It can be difficult to work out which marketing tools to invest in. I know, I've been there done that and tried to get the T-shirt for free. I once atten

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ded a marketing mentoring session and the person mentoring me , started to talk about my "marketing budget". This was when I wondered whether to run at high speed at that point as we clearly weren't speaking the same language. My budget has always been about the same size as my eating out at the weekend budget.(That leaves one quite restricted doesn't it.). So I had no alternative but to track down tools that work and deliver results for absolutely no money.

1. Check out maqtoob.com and it will give you far more than 5 Tools. It will ensure that you find something that serves your needs and not mine. That site is a mine of information. The managers have searched high and low to bring you the best business and marketing tools that are out there. They are also rated by users as to their ease of use and affordability, something which must be taken seriously. They send out a weekly newsletter and you will definitely find something useful on it.

2. Don't focus so much on just sending out huge chunks of information about your business. Focus more on how you can be helpful to potential customers. If you provide valuable information and content then you can establish an online presence that means followers will eventually know your business better than you know it yourself. They call this anything from becoming a "thought leader" to an "industry expert". I would prefer to call it , someone who is patient and knowledgeable and won't try and convince you to try something they haven't already worked with themselves.

So a really hugesly valuabe tool for this is Slideshare. Trust me you will learn so much from this site and you can really gain valuable followers from sharing your knowledge. It's also content that you can reuse again and again.

3. To create interesting and visually appealing content, have a look at Canva. This site will allow you to design and create really useful marketing materials from flyers to E-books to Social Media posts. I have been using it a long time and like it's ease of use and the quality of the designs.

4. The next tool is the platform that I'm using to write this post on. It's called Strikingly. I have dabbled with many other website creators and this is the only one that has continuously not let me down. They keep growing and growing and getting better and better. It's definitely worth a look if you are starting out and need a website.

5.Last but not least if you look at Twitter and haven't figured out , how people manage to add videos to their Tweets then have a look at GIPHY If nothing else it will distract you for a few minutes. You will get more clicks when you include video in your Tweets.