With most small business premises closed across the United Kingdom during lockdown, there’s no better time to give your business website and social media the revamp it deserves.
Whether it’s starting an email newsletter to keep your customers in the loop, or starting a new venture into social media for your small business, nothing is out of reach and you definitely don’t have to spend your hard-earned money to begin a new beginning.
The team at ADAO have included our top 5 favourite free software below to get you started. You can find all of these online resources completely free, and you won’t need any prior experience, so they’re perfect for beginners and professionals alike. Easy!
Note: it goes without saying, but we are not sponsored by any of these companies. These are based on our own findings and recommendations. Anything to help make life a little easier for fellow small businesses in your time of need!
Canva is a free website that you can use to create your own social media posts, email templates, and more. It comes with free social post templates for inspiration, a massive library of free graphics, stock photos and videos, as well as templates to resize your content for each social media platform (whether it’s 1:1 for Instagram, 9:14 for Instagram Stories, or 4:3 for LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook).
You can also use Canva to create animated GIFs or videos, with no coding or previous design experience required, making it a lifesaver for social media managers and content creators.
While there is a paid tier option, there’s plenty of free content to get you up-and-running and posting to your social media channels in no time.
Find out more at Canva.com.
Did you know? ADAO has an award-winning website design and graphic design team gunning for the chance to work with you to make your web design the best it can be.
Get in touch today for a free quote for your small business website!
TinyPNG is your secret weapon to improve your website’s SEO (search engine optimisation*) . Compress your image sizes by up to 70% without losing quality and resolution, and make your site load so much faster. Plus, it can be achieved in seconds, and is a completely free platform. Boosting your site speed has never been easier!
All you need to do is drag and drop your downloaded PNG files into the software, and download the new and improved compressed images for use on your website. Done!
Find out more at TinyPNG.com
*Search engine optimisation – meaning how search engines like Google rank your site on their results pages. Generally you want to be higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) to increase your chances of your business appearing on the first page of Google Searches, so aim higher!
Need more information or advice on how to improve your website’s SEO? Drop a message to the ADAO digital marketing team for a full website audit and SEO health check.
Schedule all of your social media in one fell swoop with Hootsuite. It’s quick, easy and means you’re not spending countless hours scheduling your social media content on each individual native social platform. You can even schedule your content months in advance, and change it up anytime you need to. Easy!
The free tier allows you to register up to 3 separate social media accounts (so if you’re marketing your small business on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you’re covered!) The paid upgrade allows you to include more social media accounts, so if you work with social media for multiple clients, you don’t have to be restricted.
Find out more at Hootsuite.com.
Mailchimp is email marketing made easy. This email platform provides you with great email templates (for the not-so-design-savvy!), email scheduling and a full reporting spectrum to see your email engagement and clickthrough rate (ie. how many people saw your email, clicked on it, and then came through to your website as a result).
You can upload an email list of your current subscribers or customers, or allow Mailchimp to create dynamic lists when new people sign up to your newsletter – the signup process is completely pre-arranged by Mailchimp, so all you have to do is follow the steps provided.
The free tier is free for up to 2,000 contacts for one audience (perfect for small businesses!), with the option to upgrade to paid tiers if you want to include more contacts and audiences. Great for when your small business goes viral!
Find out more at Mailchimp.com.
Want to get started with email marketing for your small business, from a specialist marketing agency? Or need inspiration for your business email marketing campaigns?
Drop a message to the ADAO digital marketing team for a quote today!
Ever wanted Photoshop but without the price tag? For slightly more advanced graphic design or photo manipulation, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free photo editing software that allows you to do (almost) anything that Photoshop can.
As it’s completely free and open-source, you can download this software for any operating system (Windows, OS or GNU/Linux), and get to work straight away on making your images look flawless.
Find out more at GIMP.org.
For more in-depth advice on your website design and graphic design elements, the ADAO Web Design team are here to help! Get in touch today for a free quote for your small business!