19 must-have & best marketing tools for Artists & Creatives

19 must-have best marketing tools for Artists| Artmellows|

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You’re probably using some marketing tools as an artist, designer, or small business owner. 

As an artist, you still need to do marketing the right way to make your design and art noticeable to the world. Unless you are Pablo Picasso, people have not come to you without a proper marketing strategy. 

Check out our comprehensive guide to starting, Grow & Monetize Digital Art Blog : 🌐How to start a Design & art blog -48 Point Comprehensive Checklist for starting a Digital ART blog

If you are an artist or a designer that owns a  website or a business this post is for you.

So, you start your research for tools to market your art or design.

However, you may be short on time to research all of the most recent ones.

You presumably have an unending to-do list and a finite amount of time to do it.

In addition, there is a limited budget, making it difficult to hire staff.

So, to assist you, I’ve compiled a list of 16 fantastic and must-use marketing tools that will help you save time and get more done.

The majority of them are simple to use, and some of them are even free!

Keep in mind, however, that there are numerous marketing tools and methods from which to choose.

While I utilize this list, I encourage you to utilize whatever feels appropriate for your company and falls within your budget.

As a result, I’ve included alternatives for several marketing products so you may evaluate functionality and pricing.

The following is a list of marketing tools that I employ to:

1. Each marketing campaign or promotion should be well-planned.
2. Lead capture and nurturing
3. Design and publish social media content management
4.  Market my website content and SEO keywords
5. Keep an eye on the statistics and performance of my website.

Canva Pro

Overall Rating 4.6/5
User Friendliness 4.6/5
Price 4.1/5
Customer Service 4.1/5

Canva? I' am a designer and designers do not use Canva..you say? But trust me, here we are talking about the best marketing tools. Canva is a popular online design & marketing tool that allows users to create professional-looking graphics in a simple and intuitive manner. 

Yes, you heard it right. As a designer and artist myself, I am kind of wary of using photoshop for creating quick and simple marketing materials.. instead, I use Canva for all my marketing materials.

With millions of users worldwide, it offers a plethora of advantages to both designers and non-designers.

Canva can assist you whether you are an artist, designer, or a small business owner looking to create branding materials for your company or a blogger looking to spruce up your blog with some new visuals. 

Canva ( Free & paid)is design & marketing cloud-based software that I use on a daily basis in my Blogging Business and as well as for marketing my artwork on youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

Summary

• CANVA is ideal for generating visuals for social media, training guides, flyers, website graphics, stationery, and more.
• There are loads of professionally designed templates available for you to use. 
• You can also preserve all of your brand elements and designs when you upgrade to the Canva for Work version, which saves you a lot of time!

Alternatives For Canva: Easil, Stencil, and PicMonkey are among the alternatives.

        PROS

• User-friendly tool
• Create great content even if you aren’t a professional designer
• Template for everything under the sun
• Text, graphics, and photo options for no additional charge

    CONS

• The site is down quite a bit and crashes at times
• customer support is not great
• Canva Mobile app is difficult to use
• Organization of creations and files downloaded

Try Canva Pro Free for 30 days

Also, Read 10 Reasons Canva Pro is Worth the Money

KeySearch- Keyword Search tool- Best Beginner Friendly

There are more expensive keyword research tools out there. Is Keysearch one of them?

I’ve been using Keysearch on my niche and e-commerce websites for over a year now, and I’d like to share my experiences with it.

Yes, I think KeySearch is an excellent and cost-effective tool for keyword research. It’s ideal for bloggers and niche site owners who don’t want to shell out expensive tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. But there’s a lot more to the story!

KeySearch is an excellent choice for a low-cost keyword research tool.

You can conduct keyword research and competitor analysis using this tool.

Compared to other keyword tools, it’s a more cost-effective option for bloggers, small businesses, and niche site developers.

Semrush- the best Professional-SEO Tool

3. Semrush( paid):  Semrush Marketing tools especially the Magic keyword tool can be used in a variety of ways to conduct research and improve the performance of your website. The Keyword Explorer tool and the Backlink Research tool are two of my favourite features.

You can type in the URL of a competitor’s website to see what keywords they rank for and how many backlinks they have.

It provides you with suggestions and insights into the kind of content you may write to boost your SEO and Google ranking.

Hubspot Email Marketing

4.Hubspot Email Marketing: 

Create conversion-ready emails with HubSpot’s free email tool. Powered with HubSpot’s free CRM tools, you’ll get access to valuable contact insights, so you can deliver personalized emails your recipients will love.

HubSpot has a fantastic free CRM program.

The free version supports an unlimited number of users and contacts up to 1 million.

HubSpot provides click-to-call and calls recording to help your team manage customers more effectively.

This article is intended for small businesses interested in learning more about HubSpot, our pick for the best free CRM software.

I  chose HubSpot as the best free CRM software because it allows independent contractors and small businesses to easily enter the world of CRM solutions. 

HubSpot’s free version provides sufficient functionality to improve your sales processes and customer data organization at no cost.

Pros of HubSpot

HubSpot is ideal for small businesses and startups because the free version of the software offers surprisingly robust features. 

HubSpot is an excellent alternative to managing customer relationships the old-fashioned way for sole proprietorships, side hustlers, and microbusinesses.

While many CRMs provide a free trial version or even a free subscription level, there are usually numerous restrictions and caveats. 

HubSpot is unique in that it provides an entirely free CRM with no expiration date for an unlimited number of users and up to one million contacts.

 It also has a great click-to-sync setup for Gmail and Outlook, which makes integrating your existing email with HubSpot a breeze.

Cons of HubSpot

The free CRM program from HubSpot has a few drawbacks. 

However, if you want to use some of the software’s more advanced marketing and sales features, you must pay for them. 

While the basic CRM services are free, HubSpot does not provide all of its services for free.

Another minor disadvantage is that HubSpot has a one-star (out of five) customer rating with the Better Business Bureau. 

The company, on the other hand, is a BBB-accredited member with an A+ rating.

Pricing

HubSpot CRM is completely free for as many users and contacts as you want. 

While you can remain a nonpaying user indefinitely, there are various add-on services available if you want to pay for more functionality.

If you want to buy one of HubSpot’s paid options, you have four options to choose from. 

This includes the monthly fees for Marketing, Sales, Service, and CMS Hub. The paid versions will cost you anywhere from $40 to $3,200 per month.

HubSpot CRM increases productivity while providing sales intelligence and insights.
The CRM is the first CRM I’ve ever used that I actually enjoy using (and I’ve been involved with CRMs since the days of Act! for Microsoft DOS). It is designed with the salesperson in mind, and it increases their productivity. It’s easy to use and has a lot of power “under the hood.” The calling feature is a pleasure to use, and the ability to autofill and search company information saves time and aids in prospecting and opportunity management.Source ( Capterra)
Read the full review here

Great for smaller businesses
We needed a CRM and we tried a whole bunch. This platform definitely helped us while we’re starting out and does most of the functions we’ve needed. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a pretty basic, easy to use CRM.
Source ( Capterra) Read the Full Review here

Key takeaway note:

 If you want to buy one of HubSpot’s paid options, you have four options to choose from. This includes the monthly fees for Marketing, Sales, Service, and CMS Hub. The paid versions will cost you anywhere from $40 to $3,200 per month.

Pros:

The key takeaway is that, despite being free, HubSpot is not a limited CRM system. It does not limit the number of features, users, or contacts. It can also grow with you to help your business of any size.

Cons:

The main takeaway is that not all of HubSpot’s services are free. More comprehensive sales features will necessitate an upgrade.

Try HUBSPOT Email Marketing For Free!

CrowdFire – Social media Tool

5. CrowdFire I use this marketing tool for my Social media scheduling. Crowdfire helps you discover and schedule content, and manage all your social accounts from one place.

Crowdfire is more than just a platform. 

They also provide an app, which makes it a powerful tool for attracting followers. Crowdfire allows you to manage multiple accounts, and users can use the tool across multiple channels. 

Even Reels & Shorts, are rapidly growing in popularity and are increasingly being used by individuals and businesses.

What is the purpose of Crowdfire?

There are numerous tools available to help you grow your social media presence, but what can Crowdfire do for you? To begin, Crowdfire can optimize your social media account and bring more followers, which works particularly well for Twitter and Instagram. 

Here are some of the advantages of using the Crowdfire app:

• Content Management and  Automated Publishing
• Management of Multiple Accounts
• Posts Scheduling
• Brand Monitoring
• Customer Involvement
• Reporting/Analytics for Multi-User Collaboration

To summarise, Crowdfire provides some interesting features that are useful for your social media team, a reasonable price for what it can do, and a user-friendly and intuitive platform or app. 
When every brand and content creator has an online presence, a social media management software product is a must-have tool. 
Furthermore, Crowdfire is appropriate for businesses that want to increase their online visibility and engage with their followers, as well as content creators who want to improve their social media profiles by posting regular and quality content.

Alternatives of Crowdfire: Hootsuite, Later, and Buffer

Try Crowdfire for Free

6. Grammarly is a marketing product that I use to help with editing, proofreading, and overall writing improvement.

Once installed, it works with MS Office (Word, Outlook), as well as Canva, social media, WordPress, and pretty much anywhere else!

Grammarly detects errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style as you write on virtually any website, email, Word documents, social media, or your own website.

Advantages of using Grammarly

• Helps identify weak adjectives and better options (Premium)
• Highlights the overuse of specific words
• Displays sentences that are overly long and wordy.

Pros:

• It is possible to use it as a browser extension or to import text into their browser-based service.
• It is compatible with Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Google Docs.
• Grammar and spell check in real-time
• Apps for iOS and Android are available.
• It is ideal for all types of writers, not just authors.
• The premium version includes a plagiarism checker.
• Simple to use and comprehend
• It can help you improve your writing skills.
• Grammar and readability suggestions that are accurate
• and correspond to your writing style (academic, casual, creative, etc.)
• Adjustable formality levels: formal, neutral, and casual

Cons:

• The website editor only allows documents up to 4 MB in size and 100,000 characters in length.
• The integration with Google Docs is still in beta.
• The free version only checks for spelling and grammar errors, not style and context.
• Grammarly’s website resizes awkwardly in split-screen mode, and there is no scrolling.
• Its marketing can be very aggressive in convincing you to purchase the premium version.
• It is not capable of replacing a human editor.

In conclusion, I use Grammarly for all of my writing. It corrects every spelling and grammatical error while also improving my style, flow, and word choice. The paid version includes excellent premium features such as genre-specific recommendations and plagiarism detection. However, the free version is adequate for the majority of users — and far superior to any other free proofreader on the market.

7. Calendly( Free):

Calendly is your hub for scheduling meetings professionally and efficiently, eliminating the hassle of back-and-forth emails so you can get back to work.  

Top Alternatives to Calendly

• YouCanBook.me.
• TimeTap.
• Setmore.
• Doodle.
• Acuity Scheduling.

8. Zoom( Free) 

Zoom is For discovery sales calls, training meetings, and presentations. I adore utilizing Zoom teleconferencing software. It also has a Facebook Live video integration.

I choose a premium subscription so that I can have multiple people on the Zoom teleconference at the same time. 

If necessary, you can also upgrade to the webinar option, which allows you to gather attendee information, issue automated reminders, and receive extensive reporting on registrants.

WebinarJam, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and EasyWebinar are some of the alternatives.

9.Bit.ly ( Free)

is an online marketing tool that allows you to shorten your URLs. 

Long URLs are unattractive and take up a lot of space in an article. 

Bit.ly is especially useful for inserting URLs into Facebook Ads that look excellent, as well as sharing on Twitter with restricted characters.

10. Google Analytics (Free):

For any business website, this is an absolute must-have tool. 

It gives you information about your site’s visitors, such as where they’re from, how long they stay, and which pages they view the most.

You may also learn how people reach your site by looking at whether they come directly, through social media, or through search engines. 

This marketing tool is also a fantastic source of information for SEO keyword research.

11.Google Search Console( Free): 

When you verify your website on Google Search Console, you can gain additional insights about how well the search engines index your website. 

It will highlight issues and errors you may need to fix so that your site is SEO-friendly.

12. Google My Business( Free) 

You may have noticed that Google shows around three businesses located on a map in some search results. 

These businesses are registered on Google My Business, and this tool is especially great for businesses, which serve a local area.

13. Answer the Public ( free & paid): 

Coming up with blog ideas is easy with Answer the Public. 

Just type in your blog category or topic, and it will return (sometimes hundreds of) examples of questions that people have typed into Google using that word or phrase.

When used in conjunction with Keywords Everywhere, you can find the most commonly searched for questions to create the most relevant content for your site.

14. Quora( Free): This question forum is a great marketing tool for long-tail keyword research. These are keywords that are 3 or more words long (also called keyword phrases).

Quora contains an enormous number of questions that users ask about all sorts of topics. 

Research your area of expertise and see if you can find patterns in the most commonly asked questions so you’ll know what to write your blogs on. 

Travel-related businesses & Blogs could also use Trip Advisor which is a similar question forum.

15. Facebook Publishing Tools ( Free): : I like to plan my Facebook Page postings directly into Facebook and find the publishing tools to be simple to utilize. I have access to both my upcoming scheduled and published entries.

Facebook’s page insights are also wonderful, as I can see what types of material garner the most reach and engagement. Based on reach and interaction, I can figure out what kind of content to post more and less.

16.RankMath  WordPress SEO Plugin(Free & paid): This tool will make your website SEO setup on WordPress so much easier. 

It can generate a sitemap for you which assists when it comes to indexing your website with Google.

Rankmath also has easy-to-follow data fields for you to enter your titles, meta descriptions, and SEO keywords. There is an advanced (Pro)  version of Rankmath, but I find the free version is enough to meet my business requirements.

17.Google site  WordPress Plugin( Free): Google Site Kit is the official WordPress plugin from Google for insights about how people find and use your site. 

Site Kit is the one-stop solution to deploy, manage, and get insights from critical Google tools to make the site successful on the web. 

It provides authoritative, up-to-date insights from multiple Google products directly on the WordPress dashboard for easy access, all for free.

18. Keywords Everywhere: This is a fantastic Google Chrome add-on that makes researching SEO keywords a breeze. It gives me the volume and competitiveness of any keyword I put in a Google search once it’s installed. 

As well as keywords that are similar to the one I used in my search.

This online marketing tool also saves me a lot of time because it allows me to tag a term when I locate one that is useful. When it’s time to compose a blog article, I’ll go over all of my tagged terms together.

19. Tailwind ( Paid): This is one of the only online marketing tools that Pinterest approves for automated and scheduled Pinning. 

Another great feature is that when you subscribe to Tailwind, you can join Tribes. These are like group boards where others in the Tribe agree to share their Pins.

Smart looping on Tailwind can also significantly increase the reach and click-throughs your Pins receive.

Also Read: Creating a Pinterest Marketing Plan for Designers: Tips and Tricks

Having the right marketing tools and systems in place in your business is essential.

Yes, there will be some upfront costs. These tools, on the other hand, will not only save you time but will also ensure that you offer a professional image to potential clients, which will help you close sales.

In your small business or the Niche Blogging Business, what other marketing tools do you employ? Please let us know in the comments section below….

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