A Women's Funding Network Initiative
 

Marketing & Branding

Thinking about how to get your business noticed? Check out these suggested resources on how to tell the world what’s unique and special about your business, and how to get the word out to potential customers.

Resources & Tools

Hootsuite
Tool

Social media management is an important part of marketing your business. If you are looking for a way to schedule your contact and better manage your posts, check out Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule posts across different platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, and measure your results. Hootsuite offers a variety of plans depending on how many social profiles you will link to the platform and how many users need access to the platform. They offer a free basic plan that allows one user to link 3 social media profiles and schedule up to 30 posts.

Learn more about Hootsuite and start scheduling your social media content by clicking the link below.

GraphicSprings
Tool

GraphicSprings is an online logo generator. They offer a gallery of high-quality, vector format logo templates. You can edit and customize your logo using their generator and helpful tools. There is a cost to download your logo of $19.99. Once you’ve paid for the download, you can then edit and redownload your logo for free. Logos are available to download in JPG, PNG, and SVG format. Get started and create your logo by following the link below.

Career Girls Video: Marketing Tips & Strategies
Video

“Marketing Tips & Strategies” is a video featuring Ritu Mathur from our partner Career Girls.

Google Analytics
Tool

Google Analytics (which has free and paid options) can help you understand things like how people are using your website, how people are finding your business, and how you can better market your business online. If you’re new to Google Analytics, consider taking the free Google Analytics for Beginners course. 

Shopify
Tool

Is your business selling products or services? Are you looking to set up an online store? Shopify is helpful if you are selling items online, either through an online store, Facebook, Amazon, or elsewhere. The service helps you set up an online store, track sales, manage inventory, create invoices, and more. A basic plan starts at $29 per month, and a lite plan starts at $9 per month.

Google Business
Tool

Google Business offers a free way to manage the online presence of your business across Google. You can register and list your business on Google Maps and Google’s platforms to help potential customers find you more easily.

Unsplash
Website

If you are looking for free photos to spruce up your marketing, Unsplash is for you. Unsplash offers free high-resolution stock photos that you can use in your marketing materials, your website, or your branding. Search for specific photos or browse their library by categories like “wallpapers”, “business & work”, and more. 

Start finding high-quality photos by clicking the link below.

MailChimp
Tool

Trying to keep track of your email contacts? Need to send out mass emails about your business? MailChimp helps you create marketing emails, sign up forms, and to track the impact of your emails on your business. The service is free if you have less than 2,000 email subscribers, and $10 per month or more if you have a larger subscriber list.

Piktochart
Tool

Piktochart offers graphic design tools, with templates and formats that you can use to design flyers, social media graphics, presentations, or information sheets. This website is useful for businesses that want to make the information they want to share more visual and compelling. Their basic service is free or they offer a variety of packages starting at $24.17 a month for more extensive services. 

Canva
Tool

Do you need to make designs to promote your business? Are you looking for an easy to use tool to create flyers, menus, postcards, or other marketing materials? Canva is a graphic design tool you can use for your marketing and branding. Use Canva to create images for websites and ads, to design business cards or brochures, and more. Canva offers a variety of images, icons, and fonts to use with their templates or create your own design from scratch. They offer a free plan which gives access to most of the graphic design functions or you can upgrade to Canva Pro for $12.95 per month to access more extensive services.

Start designing graphics and images by clicking the link below.

WebStrategies
Website

Marketing your business is essential for finding new customers and building your business. But how much should you budget for marketing costs? WebStrategies has created this marketing budget calculator tool to help you figure out how much you need to spend on your marketing. This website also has resources about how to improve your marketing budget and make it more effective.

Start calculating your marketing budget now by following the link below.

WordPress
Tool

WordPress offers a basic, free way to create a website for your business. WordPress offers numerous free templates and tutorials on how to use it. WordPress is also very popular, so there are numerous resources on how to use WordPress.

With WordPress you’ll have to buy your domain name and a separate hosting site. Your domain name is your website address and the hosting site is basically your websites home. These services vary on cost, but WordPress is free to use unless you need more features.  A website with more features for small businesses costs $25/month. 

Learn more about WordPress by clicking the link below.

Squarespace
Tool

Squarespace allows you to build a website for your business and offers easy to use website templates. You can set up a blog or an online store using Squarespace. Squarespace offers multiple plans that vary in cost, but a personal site costs $12 per month for a basic website (plus the cost of buying a domain, which is your website address). For businesses that include online transactions, the cost is $26/month.

Send Grid Email Marketing Guide
Guide

Send Grid offers a comprehensive email marketing guide. It includes tips and suggestions on how to create an email marketing strategy, building your email list, and making the most of your email marketing. Check it out by clicking the link below. 

Pablo
Tool

Thinking about creating marketing materials for your business? If you’re new to graphic design or just looking for an easy tool to create graphics, Pablo might be for you. Pablo offers a free way to easily design graphics for social media posts. You can select a size (for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook), add text or a logo, and then download or post directly to social media.

Start designing by clicking the link below.

Website Grader
Tool

Do you have a business website? Website grader will give your website a (free) health check. By entering in your web address, you can check to see if your website is secure, if it is working well (in terms of connection speed and adapting to a mobile device) or if there are issues.

Check your websites’ health by clicking the link below!

Buffer
Tool

Buffer is a service that helps you manage your social media, like Facebook and Instagram. You can track multiple social media accounts in one place, schedule posts for different times, and track how your social media is doing. Buffer offers various pricing structures depending on how many users need to access the account, how many social media accounts you want to link to Buffer, and how many posts you anticipate scheduling a month. They offer a free trial of their Pro (15$/month), Premium (65$/month), and Business ($99/month) plans before you can downgrade to their free plan. Their free plan includes 1 user, 3 social media accounts, and 10 scheduled posts a month.

Learn more about Buffer and start scheduling your social media by clicking the link below.

Quick Sprout
Guide

Quick Sprout offers a variety of tools, webinars and guides on how to increase your online marketing. The website has short, free videos that explain things like increasing website traffic through Facebook ads, making the most of paid ads, and more. Check out Quick Sprout University, a comprehensive syllabi on digital marketing.

Did we miss something?

Tell us about your favorite resource or tool and we’ll add it here!