Free Martech solutions, this is what every small business wishes for to compete with bigger companies. Because in an all-things digital world, a company’s marketing strategy success is tightly linked to its Martech stack.
“I had no budget to build my Martech stack, but I needed it to gain customers and increase my budget”
Kenza, 35 – Owner of a pet’s daycare
Just like you, Kenza was eager to grow her business, watch how these free Martech solutions helped her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDa_K9vtEuA&t=16s
The good news is that we are in 2021 and among the overwhelming Martech ecosystem many tools are totally free. But before diving-in, you need to define the technologies that are suited to your business size and needs.
Not sure which Martech solutions you need as a small business owner?
Do not worry, we’ve got you covered
A Marketing Technology stack should be able to provide a solid base to organize and track your Marketing campaigns. Moreover, it should help marketers build a consistent and seamless customer experience. Given these points, as a small business owner, the following platforms are a must have:
– Content Management System (CMS) website
– Search Engine optimization
– Email Marketing
– Web Analytics
– Website performance
– Data visualization
– Social Media scheduling
Of course, the list above can be customized whether you are a B2B oriented business or a B2C. Nevertheless, let’s dive-in the free Martech solutions you need and what to expect from them:
Content Management System website: WordPress
Besides that I wrote this blog on WordPress, another piece of information is that it hosts 35% of internet content. Not to mention that this open-source system, that started as a blogging platform is the biggest CMS.
As any tool, WordPress isn’t perfect, but its 75 million users agree that the pros outweigh the cons. You can have a complete review of WordPress pros and cons by clicking here
Search Engine Optimization tool: YOAST
Surprise, I have also used this tool to optimize this content, because YOAST is a free WordPress SEO plugin. If you are looking for a user friendly tool to increase e-commerce traffic through SEO, YAOST is the ideal.
YAOST free version doesn’t offer the same functionalities as the premium one. However, it will help you with the content flaws, like readability, passive constructions, long sentences, grammatical errors, etc
From my experience, if I had to name one disadvantage of YAOST, it would be its inability to understand intent. In point of fact, while writing variations on the same word, I would get scored on the word-for-word matches only.
Email Marketing Martech solution: Mailchimp
Being a startup with an incredible story, Mailchimp know what it’s like to start small. In fact, this email marketing platform is purposely built for growing businesses.
Mailchimp offers an all-in-one marketing platform, but you want to use it for what it does best, emailing. For instance, their email marketing section lets you build emails using drag and drop editor, segment lists and automate sending. Not to mention an access to simple yet relevant analytics of your emailing campaigns.
As we said Mailchimp is designed for small businesses, once you start growing, think about upgrading. To illustrate, the free plan limits you to 2000 contacts and one single audience only.
Unsure if it will effectively grow your business? Watch small business success stories with Mailchimp here
Web Analytics Martech solution: Google Analytics
If I had to rank these free Martech solutions by order of importance, Google analytics will surely come first. This web Analytics service lets you access, integrate and analyze data from several sources to have a 360-degree customer view .
In addition, it tracks data like website traffic, visitor behavior, demographics, to help you optimize your campaign performance.
However, if all your traffic comes from Instagram, chances are it won’t show up on Google Analytics. The reason is when opening a link from your mobile app, Instagram opens the link directly on your mobile browser.
Related: How to Get Instagram traffic to show up in Google Analytics https://www.magneticcreative.com/journal/instagram-traffic-in-google-analytics/
Website performance report: Lighthouse
Lighthouse is the newest addition to the list of Google tools for marketers and we already can’t live without it.
The same way GA analyzes your campaigns, Lighthouse runs audits on your website performance, accessibility and search engine optimization. Besides you can use it to conduct competitive benchmarking as It can be run against any web page.
Point often overlooked, Lighthouse provides a detailed report which can be overwhelming. If you’re not entirely sure what you’re supposed to be looking for, don’t hesitate to watch tutorials to help you out.
Data Visualization tool: Google Data Studio
If you are familiar with Tableau, Google Data Studio is its free alternative developed by Google. Basically this tool syncs all your data sources into fully customizable informative reports and dashboards.
Unlike its competitors like Power BI and Tableau, Google Data Studio is designed as a cloud-based service. To rephrase it, you won’t have to deal with the infrastructure nor the installation.
One slight note of caution would be that Google Data Studio doesn’t offer a real time update on the dashboard. This is due to the non-existence of a built-in method that keeps the dashboard view auto refreshed. On the bright side there’s a workaround, to find out more click here.
Social Media scheduling platform: Hootsuite
Nowadays, social media is part of any marketing mix, but posting on your platform can be tedious and time consuming. This is where Hootsuite steps in, as it is considered by many as the most effective Social Media Management tool. For instance, its free version will allow you to schedule up to 30 posts at once.
Although the analytics it provides are basic, Hootsuite offers a view on all the metrics in one place. However, with the free version you won’t get the most interesting part like social listening and deep scheduling.
To summarize, these tools will provide a comprehensive view of your customer journey and marketing efforts, but also save you time. Apply this time recovered toward achieving new levels of creativity and productivity in crafting unforgettable moments for your customers.
