With limited time and resources, small business owners put on a balancing act in which they take on a variety of roles. If this sounds familiar to you, you're probably used to taking on a little marketing responsibilities now and then. However, getting help means creating more time for you to do other tasks. Remove marketing from your to-do list by checking out these small business tools – many of them are low-cost or even free to use.
123Print
Marketing runs the gamut of online and in print. When it comes to paper goods, you want high-quality products you can customize with your brand's chosen aesthetic. 123Print provides unique greeting and business cards, flyers, door hangers and more, all designed to reach your customers.
Still deciding how you want your company's paper materials to look? 123Print's create-your-own-business-card tool lets you try out new designs before purchasing them. That way, you know exactly what you'll get before you spend a dime of your business's budget. When you find a look you love, you can order products in bulk to save.
Price
Check out 123Print's website to learn about specific pricing for the hundreds of available products. Most start at mere cents per print.
Answer The Public: Free
Need help determining what keywords and/or phrases to target? Answer The Public is a search query data visualization tool that supplies users with lists of questions, prepositions and phrases all based on targeted keywords. Reports break down all of the popular ways your keyword has been used in search engines like Google and Bing, bringing you more insight into customers' minds than most analytics tools.
Use this tool in your content-marketing strategy. Targeting the right users with your language and presenting them with content they care about is more likely to land you with new viewers. Answer The Public ensures you market smarter, not just harder.
Price
Answer The Public is free to use. You can head to the site and create a report at any time or download existing ones.
Typeform
Want to find out what your customers or employees are really thinking and where you can make improvements? How about provide potential clients with a way to sign up for your newsletter? Typeform allows you to customize your online forms to collect the information you need in a beautiful, intuitive manner.
The tool creates any form you could need for any industry, from photography to retail to customer service. If you need information and a simple way to build forms and quizzes that actually help you out, Typeform is the right platform.
Price
Typeform offers a free subscription, although Pro+, which is designed for companies, costs $70 a month.
SpyFu
Keywords are at the crux of online marketing, so knowing which ones to use in your content and how your competitors have utilized them is important. Enter SpyFu: This tools lets you input your competitor's domain name to get a variety of metrics, including organic and paid search, and best- and worst-performing keywords. You can also look up a keyword to see what the search volume and cost per click are and compare how companies in your industry are performing online.
While seeing a bunch of data in one place is certainly helpful, SpyFu takes it a step further. Each metric includes a brief explanation, helping you understand and analyze the data so you can create a more effective strategy.
Price
SpyFu offers Basic, Professional and Team plans ranging in price from $49 per month to $299 per month depending on your company's needs.
Marketing is a big undertaking, requiring print, search engine optimization and lead generation. These tools target different strategies, letting you create a comprehensive plan to spread your name and bring in more business.