Best Free Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

There is an almost unending list of marketing tools and resources available to businesses today. These tools can be used for assisting with or improving different aspects of your marketing efforts.

However, as useful as modern business marketing tools can be, their cost can add up when you choose to subscribe to a number of the services. For many businesses, it is not always practical or affordable to pay for a subscription to all of these marketing tools.

If you still want the benefits of marketing tools but can’t afford a subscription for everything at this time, you can always turn to the best free marketing tools in the market that can also help you achieve the same goals.

Here’s a list of free marketing solutions that can boost different aspects of your marketing strategy:

1. Search Engine Optimization Tools

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a top way to increase website visibility and organic traffic from search engines.

While there are plenty of SEO tools to choose from, some of the best are free. For example, two of the best SEO tools come from Google: Google Keyword Planner and Google My Business.

Google’s Keyword Planner is one of the best tools for planning an SEO campaign. You will need to set up a Google account to access the keyword planner, but it is free and easy to use.

The next tool is Google My Business. Setting up your Google My Business profile is an easy way to improve your search engine results without having to do a lot of work.

Along with that, Google also provides Google Analytics tool for users to track their SEO and content marketing campaigns for free with valuable insights concerning the ways in which your website performs and customers find your business. 

Other SEO tools with great free plans to check out include Semrush, Ahrefs, and TopicRanker that help with various SEO tasks, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and more so you can rank higher and drive more organic traffic.

2. Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing has proven its ability to deliver results. With the right tools, you can improve your email marketing and make it more effective.

Mailchimp is a platform for creating and automating email marketing campaigns. They do have paid plans, but you can do a lot with the free service they offer as well. You get basic email templates and the ability to send emails to 2,000 subscribers. You also get access to some of the basic metrics to see the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Aweber, ConvertKit, and Benchmarkemail also provide similar services. Just like Mailchimp and the other tools, Benchmark does have paid services, but they also offer free accounts. With the free account, you get simple automation services and the ability to send up to 250 emails per month.

Those are just some of the many email marketing tools available today with great free plans.

3. Content Marketing Tools

Content is the core of many online marketing campaigns. BuzzSumo is a great tool for discovering content marketing ideas. With this tool, you can find trending topics to write about and discover influencers who may be relevant to your business.

Just like some of the other tools on this list, you can pay for a subscription if you want to get more from BuzzSumo. With that said, the free account will also be adequate for most users.

Other great content marketing tools with free plans you should consider include Hubspot for inbound marketing, Hemingway Editor to make your writing better, Exploding Topics to discover emerging content topics for blog posts, YouTube videos, and more, and Mixkit which offers hundreds of free HD videos for your next video project.

4. Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media marketing has become almost mandatory for most businesses. With that said, it can be difficult to keep up with social media if you don’t have the right tools.

HootSuite is one of the most popular tools for social media marketing you can check out. This service offers both paid and free subscription options. The free tools have a lot to offer; you can schedule posts to your social media accounts and it lets you connect up to three channels for free. It also comes with an easy to use dashboard and basic analytics.

Other tools with useful free plans to boost your social media game include Buffer and CoSchedule for scheduling your social media posts, Snappa and Canva for making awesome-looking social media images, and Upfluence for easily finding influencers on social media.

In conclusion

Some businesses might be able to cover all of their marketing needs without having to pay for any subscriptions. With that said, some of the paid services do offer a lot of value.

If you want to upgrad to a paid plan, think about the cost of the plan and compare that to the added value of the additional services. Free is good, but it might be worth paying the extra cost.