Businesses everywhere are dipping deep into their wells of creativity to adjust to the demands of COVID-19. Some companies are offering free delivery and pick-up options, while others are sharing secret recipes with their target audience. Whatever their approach, businesses are being forced to reassess how they communicate with their buyers, and digital and content marketing is a huge part of that strategy.
Social distancing and closed doors make it difficult for businesses to bring in enough revenue to survive, much less pour additional money into a new marketing strategy. While there are some programs and relief resources available to small businesses, there are also plenty of things you can do in-house (in every sense of the term) for free to connect with your customers and get creative with your marketing options until things return to normal.
Many tech companies are offering free resources during the pandemic, while just as many other resources are always available for free and may be worth looking into to help you refine your marketing strategy and connect with your now-at-home audience.
We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite free marketing resources and tech tools available to make working from home and keeping your business going strong just a little bit easier.
Email Marketing
Zoho Campaigns offers a “Forever Free Plan” that allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month if you have up to 2,000 subscribers. They also integrate with other platforms such as Survey Monkey and WordPress.
What’s the point of a good email if no one bothers to open it? CoSchedule offers a free email subject line tester for “creating click-worthy subject lines.” This is an excellent, free and easy-to-use tool that can really improve your conversion rate. CoSchedule also offers a free 14-day trial for their work management software that keeps everything organized and in one place—this could be especially useful when more and more people are working remotely and trying to keep track of their work in a less-than-ideal environment.
Content Marketing
INK is a completely free content management system that combines writing and optimization in one place. It can help you write better, rank higher and reach your target audience. According to their website, their “ground-up AI and real-time integrated platform bridge the gap between content creation and return on investment (ROI).”
Spelling errors and poor grammar are never a good look when you are trying to build a brand. Grammarly is a must have for any content marketer. It installs in your browser and instantly corrects your spelling and grammar, and it can also offer advice on making your writing clear, bold and concise. Every communicator needs Grammarly for help with content on social media, emails, blogs, website content, etc.
Social Media
Hootsuite is an excellent social media management platform that we’ve been using for years to schedule and analyze social media posts. They are currently offering their professional plan for FREE to businesses affected by COVID-19 until July 1st. They are also providing access to a free library of training videos to help you manage communications and create effective content.
Over is an amazing tool to help you step up your social media game visually. What started as a text-over-image app for your phone has become the go-to place for eye-catching content for your social media feeds. They offer easy to use templates and pre-designed layouts that are especially helpful with Instagram and Facebook stories, which are becoming increasingly popular. They are also offering their new service, Over Web, for free until June 30th to help businesses dealing with changes from COVID-19.
Software
Spyfu is a keyword research tool that analyzes how organic and paid search terms have ranked for competitors in the past, so you know which phrases are worth targeting. They are currently offering 2 months of their services for free to anyone who needs it.
While working from home, technology has made it so easy to maintain contact with coworkers, customers and team members, but video calls can still get stressful. Krisp is a very cool software tool that removes background noise on calls and video chats. For the next 6 months, they are offering 120 minutes a week of free noise cancellation.
SEO Resources
SEO can be a little hard to grasp, so why not take advantage of a free learning tool to help you understand the ins and outs of keyword research, SEO audits, link building strategies and more? In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Moz Academy is currently offering 13 courses for FREE until May 31st. These lessons are not always free, so this is something you definitely want to take advantage of while it’s available, and while you probably have some extra time on your hands.
BuzzSumo is a useful research tool that will show you popular content being shared on social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+). Search for keywords or ideas in the “Most Shared” tab to see what sort of articles are floating around each social media platform. You can also see current trends under the “Trending Now” tab where you can search for content in different categories and find out how much has been shared in a recent time frame.
Do you have any other free resources or marketing tools you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear from you! At Jennasis & Associates, we would love to know how you and your business are doing in this difficult time. How are you dealing with the changes from COVID-19? How can we help? If you’d like to chat about our services, shoot us an email or check out our website for more information.
We’re all in this together. Let’s share as many resources as we can that are free, useful, life-changing, or that simply bring a smile to your face!
