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Key takeouts
- There are plenty of free marketing tools available to help small businesses create content, manage marketing activities and measure results.
- Google Business Profile, Google Analytics and Yoast SEO can help with different aspects of your business’s online presence and website performance.
- Canva, social media platforms, YouTube and free stock image libraries provide resources for creating and sharing marketing content.
- Mailchimp offers free email marketing for smaller subscriber lists, while AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot can help with content ideas, research and writing.
- Starfish Marketing also provides free marketing tips and information through our blogs.
- Free marketing tools still take time to learn and use. Choosing the right ones starts with understanding your marketing goals and having a strategy to achieve them.
A few years ago, (2019 actually), I met with Jade, a local business owner, comedian, MBA student (at the time) and wearer of many hats.
Like a lot of us, Jade likes to do things herself. However, she was feeling frustrated with her marketing, so we caught up to see how Starfish Marketing might help.
As it turned out, Jade wasn’t quite ready to outsource her marketing. We don’t call it a discovery session for nothing.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t help. Jade left our meeting with some practical advice and free marketing tools she could use to get things happening. Free marketing donuts, so to speak.
As business owners, we know marketing is important. Yet it has a habit of falling to the bottom of the very important to-do list, sometimes disappearing from that list entirely.
Sometimes it’s a lack of time. Sometimes it’s the cost of marketing, uncertainty about getting a return on your investment, or simply wanting to manage things yourself.
At Starfish Marketing, I believe marketing can make a difference to your business. And when businesses are doing well, that makes a difference to our communities too.
I also know there are business owners who enjoy doing their own marketing, along with those who’d happily outsource it but aren’t quite ready to make that investment.
So, in the interest of helping more businesses make their marketing happen, I’ve put together nine free marketing tools for small business that are worth knowing about.
And yes, they’re free in dollars. Your time is another matter, but we’ll get to that.
1. Google Business Profile
If your business is eligible for a Google Business Profile and you haven’t set one up yet, I’d encourage you to make this a priority.
Formerly known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile is a free service that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps.
When someone searches for a local business or service, Google Business Profiles can appear in the results, providing information such as contact details, opening hours, location, services and reviews.
You can add photos, share updates, respond to reviews and provide information that helps potential clients learn more about your business.
And if you’ve already got a profile, when did you last check it?
I’ve come across plenty of businesses with outdated opening hours, old photos or services that are no longer offered.
A quick review of your profile is worth adding to your regular marketing activities. Make sure your business details are accurate, add some recent photos and respond to reviews.
Google Business Profile also provides performance information, including some of the searches people use to find your business.
That’s useful information to have when you’re working out how people discover you.
Sign up for it here.
2 . Google Analytics
If you’ve got a website, you really should know what’s happening on it.
Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you understand who’s visiting your website, where they’re coming from and what they’re doing when they get there.
The current version, Google Analytics 4, provides information about website traffic, visitor behaviour and actions people take on your website.
For example, you can see which pages are attracting visitors, whether people are arriving from Google Search or social media, and how they interact with your content.
You can also set up tracking for specific actions, such as submitting an enquiry form or clicking a contact button.
I particularly like being able to see which marketing activities are contributing to website visits and enquiries, because that information helps with decisions about what marketing to continue, change or spend more money on.
Of course, having Google Analytics installed is only part of the job. You need to look at the information and understand what it’s telling you.
If you’ve got Google Analytics set up but rarely look at it, start by reviewing your website traffic sources and most visited pages. Then look at whether people are taking the actions you’d like them to take.
And if you don’t have a website yet, I’d encourage you to get one. Even a simple website that explains your services and provides a way for people to contact you is a useful starting point.
3. MailChimp
Keeping in touch with your clients and people who’ve expressed an interest in your business is a great way to stay front of mind.
Email marketing gives you an opportunity to share useful information, business news, new services, upcoming events and other content that your subscribers might be interested in.
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that offers a free plan, although the limits are much smaller than they used to be.
As at October 2026, the free plan allows up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends per month, with a maximum of 250 sends per day.
If you’re starting out with a small subscriber list, that might be enough to get your email marketing happening.
And you don’t need to send an email every week.
A monthly newsletter with useful information, updates from your business and links to your latest blogs can be a lovely way to maintain contact.
The important thing is to think about what your subscribers would be interested in receiving. Give them a reason to open your emails and, ideally, look forward to the next one.
There’s also the benefit of bringing people back to your website, where they can learn more about your business and the services you offer.
4. Social Media
Social media offers plenty of free opportunities to connect with your ideal clients.
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are three platforms that businesses can use without paying to publish organic content, although paid advertising and additional features are available.
And while social media has changed considerably over the years, my advice about choosing platforms hasn’t changed.
Focus on the platforms where your ideal clients are active.
If the people you want to work with are spending time on LinkedIn, it makes sense to have a presence there. If they’re engaging with local businesses on Facebook or Instagram, those platforms might be more appropriate.
There’s little value in trying to maintain six different social media accounts if you don’t have the time or content to manage them properly.
Social media also gives you opportunities to have conversations, respond to questions, share what happens in your business and help people get to know you.
And if you’re using Facebook and Instagram, Meta Business Suite is another free tool worth exploring. You can use it to schedule content, manage messages and comments, and review information about your content’s performance.
A little planning can make managing your social media much more practical, particularly when you’re busy running the rest of your business.
Remember: choose and focus on the platform where your market is active. You can read more about that here.
5. Canva
I do love Canva.
Canva is an online graphic design
I do love Canva.
It’s an online graphic design platform that makes creating marketing materials much more accessible, particularly if graphic design isn’t one of your skills.
There’s a free version with plenty of templates, images, graphics and design tools you can use to create social media content, presentations, flyers, posters and other marketing materials.
There are also paid features and images, so keep an eye on what you’re using if you want to stick with the free version.
One of the things I particularly like about Canva is that you can create a design and then use it as the basis for future content.
For example, you could create a handful of social media designs using your business colours, fonts and style, then update the images and text each time you need a new post.
This helps keep your marketing looking consistent and saves you from starting with a blank page every time.
And while Canva has thousands of templates available, you don’t need to use a different one for every post.
Your branding will benefit from a consistent look and feel, so choose designs that suit your business and make them your own.
6. Youtube
There are plenty of free resources available when you’re trying to learn something new or work out how to do a particular marketing task.
Youtube is still one of my favourites.
If you’re trying to work out how to use a marketing platform, set up a particular feature or understand how something works, there’s a good chance someone has created a video explaining it.
You can find tutorials on everything from Google Analytics and Canva to website updates and social media advertising.
You can even find videos on how to make a papier mâché starfish. Yes, really, check it out, how to make a paper mache starfish.
Although, one thing worth checking is when a video was published. Marketing platforms change regularly, and instructions that worked a couple of years ago might look quite different now.
7. Yoast SEO
If you’ve got a WordPress website, Yoast SEO is a plugin worth having a look at.
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, helps search engines understand your website and improves its opportunities to appear in relevant search results.
Yoast offers a free version of its WordPress plugin that provides guidance on various aspects of SEO.
It can help you review page titles and descriptions, assess how you’ve used your focus search term, and check the readability of your content.
It also includes technical features such as XML sitemaps and structured information that can help search engines understand your website.
One of the features people tend to become quite attached to is Yoast’s traffic light system.
You get green, orange and red indicators, along with suggestions for improving different aspects of your content.
And while getting those green lights can be strangely satisfying, there’s something worth remembering.
Yoast is a tool to help with your SEO. Getting all the lights to turn green doesn’t guarantee your website will appear on the first page of Google.
You still need useful, relevant content that answers the questions your ideal clients are asking.
My advice is to use Yoast’s recommendations to help improve your website content, while making sure everything you publish makes sense to the people who’ll be reading it.
8. Free stock images
Good imagery can make a difference to how your marketing looks and how people engage with your content.
And while I’m a big fan of using your own business photos wherever possible, there are times when stock images can be useful.
Perhaps you’re creating a blog about a topic that doesn’t lend itself to an obvious photo, or you need a particular image to help explain something.
There are several websites where you can access free stock images, including:
Pexels: Free photos and videos covering a wide range of topics.
Pixabay: Free photos, illustrations, graphics, videos and other creative resources.
Unsplash: A large collection of photographs covering business, lifestyle, nature and plenty of other subjects.
Negative Space: Free stock photographs covering a variety of categories.
These sites offer images that can be used for various marketing purposes, although it’s worth checking the relevant licence conditions before using an image.
And remember to choose imagery that suits your business and brand.
I’ve seen enough generic stock photos of people in suits shaking hands to last me quite some time.
Where possible, use images of your actual business, people, products, services and clients (with their permission, of course). They’re a great way to help people see who they’re dealing with.
Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, Negative Space
9. Us (starfish marketing)
Of course, I couldn’t put together a list of free marketing resources without including Starfish Marketing.
One of the reasons I started Starfish was because I believe marketing can make a difference to businesses and the communities they’re part of.
And helping business owners understand their marketing is part of that.
That’s why I regularly share free marketing tips and information through the Starfish Marketing blog.
You’ll find articles (like this one) covering marketing strategy, social media, content creation, websites, SEO and plenty of other marketing topics.
My aim is to share practical information you can use in your own business, explain marketing in everyday language and hopefully make the whole marketing thing a little easier.
Whether you’re doing your own marketing, working with someone else or thinking about outsourcing, there’s information there to help.
And if you’d like marketing tips delivered to your inbox, you can also sign up for The Starfish Splash, my free monthly email with marketing information and ideas.
Free in dollars, but what about your time?
There are stacks of free marketing tools and resources available, and I’ve only covered a few of them here.
Some can help you create content, others can help you understand what’s working, and others make it easier to manage particular marketing activities.
However, there’s something I encourage business owners to think about before signing up for another tool.
What are you trying to achieve with your marketing?
Because having access to free tools doesn’t automatically mean your marketing is going to achieve what you want it to.
You still need a marketing strategy that identifies your business goals, your ideal clients, what marketing activities make sense for your business and how you’re going to measure the results.
Then you can work out which tools will help you deliver those activities.
And remember, while these tools might be free in dollars, there’s still your time involved in learning how to use them and actually doing the marketing.
Which is worth thinking about when you’ve already got a business to run.
And what happened with Jade?
Since this all started with Jade, I thought I’d share what she had to say after our catch up. She gave me permission to share her feedback.
I saw Mell the next day and now a week on I’ve got a neat little campaign happening, some videos, more templates, more spread sheets, more stuff to do and more confidence with promoting my brand. Meeting with Mell was like a having a psych session for my marketing strategy. Excellent stuff.
I rather liked being described as a marketing psych session.
And I was pleased that Jade had taken what we’d discussed and started making things happen with her marketing.
That’s what I love about sharing marketing knowledge. Sometimes a conversation, a few ideas or discovering a tool you didn’t know existed can help you get on with something you’ve been meaning to do.
Hopefully, these nine free marketing donuts will help you with yours.
Bonus freebie #10. AI tools
And of course, we now have artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help with various marketing tasks.
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot all offer free access, with different features and usage limits.
These tools can be useful for brainstorming content ideas, researching topics, developing blog outlines, exploring questions your ideal clients might ask, reviewing copy or organising information.
For example, you could ask an AI tool to suggest blog topics based on the services your business offers, or help you develop a list of questions your ideal clients might have before choosing to work with you.
The more relevant information you provide about your business and what you’re trying to achieve, the more useful the responses are likely to be.
And please, check the information before using it.
AI tools can make things up, misunderstand what you’re asking or produce some very generic marketing content. They also have a rather impressive ability to sound confident when they’re completely wrong.
Use them to help with your marketing, add your own knowledge and experience, and make sure the finished content reflects your business.
Let’s catch up
Of course, if you’d prefer to have someone look after your marketing, I’d love to chat.
At Starfish Marketing, I work with businesses to develop their marketing strategy and then make their marketing happen.
So, if you’re ready to get marketing off your to do list and have someone experienced managing it for you, let’s catch up for a coffee and a chat.
Because making marketing happen is what I do, and I happen to think it should be fun too.
Frequently asked questions about free marketing tools for small business
1. What free marketing tools are available for small businesses?
There are plenty of free marketing tools available, including Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, Canva, Mailchimp, YouTube, Yoast SEO and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Free stock image websites and AI tools can also help with content creation. Each serves a different purpose, so it’s worth choosing tools that support what you’re trying to achieve with your marketing.
2. Which free marketing tools should I start with?
Start with your marketing goals and where your ideal clients are active. If attracting local enquiries is a priority, Google Business Profile is worth investigating. If you’ve got a website, Google Analytics can help you understand how people find and use it. For content creation, Canva and AI tools can be useful. Focus on a few tools that support your marketing strategy and build from there.
3. Can I use AI tools for my marketing for free?
Yes. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot all offer free access, although features and usage limits vary. You can use them to brainstorm marketing ideas, develop content outlines, research topics and review copy. The important thing is to check the information they provide and add your own knowledge, experience and personality so the finished content reflects your business.
