Get my free Digital Marketing Jumpstart Kit!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nGraphic tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n1. Canva<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The first tool I can’t talk enough about is Canva. The reason why is because it’s free to create an account and with the free account, you can pretty much do anything you need when it comes to some basic design or marketing needs. Whether it’s creating a flyer, a blog graphic, YouTube thumbnail, or a YouTube end card, you can do it all in Canva. Two of the big benefits to Canva is it’s super easy to use, and they have a ton of existing templates that make it super easy for you to plug and go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not like those Microsoft templates that look like they were made all the way back in the nineties. Canva is super modern and sleek. I use Canva for all of my blog featured images. And what I’ll do is I’ll create a baseline template that my virtual assistant then builds upon for all the different posts that they have to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I’ll also do is I’ll put together some downloadables. For example, any downloadable on my YouTube channel was created first in Canva. And then what I’ll do is I’ll have my virtual assistant help me out in creating other versions of different downloads using that same core template.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Pixabay and Unsplash<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The reason why I love these two sites is because they have some really high definition and quality stock images that don’t give off that traditional stocky feel. So it can be a really great way for you to break up some texts that you have in a long form blog post, or to just work in some B-roll into your YouTube videos if you’re a creator. I use Unsplash a ton for my videos thumbnails, B-roll, as well as a ton of blog content that I prepare and create content for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organizational Tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n1. Notion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The reason why I love Notion is because it is a full suite tool for productivity. So, it is a great way for you to get your thoughts organized for you to create Kanban boards for your teams and also to create different databases that you can reference really easily. It is like the combination of Trello, Asana, Airtable, and a ton of different productivity tools all in one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what I did a few weeks ago was I migrated all of my boards and Trello into Notion using their auto importer. And as a result, my team productivity has significantly increased. It makes it super easy for you to collaborate between team members, to leave comments on different work, as well as to incorporate different sources of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, I had these virtual assistant SOP guides and Google docs, and I would have them links to these video recordings that I had done in Loom. However, Notion makes this even better of an experience for my virtual assistant, because it allows me to embed a Loom video into the actual notion page itself. It is super cool and it’s free to use. And so I definitely recommend Notion if you have not already tried them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Google Sheets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The second tool that I recommend when it comes content marketing is Google sheets. And the reason why is because it has some great collaboration features and also it’s great for people that don’t want to necessarily introduce new tooling to their freelancers. So, Google sheets can be a great way for you to run block audits, to run different analysis based on your Google analytics data, or to simply get your content marketing all in one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another benefit of Google sheets is that you can integrate it with something like Zapier. And as a result, when certain things move along in a particular tool, you can have it feed into Google sheets and update the status of a particular cell or column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still use these sorts of free integrations with some of my older projects that are still on Trello, that I haven’t yet moved over to Notion. So, I highly recommend Google sheets when it comes to getting back to the basics of getting organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backend infrastructure<\/h2>\n\n\n\nZapier<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Zapier allows you to talk between applications that you already use and allows you to set up triggers for each different core action that happens in one app to impact something in another app. All of its integrations makes it super easy to talk between applications. So, one of the integrations I still have between my old Trello boards and my Google sheets is that whenever somebody moves a Trello card to us certain stage in the pipeline or the Kanban board, what happens is Zapier triggers an event. And as a result, it will mark that particular content marketing piece as complete or ready for approval in my content tracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now you have to note that their free account has been throttled quite a bit in recent years. That being said, though, you’ll still have a few connections enough so to get started and get familiar with the tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All-in-one-tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSEMRush<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
SEMRush is my absolute favorite digital marketing tool. The reason why I love SEMRush and I’ve been a user for so many years is because it gives so many insights, all in one place. It’ll allows you to see, for example, how a domain is ranking for a certain organic keywords, identify different long tail opportunities that your site may be missing. It also equips you with tools like the Keyword Magic Tool, which pretty much does everything that those first six tools did at the beginning of this video that we went over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it’s an all in one solution and it also even goes as far as analyzes your content, when you copy and paste your content into their SEO content marketing toolkit. What it’ll actually do is it will tell you things like the readability score. It’ll tell you things like what keywords to work in that aren’t already worked in to your piece. So, it effectively does a ton of the things that we’ve covered in this video, but all on one site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some alternatives to SEMRush, such as Ahrefs that you can use or MOZ that I’ve referenced in the past. But personally, I’ve always stuck with SEMRush because I’ve always been able to get results with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, I’ve teamed up with them to have a special link in which if you use this affiliate link here<\/a>, you’re going to get a trial that’s double the length of the standard trial. It’s a great way for you to get a feel for the tool itself. And then to see what it’s like to have a Swiss army knife when it comes to content marketing tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the spirit of giving you guys a ton of value. If you run out of your trial with SEMRush and you decide not to continue with them, but you still want to get use out of a paid SEO tool, then check out Moz next. They have a free trial that you can then use after your SEMRush trial. Also, if you’re looking for another free alternative, you can use something like Ubersuggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, I personally don’t use Ubersuggest because it requires you to grant permissions to your Google Analytics that I’m personally not comfortable with. However, it is a free tool that is, is aiming to be a competitor to these paid tools. So by all means, check it out and see for yourself whether or not it can meet your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Two big takeaways from today’s article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- The first one is that remember that there is always a free option. I’ve included a free tool for every category of tool that we’ve gone over today. So, don’t feel like you have to spend a ton of money in order to do digital marketing effectively.<\/li>
- The second big takeaway is don’t worry if the free tool you use today ultimately becomes paid. The reality is that there is simply too much money to be made in the digital marketing space for the 1% of users that ultimately pay for a tool. That’s there are going to be a ton of alternatives and competitors that pop up for a particular function.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out my YouTube channel<\/a> to get new videos every single week I\u2019ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you think might benefit from learning about this list of tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n