Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
8 Free Marketing Tools Every SME Should Be Familiar With
Here’s All the GOOD Bits:
- Use tools like Google Analytics, Search Console & Keyword Planner to track how your site is performing and figure out what’s working (and what isn’t!).
- Local search is vital for SMEs. Optimise your Google My Business profile to make sure your brand is always on the map.
- You don’t need to be a designer to create great designs. Utilise tools like Canva and Unsplash to create content that stands out.
- Use tools like Answer The Public for content ideation so that you can focus on what your users really want to see!
- Screaming Frog helps you fix any bus from your backend before they have a negative impact on your SEO.
- Keeping up with the big brands doesn’t mean breaking the bank!
If you’re a small to medium-sized business and you’re feeling overwhelmed by your marketing strategies, you most definitely aren’t alone! Luckily for you, though, we’ve been around the block a few times and have gotten to know some of the easiest to use, best, and (most importantly) free marketing tools on the market.
If you don’t want to spend a fortune on digital marketing tools but still want to keep up with bigger brands and focus on taking your marketing to new heights – we’ve got you covered.
Here are the 8 best free marketing tools SMEs should be familiar with, according to us – a leading digital marketing agency in London.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is probably your first port of call when it comes to free SEO marketing tools. It allows you to access detailed data on your website’s traffic and conversion rates so that you can better understand how your site is performing.
You can use this data to adjust your marketing strategies and to better align with what you’ve seen work in the past. The detailed data you receive from Google Analytics can also help you improve the user experience of your site, which is a key factor for SME looking to stand out in the digital space.
2. Canva
If you’re just starting out creating graphics and you’re looking for a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate tool, Canva is the way to go! They have a great free version that allows you to access thousands of templates, photos, graphics, and tools you can use to make ads, create social media posts, create email templates, and more!
Whilst you might eventually need a subscription as your skills progress, the free version is perfect for newbies wanting to create compelling content for their business’s social media accounts or ads. No graphic design experience needed – Canva makes creating great content simple.
3. Keyword Planner
This is another one from Google, and it’s perfect for finding keywords for ad campaigns or to improve your site’s SEO. Keyword Planner is a must-have for any business exploring either SEO or PPC as potential marketing channels.
Find relevant keywords, related keywords and search volumes without the hassle by using Google’s Keyword Planner.
4. Google My Business
Google strikes again, and this one is going to be critical if you rely on local traffic to keep your business going. When you claim your Google My Business listing, anyone who searches for a business similar to yours will also see your business on the map.
Make sure you’ve optimised your listing and that you have reviews, photos, opening hours, and any other important information so that you can get the most benefit out of Google My Business.
5. Answer The Public
If you want to take your content marketing strategy to the next level but you struggle with content ideation, Answer The Public is the tool for you! Answer The Public helps to show you the topics and questions people are searching for so that you can tailor your content to what users actually want to see.
If content plans have been getting you down and you’re finding it hard to know the kinds of content that users are going to respond best to, Answer The Public should be your first port of call. And the best bit – it’s free!
6. Google Search Console
Another free tool from Google, if you want to see how your business is doing in Google search results, Google Search Console is the tool for you.
Google Search Console makes it easy for you to monitor how your website has been doing on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. You can see metrics like the number of impressions, clicks, CTR, average position of keywords and more. If you’re looking to level up your SEO in 2025, Google Search Console should be the first free tool you check out.
7. Unsplash
This is another free tool that’s more suitable for the creative side of things. Whilst Canva is great for design, you might need to get royalty-free images elsewhere from time to time.
If you’re looking for imagery for graphics, blogs or even your website, Unsplash provides you with copyright-free, high-quality stock images that you can utilise – completely free!
8. Screaming Frog
Whilst Screaming Frog isn’t entirely free, there is a free version that might work just fine if your site isn’t too large. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs per website, so as long as the site you’re crawling doesn’t have over 500 URLs, the free version should suit you just fine!
Screaming Frog is one of the best free seo marketing tools for finding broken links, auditing redirects, finding missing metadata, and so much more that would simply take too long (or be almost impossible) to do manually.
Small Businesses Shouldn’t Miss Out On The Best Tools
Having a smaller budget doesn’t mean you should miss out on the marketing tools the big brands use. These free tools will help you to get ahead of your competition, and if you find yourself growing out of the free versions – you can always purchase a subscription!
If you need some guidance on nailing down your overall marketing strategy before you get into the nitty-gritty of choosing marketing tools for your business, you can get in touch with our team today to chat about all things digital marketing.