Spa Marketing: 5 Free Marketing Tools

Check out these marketing tools that won’t break the bank to implement!

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In the business world, self-promotion is a great thing. However, it takes time to design flyers, write and send out press releases, and craft well-written emails to send out to clients. And budgets can be an issue, especially if special computer programs are needed to create the marketing materials you need.

Here’s a look at five free tools that can help make your marketing efforts a bit easier.

1. Pixlr
If you don’t have photo editing software but you want to be able to resize photos for your website and flyers, or create your own images, then Pixlr is for you. This online photo editor allows you to make some basic edits to photos quickly and easily, such as resizing and removing backgrounds, as well as more advanced changes such as adding layers and filters. It also allows you to create your own graphics with images and text.

2. MailChimp
In need of a marketing tool to communicate with your clients via email? Ask around, and chances are you’ll find MailChimp is the email tool of choice. According to MailChimp, more than 4 million people use their online product to design and send email marketing campaigns. Sign-up is free, and if you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month for free. MailChimp offers a variety of newsletter templates to help you easily design your emails, and then has a number of analytics tools to help you see who’s reading your newsletter.

3. Scribus
If you’re looking to put together flyers and printed newsletters for your clients, Scribus may be the tool for you. This open source (aka free) desktop publishing software allows you to easily design and create what you need. The program is billed as easy-to-use for both beginnings and professionals, and a bevy of how-tos and tutorials are available to help you create beautiful marketing pieces.

4. PRLog & PR.com
Writing a press release may seem a bit challenging, but distributing it can be a lot more daunting—and time consuming. Most online press release distribution sites require you to pay a fee, but there are some free ones out there. PRLog and PR.com are two such sites that allow you to submit and distribute a press release for free. PRLog provides distribution to search engines and RSS distribution, and gives you limited industry and keyword/tag listings. PR.com offers a reduced distribution to general search engines, some news websites, and RSS feeds.

5. GoQR.me

Considering adding a QR code to your marketing campaign? Then you’ll need a free online QR code generator, such as GoQR.me. Place text or a website URL in the online generator and select the size of QR code you want, and in a few seconds the site downloads a QR code just for you. The image made from black and white squares can now be used on everything from your website to flyers, and when clients scan it with their smartphone they’ll see your message or be taken to the website stored in the QR code.

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