We spend most of our lives these days on our phones and/or tablets, so this week we’re sharing some top free apps you can use to market your business with while on the go.
Buffer
Buffer is one of the many well-known social scheduling apps out there (check out others like Hootsuite and Sprout Social). These apps are used to schedule posts to multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. The app also shows reporting statistics on how each post has performed (but only on paid plans). You can start off for free, but there are four priced plans starting at $15 a month.
So, rather than posting individually to the different social platforms, this is a great app to investigate if you want to go down the route of scheduling posts across multiple social profiles on a single platform.
Later
Similar to Buffer, Later is more specific to Instagram, though in recent years it’s expanded into other social platforms. Frustratingly, you can’t post on Instagram at a later time, so Later takes away this problem by allowing you to post, well, later. Analytics is easy as well with reports on user activity and hashtags. The Later app is free with limited use, and paid plans range from $9/month for a single account.
Mention
Want to know what the internet is saying about you? Mention is designed to monitor social media, blog posts, and news sites, and will give you up to date reports on who and what is being said online about you, your brand, and anything else you want to know.
We’d definitely recommend using the free plan if you’re a small business.
Canva
Perhaps you don’t have the budget for the Adobe software. In which case, don’t worry! There are some great apps to help with this, and Canva is one of them.
Canva is great if you need to create professional images for social media, create flyers and posters, reports, and even videos. And while you can use the main website for this, you can also access all the features on your phone or tablet.
There’s loads of pre-built templates to pick from, and it’s a simple ‘drag and drop’ process to create custom designs.
With social posts, you can easily share them directly to social media with a few taps on your phone screen.
Canva starts off free, but for Pro and Enterprise plans, you can gain more features starting at $10/month.
Grammarly
If you’re worried about your grammar and spelling, don’t be! The Grammarly Keyboard is just like having a professional editor in your pocket. The app lets you use a special keyboard that automatically scans your writing for misspellings and grammatical errors. This marketing app is completely free and works inside any app on your smartphone.
Trello
The Trello Project Management tool is used by digital marketers (and more teams besides) to organise tasks, manage projects and collaborate with team members. Or you can just use it yourself to organise your own tasks and projects. It has in-built automation tools to reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks and create custom workflow with cards, lists, and boards. You can also integrate other apps like Mailchimp and Google Drive. It’s incredibly easy to use, and what’s better – it’s free! There are options to upgrade, but if you don’t need to, we suggest keeping it as a free app.
Teams
Whether it’s chat, calls, or video, you can use Teams to engage with anyone, at any time. Your docs, photos, videos, chat history, and meeting notes are always there too! It’s free to download, and you can use it on your computer as well as on your phone. The great news is, there’s no limit on how long you can be in a meeting for – or a limit on the number of people. Move over Zoom, we’re looking at you, Teams.
Blog Post written by Kate Anderson, Marketing & Design Executive