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5 Amazing (and Free!) Tools Every Inbound Marketer Should Be Using

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Did you know there are dozens of tools available online that can help improve the quality of your inbound marketing campaigns? Probably not, which is why you’re here, reading this post, right?

As any good chef will tell you, having the right tools is critical for preparing quality meals. Simply put, if you don’t have your cutting boards, set of knives, spatulas, and other cooking utensils by your side, even the simplest tasks can appear daunting and impossible to carry out.

The same goes for inbound marketing. If you’re not armed with the right inbound marketing tools, you can’t take your promotional efforts to the next level. One of the biggest challenges you will face as an inbound marketer is picking the right tools and learning how to integrate them into your overall marketing strategy.

Luckily, there are tons of online tools which you can use to monitor, analyze, track, and optimize your inbound marketing campaigns. In this blog post, we will talk about five savvy, tried-and-tested marketing tools which can help improve your inbound tactics by leaps and bounds.

So, without wasting any time, let’s dive right into it.

1. HubSpot | All-In-One Solution

HubSpot is a powerful marketing tool that assists businesses in capturing leads through numerous approaches, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogging, Social Media Optimization (SMO), marketing optimization, and marketing analytics. It’s neither a one-size-fits-all product nor a magic dust to sprinkle over your business for overnight results. Instead, it’s the most efficient and user-friendly inbound marketing tool available to marketers that can reap exceptional results.

This best-in-class marketing automation platform is the one-stop shop for all your marketing needs, from building lead generation funnels to automating lead nurturing to producing, optimizing and promoting content. Although it’s available in a wide range of packages, including Starter (€46/month), Basic (€185/month), Professional (€740/month), and Enterprise (€2,200/month), the good news is that it’s even available for free . Some of HubSpot’s top-ranked marketing tools include HubSpot Workflows, HubSpot CRM, and LeadIn.

2. Canva | Graphic-Design

Pre-loaded with beautiful layouts, imagery, and typography, this incredible design tool lets you create enthralling custom designs, infographics, social media images, eBooks, eGuides, PPTs, and landing pages – without having to bother about hiring a professional graphic designer.

Although Canva is free to use, there are many templates and images that will cost you $1 each, which you’ll pay only after you finish your design. Whether it’s a new eBook draft or a sequence of blog posts, using Canva, you can import all of your content at the click of a button and transform it into a finished product, with no design expertise required.

3. BuzzSumo | Content Analyzer

Equipped with a powerful social media search engine, this analytics tool allows you to find or analyze best content (that appeals to your target audience) in any niche. Leveraging this tool, you can filter out the most trending topics for any given keyword, thus helping you attract quality and organic traffic to your website. It is one of the most valuable and powerful tools for effective content curation.

What’s worth pointing out is that BuzzSumo does have a free version that allows you to search for the most shared posts, find influencers and see what is trending each day. Using this amazing inbound marketing tool, you can look for influencers in relevant niches and discover their respective stats, such as Domain Authority, number of followers, Page Authority, audience size, etc.

4. Mail Chimp | Email Marketing

If you’re looking for a standalone email marketing tool, then look no further than Mail Chimp. This valuable tool can assist you with all your campaign needs, such as developing and testing email templates, sending cold email campaigns and email newsletters, managing signup lists, segmenting subscribers, and plenty more.

The best part about this email management tool is that it comes with an awesome free version called “Forever Free Plan”, which allows you to send 12,000 emails a month to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers. The “Forever Free Plan” includes the following features: A/B email testing, email templates and design options, multi-user accounts, RSS-to-email, social sharing, campaign archives, and subscriber profiles.

5. Hootsuite | Social Media Management

Hootsuite is another powerful inbound marketing tool that is used for managing social media accounts and launching marketing campaigns. Its cross-platform capabilities, engagement tools, and analytics make Hootsuite one of the most popular and preferred social media managing tools on the web.

One of its key features is that it brings all your social accounts to one dashboard, thereby letting you post the same content to multiple platforms at the same time. Also, it helps you to schedule posts for a specific time and day (for up to 60 days), and even bulk schedule posts.

The good news is that Hootsuite is completely free, but only for those who have fewer than five social media profiles to manage. The free plan involves managing up to 3 social accounts, basic analytics, 30 scheduled posts, and other freemium offerings.

Final Words

There you have it – a handpicked list of 5 amazing, free inbound marketing tools that can help you grow your business in every aspect.

Now that you’ve got the tools you need to thrive, don’t forget to integrate them into your marketing strategy. Don’t know how to do that? Leave that to us! Let us help you succeed in this realm of endless marketing possibilities with our best-in-class and cost-effective online marketing services. Contact us today for a quote.

Over to you – which of your favorite tools would you add to this list?

About the author

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Gemma Walker

Gemma Walker is the Business Development Manager at Rockon I.T, a leading digital marketing company in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. She likes to write about social media and digital marketing services and help businesses across the globe to reach their development goals.