It's not easy to launch a brand new company, especially when you have little to no funding. For so many startups it's important to have access to top quality software and resources, but a lot of that software can have heavy costs associated with them. A huge struggle for many startups is effectively marketing their product. Instead of stressing about your marketing costs, use the following tools to help you catch up to your competitors and grow your business.
Hubspot's CRM for Small Businesses
A CRM tool can be very costly, especially as your database grows. In fact, some of the more common CRMs can cost around $125 per user a month! Hubspot has developed a completely free CRM tool for small businesses. Although it doesn't have all the same features that some CRMs contain, it is very advanced for a free product. You can also add an unlimited number of users and contacts.
EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus is not a widely known email sender, but it's great for those select startups that offer a freemium product with tons of users. The product uses Amazon SES to send your emails, and the interface is extremely user friendly and playful. You can create multiple lists, and even set up autoresponders to keep your users engaged. It's also a fraction of the price than tools like MailChimp and GetResponse.
Beam
Using data visualizations and charts are important if you've got a content marketing strategy for your small business. But it's not always easy to hire a designer to do the work for you. Beam is a chart maker that has been described as "stupid simple" by Wired and FastCompany. It lets you turn your data into a chart in seconds, which becomes extremely helpful when writing case-studies, business reports and other forms of content for a company blog.
SocialQuant
Building up a social media following can be very tough for new startups. SocialQuant is a twitter growth tool that helps manage your account and get you real and organic followers that are engaged in your content and your product. Many social media influencers use the product and have seen tremendous growth in traffic with it.
Venngage
Did you know that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual? As a result, infographics have been receiving a lot of attention, particularly when it comes to summarizing complex data to your audience. Many people use infographics to visualize survey results or to create presentations and posters that make it easier for employees to understand the company's metrics. Venngage is an infographic maker that has a free version as well as a paid version which is much cheaper than many design tools out there.
Hootsuite
If you were to manually manage each of your social media accounts, you'd eat up a huge portion of your day. Social media schedulers like Hootsuite, SproutSocial and Buffer are a great way to blast your thoughts to the world on multiple platforms in a matter of seconds.
Instapage
Proper landing page optimization can make or break your website's conversion rates. Use a tool like Instapage to help you design landing pages in minutes. There is a 30-day free trial and the interface is free-form drag and drop, making it so easy to customize your page's appearance to fit your company's overall aesthetic.
SumoMe
Adding a sharing button to your site is free with SumoMe. You can also add email list builders to your website and blog to increase the chances of growing your database of subscribers. SumoMe also provides you with a heat mapping tool so you can monitor exactly where your visitors are clicking when they visit your website.
As a new startup, you have enough on your plate. Your primary focus should be to grow your company and build relationships with your users, not worrying about all the costs associated with successfully marketing it. Every one of these tools is in my personal toolbox, and have helped me grow my network from nothing to almost 1,000 great influencers in the industry. Hopefully they help you achieve the same too.