5 Free Online Marketing Tools for Serious Entrepreneurs

culled from:http://firmology.com

Save Money and Increase Productivity With A Better Marketing Toolbox

Online marketing is serious work, which is why you need the right tools to get the positive results you want to achieve. Oftentimes, however, these tools can be costly. For entrepreneurs that are just starting out, that can be a problem.

That being the case, consider the following online marketing tools that you can use for free, or for a fraction of the amount their pricier counterparts charge:

1. Communication and Social Collaboration

Communication is the lifeblood of any business venture, particularly for online marketing campaigns that thrive on collaboration.
For teams comprised of up to 12 members, Bitrix24 is a free online marketing collaboration platform packed with communication features that support instant messaging and group chat, videoconferencing, telephone, and email. It also has a free client management feature with fully functional CRM and sales reporting capabilities.
SEE ALSO: Putting Collaboration to Good Use
Social intranet, daily planner, task templates, time tracking and workload planning, online and multiuser editing, document sharing and versioning–with more than 35 embedded business tools, this free collaboration suite is worth a try.
For more storage, unlimited users, and added features, such as custom logo and IP blocking, the paid subscription package starts at $99 per month.

2. Social Media Management

Twitter is a widely-used networking platform and an integral component of most online marketing initiatives.
To make the most of Twitter, TweetDeck is a free tool that helps with real-time engagement, tracking, and organizing.
Using a single dashboard, you can build and export custom timelines, keep track of searches, lists and activities, even manage multiple accounts. You can also create searches for hashtags, topics, and events, refining the results as needed.
SEE ALSO: Tap In To Online Tools For Your Local Marketing Strategy
TweetDeck also allows for tweet scheduling, muting users or terms for a more efficient tracking experience, and using intuitive keyboard shortcuts for better navigation.

3. Visual Content

A good majority of the human population are visual learners, which is one reason why infographics are becoming more and more ubiquitous.
Piktochart is an infographic creation tool that you can start using for free.
If you don’t have the resources to pay for a professional graphic designer, you can crank out something awesome with Piktochart in under an hour using their free themes and their wide variety of icons to choose from, plus pre-configured color palettes.
This tool is great even for those with zero design talent or experience.
For more themes and added features, the Pro account starts at $14 per month.

4. Organization Tool

More and more content is being created every day, most of it useful and informative. The challenge is how to effectively filter the noise arising from information that doesn’t further your goals.
Evernote is a free curation and organization tool that allows you to save, organize, and share information and ideas through its smart search and saving features.
Not only can you easily retrieve saved web pages and other data types with Evernote, but you can also get content from virtually anywhere.
With Evernote’s family of products (Evernote, Skitch, Penultimate, Web Clipper, Hello, Food, Clearly, and Peak) it’s easy to remember everything, get things done, and communicate effectively.
For upgrades and more features, you can go Premium or Business starting at $5 per month.

5. Email Subscription

Email marketing isn’t dead.
According to Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, email is more powerful than ever “because it moves the conversation about your business to a more personal environment–the inbox.”
INinbox is an email marketing tool that optimizes email campaigns for maximum effectiveness. It allows users to create and send emails, and track how those emails fared so you can make improvements where necessary. It shows how many in your list opened an email, how many took action and clicked a link, and where your subscribers and potential customers are located, among other data.
Other tools like FreshBooks, Eventbrite, Zendesk, and more can easily integrate with INinbox with just one click, giving you the ability to automate tasks and use information stored in databases without having to import anything.
For up to 2,000 contacts and 20,000 emails, INinbox is free for life. If you have a maximum of 5,000 contacts and wish to send an unlimited number of emails, their paid subscription starts at $3.95 per month.