The idea of tackling Marketing alone can be overwhelming, but thankfully the Internet exists. There’s an endless supply of resources online - both free and paid - that can help you level up your Marketing and help you work smarter, not harder.

We’ve rounded up our top four favorite Marketing tools that we use for our clients and our own brand. These tools help us save time, create quality content, and make us more available for our clients and their goals.

MailChimp

MailChimp is our go-to program when it comes to all things email marketing. This platform was made for small businesses, giving you all the tools you need at an affordable price. Plus, they even offer a pretty robust free option for the business owners on a budget. This platform is what we use to design, send, and track our email newsletters (sign up to get those here). Email Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated — MailChimp proves this through their user-friendly interface and simplified features.

Buffer

Picture this: your daily tasks are complete, you’ve answered all the emails that were piling up, and your social media content is scheduled to automatically publish. Sounds amazing, right? If that sounds like a day you’ve never had, you need to sign up for Buffer. 

Completing your tasks and answering your emails are up to you, but Buffer takes care of publishing your social media so you don’t have to scramble to find something to post about at the end of your busy day. Buffer is an automatic scheduling platform that connects to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We use Buffer for ourselves and our clients, and we can’t sing its praises enough! It helps with consistency, content planning, and overall social strategy. It also gives us more time to review content effectiveness and compare platform analytics for continued success. Win/win/win.

Canva

Unpopular opinion: you don’t need to be a Photoshop wizard to create professional graphics for your business. What’s Canva and why do you need to use it? They say it best: “Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.” 

The possibilities are endless when it comes to Canva; you can design everything from an Instagram story to a book cover. Canva does have a Pro plan, but their free option has more than enough features to get you started. Their program is easy to navigate without being oversimplified.

Pexels/Unsplash

If you need photos for your content but you don’t want cheesy stock photos from 2005 (you know the ones we’re talking about), Pexels and Unsplash are perfect for you. We use professional photography from these websites for pretty much everything: blog posts, social media, email marketing, and our website. The photos are completely royalty free, so you don’t need to worry about copyright infringement as you create content.

Our whole company is founded on the principles of working smarter, not harder and that Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. MailChimp, Buffer, Canva, Pexels and Unsplash are some affordable tools we use to generate real results for our own business and for our clients. If you’re ready to start focusing on your Marketing efforts, we hope these tools help your business as much as they help ours.

We can use these tools to create the same kind of Marketing magic for your business. If you’re ready to create a plan, let’s talk. We can show you how to use these tools, or take care of it all for you. Either way, it’s time to work smarter.