Looking to reduce your customer acquisition costs without reducing your marketing stack? What if we said you could actually increase your marketing results without spending a cent? Well, allow us to introduce you to the $0 marketing stack.
Just like you, my job is to acquire and retain new customers with budget to spare. So, when a member of our team stumbles across free marketing software they just can’t live without, we think it’s important to share that knowledge and hopefully help you reduce your marketing spend.
Design creation
Canva is one of our in-house favourites for creating graphics for blogs, social media ads and white papers. They have optimised sizes and built-in templates so even the most inexperienced designer can create beautiful images. Canva even has an app for iPad so you can create invitations or last-minute presentation graphics on the go!
Measuring ROI with real-time analytics
The first and last thing I do at my desk every day (and about 30 times in between) is check Google Analytics. Once set up correctly, Google Analytics gives you real time analysis on all of your marketing campaigns.
You can check website traffic and gain insight to who your fans are and where they are coming from, set up goals to monitor customer sign-ups and resource downloads, and even set up alerts to notify you when there’s a change in your key metrics.
Quick screen recording
Being able to communicate quickly is important. We love having tools like Soapbox on hand so we can easily record video to communicate what’s happening on a computer screen, share feedback, or create a webinar-style video.
Live streaming and recording
Businesses have started using live streaming in so many ways. It’s encouraging to see more live webinars, events and conferences being used to drive engagement. A fundamental tool in any streaming workflow should be the Open Broadcaster Software (OBS).
Free and open source, it lets you record your screen, use any video and audio input device and gives you the ability to stream directly to Twitch, YouTube and a host of other platforms. There’s no reason to let software stop your business getting its message out.
Video editing and compositing
DaVinci Resolve is an incredibly professional video editing and colour grading solution available free to individuals. Black Magic Design don’t start charging until you require collaboration between multiple DaVinci Resolve Workstations. If you need to control every aspect of your video production, this application will push your video capabilities to the front of the pack for free.
DaVinci Fusion, much like Resolve, is an advanced node-based video compositing tool available free to individual users. It packs a lot of the power of Adobe AfterEffects into a cleaner, easier to manage workflow. I often use Resolve for tracking and green screen work and it’s perfect to run on my laptop outside the office.
Social media management
The Vision6 marketing team is lucky enough to have a dedicated content specialist, Allan, who nails our social media marketing. But, for teams who don’t have their own Allan, you might try Hootsuite.
In the days before we had Allan, Hootsuite was our go-to product for social media management. You can schedule and publish posts to your social networks, easily track and report on analytics, and monitor and filter conversations all from a single dashboard.
Content distribution platforms
This is less of a free software recommendation and more of insider tip on how to amplify your content. So you have a website where you can post your blog articles or press releases and your fans know where to find you. You might also be using a platform like Hootsuite to share your content even further. But why stop there?
We regularly post our content on blogging and research sites, Medium and Quora, to contribute to the marketing community by sharing thought leadership pieces and quick tips. If you’re a new business that doesn’t have a blog or website yet, Medium has a built-in audience to it’s a great place to start when building your fan base.
Content checker
Even the most seasoned writers need a second or third set of eyes to scan their work – even then, mistakes can still slip through the cracks. If you’re a regular Vision6 reader, you’ll know that we write a lot of content. So it’s imperative that our work goes through a comprehensive review process.
Free tools like Hemingway are great for anyone who wants peace of mind before hitting publish. Simply paste your content into the app and you’ll get an analysis that highlights overly dense passages, unnecessary verbs and more.
