Nick Sicoly
Happy 2018! With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, being active in the digital landscape has become increasingly important for businesses. At Cavera, we use many digital tools on a daily basis and we’d like to share some of our favourites with you. The best part about this list? All of the major functions of these tools are FREE! Take a look at the list below and start implementing some of these tools into your 2018 digital strategy!
Tools For Everything
Canva
If there is one tool you need to check out, it’s Canva. Canva is a free drag-and-drop graphic design tool you can use to create images for your social media, emails, posters, and so much more. Canva presents you with templates for specific social media images, posters, invitations and then has a simple interface where you can fully customize the image. Canva does offer extra features with a subscription, but the free plan will be enough for most users.
Grammarly
When you write a lot of emails and documents every day, it can be tedious to check if your grammar makes sense—or maybe you’re secretly terrible with grammar (aren’t we all?). In any case, Grammarly is a free Google Chrome extension that will not only identify spelling mistakes in your text, it will also highlight missing punctuation, when to remove unnecessary words, and tons of other grammatical errors. Their premium plan offers even more features such as a plagiarism checker, but the free version is all you need for daily email and document writing.
IFTTT (If This Then That)
Have you ever thought to yourself: “I wish the photos I was tagged in on Facebook automatically saved to my phone” or “Gee, I would really love to get an email of NASA’s astronomy picture of the day.” Well, you’re in luck because IFTTT has solved these problems. IFTTT connects to hundreds of apps such as your social media, your phone, or websites and lets to create simple tasks that will automatically perform a function between them. For example, if you want to automatically post your Youtube videos to a Facebook page, IFTTT can set that up. IFTTT has millions of different functions, so if you can think it, chances are they have it. If you’re looking for a tool that will automate tedious digital tasks for free, look no further.
Email Marketing
MailChimp
If you are still sending company newsletters or sales promotion manually, well it’s time to join the 21st century. MailChimp is a free email marketing tool that allows you to build email lists, create beautiful email templates, and automate when your emails are sent out. Want to send a welcome email to anyone that joins your mailing list or send a promo code to someone who abandons their shopping cart on your website automatically? MailChimp can handle this. If email marketing is an important part of your business and you haven’t checked out MailChimp, stop what you are doing and go to their website now.
Social Media
Buffer
There are plenty of social media tools out there, but we prefer Buffer. It’s clean and simple interface makes it easy to schedule multiple social media posts across your different accounts. The analytics are easy to understand and easily identify your most popular posts. They also have a free image creator that you can use! (which is important because images can significantly increase engagement). Like most digital tools, there is a subscription option available, but you can manage up to 3 social accounts on their free plan.
Analytics
Google Analytics
Most of you probably saw this coming. Our own digital marketing services revolve around data and it doesn’t get much better than Google Analytics. Everything we do links back to analytics so this tool is a staple in our office. We won’t lie, Google Analytics can be quite complicated since there are so many menus and options available to you. However, if you are just starting out, sticking to the basics of just monitoring your web traffic is a great start. It can help you see how many visitors you are getting and where they are coming from. And of course, we are here to help you if you want to learn more!
SEO
Google Search Console
Are you fairly comfortable with analytics and want to learn more about your website’s Google search analytics and SEO? Well then you need to check out Google Search Console. This tool lets you track your website’s search performance on Google by identifying what terms people are searching to find your website, errors that Google encounters on your website, and much more. It is totally free and can help you identify profitable keywords in order to rank higher in search rankings!
SEMRush
When you really want to get serious with SEO, it is imperative that you find tools that will streamline the research and implementation processes involved with the work. SEMRush is an all-in-one tool that can help with keyword research, backlink research, Pay-per-click research, domain rankings, competitor tracking and more. The best part about SEMRush is that you can all of your SEO work done in one place instead of having to switch between multiple tools on different websites. Although full access to SEMRush requires a paid subscription, you can access some of the tools on a limited basis for free. If SEO is something you want to do for your website, we highly recommend this tool.
