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5 FREE tools every small business owner needs

I’m sure you’ve heard them all…

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“You get what you pay for.”

“If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.”

“You don’t get something for nothing.”

I could go on, but you get the point. There is a stigma around “free” that somehow diminishes the value of anything that claims to be just that. Somewhere along the line, we started to distrust the word “free.”

But I’m here to tell you that “free” can be amazing! In fact, I have five amazing tools that are just that – free! – and won’t leave you feeling like you are getting subpar service just because you aren’t paying a fortune.

AND, these free tools offer an easy way to streamline some of your marketing processes which gives you the most valuable thing of all…time.

They may not give you a free lunch, but they will definitely give you back some time to eat it.

 

Without further ado, let’s dive into my favorite free marketing tools!

1. Canva

This one should be a no-brainer. Canva has revolutionized the graphic design world and made it SO EASY to crank our professional, branded visuals without having to be an expert.

The free version of Canva is still robust. You get access to hundreds of templates, graphics, and photos. It has an intuitive drag-and-drop design interface that makes customizing designs a breeze. You also have access to a variety of file outputs once you complete your design.

The true magic of Canva is how easy it is to put together clean, branded graphics you can reuse again and again. You don’t necessarily need the pro version’s “Brand Kit” to achieve the same result.

To make the most of the free version of Canva, keep your scope small. Start with three to four designs, all using your logo, brand colors, and a consistent font. If I was starting fresh, I would design the following:

Instagram Single Post Template + Facebook Vertical Image (1080px x 1350px)

Instagram Reel Cover + Stories Template (1080px x 1920px)

Facebook Horizontal Image (1200px x 630px)

Generic Flyer/Poster Template (8.5” x 11” – letter size)

Rack Card template (4” x 9”)

With these five key templates, you can do some pretty amazing things…all for free!

2. Google Business

I think there is a misconception that a Google Business page is only relevant if you have a physical location. But I have found it is a powerful way to help local customers find you even if you are service-based or without a public-facing location (like me!).

One of the very first things I recommend to anyone in business is to get your Google Business profile up and running. Once verified, this little listing can do more for your local SEO than any amount of paid advertising can. It means you show up on maps and in local searches with the information you want to show up with…like your hours, your photos, and your business details.

And while all of that is amazing, there are two more reasons I love Google Business: reviews and AI search results.

First, Google Business is a fantastic place to ask for and capture customer feedback. Obviously, we love five-star reviews, but even if you get a not-so-nice post, this provides a very visual place for potential customers to see how you react to that kind of feedback. It is an opportunity to build trust, and credibility, and let your values shine through. Oh, and great reviews also make for great social media and website content, so it’s a win-win!

Second, Google as a search engine is designed to keep you on Google. Gone are the days when the search engines wanted to connect you with the right website and send you on your merry way, nope! Now they want to keep you on their own site as long as possible. And they are doing that with new AI snippets and visual content.

Try Googling something like “vacation destinations in Idaho” and see what pops. First, you’ll notice an “AI Overview” at the top, a place where Google combs through websites and serves up a quick “answer” to your inquiry without you having to leave. Next, just below some sponsored content, you might see some visuals of popular destinations. Note, these are NOT the destination’s websites, this is information from their Google listings! And below that, the ever-popular question drop-downs. These at least note a source for you to click on, but why would you if your question has already been answered?

Point being, Google Business is a tremendously powerful and FREE tool that is a must-have for every small business.

3. Google Analytics

While I may wax poetic about how powerful Google Business is, she has an equally powerful counterpart…Google Analytics.

Data is one of the most important ways to know what’s working for your business, what your customers are seeking from you, where your customers are coming from, and more. It is pretty clear-cut. Analytics unlock a whole world of insight for free.

I will note that with the roll-out of G4, the new Analytics interface, there are a lot of new ways you can analyze and track your data. But for most people, a simple look at the following stats and tracking that month-over-month is plenty:

Your Acquisition data – how many active users, how many new users, and how they got to your website (Reports > Acquisition > Overview)

Your Engagement data – how many page views and event counts. You can set “events” to be whatever you want, but it defaults to four main events: page views, user engagement, session starts, and first visits (Reports > Engagement > Overview).

Your Most Visited Pages – track trends in seasonality, marketing campaigns, etc. and how that impacts what pages are getting the most traffic (Reports > Engagement > Pages and Screens).

User Attributes – this is everything from their geographic location to their age and gender (Reports > User > User Attributes > Overview).

4. Chat GPT

AI is here to stay and for small business owners, it can be a real game-changer. I’m not talking about having a robot spit out a blog post that you pass off as your own or churn social media posts with 9,000 emojis…I’m talking about the power of AI when it comes to ideation and strategy building.

A few examples of how I use ChatGPT:

Once I have a social media post drafted, I paste the text in and ask ChatGPT to provide me with 10 ideas of powerful “hooks” I can use with that post. From there, I mix and match and use my own judgment to get a final one-liner.

If I am pitching a new client, I put their website and social links into ChatGPT and then ask it to summarize the business’s core values, products, and anything else I may want to get a quick read on.

I use AI to brainstorm on a daily basis. I admit I use this a lot for social media purposes, especially when my tank is running on empty. Providing some context on the business I want to promote and the target market I want to talk to, I often ask ChatGPT to give me 20 reel ideas. That usually gets the wheels turning again!

I actually just used ChatGPT to confirm what the free version of ChatGPT offers 😉

The free version of ChatGPT does have some limits on the number of prompts and responses in a given timeframe (usually 24 hours) and at this time, uses GPT 3.5 rather than GPT 4.0. But that doesn’t mean it is any less effective!

There are so many ways you can use AI to your advantage. It saves time, it helps get the ideas flowing, it can enhance your already stellar efforts.

5. Meta Business Suite

I am not sure I know anyone who doesn’t have a love-hate relationship with their Meta Business Suite account. And while it can be a bit clunky at times, there is no denying the fact that it is a fantastic, free option when it comes to pre-scheduling posts, analyzing your data, and placing ads.

There are some other great options if you are looking for the scheduling features only (like Buffer and Later), but most of the free plans limit the number of posts you can schedule per month per profile and often don’t provide analytics…you will have to go back to Meta Business Suite for that anyway!

Bonus Tip: In-app posting is also an option, just be wary of the Instagram scheduled post feature…it is known to be glitchy, especially when it comes to reels. My work-around? Build your reel with the video and text you want. Then export it. Now go back in and load the reel with the text already built in, add your music and schedule! Now there is no chance that text you worked so hard to add to your reel will disappear.

 

BONUS: Stock Photography Sites

In a perfect world, all of our visuals would be of our actual business, our actual products, our actual setting. But sometimes you just need a quick Santa image for a holiday promotion or a simple texture to add as a background to your website. This is where stock photography sites come in really handy.

There are paid sites like iStock and Shutterstock, but I really hate paying for things that are one-off or not the star of the show. So I keep a quick list of sites on hand to pull images and illustrations from when I need something fast:

Pexels

Pixabay

Dupe

The Noun Project

Unsplash (photos + illusrations)

UnDraw (illustrations)

UnBlast (mockups)

Want more free tools?

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