Who doesn’t like free? Free digital marketing resources are life savers to new and small business owners. We’re certain if you were to ask a group of people why they chose NOT to open a business they’d reference cost in one way or form.
We all know the saying “It takes money to make money”. This quote is very true in the small business world. While many things are not free, there are a handful of free digital marketing resources you can use to help promote your business. Below we will discuss three free resources that you should use to help grow your business.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web service that helps track website traffic and Advertisement ROI. It has countless features that gives you insight on your website traffic and how you comes to be.
When paired with other Google Platform services (such as Google AdWords) it can help give you a quantitative value to ads and other promotional services. Want to see how much traffic you’re getting from Twitter compared to Facebook? Done! Would you like to figure out how much a certain ad campaign is bringing in compared to how much it’s costing? No Problem! It also has the capability to give you insight on the visitors themselves. Demographics, interest, where the person is (city, county, region), and more. Pretty much any analytic statistic you need, you can find with Google Analytics. It’s a must have to get the information about potential customers to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level. If there was a one stop shop for free digital marketing resources this would be it.
Google My Business
When you search for a local business or service online one of the first things you will see will be the Google My Business. Google My Business (GMB) is a business profile that appears in local searches when someone looks up your business on Google. It provides information such as address, contact information, hours of operation, and link to your website.
What many use GMB for is the review feature that allows potential customers to see reviews your currents clients have left. If you dig deeper you can also use GMB to get insightful information such as terms used to find you, number of searches you appeared in within a certain time frame, and number of profile views. An under utilized feature in GMB is to ability to post on your business profile. You can share information or promotions on your profile to attract the attention of new clients. If we were to recommend you start with one free digital marketing tool this would be it. Sometimes being available or easy to contact is what gets you a call instead of your competitor. Having a updated and well maintained GMB is the best way to do this. GMB is a great, but often over looked free digital marketing resource. If you’d like to learn more about Google My Business take a look at our previous post about the top features GMB has to offer.
Social Media Management Software (Hootsuite)
Social media is a great way to share your brand, company values, and service with the world. But today there are so many platforms and it can be difficult to maintain each. Using a Social Media Management software can help you stay on top of your content development, engagement, and post scheduling.
There are several software’s you can use and while all have a paid membership, most have a free or basic option that allows you to manage one or two of your social platforms.
Hootsuite is great software that helps you manage your social media platforms in one place. Not only can you engage with your followers, but you can also follow keywords to engage with and find new followers . It makes scheduling your content calendar very easy. Doing all the above for one platform can be a task every month, but with Hootsuite your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc can be managed from one site. Not sure how it can help your business? Take a look at our previous post discussing how social media can help SMB.
Conclusion
No one starts a business because they want less money. Keeping cost down is a constant battle of finding ways to lower expenses, but not quality. There are many other free digital marketing resources business owners use to grow their business.
What are some of your favorite free digital marketing resources?