There are thousands of free online apps and tools out there, all promising to revolutionise your business. I cant imagine I’m telling you anything new when I say that most are a total waste of time.
There are however a few hidden gems that really can add value to your business. We’ve listed 6 of our favourites. These are core platforms me and my Digitool co-workers use everyday and so we’d strongly recommend you check them out.
*Just for clarity, all the tools we’ve listed are permanently free to use. We have not included ‘free trials’
1. Canva
Free to use. Paid subscription optional
Canva is an incredibly easy to use design platform. You can use it to create high quality social media posts, website content, flyers, documents and other visual content. The app includes a huge range of free to use templates and media. Canva also offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro for $12.99 a month, but it’s unlikely you’ll need Pro as its aimed at professional content creators.
2. Buffer
Free to use. Paid subscription optional
Buffer is an app designed to make managing social media accounts faster and easier. You can schedule all your social posts days, weeks or even months in advance. Buffer can link to your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, and LinkedIn making cross channel posting super fast. The free plan lets you link up to 3 social media accounts, whereas the paid subscription lets you link an unlimited number for $5 a month.
3. Nicejob Engage
Totally free
Nicejob Engage is a free tool that showcases your customer reviews and ratings. You can link review sites like Google, Facebook and Yelp to an interactive pop-up that appears on your website. Visitors to your website will then be able to see all your most recent 4 or 5 star customer reviews.
4. Zapier
Free to use. Paid subscription optional
Zapier is a free app that links other online tools together making them compatible with each other. Using this app allows your calendar, CRM, website, booking system, email system and invoice software to speak with each other. This means you can automate 99% of your current admin which will save you hours of office time. Zapier offer subscription plans for heavier users that start from $19.99 a month.
Admittedly automating your admin is little more complex than other tools on this list. Got questions? Our team is happy to help – get in touch
5. Google Analytics
Totally free
Google Analytics is a free website reporting service offered by Google. It tracks and reports multiple aspects of your website traffic. Analytics a very versatile tool that you can use to see basic template reports on how your website is performing. You can also use it to run custom reports on more complex statistics if you so wish.
6. Microsoft Clarity
Totally free
Microsoft Clarity is a totally free, easy-to-use tool that captures how real people actually use your site. Unlike Google Analytics which is focused on numbers and stats, Clarity uses heat maps and screen recordings to show you which parts of your website users engage with and which parts they don’t. This is especially helpful because once you see what parts of your website customers really want, you can focus your business towards them.
There we go folks. Thats Digitool’s recommendations. Do you love using any free software that’s not on our list? If so, reach out and tell us about it in the comments!
