• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Marketing

10 Free Marketing Tools Every Entrepreneur Should Use

By
Derek Miller
Derek Miller
and
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Derek Miller
Derek Miller
and
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 18, 2016, 9:45 AM ET
City online data connected
City online data connectedIllustration by DrAfter123—Getty Images

This piece originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com.

If you’re an entrepreneur, bootstrapping a business, then you understand the importance of every dollar.

While executing your core competency is a crucial factor to your business’ success, another important step is effectively marketing your business. Fortunately, there are hundreds of free digital marketing tools that can greatly impact your business. Below are a few of the best, free online marketing tools for entrepreneurs.

1. Use Buffer for social media management.

Buffer is a social media management tool that will help you streamline your social posting efforts. We already know how powerful social media is for your marketing initiatives, but leveraging a tool like Buffer will help you increase your followers; engage your audience; and build your brand.

The benefit of Buffer is its ability to let you connect multiple accounts to one dashboard; schedule posts; create drip campaigns; and analyze the success of your posts. Buffer’s free plan is perfect for new businesses looking to grow their social presence, but to unleash the full power of the software, you might want to consider one of their upgraded plans.

2. Or use Hootsuite for social media management.

I’d be remiss to put Buffer on this list and not include Hootsuite. While Buffer is a great tool for scheduling posts, Hootsuite really taps into the central social management platform.

Its free plan allows you to sync three social media profiles, which is a great place to start for most entrepreneurs. The benefit of Hootsuite is its ability to let you quickly respond and post across all your social profiles in one easy-to-use dashboard.

For more on Marketing, watch this Fortune video:

3. Build a logo with Spaces’ free logo maker.

Branding is one of the most critical steps when marketing your business, and the logo is arguably the most important part of your branding. Fortunately, with tools like Spaces’ free logo maker, you no longer have to waste resources on hiring a designer to interpret your vision of the perfect logo.

Using its library, filled with hundreds of icons, frames and font classes, you can create a stunning logo that expresses your brand identity without any design training and without spending any money.

4. Use Canva for easy designing.

Visual content is becoming an increasingly popular form of marketing collateral. From custom illustrations and infographics to fully-designed sales proposals, visual content is a fantastic way for new businesses to gain credibility and build a professional appearance.

There are several free graphic design tools on the market, but one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use is Canva. Its free library of fonts, illustrations, templates and images give you a pool of graphics that you can easily drag-and-drop. From flyers and brochures to social media images and infographics, you can create it all for free in Canva.

5. Use Evernote for organization.

When it comes to marketing your business, organization is critical. Ideas may come to you at any hour of the day. If you’re not able to organize and prioritize your notes, you may not be able to capitalize on opportunities.

Evernote will help you capture ideas, inspiration and trends, all while storing it in one easily accessible location. You can access it on your phone, laptop or tablet, making it the perfect tool for finding and storing content ideas, market research, brainstorming and competitive analyses.

6. Use SurveyMonkey to secure customer feedback.

SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular free online survey tools. Surveys are a good way to collect consumer information, engage customers, uncover trends and secure tangible insights on your business. SurveyMonkey’s software is incredibly simple. In just a few minutes, you can design, create and publish your own business survey. Additionally, you’ll be able to analyze the results in the backend.

7. Use Mailchimp for email marketing.

Email marketing is imperative to the success of most businesses. While building a brand on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are important, you’re limited to the constraints of those channels. This makes it particularly difficult to move consumers through a funnel and provides you with relatively little control.

However, email provides a more intimate interaction between brand and consumer by offering you the tools you need to control effectively nurture leads. Mailchimp is an excellent free email marketing tool and one of the easiest for newbies to learn.

8. Use Sniply for growth hacking.

When you’re using social media regularly, you should also be sharing content from other, reputable experts in your industry. Sharing other influencers’ content will help you build trust with your audience, supplement your content, and also help build rapport with those relevant industry experts.

Sniply is a powerful tool that allows you to attach a call-to-action on every piece of content you share. Because the content you are sharing lives on a website that you don’t control, there is very little chance that the user will visit your site after reading the article. However, Sniply allows you to put a inbound button or CTA into a frame that the article sits inside. Thus, giving you some control of the platform and perpetuating traffic from the non-affiliated content that you share.

9. Use Scraper to extract content from web pages.

Scraper lets you easily pull content from a web page and export it into an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a perfect way to extract contact information or competitor’s data. Once you have this data, you can use it to create cold-email lists, content topics, and other data-driven marketing tactics.

More from Entrepreneur:
• 11 Marketing Tools Worth Trying in 2016
• Top 10 Tools for Reputation Marketing
• Top 5 Small Business Tools

10. Use Rapportive to secure the right information.

Rapportive is one of the strongest, free digital marketing tools that I can recommended. Marketing is often about getting your pitch in front of the right person and Rapportive helps you do that. The tool connects to your Gmail and through trial and error, allows you to find almost anyone’s email address. There are additional tools and resources on this topic.

The list above covers everything from idea generation and logo creation, to email marketing and data visualization, but it only scrapes the surface of the many free digital marketing tools out there today.

About the Authors
By Derek Miller
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Entrepreneur
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman built a program to teach young leaders about China. It’s harder to get into than Harvard
C-SuiteFinance
Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman built a program to teach young leaders about China. It’s harder to get into than Harvard
By Shawn TullyMay 2, 2026
25 minutes ago
In this handout photo provided by U.S. Central Command, U.S. forces patrol the Arabian Sea near M/V Touska on April 20, 2026, after firing upon the Iranian-flagged vessel that the U.S. accused of attempting to violate the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz. (Handout Photo by the U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
PoliticsIran
The Iran war has turned the world’s shipping straits into a chessboard—and the U.S. aims to box out China from the Panama Canal to the Malacca Strait
By Jordan BlumMay 2, 2026
1 hour ago
Trump says a ‘final proposal’ for a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines is under consideration
PoliticsAirline industry
Trump says a ‘final proposal’ for a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines is under consideration
By Michelle L. Price, Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 1, 2026
9 hours ago
U.S. to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany as Trump feuds with Merz over the Iran war
EuropeGermany
U.S. to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany as Trump feuds with Merz over the Iran war
By Ben Finley and The Associated PressMay 1, 2026
10 hours ago
EBay soars on report that GameStop is preparing a takeover bid
Investingecommerce
EBay soars on report that GameStop is preparing a takeover bid
By Spencer Soper, Cecilia D'Anastasio and BloombergMay 1, 2026
10 hours ago
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, far right, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump,left, speaks during a meeting with oil company executives in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 9. President Trump is aiming to convince oil executives to support his plans in Venezuela, a country whose energy resources he says he expects to control for years to come. US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a sweeping military operation on January 3, with Trump making no secret that control of Venezuela's oil was at the heart of his actions.
EnergyIran
Exxon Mobil CEO sees ‘more to come’ on price spikes from Iran war as Exxon, Chevron beat on earnings despite plunging profits
By Jordan BlumMay 1, 2026
11 hours ago

Most Popular

Scott Bessent on financial literacy: 'it drives me crazy' to see young men in blue-collar construction jobs playing the lottery
Personal Finance
Scott Bessent on financial literacy: 'it drives me crazy' to see young men in blue-collar construction jobs playing the lottery
By Fatima Hussein and The Associated PressMay 1, 2026
19 hours ago
China dominates the world's lithium supply. The U.S. just found 328 years' worth in its own backyard
North America
China dominates the world's lithium supply. The U.S. just found 328 years' worth in its own backyard
By Jake AngeloApril 30, 2026
2 days ago
The U.S. economy is booming — just not where 50 million Americans live
Commentary
The U.S. economy is booming — just not where 50 million Americans live
By Derek KilmerMay 1, 2026
23 hours ago
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne—whose stake would be worth up to $400 billion had he not sold it in 1976—says that at 91, he has no regrets
By Preston ForeApril 27, 2026
5 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 1, 2026
19 hours ago
A Chick-fil-A worker got fired and then showed up behind the register to allegedly refund himself over $80,000 in mac and cheese
Law
A Chick-fil-A worker got fired and then showed up behind the register to allegedly refund himself over $80,000 in mac and cheese
By Catherina GioinoMay 1, 2026
15 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.