The best marketing tools for solopreneurs

 

Want to know what the best marketing tools for solopreneurs are? As a solopreneur, you have to wear a lot of different hats in your business and one of those is marketing. If you don’t learn how to effectively market your business then you’ll seriously struggle to build a thriving online business. Thankfully there are more tools than ever to make marketing your business easy (or at least easier). Keep on reading to find out what the best marketing tools for solopreneurs are.

 

This page includes affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. 

 

If you are acting as the marketer of your business the fact is that even that one role covers so many different things. In my eyes if you are marketing your own business you actually are performing 5 different roles: strategist or planner, copywriter, designer or creator, executor and analyst. You can read more about these 5 different roles here.

 

As you can imagine that is a lot to do, but here are tools to help you.

 

THE BEST MARKETING TOOLS FOR SOLOPRENEURS

 

Website – WordPress

If you are serious about having a thriving online business as a solopreneur then please invest in having a website. In today’s world, it isn’t essential to have a website. You can make sales without one, but you’ll make so many more sales when you have a good website and are driving traffic there.

 

My go-to website builder is WordPress. WordPress truly is a website builder that can grow with your business. There is literally a plugin for everything so no matter what happens in the future your website will be able to support you. WordPress is known for not being the most user-friendly but with great drag and drop page builders such as Divi, Beaver and Elemantor it really isn’t as difficult as it used to be.

 

Pricing

WordPress is free, but you will need a theme (various prices) and website hosting. Siteground offers great WordPress website hosting. Pricing starts at £143.88 per year, but they often have discounts so for accurate pricing check here.

 

Alternative to WordPress

If you really don’t want to go with WordPress then I would recommend Squarespace. Squarespace has a range of mobile-responsive templates for you to choose from and the hostage is included in the pricing. Pricing starts from £10 per month. You can find out more, and start a 14-day free trial, here.

 

Design – Canva

Before starting my own business I had a number of marketing jobs and those companies would always have Adobe Creative Suite  I was a lover of Photoshop and InDesign, but they can be a bit pricey, and tricky, for a newbie.  I can’t remember who introduced me to Canva, but I was amazed by how much it could do and couldn’t believe it was free. Canva is an amazing design tool for solopreneurs and by far one of the best marketing tools for solopreneurs.

 

Pricing

Canva is a freemium design tool. This means you can open an account that is free forever. This is perfect to get started on and many solopreneurs will stay on the free version for life. However, you can upgrade to Canva pro. Upgrading for the paid version allows you to be able to resize designs, remove the background of images, schedule content to social media and have access to their entire library of premium content, and much more.

To open an account with Canva click here. 

 

Copywriting – Grammarly 

As a solopreneur, you’ll find yourself having to do a lot of writing in order to market your business. I write thousands of words on a weekly basis between emails, blog posts and social media posts.  I swear by using Grammarly. 

 

You can add Grammarly to your browser as a plugin and it will review the grammar, spelling and punctuation of anything you are writing.

 

Pricing

There is a free version of Grammarly, as well as a Premium and Business version. Premium starts at $12 per month and business is $15 per month. To find out about Grammarly click here. 

 

 

Photo Editing – Lightroom

If you use photography to market your business then you need to check out the Lightroom mobile app. It is from Adobe and is great if you want to quickly adjust the settings of your image on your mobile phone. I rarely use photographs in my marketing anymore, but when I do I’m always grateful for still having Lightroom on my phone

Pricing

Lightroom is a freemium app so you can download it for free and use it. You can upgrade to Lightroom Premium. I’ve never done so not really sure what the benefits are.

To get Lightroom on your phone click here.

 

MARKETING TOOLS ARE GREAT BUT DO YOU HAVE A GOOD ENOUGH MARKETING STRATEGY?  I’m a Chartered Marketer that specialises in supporting solo coaches, consultants and online service providers. I design marketing strategies and plans knowing that the business owner isn’t a marketing expert and that they are running the marketing alongside numerous other things in their business. Whether you are looking for a strategy for an upcoming launch or an evergreen marketing campaign I can help via a Strategy Day.  To find out more about Strategy Days click here. To discuss your business and your specific needs book a call here.

Removing Watermark from TikTok and Instagram videos – Snaptik or SnapInsta 

Time is your most precious asset as a solopreneur. If you are taking the time to create TikTok videos or Instagram Reels then you should be saving those videos without the watermark so you can repurpose the videos on other platforms (or on the same platforms again in the future). SnapTik and SnapInsta allow you to do just that.    

 

SnapTik is for TikTok videos and SnapInsta is for Reels. You simply copy the link from the TikTok video or Instagram Reel and put the link of your video into the browser and then you can download a watermark-free version.

 

Pricing

It is free to use SnapTik or SnapInsta. The site makes money from the adverts that are on the website.

 

 

 

Social Media Scheduler – Later 

If you are like most solopreneurs then you are likely to be using one, or more, social media platforms to market your business. If that is true for you then it is definitely worth having a social media scheduler.

 

Social media schedulers are third-party applications that will allow you to upload your content in advance and schedule that content to post on to different social media platforms in the future.

 

My social media scheduler of choice is Later. I’ve used it for years and for my social media mix it works well. It allows you to connect to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

Pricing 

Later has a free plan, which is fairly basic. The starter plan costs $18 per month. To sign up for Later click here

 

 

Pinterest Scheduler – Tailwind

 

If you are using Pinterest to market your business then you’ll want to check out Tailwind. Whilst a number of other social media schedulers, such as Later, will allow you to schedule posts to Pinterest. If you are really committed to growing on Pinterest then Tailwind is the thing to look into.

 

Pricing 

There is a free version of Tailwind but that only allows 20 pins per month so most solopreneurs will require the pro account, which allows 100 pins per month. The pro account is $19.99 per month (when paid monthly).

To find out more and open a Tailwind account click here.

 

Email Marketing – Mailerlite

As a solopreneur, you want a way to directly contact your audience in a way that you own. Email marketing is perfect for this. In order to be able to send mass emails, you’ll need an email marketing tool or software. For years Mailchimp was the go-to choice for solopreneurs. This was predominantly because it was free, but they’ve now changed their free plan to not include automation (so don’t be tricked). A great free email marketing tool is Mailerlite. It is free until you have 1,000 subscribers and allows you to do automation at this level.

 

Pricing

Free for the first 1,000 subscribers. On a sliding scale afterwards depending on the number of subscribers you have. To find out more and open an account click here. 

When choosing your email marketing tool you shouldn’t just look at the price. Ideally, you want to choose an email marketing tool that can grow as your business grows. To find out more about choosing the best email marketing software for your business click here. 

 

If you are a solopreneur that is selling courses, digital products, memberships or group programmes then for your email marketing tool it might make more sense to use Kartra. Kartra is more than just a great email marketing tool – it is a one-stop shop for online business owners. It can house your memberships and courses, as well as act as your online calendar, quiz platform and checkout. For more information about Kartra and all, it can do click here. 

 

Website analytics – Google Analytics

Many solopreneurs focus on the output side of their marketing, but you also need to be analysing how your marketing is performing.

Remember back at the beginning I spoke about the 5 different roles within marketing, well now it is time for you to be the analyst and I swear by using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a great tool for analysing the performance of your website, but also assessing how well your marketing is driving traffic to your website. To maximise the impact of Google Analytics you’ll want to ensure it is connected to Google Search Console too.

Pricing

Google Analytics is free. You can open an account by clicking here. You will need to add some code to your website in order for it to work.

 

That’s it! You now know what the best marketing tools for solopreneurs are.

 

Marketing your business is essential and as mentioned it can feel as if there are a lot of different things you need to do. Hopefully, using these best marketing tools for solopreneurs will make your life that bit easier.

 

Let me know in the comments if there are any other marketing tools you are a big fan of.

 

WANT TO GROW A THRIVING ONLINE SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS  AS A SOLOPRENEUR?  I’m a Chartered Marketer, with a decade of marketing experience, who now spends my days supporting solo coaches, consultants and online service providers to grow thriving online businesses. I offer a range of services to help solopreneurs improve their marketing, attract their dream clients and ultimately build a business they love. All of my services are 1-to-1 so no matter what stage of business you are at you’ll get advice that is tailored to where you are – and most importantly, where you want to go. . To find out more about my services click here. Prefer to discuss your precise needs? You can book a free, no-obligation, introduction call here.