Slideshow: 10 Invaluable (Yet Free!) Online Marketing Resources

LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen says, “If I had to dial it down to just one resource to recommend, I’d say hubspot.com because of the numerous free webinars, podcasts, e-books and, of course, their Inbound Marketing University. And if I had to choose just one of their resources, it would be the set of grader tools.”

Check out HubSpot’s Website Grader, a free search engine optimization tool that measures website marketing effectiveness based on traffic, social media popularity and where your site ranks among the 4 million-plus other websites that have been rated so far.

After grading your site, check into other free grader tools that let you rate book marketing, press releases, blogs and social media profiles. Don’t leave until you’ve used Gobbledygook Grader to check your written content for overused jargon or meaningless words and phrases.

Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of the international best-seller “Me 2.0,” knows more than just about anyone else about the importance of online reputation management. His top free resource recommendation is Social Mention, a social media search engine and analysis platform that allows you to track mentions across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other major sites.

“I use this tool to see what people are saying about me, my company, competitors, partners and buzzwords. It gives me critical feedback that I can act on and it centralizes all the buzz that tends to get lost in translation,” Schawbel says.

And while you’re studying online mentions, don’t forget Google Alerts. As another widely recognized social media and SEO expert, Stoney deGeyter, says, “It’s free, and who knows the Web better than Google! Set up keyword or brand name searches and get notified when something new is discovered.” For more on deGeyter’s recommendations, go to the next slide.

“My favorite tool for managing social profiles and channels is HootSuite,” says Stoney deGeyter, nationally known SEO expert and, as his title reads, CEO and “All-Around Nice Guy” at Pole Position Marketing. “It lets me monitor my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn streams, along with five other popular networks, letting me segment streams and information into tabs of information based on preferences so I’m only looking at the information I want at any given time.”

HootSuite also lets you schedule and automate posts, track brand mentions, analyze social media traffic, track conversations and measure online campaign results.

If you don’t blog, anyone who does will tell you to get with the program. As a marketing tool, blogs can be updated anytime from anywhere, plus they build credibility and serve as a hub for all your other online interactions.

“WordPress is simply an amazing free blogging platform,” says Stoney deGeyter. “It’s open source, so programmers create all sorts of add-ons that can be plugged right in to give you additional tools to work with. From an SEO perspective, it’s (almost) friendly out of the box, and where it’s deficient, a few plug-ins give you what you need to create a search-friendly blog. Not only is WordPress good for blogs, but it’s also a great website for CMS,” or content management systems.

“My first recommendation is Zoho,” says Jim Bonfield, an expert at merging consumer analytics with direct marketing and interactive advertising, and senior vice president of products and business planning at CustomerLink. “Zoho offers free versions of all its software, including business-oriented applications such as CRM,” he says, referring to Zoho’s hosted customer relationship management software, which helps you manage sales activity and track leads, prospects, contacts, customers and business opportunities.

“I’ve used these tools for years,” he says, adding that premium-level services are available for additional seats or users in growing businesses. “Zoho is gaining a lot of traction, especially with its wide variety of apps for business, productivity, office suites and collaboration.”

“I also really love MailChimp, says Jim Bonfield, a self-described consumer data products evangelist. “This is an email management tool that was recommended to me by Jason Calacanis from thisweekinstartups.com. MailChimp allows small businesses to have a best-of-breed email communications tool for up to 2,000 members and up to 12,000 sends monthly, at no cost. Mobile, social, reporting — everything is there.”

Finally, Bonfield gives a nod to SurveyMonkey. “It’s a great tool for polling and surveying customers,” he says. “Their free packages allow up to 10 questions sent to up to 100 customers a month. Of course they’d love to see you survey more, but when you’re determining new menu items or inventory choices, 100 survey respondents can be a pretty good opinion sample. Sure beats guessing!”

Want to process credit cards with your smartphone? You can, and with no up-front costs, says “techy translator” Janine Warner, who is the author of more than a dozen books on technology and the Internet, an interactive design consultant, and the creator of DigitalFamily.com.

“Sign up for an account at squareup.com and you’ll get a tiny ‘square’ in the mail within a week. They even pay the postage,” says Warner. “Plug it into any iPhone, iPad or Android device and you’re ready to swipe with the big guys, processing all major credit cards for 2.75 percent of the purchase amount.” Square was launched early in 2010, and Warner says its Square Card Reader has already been used by more than 750,000 individuals and businesses to process more than $2 billion in sales.

Rounding out the list of great free resources, Janine Warner points to Radian6, a premium platform that lets companies see what's being said about their brands across social media. Although it's a paid service, it offers a variety of free resources on its website.

“Lost in the world of social media and still trying to understand how it affects your business?” Warber asks. “Radian6 is a fast-growing startup that can help you track how and when your business or brand is mentioned across the entire social media landscape. You can also use their tools to identify users of social media who have the greatest influence over other people and who talk about your brand. Don’t be intimidated by the big brands in their growing client list. Their site features many free resources, even if you’re not ready for their premium service.”