Free Online Tools To Help Grow Your Business
When you are first starting out in your business you want to be spending as little as possible on overheads and luckily there are loads of free tools you can get online that can help you grow your business.
I have upgraded to the paid version of some of the tools but would like to share with you six of the free ones that I am still using because they are more than capable of doing everything I need them to do.
Find out more in the video, or have a read below …
Note: Some of the features available with the free version of the tools mentioned in the video have changed since the video was recorded. Please refer to the websites mentioned in the links. The information in the blog post below has been updated to reflect the changes, at the time of posting.
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Email Marketing Tool
Every business course and online tutorial you read will tell you to build an email list. This is a really good thing to do from the very beginning as it means you can resell to your customers. It also means that if you ever have to move your online shop to somewhere else then you can let all of your past customers know. Etsy doesn’t allow you to do that via their platform, so you will need to build your own email list.
Mailchimp is a great place to start for beginners as it has all sorts of different features. Not all of them are included in the free plan but you can have up to 500 subscribers and send up to 1000 emails per month. There are also (limited) templates for you to build on.
For email lists that have more than 500 subscribers, I use Convertkit which has slightly better features. However, Mailchimp is great if you are starting out and just want the basics to build your list.
Branded Graphics
For all of your branded graphics, I recommend Canva.
I've mentioned Canva on lots of my other previous videos because I use it all of the time and even though I have Photoshop Illustrator and use Procreate, I still go to Canva a lot of the time. It works really well when I need some quick graphics for social media or a header for example.
Here are some of the main features offered in the free version of Canva.
Facebook posts
Presentations
A variety documents
Images and photos (and you can upload your own)
Lots of different fonts
Elements, such as lines and shapes
Illustrations
Sounds and videos
You can add different effects to your wording and also animate sections. Some of the features are only for the paid version, but there are lots to choose from in the free plan.
Canva is a really good tool no matter what kind of graphic you want to make for your business.
Social Media Scheduling
If you batch schedule your social media posts it can save you so much time during the week. I tend to do mine every fortnight on a Sunday evening and it really doesn't take me that much time at all. Sometimes I will subpost the odd thing during the week without scheduling if it's relevant to the moment and I want to share it straight away. But just for more general posts, it is so much easier to schedule.
I use Later for Instagram scheduling in particular because they have a really good grid feed feature that shows you what your feed will look like once your posts have been published. This is really helpful for you to keep everything on brand and maintain a consistent look.
Once you get to know how to use Later and would like to do more social media marketing, you can consider upgrading, but the free version has got everything that I've needed so far. They also have a blog with lots of tips and resources which is quite helpful too.
** Features on the free plan may have changed since the time of posting this blog.**
Organisation
I've got a thousand tabs open in my brain at all times and if don't write stuff down then it's probably not going to get done! Trello is a workflow management tool and is so helpful, I use it every day.
Not only do I add all of my daily to-do lists, but I've got a section where I just brain-dump ideas for new products and videos. Anything I think of that I might want to make in the future is put on a Trello board. I also set quarterly and yearly goals on there.
It's such a good tool anyway, I'd recommend it to anyone.
It does look a little bit complicated when you first look at it but once you start using it it's really easy. Here are some of the highlights:
You can create lots of different (unlimited) lists in which you can add everything you need to get done or ideas.
These lists (cards) can be shared with other people if you have a team working on your project.
Due dates for task deadlines can be added.
The ‘drag and drop’ system is really easy to use.
The Trello app can be downloaded on your phone if you want to take it with you on the go.
These are just a few of the lots of different features available on the free plan.
Etsy Keyword Tool
If you have an Etsy shop then eRank is a must-have tool which helps you find keywords for Etsy. It tracks how well you're doing compared to other shops, analyses your listings to see how well they are doing and looks at your growth.
I have mentioned this before in my Pinterest for Business video as it’s a really good tool to try. As your business grows you could consider upgrading, but the free plan does everything I need it to do.
These are the ones that I still use and don't pay anything for there are obviously tons of others. If you have any other really good recommendations I would love to hear them, just pop them in the comments.