How To Improve Your Online Marketing With A $0 Budget
If there’s one thing I’ve learned while working with small business owners over the past year, it’s that they rarely want to dedicate time to marketing their own business.
CRAZY, RIGHT?!
I can tell you though, after a year working with RedFork and growing the business, I totally get it.
Marketing takes a ton of work, and many times it’s the last thing a small business owner wants to devote energy to when there are so many other “more important things” to worry about.
Lucky for all of us small business owners and entrepreneurs, the Internet provides access to some pretty amazing companies offering some awesome free online tools to make marketing a small business a whole lot easier!
Check out this list of a few of my favorite free online marketing tools to help improve your small business marketing strategies right now.
Top Free Online Marketing Tools For Every Small Business
1. Buffer
Buffer is a social media platform manager that allows you to do one of the most sought-after things busy entrepreneurs and small business owners look for… Automate.
Share photos and videos across all your social media platforms, including: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
Not only can you publish with Buffer, but you can also schedule multiple posts every day of the week, and then analyze the performance each piece of content you share with your audience.
Alternative: Hootsuite
2. Canva
Not everyone is can be an all-star graphic designer. ** raises hand ✋ **
Quality graphic design work can also take a sizable chunk of time out of your day, but with Canva, even a novice can crank out a great design in no time.
Canva features an easy drag-and-drop interface and a wide variety of templates for every type of graphic design project you can imagine. Whether you need to create a poster, email header, Facebook Page cover image, or even an album cover for your next EP, Canva is a great tool to not only create a beautiful design, but a quick one too!
They also have a fantastic Design School featuring articles, tutorials and tips for you to really elevate your design aesthetic to the next level.
Alternative: Pablo
3. Crowdfire
Self-promoted as “Your super-smart marketing sidekick.”
Crowdfire is an AI-driven marketing bot [ 🤖 ] that focuses on helping people and brands share content that their audiences will truly enjoy. It’s another automation tool that can help you share content that is relevant and meaningful to your audience and brand without spending the time to create it.
Similar to Buffer, this app can publish content through multiple social media channels including: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and more. My business partner and RedFork Founder, Dave Diaz, recently started using this app and really enjoys the service.
4. Medium
Stories matter, and that’s exactly what Medium focuses on delivering – great stories.
Medium is essentially a blog platform where users share their ideas and perspectives on various topics ranging from world affairs to personal essays. If you, or anyone on your team loves to write and share their thoughts, than Medium is place for you.
Check out this great blog post from HubSpot which recounts their experience with Medium after a full year of storytelling.
Alternative: Blogger
Not gonna lie about this one – we’re HubSpot users, and we love the platform. HubSpot has quickly turned into one of my favorite brands, and it’s not just because they have an awesome marketing and sales product.
HubSpot also delivers some of my most favorite utility content when it comes to marketing strategies and fundamentals. Be sure to check out their blogs and sign up for their email newsletter if you haven’t already done so.
Ok, back to their free marketing product, HubSpot will provide you with the basic elements you need to have established on your website to start collecting leads and analyze your site activity. At $0 a month, how can you not afford to activate a service like this if you don’t have something already in place… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Alternative: SumoMe
Outro
With these tools, your small business marketing strategy can reach the next level without taking away any more time from your busy daily schedule. Take some time to decide what area of your marketing needs some assistance, and put one of these tools to work!
If you’re not sure and need some help deciding which tool is best for your small business, or if your marketing strategy needs assistance in a different area, please leave me a comment or reach out to the RedFork Team at:
We’d love to help you and your team out in any way we can. 🙂
Your Turn
Have any other favorite online marketing tools that are free?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 free online marketing tools that every “hands-on” marketer should use, by Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
10 Free Marketing Tools Every Entrepreneur Should Know About, by Derek Miller of Entrepreneur
10 Free Online Marketing Tools Every Small Business Owner Needs, by Garrett Mehrguth of Moz