Today’s small businesses have to be creative when it comes to marketing resources. Most small businesses cannot afford an agency, large marketing staff or even in-house marketing resources. Utilizing low cost small biz marketing tools that enable self-serve marketing functionalities is the perfect answer to tight resources with small businesses.
Review these top low cost or free marketing tools as options to cost-effectively market your business while maintaining a solid, professional image. Accessing these tools will enable you to compete at the same level as larger companies, build better customer relationships and sell more products and services.
Top Self-Serve Small Biz Marketing Tools
The key to good small biz marketing tools is an easy to use, self-serve online interface. Small businesses can tap into online technology that streamlines many common marketing functions with self-serve tools. These self-serve tools will guide you through functionality and require little marketing expertise to utilize. Upfront investments are also very low to get started, which is ideal for small businesses.
Here are some top small biz marketing tools for small businesses to consider:
- Website builders. Services such as iBuilt.net website builder and hosting deliver quality web sites without the need for a professional webmaster. Features such as editing tools, contact form builders, photo galleries and e-commerce product catalogs can turn web sites into an effective sales tool for small businesses. From easy to use templates to customizable functionality, you can create a very professional web site for as little as $19.95 a month.
- Pay-as-you-go email marketing. Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your products and services to both customers and prospects. A professional tool will help you maintain an opt-in and opt-out list to comply with best practices. Online email design and editing tools will also help to create quality emails that generate responses. Small businesses can utilize pay-as-you-go services like Vertical Response and pay as little as a penny per email recipient, or sign up for low monthly subscriptions from companies like Constant Contact.
- Print on-demand direct mail. Print direct mail marketing campaigns for small businesses no longer require the services of an expensive mail house. Self-serve online tools offered by companies like DirectMail.com enable small businesses to execute direct mail campaigns using print on-demand technology. Integrated prospect list building tools make processing a direct mail campaign digitally even easier. Print on-demand allows you to print only what you need, while ordering direct mail online saves small businesses valuable time.
- Google tools. Google product tools offer endless low cost or free tools that are powerful small biz marketing tools that small business should leverage. Popular tools from Google include Blogger for publishing free blogs, Google Analytics for web site tracking, Google Docs for sharing documents, Picasa for creating online photo galleries, Google AdSense for generating monetizing web content, Google AdWords for advertising within search engine results and YouTube for sharing videos. Google tools can greatly enhance small business marketing efforts when combined with other marketing initiatives.
In addition to small biz marketing tools, there are many other free or low-cost technology resources that small businesses should take advantage of in their marketing and sales efforts.
- Social media. For business to consumer marketing, setting up a group or page on Facebook is the best way to connect and engage consumers with your business. For business to business marketing, small businesses should leverage a strong network of professional associates on LinkedIn and consider setting up a LinkedIn group devoted to their business.
- VoIP phone service. Inexpensive VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services like Magic Jack phone systems save money. For only $19.99 a year, small businesses can easily add an extra phone line for business calls and get free long distance in the U.S. and Canada.
- Internet video conferencing. Online services like Skype video conferencing are becoming increasing popular for businesses to conduct free face-to-face meetings over the internet. This powerful internet video conferencing tool can help build more personal relationships with clients.
Leveraging the latest low-cost or free marketing tools and business resources will help small businesses maintain a competitive edge in a tough business environment where smart technology decisions can make the difference.
Diane Seltzer - Diane is a branding, pr and social media marketer with experience ranging from advertising to corporate marketing and consulting.
