Marketing Starter Pack

So, you want to jump into online marketing for the first time. First, high-five! Getting into the online space is a great way to increase customer awareness, multiply sales and build relationships with customers. Before you splash into the digital space with a belly flop, you'll want to check out some tools. These three gadgets make the difference between floating with a beer in your hand and you at the bottom of the proverbial online ocean, tangled in seaweed harassed by sea slugs.

Be a floater, not a sinker with this marketing starting pack. (The best part is that all of the tools I mention below are free!)

1. Take Care Of Social Media: Buffer

Ever wonder how you can consistently put out social media content on your business's social media accounts to share your cool products/services, deals and information with customers? After all, you're only one person or a small team of people. It's challenging to find time to create a social media post daily. Get ready for it to be pretty straightforward with Buffer. You can schedule social posts for up to 3 social accounts and up to 10 scheduled posts at a time with their free version. Try out their pro version for free for 14 days and then your account is changed to a free account. That means when you do have time, you can sit down and plan out content for the coming week. 2. Add Pizzazz To Photos & Flyers: Canva

You don't need to fork over tons of money for Adobe products or any other design products. You don't need design classes. Just open a free account with Canva. Canva offers elegant, predesigned templates and tools to help you create flyers, social media posts and more, in record time.

3. Setup & Polish Your Website: Wix

Your website is your virtual storefront. Prospective customers are going to have questions galore about your business. What products/services do you sell at what price point, what are your hours of service, where are you located, etc? Having a website helps you answer those questions, grow awareness of your business, and allows you to sell online. Creating a site with Wix is easy! Just like Canva, Wix has templates to make website building a breeze.

Have you found other tools that you'd recommend? Share them with me by tagging me, @YourCoolMarketing, on Facebook!