Digital marketing can be intimidating, with a lot of moving parts that you must manage and lot of options for tools to use that can be expensive. Check out this list for ideas for cheap (or free!) tools.

Google Business Profile 

Your Google Business profile is one of the simplest marketing tools to have in your arsenal. To set it up, all you need to do is log in to your Google account (or create one for the business) and create a profile with the business’s information, including hours, service area, and contact info. It’s that simple! A lot of people may find your business through a Google search, so this is also an easy way to improve your SEO (search engine optimization), so people are more likely to find you and find the correct information. 

It’s important to note that sometimes, Google will automatically create a profile for the business if enough people are searching for it on Google, so you may have to request ownership of the profile. The profile may already exist without you knowing or having ownership of it, so it’s important (not to mention free and easy) to control it and make sure it’s accurate.  

Meta Business Suite – Facebook 

While many businesses are already using Facebook, Facebook’s Meta Business Suite is a great tool to manage your business page’s Facebook activity along with other Meta apps, like Messenger and Instagram. It allows you to easily plan your content, set content/engagement goals, reply to and organize messages, manage monetization and ads, see insights to understand if your content is effective, and more. It’s free, easy to use, and fits into the social media marketing that you’re already doing.  

Canva 

Visuals are so important in any type of marketing, and Canva is an easy way to create a variety of digital designs. They have templates with built-in sizes available for many uses including Facebook posts and events, Instagram posts stories, and more. It’s easy to either start from scratch or find a design that inspires you and edit it to fit your brand. On Canva, you can also create your “brand” and save certain colors, logos, and elements to make all your designs visually cohesive. 

If you need to create physical designs, Canva can do that too. You can create your design and then have it printed onto flyers, water bottles, bags, gift cards, and more, all through Canva (prices vary depending on the item). Plan options are free, $14.99/month, and $29.99/month, with some features and elements restricted to certain places. 

Mailchimp 

Mailchimp is a platform primarily for email marketing, but also can be used for SMS marketing, social media, and website management in an effort to integrate your different digital marketing strategies. Email marketing can be a great way to stay connected with your customers and directly promote products. While there are plenty of email marketing platforms and some others may work better with your e-commerce and website platforms, Mailchimp is easy to use and has a free plan option. Other plans are $13/month, $20/month, and $350/month with a primary difference being the maximum number of emails you can send per month. 

SurveyMonkey 

Conducting customer surveys can help you get vital feedback from your customers on what new products they’d like to see, if they liked products, etc. It’s an easy way to communicate broadly to customers without always having to do a one-on-one conversation. With platforms like SurveyMonkey, you can design and send out surveys to a customized audience. It can also integrate with other platforms like Mailchimp to easily send surveys out to your existing audiences. Plan options are $39/month, $99/month, or $119/month for individuals and $25/month or $75/month for teams. 

ChatGPT 

ChatGPT is a free AI tool that can help you generate content when you struggle with creativity – which is totally normal! With ChatGPT, you can type in a prompt for a Facebook post, Instagram caption, and many other topics and it will type up ideas for you. Then, you can edit it to fit your brand and be more unique.  

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite allows you to manage all your social media networks in one place to develop, schedule, and analyze content. It also will help you understand gaps in your content to understand what your audience wants to see. Plan options are $99/month, $249/month, or custom for enterprises. 

If you’d like additional help with your marketing, contact KCARD at (859) 550-3972 or kcard@kcard.info.