Marketing is one of those line items that can cost as much as you let it. Splashy brand events, expensive trade shows, and top-of-the-line software all come with a steep price tag. Budgets can easily be blown with just a handful of choices.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. There are dozens if not hundreds of free resources out there that every price-conscious marketer can and should take advantage of. If you lean on these low-cost and no-cost resources, you can maximize your marketing returns.
Here are some of our favorite free marketing resources:
- Grammarly. Typos in marketing copy stand out…and not in a good way. The best way to avoid that kind of negative attention is to avoid typos all together. If you don’t have the resources for a huge marketing team with copywriters, editors, and proof-readers, you are going to need a way to check your own work. Grammarly software functions as a chrome extension. It is free to use (though paid upgrades are available), and once you install it, it will automatically identify anything wrong, and even anything questionable. It is a powerful way to review your own work and make it look like you have an entire team bringing your marketing ideas to glorious, perfect life.
- Canva. Marketing isn’t just about copy – it is also about beautiful images. Sure, you could hire a graphic designer, pay for an Adobe Creative Suite subscription, and come away with beautiful and original images…or you could just build those images yourself in Canva. Canva is an online platform that empowers people to create original images on their own. The platform provides templates for social media, infographics, logos, flyers, and so much more. You can also start with a blank canvas and lean on their design elements like icons and images to translate the image in your head to a digital image you can use. Like Grammarly, there are paid upgrades available, but the free Canva service is so powerful that you likely won’t have to purchase a thing!
- Unsplash. Need a stock image for your website, but don’t want to pay crazy stock image prices? Visit Unsplash instead. Unsplash is a royalty free image site with a powerful search function. Just type in a keyword and you will be met with dozens of images that can work for you – all for free! You can download high quality, high resolution images of nearly everything.
- Hootsuite. This is a social media automation product that allows you to connect your owned social media accounts and pre-schedule posts. It is great for small teams who do not have the time or resources available to manage social channels daily. The free version of this social media management software is limited, but it can still be powerful when leveraged correctly. Choose your two most impactful social accounts and schedule five posts at a time. With this tool, you can grow your social media presence quickly and impactfully.
- Hotjar. The best way to improve your marketing is to lean into concepts and projects that already work. This, of course, means that you need a way to determine what works and what doesn’t. Hotjar is a heat-mapping tool that gives you a fantastic visualization of where your users are spending time on your site. With their free version, you can track the most popular links and areas of a few key pages on your website. It is a fantastic way to figure out what your most popular pieces are so that you can pivot your strategy in order to hand your clients exactly what they want to see most.
- Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. Struggling to come up with content ideas? This fun, free tool allows you to enter up to five nouns that are associated with your business. It will then spit out suggested blog titles. It is a great way to get your brainstorm session rolling, and it is even a better way to ensure that your blog titles are intriguing and clickable. Our team typed in “Personal injury”, “Attorney” and “Bilingual” and the first suggestion was “Working with a bilingual personal injury attorney: expectations vs. reality.” Who wouldn’t want to read that piece?
- Website Grader. Curious about the efficacy of your entire site? Drop your URL into this free website grader and find out how you are doing! You will be graded on our main categories: performance, search engine optimization, mobile, and security. Those four scores will be rolled up into one score, so you will know how you are doing and the areas that need your attention most urgently.
Remember, do not spend money where you don’t have to! Instead, leverage these free tools and save your marketing dollars for something spectacular- like launching a brand new bilingual campaign for your practice.
