Brand Development, Web Design, and Google Analytics Specialists
Experienced in SEM, SEO, Social Media, and Traditional Media
27 Free Marketing Tools that Actually Grow Your Business
When performing a simple search for a variety of marketing tools you’re sure to churn out what seems like a billion options. After going through a few in each category it can feel like you really can’t go wrong with any of the tools. Especially when they’re lauded with endless reviews from Fortune 500 companies or the most relevant marketing guru.
What’s more, many of the available marketing tools come with a hefty price tag that just isn’t feasible quite yet for startups or small businesses.
Thankfully we’ve removed much of the guess work and analyzed dozens upon dozens of tools, all with the price tag of $0 so you’ll know straight away what to invest your time building into your marketing strategy.
Social Media Scheduling
1. Later: If you’re using Instagram heavily for your business’ products and/or services then you need Later in your life.
With capabilities like visually planning and scheduling 30 posts monthly, all of your workflow is kept in one super organized place. The Visual Instagram Planner enables you to flawlessly curate the layout of your feed (our favorite feature)!
If you’re able to upgrade to pro then you’ll be able to utilize Linkin.bio, which gives you the capability of having multiple links in your bio. Additionally, pro allows you to post across Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Don’t want to pay for the Linkin.bio feature? Then Linktree is an awesome and FREE alternative.
Other great options:
- Buffer: The forever free plan lets you connect one profile from Facebook and Twitter, and schedule ahead 10 posts for each network. Meaning, if you share three posts per day you can stay three days ahead all the time.
- UNUM: Another great way to plan the look and feel of your Instagram feed. While also gaining simple analytical insights into the performance of your posts. You’re only allowed up to a certain number of planned posts before you have to upgrade.
Hashtagging
We’ve all been there… staring blankly at our phones after copying and pasting our usual hashtags. Wondering if there are any other ones out there that can serve us better. Or maybe you’ve struggled with the infamous shadow ban. The following tools will help you on both fronts.
2. Display Purposes: With Display Purposes you can discover related hashtags three different ways: through search, localized map, and graph. Just enter the hashtag you generally utilize and watch as the magic happens.
3. Focalmark: This app for iOS and Android operates similarly by allowing you to search and find related hashtags. Since it’s app based you’re able to seamlessly copy and paste to Instagram.
4. Shadowban: Test your recent posts to see if the hashtags you’re using are getting you banned from being discovered. Probably one of the most useful tools out right now!
Free Images
4. Unsplash: One of the most robust and beautifully curated free image sources on the Internet. With pictures being added daily you can easily find the perfect capture for your next marketing campaign, social, or blog post.
We use Unsplash often for imagery used in our blogs post and social.
5. Pexels: Another great source for free stock photos.
Photo Editing
6. ColorStory: Eye popping color and beautifully crafted presets with robust editing tools.
7. VSCO: One of the world’s go-to photo editing apps. We love using them as part of the overall editing process.
Other Paid Option:
- Afterlight: Another great editing app if you’re looking to get more granular with your edits, instead of relying only on filters and gimmicks.
Design
8. Canva: Over 2 million people use Canva to create stunning images for social media, blog posts, Facebook ads, landing pages, and so much more.
It’s a wonderful resource for businesses with limited design budgets or even know-how. The optimized sizes and templates make it easy to develop content for every social platform in a really imaginative a deceptively skillful way.
Influencer Marketing Related
9. Influencer Money Calculator: Every wonder how much a particular influencer is really worth or if you’re over spending on your influencer marketing campaigns?
Then head over to Influencer Marketing Hub’s money calculator, which provides an estimate on how much to pay influencers for a campaign.
10. Klout: By using social media analytics to rate its users according to online social influence via the Klout Score, they’re able to place a numerical value between 1 and 100 on an influencer. Use Klout as part of your influencer selection process.
Generating Content Ideas
11. Buzzsumo: Whether in a blog post idea drought or trying to gage what content performs best for a specific topic, Buzzsumo is your place to figure it all out.
They allow a few searches for free, but afterwards will require an upgrade to pro so we suggest a targeted search if you can’t afford the service quite yet.
12. Ubersuggest: Use Ubersuggest to quickly find new keywords not available in the Google Keyword Planner. You’ll uncover tons of keyword ideas for SEO, PPC, and content marketing campaigns.
Landing Pages
13. WordPress: If you’re already using WordPress for your website or blog then the fastest and cheapest way to get landing pages going is to simply create a new page. This will give you the ability to direct your marketing campaigns to your new dedicated page.
Blogging
14. Blogger: Millions of blogs are built on Blogger (by Google) because of its easy-to-use templates that enable you to get a blog up and running in no time. Other boons for your blog include AdSense integration, built-in analytics plus Google analytics plugin, and storage for thousands of posts, photos, and more.
15. Medium: While Medium isn’t necessarily a tool, it is however, a great launching pad to start blogging from as there’s already a highly engaged audience built into the website.
With topics ranging from marketing best practices to interior design, you’re sure to find an audience seeking out topics around your niche. One of their newest features is an email newsletter where you can get in touch with your followers. How cool is that?!
16. WordPress: Not much needs to be said here as WordPress is generally the go-to for building a robust blog. However, what we love is the diversity of templates, widgets, and plugins that provide not only a competitive edge, but a way to clearly differentiate your blog’s look and feel.
Video
17. Wistia: After putting in all the time and effort to create a beautiful and effective video you want a platform that’s going to aid your marketing goals.
With Wistia it’s a marketers dream because the video player keeps people on your page, and can even send them to your desired next destination. Other great features are branding customization, call-to-action buttons, email capture, heatmapping to view trends, and more.
Others:
Website Analysis Tools
18. Above the Fold SEO Audit: Google scores your digital landscape according to SEO, mobile, social, usability, and many more. Knowing how you score is vital to your internet marketing effectiveness. We’ll deliver a full SEO audit of your website.
19. Website Grader: A great resource to receive immediate feedback on the strength and performance of your website, as well as tips on how to improve SEO, speed, security, and mobile performance.
20. Quicksprout: A full scope tool for website auditing, social media and competitor analysis.
Website Optimization
21. Hotjar: Heatmapping your website is an effective way to understand what users want, care about, and interact with on your website through visual representations of their clicks, taps, and scrolling behavior.
SEO
22. Open Site Explorer: Use Moz’s tool to determine your domain and page authority, incoming link sources, and a competition comparison. You can receive three free reports daily.
Other:
Email Marketing
23. Mailchimp: As an email marketing provider Mailchimp provides a very robust service. However, if you’re just starting to build your list and strategy their free option gives all the bells and whistles you’ll need.
If you have 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month that comes with automation, sign up forms, modern templates, and data insight.
Project Management
24. Trello: Keep your team organized with Trello’s visual project management solution. With the ability to add team members, app integrations, comments, attachments, images, and set deadlines you’re able to keep every detail of a project in one place.
Other:
Communication
25. Slack: Eradicate the black hole that is searching through your email inbox with Slack. It’s an amazing internal company communication tool where you can message between employees, store information, upload attachments, and integrate other apps and tools you use daily. All done in a fun and modern way (with lots of emojis and gifs)!
CRM
26. Streak: For anyone looking to keep their CRM and email in one place should turn to Streak for Gmail. It’s an awesome and simple tool to manage and track current deals, especially if doing it on a smaller scale.
Lead Generation
27. SumoMe: They offer tools to automate site growth through non-intrusive pop ups where you can offer lead magnets to collect emails and social followers. The free version offers limited customization, however it’s a great place to start building your email lists.
Other:
Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing (& How it Boosts SEO Ranking)
It seems everyone you meet these days is a self-proclaimed influencer. Whether that’s over a multi-million plus following or their local book club, the significance of influencers has entered our daily lexicon and lives, and guess what, it’s here to stay.
As a business in 2017 it’s a marketing resource you can no longer neglect. In fact, a recent emarketer survey found that 84% of marketers intend on launching at least one influencer campaign in the next 12 months. Even more staggeringly, 94% of marketers from a variety of industries said influencer marketing was an effective strategy.
Finding key target influencers to develop strategic partnerships with will only take your brand and business to the next level.
Before diving into the complexities of a full frontal influencer campaign let’s go over the basics with this Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing:
What in the World is an Influencer?
First, let’s take a step back and define influence.
In·flu·ence
Noun
- the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.
With this in mind, an influencer is a person, or even in some cases a furry friend, that has established a level of authority and trust amongst their niche audience.
Unlike celebrity endorsements, influencers carefully select their affiliations, opting to partner with brands that reflect their personal branding and don’t alienate their followership. This close connection to their audience has fostered an environment where fans follow their every move, trusting their word sometimes above their very own friends and family.
Essentially they’ve curated the ability to affect and control customer purchasing decisions, and drive consumers to brands over others. Making them the ultimate potential trendsetter for your brand.
What’s amazing about an influencer is they can take many shapes and forms, and the term does not only apply to fashion and beauty bloggers. An influencer can be a journalist, author, commentator, industry insider, blogger, celebrity, happy customer, and the list goes on.
The ultimate goal with influence is to generate positive brand perception and awareness in a truly authentic and unique way. You’ll be in wonder of what some influencers can create with your brand!
Why Influencer Marketing Matters
Nearly 40% of Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer, according to Twitter.
With numbers like that, influencer affected purchases clearly aren’t are a one-off.
So let’s take a peek at a few successful influencer marketing campaigns that clearly illustrate Tomoson’s findings that “Influencer marketing was rated the fastest-growing online customer acquisition channel, beating organic search, paid search, and email marketing.”
Ok numbers, do the talking:
1. Lulus
We’ll start with coveted and viral fashion online store, Lulus. Started a number years ago as a fast-fashion ecommerce brand, now has transformed itself into every it girl’s go-to for chic and affordable looks.
What led to Lulus explosive growth and cult status? Influencer marketing. How did they do it?
Lulu’s partnered with fashion bloggers that fit their branding. By reaching out to bloggers of varying and diverse followers they were able to tap into a wide, yet targeted audience.
They then provided these bloggers with the ability to select clothing, shoes, and/or accessories that fit their own personal brand. Then encouraged them to share how they styled their Lulus look with their followers on social media and their blog, and of course, without forgetting to include the #lovelulus hashtag.
As you can see in the example above, by supplying @nicholeciotti with a dress (and possibly some payment) they put themselves in front of her 450K+ audience that attracted 14K+ likes. All while advertising in a way that’s natural and ultimately led to purchase conversions through her delicate call-to-action.
Lulus has built a business on this type of seemingly easy breezy influencer marketing. Imagine what you can do with your business!
2. Suja Juice
We couldn’t speak about influencer marketing without mentioning local San Diego company, Suja Juice! To say their Midnight Tonic campaign went viral, would be a major understatement.
And if you can believe it… they were able to get their products in the hands and in the feeds of major celebrities, influencers, and raving fans alike at no paid promotional cost.
Let’s dive in and learn how they pulled it off!
In September 2016, Suja Juice released Midnight Tonic, an all black, limited edition charcoal based beverage to health conscious celebrities with an active social media presence.
A fever pitch ensued, with fans clamoring to get their hands on one of the 1,000 bottles available they witnessed their favorite celeb devouring with enjoyment. The madness caused the site to crash and the product to sell out in three days.
A few of the celebs and outlets that organically posted on a variety of platforms about their experience were Eva Longoria, Jesse McCartney, Kristin Cavallari, and PopSugar.
The campaign generated an awe-inducing 16 million social impressions. Not to mention, countless new customers along the way. All achieved without paying anyone for the endorsement.
What gives this campaign more heart, and meaning beyond tallying up the numbers is how CMO Heather MacNeil Cox described their thought process.
“We chose influencers that have been organic fans of the brand since the beginning, people that love and drink Suja on their own. The Midnight Tonic surprise shipment was a way to thank them for their support, and also re-engage in a conversation about something new and cool.”
Ultimately, the immense success of this campaign stemmed more from the thought process of showing gratitude, rather than focusing solely on how many celebrities they could get to show off their product.
The organic nature of the celebrities’ show and tell of the limited edition Midnight Tonic and their need to be early adopters is what drove the tonic’s virality; the authentic display of a health beverage so tangibly intangible that everyone had to have just a taste.
Suja Juice, we salute you.
Perks of Successful Influencer Marketing & How it Impacts SEO
On a simplistic level the goal of SEO is to achieve links directed to your site from high ranking and authoritative sites in order to drive your rankings for specified keywords to Google’s lauded first page.
You may be thinking if you just get a few solid links from influencers then you’re golden, right? Not so fast turbo.
Link building is much more complex, and so let’s break it down in regards to how partnering with influencers in a strategic way is indeed a boon for your overall SEO goals.
Campaigns need three types of links to grow overall domain authority, as we’re assuming you’re striving to rank specific keywords and phrases on your site.
- Broad, High Domain Authority: This link will point to any section of your website, whether that’s the home page, an internal page, blog, etc. An example, would be Huffington Post, a highly authoritative web news source with a wide reach.
- Specific High-Value Keyword Targeted Pages (with specific anchor text): By doing this individual URLs’ rankings will receive a needed boost. The easiest way is to provide a keyword and associated link for the influencer to place into the copy of their blog post about your product or service. Thus making its inclusion seamless and natural.
- Topical Influence: In other words, links to your domain from other sites within the same niche that give your site more authority and influence in your sector. This linking strategy is particularly pertinent to influencer marketing partnerships. If you’re a technology startup with a revolutionary product, you want to get into the hands of bloggers and journalists who write about the latest and greatest in tech.
While the above may feel a tad overwhelming, if you get it right, you’re ensuring yourself a goldmine of opportunities to drive web traffic and revenue. Not only that, you’re giving your business the opportunity to build relationships with influencers who will become forever fans whether paid or not.
The time really is now to get in on the influencer marketing game. To learn more about how influencer marketing can support the growth of your business, check us out at https://abovethefoldagency.com.
How to Write Good Instagram Bios to Make an Impression in 2017
Writing good Instagram bios might seem straightforward, but it actually requires a lot of thought. According to researchers, it takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form an impression of your account. It’s really important for that first impression to be a good one!
In the following guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a good Instagram bio that makes a great first impression, explains what your business does, and convinces new visitors to click the “follow” button!
Good Instagram Bios Tip #1: Your Name
According to Jenn Herman from @jenns_trends, the first step to creating a good Instagram bio is making sure that your name is, in fact, your name! (By this, we mean the “name” field in your profile, not your Instagram username). People searching for you on Instagram will likely use your name or your company’s name, and consistency lets people know that the Instagram profile they’re viewing actually belongs to you and not an impostor.
This might seem pretty obvious, but there’s actually a bigger reason for it. As Jen points out, “your name and username are the only fields that Instagram considers in search queries.” As such, it’s important to make sure that the name you use in your Instagram bio is the one your followers and customers are searching for.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t spruce things up a bit! Do you have a specialty or industry niche? Do you offer a specific service? Are you known for something in particular? You can include this detail in your name as well!
Check out how Jenn Herman includes her profession in her Instagram bio name. Not only can adding a unique skill to your name help you stand out from the crowd, but it can help users search for you by your profession.
Good Instagram Bios Tip #2: Your Skills
A good Instagram bio accurately explains what your business is, and what you do. So if you want to stand out for a particular skill, profession, hobby, or interest, you should include these details in your Instagram bio as well!
Think about what sets you apart from your competitors. Do you have a unique set of skills or experiences that might be of interest to your followers? Not only will including these in your Instagram bio serve as an introduction to new viewers, but it can also determine whether they’ll follow.
Social media influencer and blogger Meg Biram is a great example of someone who includes her interests and hobbies in her bio to show off her personal side as well as her professional side.
Good Instagram Bios Tip #3: Keywords
Using keywords won’t improve your search-ability on Instagram (except, as we mentioned above, your “name” in your Instagram bio) but it will give your account more focus and help you connect with followers who want to engage with your content!
When deciding what keywords to include in your Instagram bio, try to think about both your own core values and the core values of your target audience. If you use Instagram for business, spend some time creating a “profile” of your ideal follower. What are their pain points or interests? And what keywords will help you resonate with them most?
Using keywords that target your audience and niche will help users better understand who you are, what you have to offer, and whether or not your account is relevant to them!
Check out how pop-culture writer Luvvie Ajayi uses tailored keywords in her Instagram bio to personify her brand and connect with her followers.
Good Instagram Bios Tip #4: Website Link
Unlike other social networks, Instagram is strict on where clickable links can be placed. Currently, Instagram only gives users one clickable link in the app, and it’s the link in your bio.
A lot of businesses use the link to send followers to their homepage or blog, which is great! But for ecommerce businesses that want to send followers to specific product pages, campaigns, or webinars, the lack of hot links is a huge challenge.
To get around this restriction, some businesses will frequently update their website link to send followers to their latest products or promotions — and then refer to that link in their Instagram captions. The problem is that Instagram’s photo feed is no longer chronological, so when a business’ post says “link in bio,” that link might not correspond to the actual link in their bio.
Good Instagram Bios Tip #5: Get Creative
While it’s very important to convey who you are and what you do in your Instagram bio, you should also think of it as a space for you to show off your fun side. At the end of the day, Instagram is a fairly lighthearted medium, so try not to get too stuck on drafting a formal biography!
Here are some great ways to insert creativity into your Instagram bio:
- Use emojis to space out your text
- Include your branded hashtag to promote an Instagram contest or campaign (hashtags in your bio are clickable on the web but not through the mobile app)
- Change the font in your Instagram bio with Textizer
- Add line breaks to your Instagram bio by typing “Return” in your bio on the web version of Instagram (you can’t add line breaks to your bio in the Instagram mobile app)
Check out how designer and creative Dana Fox uses different fonts and emojis to show off her personality in her Instagram bio. Her use of line breaks also makes for a nicer layout within the mobile app!
Instagram Bio Checklist
A good Instagram bio is one that creates a great first impression and convinces users to click the “follow” button on your account! Here’s a recap of what we covered:
- Explain who you are and what you do
- Target your niche audience with specific keywords
- Link to your website or blog, or use Linkin.bio to send followers to your shoppable Instagram feed
- Share your personality
- Provide a way for your followers to get in touch
These are just a few creative examples of how brands are using good Instagram bios to drive engagement and sales. Whether you decide to follow one of the styles above or do something completely different, just remember to keep the tips mentioned above in mind during the creation process!
Benjamin Chacon
Benjamin is a Content Writer at Later and recent transplant from Toronto. You can follow his day-to-day exploits on Instagram @benjaminchacs.
