The mega record of free instruments and assets to develop your corporation
Whether or not you simply made the leap into entrepreneurship otherwise you’ve been operating your personal enterprise(s) for some time now, it by no means hurts to maintain a listing of free instruments and assets to develop your corporation at hand. Value-savings are at all times a plus, proper?
Working with small companies through the years, I’ve been uncovered to a whole lot upon a whole lot of on-line platforms and instruments, and I’ve develop into considerably of a software program junky. You already know these people who hoard reveals and films of their Netflix queues? That’s like me however with software program trials and lifelong offers. So, I figured I might share the wealth and offer you a listing of instruments to develop your corporation on a finances.
Listing of free instruments and assets to develop your corporation
Leap proper to a class that pursuits you or learn on for a variety of free instruments and assets that can assist you maintain transferring ahead.
Associated: Free e-mail templates for lead outreach
Free instruments and assets for content material creation
Many entrepreneurs imagine that content material is simply written phrases like a e-book or a weblog publish. In actuality, there are three forms of content material you’ll need to embody in your advertising and marketing program:
- Textual content / written copy. For instance, you would possibly use headlines to seize your viewers’s consideration or bullet factors to hit residence in your product’s options and advantages.
- Visuals / photos. These may embody images you would possibly take along with your smartphone or photos designed on platforms like Canva or Photoshop.
- Video. You would possibly document a video in your telephone or webcam, or chances are you’ll decide to create slideshows to music that you just publish on websites like YouTube or Vimeo.
Utilizing the right combination of promoting content material may help you to draw, educate, interact, and convert your clients.
Finally, the forms of content material you publish will rely in your purchaser persona.
Typically, although, it may be complicated or overwhelming making an attempt to determine what content material it is best to create on your model. In reality, our workforce simply launched a free content creation service to assist those that might have a little bit of “writers’ block” however know they need to publish one thing to remain linked with their clients.
Learn on so as to add to your record of free instruments and assets to develop your corporation by content material advertising and marketing.
Free instruments and assets for written content material
Microsoft Phrase and PowerPoint on the net
Microsoft presents a free online version of its fashionable Workplace suite, together with a primary model of Phrase and PowerPoint. You should utilize Phrase to draft newsletters for your corporation, and craft paperwork whereas inviting others to evaluation and coauthor in real-time. And PowerPoint is a go-to for creating compelling displays — particularly while you embody images and movies to inform your story.
Google Docs
Google Docs is a free app for anybody with a Google account. It lets you entry, edit and share your paperwork from actually anyplace on the planet so long as you may have an web connection. Use Google Docs to stipulate and write your weblog posts, brainstorm topic strains or e-mail advertising and marketing content material, and set up your ideas when outlining a brand new video script.
Professional tip: Do you know you should utilize Google Docs to create Gmail emails along with your workforce in actual time?
Hemingway App
Writing on your viewers is vital as a result of your message wants to attach with them and persuade them to purchase. Hemingway is a free on-line editor that helps you establish lengthy, advanced sentences and customary spelling and grammatical errors. The app highlights your sentences primarily based on their readability rating for simple enhancing.
Webfx Readability Instrument
Much like Hemingway, this Readability Test Tool will calculate the readability rating of your content material. You may check all or a part of a webpage or weblog publish, or you may copy and paste textual content and the device will examine your content material towards a number of readability frameworks that can assist you higher perceive how straightforward it’s on your potential clients to learn, take up and act upon your work.
Portent Content material Thought Generator
Portent’s Content Idea Generator comes up with catchy titles on your weblog posts, YouTube movies, podcast episodes or e-mail e-newsletter topic strains. Simply enter your topic, and the Thought Generator will spin up a inventive title and recommendation to take it to the following degree.
Medium.com
In the event you don’t but have an internet site, however you’d like to start sharing your thought management, Medium is a good place to begin. Create a free account and add textual content, graphics and video hyperlinks to make your content material stand out.
Writing content material is nice, however to pack a extra highly effective prosaic punch and stand out out of your rivals on Google, you’ll need to incorporate key phrases into your textual content. The next record of free instruments and assets will show you how to capitalize on out there key phrases for your corporation.
Google Traits
Google Trends is a free key phrase analysis device that tells you what’s trending, what’s fashionable and provides you concepts on how one can get into the dialog with new keyword-rich content material. Listed below are just a few examples:
- In the event you run a pizza store and are contemplating including a brand new menu merchandise, you would possibly use Google Traits to get a really feel for what’s extra fashionable: “deep dish” or “gluten-free.”
- For hospitality and tourism companies, you should utilize Google Traits to visualise an uptick in searches for particular phrases like “summer season trip concepts” or “winter vacation getaways.”
- Actual property brokers would possibly use Google Traits to find out well timed subjects of curiosity to their potential purchasers, like “mortgage charges” or “residence inspection errors.”
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a user-friendly, freemium device that lets you seek for key phrases or phrases that relate to your corporation and shows their estimated competitors scores for Google Adverts and Google’s natural search outcomes.
Google Key phrase Planner
Opposite to fashionable perception, you shouldn’t have to take a position a single cent in Google Adverts in an effort to benefit from the Google Keyword Planner. Supposed for customers of Google’s paid promoting platform, Key phrase Planner helps you uncover new key phrases associated to your services. You may sort a listing of related phrases and phrases into the search field or paste your web site URL, and Key phrase Planner will do the be just right for you.
Upon getting your record of key phrases useful, you may incorporate them into your written content material for an opportunity to glean extra search engine optimisation advantages.
Free instruments and assets for visible content material
Visible content material can come within the type of images, graphic design photos, infographics and animated gifs (leaving video as its personal medium). An MIT study discovered that people can course of and retain visuals sooner than the written phrase, which is why you need to contemplate these free instruments and assets that can assist you add visible content material to your advertising and marketing combine.
GoDaddy Studio
With GoDaddy Studio, you may simply create content material that elevates your model in all places, out of your web site to social posts and promoting. Seize your model’s distinctive fashion with ready-to-edit templates. Swap colours, fonts and add textual content to pictures with just some clicks to match your model fashion. In the event you actually need to step up your model picture, you may even create your personal brand in GoDaddy Studio and publish a Hyperlink in Bio web page to characteristic all of your websites and social media profiles.
Royalty-free inventory picture websites
I at all times advocate that our small enterprise purchasers use their very own cameras to take images as a result of it gives a way of authenticity of their advertising and marketing. That stated, in case your business doesn’t lend itself to pictures (IT companies or tech startups, as an example) then contemplate the next royalty-free picture websites.
The fantastic thing about these websites is that the photographer or designer appreciates attribution (which means you point out them in your advertising and marketing) however doesn’t require it in an effort to use their work.
Necessary observe: Sure, Google Pictures are there for all of the world to see. By no means use them in your advertising and marketing. It may appear straightforward and quick, however simply since you discover the pictures in a search doesn’t imply you may have the rights to make use of them in a industrial capability (which means you’d generate profits off others’ work.) As an alternative, contemplate royalty-free inventory picture websites like these above.
Free instruments and assets for video content material
Written content material and visuals are good, however including some video to the combination can actually boost your advertising and marketing and show you how to enhance gross sales on your small enterprise.
Your telephone, pill or laptop
Lengthy gone are the times while you wanted to rent knowledgeable videographer and movie crew to make a Hollywood manufacturing on your small enterprise. As we speak, anybody with a smartphone, pill or webcam-equipped laptop can seize video. These gadgets aren’t essentially “free” however I’ll assume you almost certainly have one, if not all, of them in your possession already.
Associated: Easy methods to create a invaluable video replace on your clients
Video enhancing apps
Relying in your laptop or system, there are a wealth of video enhancing apps out there. Every app has its personal person interface and idiosyncrasies, so I counsel testing just a few earlier than you land in your go-to video editor.
As a Macbook person, iMovie is my go-to video editor for fast initiatives. It comes pre-installed free on Apple computer systems or gadgets and may be very user-friendly.
For on-line video enhancing, our workforce has began utilizing Canva Video Suite as a result of it permits us so as to add video clips, animations, textual content overlays and background music in a single fell swoop. Right here’s an instance of how actual property agent Dakota Riley transformed a selfie video from Fb right into a YouTube clip with the assistance of Canva.
As a observe, in my analysis, I got here throughout a number of video enhancing platforms for Home windows-based computer systems, however I couldn’t discover a safe obtain web page for these instruments, so they don’t seem to be shared above. A easy Google seek for “Free Video Editor for Home windows” will present you lists of top-rated enhancing apps for the PC. Simply be certain the positioning is safe earlier than transferring ahead with a obtain.
Video internet hosting websites
In fact, YouTube is the megalodon of video internet hosting, and I extremely advocate you begin a YouTube channel due to the search engine optimisation worth it brings to your advertising and marketing. Typically, chances are you’ll need to merely share a video with others or showcase it in your web site with out promoting or steered movies after your clip ends. In that case, you’ll need to contemplate the next free video internet hosting choices.
Vimeo
As soon as often known as a video add website, Vimeo has morphed right into a platform that permits enterprise house owners to make, handle and share movies. Vimeo presents free and paid plans, and your add occasions and storage capability will rely in your subscription degree.
Professional tip: In case you are embedding movies in your web site or utilizing a video as an interactive background in your website, think about using Vimeo to keep away from displaying commercials and steered movies that will take viewers to a competitor’s content material.
Google Drive
Google Drive is offered free of charge with each Google account, and it lets you add video recordsdata into the cloud. In the event you document a fast demonstration of your services or products, as an example, you may merely add the video into Google Drive and share the hyperlink. You probably have a tough draft of a brand new video, and also you’d like suggestions, simply drag and drop it into Drive, and you may select particular folks with whom you’d prefer to share entry.
Free assist and training assets to develop your corporation
We’ve lined fairly a little bit of useful instruments and assets to enhance your advertising and marketing content material, however I wished to finish with some helpful assist and training assets to information you while you want a serving to hand.
GoDaddy Guides
GoDaddy Guides presents a useful resource library of how-to content material and programs led by skilled advertising and marketing consultants. With GoDaddy Guides, you may study net improvement and design, ecommerce suggestions, advertising and marketing fundamentals and extra.
SCORE Mentors
I’ve had the pleasure of co-hosting free advertising and marketing courses with the positive people of SCORE through the years, and I’ve seen how devoted they’re to serving to small enterprise house owners succeed.
SCORE enterprise mentors may help you begin, develop, or transition your corporation all free of charge.
Go to SCORE.org in an internet browser, enter your ZIP code, and click on “Get Free Recommendation.” The system will discover mentors inside your space.
Greater Higher Biz Advertising and marketing Group
My workforce began the Bigger Better Biz Marketing Community in 2020 on the onset of the pandemic. Attendees of my advertising and marketing courses have been sending emails and messages to get recommendation on what they need to do to develop their enterprise in such unsure occasions. What began as particular person e-mail replies morphed right into a e-newsletter, then the YouTube channel, and now a devoted small enterprise group the place we share suggestions, instruments and assets free of charge.
Ted Talks
It’s fairly regular to really feel such as you’re “on an island” otherwise you’re not making any ahead progress on the helm of your corporation. I discover Ted Talks to be encouraging and inspirational as a result of they supply so many alternative views.
As an illustration, Dorie Clark just lately shared how to overcome feeling so busy whereas Marcos Aguiar covers how to build more trust with consumers. Go to the positioning and click on round, however ensure you have a while to take a seat and take up all of those superb insights.
Being a presenter for Develop with Google during the last 5 years, I’ve come throughout many useful instruments that small enterprise house owners may not find out about. The next record of instruments may help in several elements of your corporation and are undoubtedly value a glance.
- Test My Site measures the load pace of your web site and provides options on the way to make it load even sooner, so you may win extra clients.
- Google Analytics is a free, web-based device that measures the efficiency and person journey in your web site. That is key if you wish to consider how efficient your advertising and marketing campaigns are.
- Google Forms lets you create fast suggestions kinds or extra in-depth client analysis kinds like this Buyer Persona Quiz we made for the Greater Higher Biz group.
- Google Alerts permit you to arrange e-mail alerts when sure key phrases or search phrases are recognized by Google. That is actually useful in conserving monitor of your model mentions across the net.
- Google Scholar lets you discover articles and case regulation assets and add them to your private library.
- Google Ads Grant affords verified 501(c)3 nonprofits with a Google Textual content Adverts finances of as much as $10,000 per thirty days. It is a nice solution to drive eyes to your group and entice new donors and volunteers.
- Google Calendar comes free with any Google account and gives you with an easy-to-use planning and scheduling device. You may set private reminders or put together for conferences by attaching documents to your calendar invites.
- Grow with Google is an initiative that helps folks put together for work, discover jobs, and develop their enterprise. The positioning is chock filled with useful assets, instruments and occasions.
Associated: Easy methods to promote on Google Buying — a whole information
Placing all of it collectively
The above record of free instruments and assets to develop your corporation is the tip of the very prime of the iceberg. In fact, there are a lot of extra out there to small enterprise house owners and nonprofit organizations that can assist you proceed to develop.
Put aside a while to discover the assets above, make notes of those that appear like they’ll drive probably the most worth to your corporation, and at all times maintain your eyes peeled for brand new expertise as a result of new instruments are launched each single day. Right here’s to your success!
