By Sunita Theron

We love entrepreneurs – very few things get them down, and they have a can-do attitude second to none! When you start a new business, you are chief, cook and bottle washer. This week we want to share some marketing tools with you that will assist you on your way to the big time – because we believe in working smarter, not harder.

So let’s start off by saying – there are MANY options out there, these are just our personal favourites.

Coming in at nr. 1 is definitely Canva. We still remember the days of the Adobe Suite if you wanted to design anything – expensive and complicated. But NOW, now we have Canva. Its Pro subscription is very affordable, and the platform is intuitive and easy to use. Even if you only want to use the free version it still has great functionality. There are various templates to choose from, sizes a pre-set for you – so no need to wonder what size a Facebook post or LinkedIn cover image should be, lots of images and video too. Canva is easy to use, and dare we say it in business – fun! You can channel your inner creative all you want.

But what if the images in Canva just doesn’t tickle your fancy? Que Unsplash. Unsplash describes themselves as “The internet’s source of freely-usable images. Powered by creators everywhere.” And the images are truly free, just download. Image credit is appreciated but not a dealbreaker.

Now that your posts are planned, imaged, designed and ready to go the next hurdle pops up. You have a social media presence across multiple platforms, and you want posts to go out on different platforms at different times. We run into this hurdle because we serve content for multiple clients, so we prefer using Hootsuite. The free option lets you schedule content across three platforms, and you will be provided with valuable insights into how your posts are performing.

As Wallace D. Wattles said: “It is essential to have good tools, but it is also essential that the tools should be used in the right way.” When your business has outgrown the days that you need to/have to do everything and you are ready for the next step in digital marketing you know where to find us.