Getting internet marketing right takes dedication and perseverance. You probably won’t score an overnight success, but with the right set tools, you will be able to build a solid foundation for any type of business.
At first, marketing yourself online may seem like black magic. It requires so much time and resources, and some IT wizardry on top of that, to make it work, right?
Not really.
The good news is that these days you can easily set up a professional online presence, without coding skills or advanced technical knowledge.
The best part?
Many of the marketing solutions available online offer free plans so you can start acting on your ideas without a substantial budget to start with.
You can think of the following tools as the online marketing circle of life. That means they are a complete package, so you can start with basically any idea and build it from the ground up.
Wix.com
There was a time when creating a website took long hours of tinkering with HTML and some expertise in the field. Nowadays, thanks to website builders like WIX, you can set up a professional web page in record time with no HTML or coding skills.
WIX uses a drag-and-drop mechanics that will allow you to assemble all the pieces of your new website like a puzzle. It offers one of the best website builders around. It doesn’t matter what your target niche is as they have over 500 layouts to choose from, including templates for blogs, e-commerce sites, portfolios and more.
Since WIX templates are mobile-ready, you also won’t have to worry that your site will look like plucked out of a horror movie when opened on smartphones or tablets.
The best part about WIX is that they offer everything you need in one place – you can buy a domain, create a logo, set up a website, and much more. The environment also takes care of the marketing side thanks to integrated SEO tools.
Their free plan offers everything you need to start, including the builder, layouts, SEO tools, WIX apps (they add new functionality) and free hosting. You will also have 500MB of storage and bandwidth capped at 1GB.
The downside, however, is that you are stuck with their free domain address (username.wixsite.com/siteaddress), and there will be WIX branding visible on your website.
If you’re past testing and want your site to look professional, you should probably go with one of the upgrade plans that start at $14.50/month and come with a custom domain. You can find Wix promo codes here to lower the bill. There is also a lower plan called Connect Domain where you can use your existing domain with the WIX editor, but it still displays the branding so you might as well skip this one.
MailChimp
Once you have created the foundation for your online presence, the next step on the internet marketing ladder is to build an audience or a customer base and make sure that you can connect with them easily.
MailChimp is an all-in-one mailing system that takes care of all your newsletter and mailing campaign needs.
You can think of it as a swiss-knife of mailing software.
You will be able to manage your subscriber lists, send personalized emails (newsletters, promotions, product information), and, best of all, automate the process to give you more time to take care of other parts of your online business.
Like WIX, Mailchimp uses a drag-and-drop system to create personalized emails from scores of templates and premade elements. It also boasts an advanced tracking capability and is able to generate stats so you have something to work with when improving your emailing effectiveness.
The free plan allows to connect with up to 2,000 subscribers and send 12,000 emails per month. It should be more than enough for starters, but they also offer some flexible upgrade plans that will get you covered as your business grows.
Google Analytics
It is said that marketing is a numbers game. Internet marketing is no different in this respect, and numbers and statistics are the most powerful resource for every successful internet marketing activity.
Would you like to know how many people visit your website? Where do they come from? How much time do they spend clicking through the content? Do they click at all?
Every successful business needs a reliable method of analyzing online traffic and turning the raw data into comprehensive and actionable stats.
In a nutshell, Google Analytics gives you an insight into your website’s statistics, including the number of daily or monthly visitors, devices the visitors are using, demographics, and much more. You can then access and analyze the gathered data within the Google Analytics Dashboard.
Google’s tool makes online marketing much easier by taking the guesswork out of the equation.
The tool is completely free and available to everybody. All you have to do is to sign up with your existing Gmail account, add a line of the tracking code to your website, and you’re all set.
The Bottom Line
The three tools will allow you to harness the power of internet marketing and take action on your ideas without much hassle. They require little to no starting budget but can make all the difference for your online business.
Each of the three solutions should suit both beginners and more advanced users, so there is little risk that you will outgrow their capabilities anytime soon. It is also possible to combine their functionalities as all three integrate well with each other.