7 Free Small Business Promotion Tools: Internet Marketing on a Budget
If you have a very tight budget but are ready to invest time in promoting your business, we will help you master some free practical internet marketing tools. Devote a few minutes to study each service and improve the quality of communication with customers, automate lead generation and sales, and learn how to create a high-quality design.
In this article, we will consider the best free internet marketing tools and we will use examples to figure out how to successfully promote your business without spending any money.
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13Chats — a marketing automation service
13Chats is an online service for marketers, sales representatives, and support teams that helps people increase sales on a website through online chat, chatbots, and automated, engaging messages based on the actions or behavior of website visitors.
This marketing automation tool optimizes processes for small and medium-sized businesses:
- Online chat operators can conduct up to 5 conversations simultaneously, reducing the load on telephone lines. Team members have saved answers, notes, a mini-user profile for quick analysis of user’s activity, and an option to transfer chats to colleagues.
- Smart widgets engage website visitors in a dialogue using automated messages with high conversions in response and contribute to lead generation.
- Chatbots help automate the processing of frequently asked questions and organize sales right in the messenger.
- The combination of online chat and a chatbot helps you keep users’ contact details even after they leave the website.
The service has a large free plan. It includes all of the features of the platform, its only limit is quantity:
- 5 team members;
- 5 scripts;
- 10 online users;
- 10,000 messenger messages and unique visitors;
- 1 month of message history storage.
How to use 13Chats
Collect leads. Customize automated scripts — for example, inform visitors about a sales promotion or send an engaging message to those who’ve been looking at a product card for more than 40 seconds.
Step 1
Step 2
An example of a script that informs visitors about a limited-time offer
You can also automate lead generation using a chatbot.
Example of contact request in exchange for a free consultation
Sell. Track active online users and initiate proactive conversations.
List of online users in 13Chats panel
Sign up for services. You can automate sign-ups using a chatbot. The manager will only have to collect data in the messenger and confirm time reservations by phone.
An example of scheduling a manicure appointment using a chatbot
Optimize support resource. Set up a message flow with answers to popular questions inside your chat bot, and leave an option of communication with a real person in more difficult cases.
Example of an FAQ flow for a travel agency
Personalize communication. In the chatbot, use variables to substitute the user’s personal data in the message text.
List of standard variables
Another personalization option is to transfer custom variables to the subscriber’s profile in the admin panel to identify and track user’s actions on your website. For example, an operator will be able to quickly sign a customer up in an online chat by taking the user’s address and phone number from a mini-profile in the panel.
Personal information in a client’s 13Chats profile
If you would like to find out more about the service features, we recommend you visiting the knowledge base — it describes all the functionality of the platform in detail.
SendPulse is a CRM marketing and communication platform for small and medium-sized businesses
SendPulse is often associated with an email marketing tool for a company. In the service, you can create email templates with a free drag and drop builder, launch triggered email campaigns, use the built-in email validator, and see advanced analytics.
Nevertheless, the platform has larger functionality.
It allows you to:
- create Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and VK chatbots, link them with an online chat on your website, and even accept payments directly in instant messengers;
- send SMS and web push notifications;
- develop landing pages using the built-in designer;
- optimize project work and clients using CRM.
A free plan will be enough for a small business with a base of up to 500 subscribers and allows you to send up to 15,000 emails per month. Also, you can create 1 landing page, validate up to 100 email addresses, send web push notifications to a database of up to 10,000 contacts, and create 3 chatbots free of charge.
How to use SendPulse
Communicate with your audience. With the help of a mix of triggers, promotional and informational email campaigns, and more — you can notify subscribers about all important events, involve them into the life of the company, and generate leads.
Example of a campaign
You can also encourage your website visitors to subscribe to web push notifications and send personalized offers for different audience segments. People willingly click on the “Allow” button: according to CleverTap, 44% of iOS users and 91% of Android users choose browser notifications.
Request for permission to send web push
Create multi-links for Instagram. With the help of a convenient builder, you can create an adaptive landing page in 10-15 minutes to present the company or an expert with all the necessary links instead of one link allowed by the social network policy. You can also add text, pictures, videos, subscription forms, social media buttons, and links to chatbots to the landing page without diving into the technical settings.
An example of a landing page for signing up for chatbots
Create multi-links for Instagram. With the help of a convenient builder, you can create an adaptive landing page in 10-15 minutes to present the company or an expert with all the necessary links instead of one link allowed by the social network policy. You can also add text, pictures, videos, subscription forms, social media buttons, and links to chatbots to the landing page without diving into the technical settings.
Information on transactions in CRM
Snov.io — a light CRM for difficult tasks
Snov.io is a cold outreach automation platform that combines direct marketing tools, lead generation, and email address verification services.
This service helps people:
- find email addresses by domain, company, name, and social media profiles;
- check existing databases to improve email deliverability according to seven criteria: compliance with the format, validity, belonging to a real domain (paid or free), catch-all status, MX records, and SMTP authentication;
- launch triggered campaigns to automate sales or onboarding, conduct A/B tests, and analyze performance;
- track email openings in Gmail and clicks on links, as well as set reminders for follow-ups;
- study what technologies your potential customers are using.
With their unlimited free plan, the user is given the opportunity to send campaigns to a database of 100 addresses and 50 credits are given, which can be used to “pay” for lead generation and existing database verification. For example, to check one email address will cost 0.5 credits, and a search by name or by domain — 1 credit.
How to use Snov.io
Automate B2B sales. Create a portrait of your perfect client, set up a search for leads according to specified criteria, check your existing database, and then use professional templates to prepare emails and set up auto-mailing. We recommend personalizing your emails and taking into account the contact’s time zone to give the impression that each email is written personally for the recipient.
AIDA Formula Email Template
Improve the quality of onboarding. Consider onboarding email flow options to minimize your churn rate, increase audience loyalty, and extend your customer lifecycle. The main thing is to avoid turning your communication into spam, and when sending the next email, consider the recipient’s reaction to the previous one.
An example of a generic message flow
Make cold outreach more effective. With the help of the “Search by domain” tool, you will find contacts of company employees with the indication of positions, and the triggered mailing will help to establish relationships with your minimal involvement. To increase the Open Rate and click-throughs, test different themes and text options within emails.
List of contacts found with the domain sendpulse.com
Trello — a project management system
Trello is a project management service based on the Kanban board principle. This is a great tool for online marketing control for startups and small businesses.
The service allows you to:
- create separate boards for teams or projects to distribute tasks, assign tasks and deadlines, and track progress afterwards;
- add tags, checklists, and attachments of up to 10 MB to the task card so you can store all of the important information in one place;
- filter cards by many parameters — for example, by keyword, tag, participant name, or due date;
- add comments to cards for updating statuses and convenient discussion of tasks.
You can work on the platform on a desktop or via their convenient mobile application. Trello helps organize digital marketing tools into a single system so you never lose track of important tasks in the daily cycle of affairs.
All of Trello’s features are available on a free version with some limitations:
- up to 10 boards per account;
- files up to 10 MB;
- no more than one add-on per board: you can add a custom field, or postpone cards — but not at the same time.
How to use Trello
Organize teamwork. You can customize the look of the board yourself: assign the number of lists (columns), design your own layout, determine the sorting of cards within the list, and change the background. The easiest way to organize your tasks is to divide them into the following categories: To Do, In Progress, To Review, and Done.
An example of a board for an SMM specialist
Store documents. Organize visual storage of lists of documents: job descriptions, onboarding documents, an internal knowledge base, educational resources, etc. You can add links to external resources, and attach pictures or files from your computer or cloud storage.
An example of important information for employees
Document the results of the meetings and discuss important points. This service can be adapted for organizing meetings to: specify the agenda and issues for discussion, invite participants, hold a vote, save the results and conclusions at the end of the discussion.
List settings for a project retrospective
XMind — software for working with ideas
XMind is an effective internet marketing tool for creating mind maps, managing tasks, capturing ideas, and brainstorming.
The following features are available:
- different information display modes: classical mind map, tree, organizational, chronological and logical diagrams, a matrix, Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone or cause-effect diagrams);
- the ability to customize links between elements, highlight important information, and add text notes, a link or file, and change the design;
- turning a diagram into a step-by-step diagram in text form;
- export finished materials as a PNG, SVG, PDF, Word, or Excel document with a watermark, or provide access by link or printing.
The free version provides basic software features for 2 devices. You can create mind maps, customize them, open access by link or export them for further use in presentations, on the website, or to be printed.
How to use XMind
Create an email strategy and email marketing scheme. A visual project campaign scheme will facilitate the presentation of ideas to the client, the approval of the strategy, and be a guide for the day-to-day work of an email marketer.
Structuring the work of an email marketer
Plan marketing activities. To centralize business development efforts, the owner and marketer can use XMind to visualize their project work plan. This document will simplify the decision-making process, clarify resource allocation needs, help identify problem areas, and predict the development of the project.
An example of a simplified marketing activity plan
Visualize the order of work on a task. For example, you can outline an action plan to implement a new online marketing tool to account all the details, estimate the deadline, and see which actions need to be prioritized.
Planning a Facebook Chatbot Launch
Miro — an interactive whiteboard for networking
Miro is an internet marketing tool for the collaboration of remote teams with up to 100 people in the form of an endless online whiteboard. Team members can work in real-time, tracking the cursors of colleagues, and simultaneously communicating via voice, text, or video chat.
Useful features of the service allow you to:
- use ready-made visual templates for strategic planning, creating charts, diagrams, and mind maps, conducting brainstorms, meetings, and workshops, administering the Agile process, etc.;
- fill the board with text and voice notes, pictures, videos, files, and stickers. Elements can be linked and highlighted with stickers or markers;
- highlight changes that were made to the whiteboard after the previous visit of a team member;
- export boards as a JPEG, PDF, or as code to embed into your website;
- use additional functions like screen sharing, a timer, and voting.
You can create 3 boards for free and work together with your team. The paid plan allows you to create an unlimited number of whiteboards and projects, export high-resolution content and set up integrations with Asana, Jira, and Confluence.
How to use Miro
Visualize your customer journey map. This service is useful for the teamwork of the internet marketing teams, sales representatives, product managers, and analysts — everyone who is in some way involved in visualizing the points of contact between customers and your company. Choose a Team Journey Mapping template to simplify your work.
Example of a customer journey
Organize personal or teamwork using core Kanban principles. If for some reason Trello is not suitable for your team, or you would like to organize all of your team’s work on a single platform, create a Kanban board to manage tasks. You can set deadlines, track progress, assign tasks, and attach files, notes, and comments to tasks.
Organization of the marketing department teamwork
Canva — a graphic design platform
Canva is a graphic design tool both for beginners and professionals. This service allows you to create posts and stories for social networks, banners for your website, templates for email, videos, presentations, icons, layouts for printed materials, etc.
The opportunities provided by the platform are impressive:
- a database with 250,000 free templates for editing, downloading, using on the web, or printing with the ability to filter and search by keywords;
- a free database of illustrations, videos, and elements — collages, arrows, graphic shapes, gradients;
- flexible template parameters, you can change the: size, transparency, background, inscription, and color;
- downloading the finished design as a PNG, JPEG, PDF, GIF, or MP4;
- processing photos using filters or manually at an advanced level;
- collaboration in real-time.
You can enjoy all of the above features for free with up to 5GB of cloud storage.
How to use Canva
Animate stories. Static pictures have lost a lot of their effectiveness — users get used to keeping their attention on dynamic objects. While top bloggers can change 3-5 angles in 15 seconds by bringing in entire teams to the shooting area, you can bring ready-made images to life with prepared video effects.
Create business card layouts without a designer. This service has business card templates — horizontal, vertical, with rounded corners, and you can even search for templates by field. Just a warning — logo and font downloads are only available with a Pro plan.
Business card mockup for download in high quality for printing
Conclusion
The future of marketing belongs to complex promotions: internet marketing channels and tools complement each other at different stages of the sales funnel, improving the user experience, and your brand’s reputation. For example, strategic marketing tools work for the future, SMM improves brand awareness, email marketing works on loyalty and retention, and content marketing demonstrates your expertise.
Thanks to the synergy between all of these tools, your marketing efficiency can be greatly increased. Therefore, in 2021, it is not enough just to promote your website — it is important to strengthen all aspects of your business.
We hope you’ve found new internet marketing tools for you and will implement them very soon!
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