Marketing on a Budget

Free resources to add to your marketing toolkit
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Are you trying to implement a marketing plan on a shoestring budget? Whether you’re a solopreneur or the marketing lead for a nonprofit, there are a variety of free online tools that can help you elevate your brand and put your strategy in motion!
Check out some of the key tools and resources we recommend for our clients.

Social Media Scheduling & Planning

• Buffer: It’s hard to find a social media scheduling tool that is truly free beyond a trial period. Buffer offers a free subscription to connect 1 account and schedule content for 3 channels. You’ll also get access to Buffer’s AI assistant and various third-party integrations. Get Buffer for free.
• Notion: Outside of scheduling tools, it’s important to build a calendar where you can plan and draft your content. You can find some free content calendars via Hubspot, but our preferred tool for planning and plotting content is Notion! Check out our favourite free Notion social media content calendar template.

Video & Graphic Design

• Canva: No surprises here. Canva is our go-to tool for graphic design. A free Canva account will give you access to millions of templates so you can design everything from print banners to Instagram posts. If you have a little room in your budget, the Canva Pro plan starts at $150 CAD/year and gives you access to more advanced editing and branding tools.
• Adobe Express: While you can also use Canva to create and edit your videos, Adobe Express offers a video editor that is accessible to all skill levels. Simply upload your video, and you can trim your content and format the video for the platform you’ll be posting to. Get started with Adobe Express.

Closed Captions & Transcribing

• Headliner.app: When creating a new video, ensure your media is accessible to everyone! While some platforms offer video auto-captioning, these captions often contain spelling errors and are hard to edit. Headliner’s free plan gives you unlimited transcriptions and lets you add captions to 5 unwatermarked videos per month. Visit Headliner.app to learn more and get started.
• Otter.ai:Tasked with note-taking for an upcoming webinar? The free version of Otter.AI gives you access to 300 monthly transcription minutes and access to an AI meeting assistant who will record and transcribe your webinar in real time!

Email Marketing

• Brevo: Testing out a newsletter or email marketing strategy with a small audience? Brevo’s free plan gives you access to 9,000 emails (a cap of 300 per day) with a maximum of 2,000 subscribers for marketing automation. If your email marketing test takes off, we highly recommend investing in a paid version of Brevo, Mailchimp, or another email marketing platform!
• LinkedIn Newsletter: If you already have an established LinkedIn audience, the social platform is a great place to build and grow a newsletter for your organization! Pages with more than 150 followers are eligible to be evaluated for LinkedIn Newsletters access. Once granted access to the newsletter function, you can start drafting your first campaign using the easy-to-edit article builder. Start your LinkedIn newsletter today.

Ready to build a marketing plan that utilizes free and easy-to-use tools and helps you reach new audiences? Get in touch with us today by emailing Jocelyn at [email protected].