Here are five free tools that can help your content marketing. I've worked for a couple of start-ups/small companies. Both had some amazingly talented people, but neither had a content marketing strategy. Since my first degree was in History with a specialization in Comparative Literature and English ( Long story, I feel like I'm the curse of Advisors) I was the one assigned to it, with a very small budget. I just didn't have the resources to pay for Shutterstock or $100 per blog post. It was a little daunting trying to find the most cost-efficient way to produce content. Here are a few sites that will help you off to a strong start.
-High-Quality Free Stock Photos That You Can Use.
One of the hardest and most expensive things to do for your company is to find photos for your content. Pexels offers some nice pictures for free. Also, if you're having writer's block it can be great to just look at a few pictures. Your creativity will start churning and ideas will start popping up everywhere.
-Free Design Tool that makes it easy to create professional designs and share or print them.
I love using Canva for most of my design work. While I have experience in Graphic Design, I seldom use it anymore. Adobe is expensive for a small company. While it can be worth it, most smaller companies don't need it. The one drawback that I have found from Canva is if you produce a logo, it’s not scalable.
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up."
– Vince Lombardi
A cool feature I love about Canva is their Quote Graphic Maker!
- Great Writing, Simplified.
Compose bold, clear, mistake-free writing with Grammarly’s new AI powered mobile and desktop apps.
I honestly have more degrees than I care to admit. That said, proofreading was never my best skill. So I use Grammarly to the point I think I should be on a billboard. I once ghost-wrote a children's book for a client. I had it proofed by a friend of mine who had a Ph.D. in English. I was mortified when it came back the color red. Her exact words were, "It's better than 95% of the stuff I see from English majors." Que Grammarly.
- Helps you research for your Search campaigns.
In the world of SEO, almost everything goes through Google. This free tool allows you to see what percentage of terms are used in searches. While the tool is free, you will need a Google Ads Account.
- Turn Emails into Revenue
Free up to 2000. Simple templates that help you upgrade your marketing tools.
Not going to lie, I still cringe at the simple emails I first started sending out on MailChimp many many years ago. That said they had a high open rate because it was a very targeted segment for the small company I was working for. More importantly, it made them Money! I wasn't trying to oversell clients anything. We were using our email list as a soft touch, just a simple reminder that we were there. I think I spent more time talking about one of the employee's son's Eagle Scout project than I did the actual company. That said it was a success. It humanized the people behind the phone.
Final Thought's
These five tools are just a start to your content marketing strategy. Let us know what you think!