To be successful in your digital marketing strategy, you need the right tools to get the job done.

You might feel that you don’t have much space in your budget for marketing software, but there are plenty of free digital marketing tools to help you achieve your goals without breaking the bank.

By using free tools and free trials, you can gain a better understanding of how to nudge people to find your business organically, and how to reach new customers.

Knowing how to get the most out of a free tool could save you money and stimulate your business all at once.

This guide highlights five marketing tools with free plans or trials to incorporate into your marketing strategy today.

1. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management tool that offers a free plan as well as paid options. The tool can be used to schedule and publish content across various social media channels, providing valuable insights into the impact of your posts. 

With the free plan, you can schedule posts on up to three channels, with 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time (no monthly or yearly limit on number of posts). 

It also provides a dashboard on which you can keep track of your projects and how they are performing.

2. Google Trends

Google offers its own free digital marketing tools that users can benefit from. The Google search trends that you can analyze on this application go beyond typical SEO data to show information on search popularity rather than just search volume. 

In addition to seeing how often users search for a certain query, Google Trends shows you comparisons to similar searches, the amount of time users spend on certain topics, as well as user geography. 

These free digital marketing tools apply the principles of SEO and more so you can get a comprehensive sense of the kind of content you need to create.

Pro Tip: Localize your searches on Google Trends to your area of business, especially if your goal is to attract more local customers or focus on local SEO. 

3. HotJar

Another of our favorite free digital marketing tools, HotJar can be used to create a heatmap for website engagement. A heatmap is a visual representation of the parts of your website that visitors click on more or spend more time reading.

By using free heatmaps from HotJar, you can focus on elevating the content that visitors are interacting with, while pulling back or rethinking areas that aren’t doing what they should be.

4. BuzzSumo

While not one of the permanently free digital marketing tools on this list, BuzzSumo offers a host of features in its 30-day free trial. 

Use this tool to research popular content and find inspiration on trending, relevant subjects. By finding the top performing articles and blogs for a given topic, you can learn what kind of content you should create for your blog, social media, and other channels. 

Beyond providing you with many sources to draw from, BuzzSumo can also connect you with effective backlinks and the most relevant influencers for you to partner with in your own line of business.

Pro Tip: Make notes of relevant websites and other types of content you discover throughout your trial! You can always revisit them at a future date to see what kind of content they are producing throughout the year as new trends develop.

5. Trello 

Trello can be used for free to improve your own marketing skills with ease. Use boards to keep your marketing tasks organized and track every part of your project, from ideation to execution. With lists and cards, you can easily visualize your team’s workflow as you move through a marketing project.

While much of Trello is used as a shared workspace to track project schedules, it also offers a number of free marketing templates and guides with solutions for various businesses. 

There are hundreds of options when it comes to marketing software. These free digital marketing tools can get you on the right path. 

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