Marketing plays a crucial role in the evolution of a start-up. There is no denying the fact there needs to be a great deal of determination for the young business to succeed. And even then, there is no certainty that it will. There are plenty of challenges to overcome, starting from creating a comprehensive business plan to financing and all the way to marketing.

What early entrepreneurs need to pay close attention to is their bottom line and how to remain cash positive during this particularly vulnerable period. On average, the cost of starting a business is around $30,000.  This figure doesn’t take into account the immediate operational costs that involve running a business.

It is for this reason why so many start-ups avoid implementing a marketing strategy. Yet, it’s through marketing that these start-ups are able to experience early growth and profitability. Here are five marketing tools every new business needs, without having to break the bank in order to get them.

CRM – HubSpot

A customer relationship management tool is essential for small businesses as a means of managing their sales pipeline.  As far as free CRM tools are concerned, HubSpot provides a lot of value.

The free platform also acts as a foundation for further, paid expansions down the line. These include marketing, sales, and customer service, providing for a more inclusive platform, overall.  Nevertheless, HubSpot can also integrate with other, third-party platforms for better functionality.

Analytics – Google Analytics

As far as free web analytics are concerned, Google Analytics is one of the best. Being integrated with AdWords, Google Analytics can help you manage your online campaigns by tracking various metrics. These include lead generation, sales, downloads, referrers, bounce rates, geographical locations, etc. This data will help you identify poorly performing pages, among others, so that you revise accordingly.

Blogging – WordPress

If you’re new to blogging, WordPress is a safe alternative. Not only can you write blog posts with SEO optimization, but it also enables you to build your entire website and landing pages from scratch. There are also numerous other plug-ins that you can add further down the line.

Email Marketing – MailChimp

As an email marketing and automation platform, MailChimp allows you to create numerous campaigns which help you connect with your audience better. You can manage your newsletters, product to subscribers, and create emails, postcards, landing pages, signup forms, Facebook and Google remarketing ads.

Social Media – Buffer

Social media management platforms help you a great deal by automating and streamlining many of the social media marketing processes. You can create all sorts of content and then schedule it throughout the following week, without having to turn to it every single day.

With Buffer‘s free version you can create a single profile for three social networks (depending on your needs). Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you can schedule up to 10 posts in advance for each.

The marketing tech stack presented here is by no means exhaustive or set in stone. Each start-up is free to create its own. Based on your individual needs, industry, and budget, you can look at other tools that focus on lead generation, SEO, automation, design, live chat, etc. Nevertheless, the marketing tools presented here provide for an excellent base to experiment and expand upon, once you have your start-up finances in order.

Until the next time,