get more social traffic? Build a library of content in MeetEdgar and let it repost it strategically so more of your followers see it!
- GetProof – Leveraging social proof is one of the best ways to increase your conversion. GetProof displays a notification in the bottom corner of your website, letting people see others who have taken action, opted in, purchased etc.
If you’re looking to take your automation up a notch, let’s talk about creating a website and marketing funnel that gets you leads when you need them without hustling!
Heather is a website designer & marketing strategist who specializes in helping service-based business owners get more clients through online marketing. In addition to owning Wise Owl Marketing, Heather married her sweetheart 29 years ago. Together, they have 3 active kids and a sweet old chocolate lab.
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