Are you on a tight budget as you run and market your business?
Ordinarily, I’m big on appearances – creating professional first impressions. But some free tools can suffice well.
Whether you’re a startup or established company needing services that work well but your budget is tight, you might wish to consider five tools:
– Organization of tasks
– Email newsletters
– Manage your social media
– Spy on your competitors
– Distribute Internet press releases
Yes, the services offer plans with bells and whistles without the companies’ logos, and are easy-to-use and work well.
Here are five tools:
1. Todoist, todoist.com, is a productivity app and can help you get organized in every phase. You can create separate lists, and within your lists you can prioritize your responsibilities. You can use it just about anywhere on your Android, iPad, iPhone, Mac and PC.
2. Moosend, Moosend, is an e-mail sender. It has several features such as a powerful drag-and-drop editor, sign-up forms, list segmentation options, email marketing automation, landing pages, real-time analytics and integrations for your apps and services.
(There are other email senders such as Mailchimp, which was once dominant. But according to media reports, Mailchimp has drawn heavy fire over its practices in political censorships and confiscation of mailing lists if it doesn’t agree with your politics. Users have lost their mailing lists if they didn’t maintain a separate file copy.)
3. Hootsuite, www.hootsuite.com, will help you with your social networking. Hootsuite will build, monitor, engage and analyze your social activities.
4 KeywordSpy, www.keywordspy.com, will check out your competitors on their use of key words in marketing their Web sites. This will give you ideas on search engine marketing and optimization. It helps to eliminate the guessing on keywords.
5. PRlog, www.prlog.org, is a search engine press release service that will distribute your messages online and will provide an authoritative link to your site. You can designate categories and key words. You can insert your logo and picture. In your press release, you can insert links to your site.
PRlog.org will display your contact information and business profile, and provides an online pressroom of your releases. For a nominal charge, PRLog.org provides a premium service. (Note: This portal has benefitted from PRlog.org as a search-engine optimization tool.)
From the Coach’s Corner, here are more resource links:
Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google — Periodic changes in Google’s search criteria and algorithms have indeed hurt many Web sites. But it’s possible to bullet-proof your site’s prominence on Google by taking 14 precautions, which is worth your time and energy. Google has perennially owned about a 66 percent search-market share in the U.S. and a 90 percent share worldwide.
Best Practices to Manage Your Global Brand, Web Reputation — As you no doubt know, the digital age has brought new challenges and opportunities. Best practices are critical in order to maximize your Web presence and to manage your online reputation.
Need PR, But No Budget? How to Leverage News Media — Social media is OK for promotion. But for blockbuster publicity, play a marketing trump card. Here are do-it-yourself tips for public relations.
Are You Hungry for Marketing Ideas to Expand Your E-mail List? — If you’re a WordPress blogger, you know it’s easy to compile an e-mail list. You’ve got ready built-in resources for signups to your feed/atom or feed/RSS on your site. It’s a fairly simple process but it’s not so easy with a standard Web site.
“In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss – and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.”
-John Romero
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