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The best marketing tools for small businesses in 2024

The best marketing tools for small businesses in 2024 Megan de Graaf Partner post
· 21 min read · Email marketing · Jul 16, 2024
MailerLite team: Giannis, Frank and Mantas

You own a small business. You know online marketing is key for growing sales, but overwhelm hits when you think about how to start.

We’ve all been there. But as luck would have it, there are marketing tools for small businesses that can save the day. 😉

The right marketing tool helps you to complete tasks that have been labeled “one day” for far too long. They can help with every part of your marketing strategy, from planning campaigns, to launching your strategy and then analyzing the results.

In this article, we'll share 11 of the best small business marketing tools available!


Picking the right online marketing tools is easier when you know WHY to use them. Let’s start with a quick refresher on the types of digital marketing, how each one benefits your small business, and how tools can help. Or click here to jump right to the list of tools.

Social media marketing

Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn… the list goes on and on! While a handful of small business owners hit the lottery with overnight viral success, most of us find success by posting valuable content consistently and regularly.

Social media is a great way to increase visibility, reach new followers and understand your audience through engagement.

How tools help with social media marketing
  • Schedule posts in advance across multiple platforms

  • Manage your content creation workflow

  • Automate publishing 

  • Analyze performance and build reports

  • Manage commenting and replying

Email marketing

With an impressive ROI of 3,500%, email marketing should be part of your marketing strategy. And we’re not just saying that because we want you to try MailerLite. 💁‍♀️

The benefits of email marketing are that it’s effective, affordable and great for collecting leads from other marketing platforms. With email marketing campaigns, you can build personal relationships and reach people directly in their inbox. High engagement, low costs.

How tools help with email marketing
  • Create newsletters with visual tools

  • Send automated newsletters based on customer actions

  • Grow an audience with signup forms, pop-ups and landing pages

  • Send targeted messages based on segments or groups

  • Personalize messages to each user

Start email marketing with MailerLite

Join MailerLite today, an award-winning email marketing tool, recognized as the leading tool for small businesses by G2. Our free plan offers everything you need to grow your business with email.

Grow with MailerLite

SMS marketing

SMS marketing has become more popular, with small business owners using it to offer customer support, send reminders, increase brand awareness and drive sales. 


In 2023, 86% of businesses used it to reach customers and over 90% reported this marketing strategy was successful. Like email marketing, get prior consent and comply with the laws, such as the TCPA. With relatively low investment costs, we recommend giving it a go!

How tools help with SMS marketing 
  • Send automated SMS messages

  • Send mass messages to your audience

  • Build your contact list with forms

  • Personalize SMS message content

  • Send promo codes and links

Content marketing 

You’re reading this guide because it (hopefully) helps you pick the best digital marketing software for your small business. That’s content marketing for ya.

Content marketing is the art of crafting valuable content such as blogs, guides, videos and infographics to grow traffic, build trust or establish authority within your industry. While playing the long game with this technique, it’s an essential part of your small business digital marketing strategy.

How tools help with content marketing
  • Create effective strategies

  • Find ideas for content

  • Optimize content based on your goals

  • Create designs for your content

  • Collaborate with your team

  • Manage projects

Online advertising 

While it’s the costliest marketing method listed, it can bring the quickest results. When building an online presence from scratch, paid advertisements on Google or social media can get your brand or digital products in front of many new faces.

Make sure to analyze your demographics, so you can make an informed decision on whom to target and where. Then experiment with a small budget and optimize based on the results.

How tools can help with online advertising
  • Analyze campaigns

  • Optimize ad performance

  • Identify campaign ideas

  • Create ad graphics and content

  • Find experts to help with each channel


Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or a seasoned small business owner, these 11 digital tools will help grow your business—each in a different marketing area. These tools were handpicked as best-in-class because they’re easy to learn, impactful and friendly-priced (or even free).


Google Trends shows what people are searching for, as well as historical search volumes for any topic.

With this market research, keyword research and SEO tool, you can filter on geographical location and language to get relevant results, which helps with search engine optimization and content creation planning.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Real-time metrics on Google search trends worldwide Limited data
Powerful for creating relevant content Mostly numbers without context
Easy to adjust time frames and create reports Not great for low-searched keyword terms

Price: Google Trends is a free small business marketing tool!


SparkToro helps you understand where your target audience spends their time online, what they talk about and which influencers they follow. This market research tool is great for guiding your marketing strategy, planning content topics and doing influencer outreach.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Intuitive and straightforward UX Not as reliable for non-English-speaking audiences
Detailed data on audience behavior Plans start at $37.50 a month
Easily identify the best marketing channels and influencers

Price: SparkToro’s free trial includes 5 monthly searches for a single user. Plans start at $50 per month or $450 billed annually ($37.50 a month). This includes up to 50 monthly searches.


Canva helps turn anyone on your team into a graphic designer. With endless templates and in-built visual elements, this design tool lets you easily create social media posts, brand logos, posters and other marketing visuals—even if you’ve never designed anything before!

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Extensive design library and templates Limited options compared to Adobe Photoshop
Easy to design professional-looking graphics Many cool features are behind a paywall
AI features such as background removal Mobile app is difficult and at times buggy
Can be used collaboratively with a team Widely used: your designs will likely not be unique
Download or post visuals directly to social media platforms
Add your brand kit (logo, colors, fonts, etc.)

Price: Canva has a generous free plan. Many useful features for small businesses require Canva Pro, which costs $15 a month or $120 a year. You can also get a 30-day free trial.


Many small business founders run the show solo or with only a few team members. With limited time, knowledge and resources, Upwork is a heaven-sent. You can hire freelancers from around the world to help with marketing tasks like website design, coding, and copywriting!

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Large pool of international freelancers with different skills Need to vet freelancers, quality ranges greatly
Freelancers for long and short-term projects Service fees keep increasing
Ability to add screening questions Upwork takes a cut of transactions
Secure payments through Upwork Not ideal for finding full-time candidates

Price: Posting a job or project as a small business is free. But, Upwork charges a contract initiation fee of up to $14.95 and a 5% client marketplace fee on payments made to freelancers. You can also pay $29.99 to feature your job post and boost its visibility.


When building a social media following, you have to post a LOT! Buffer helps you streamline this task. This social media marketing tool lets you schedule posts, shorten links, analyze performance and manage multiple accounts. Their AI tool even helps you generate social posts!

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Easily write and schedule social media posts Limited features in the free version
Manage multiple social accounts at once Some post formats not supported
Detailed analytics for each post

Price: Buffer’s free plan includes planning and publishing tools, a landing page builder and an AI assistant. The higher tiers (Essentials, Team and Agency) start at $5 monthly or $60 yearly for one social channel. The Essentials plan comes with analytics reports.


MailerLite offers an entire suite of easy-to-use email marketing features that make growing your business a breeze. You can send campaigns, automate emails, sell with e-commerce plugins, build landing pages, collect emails with forms and pop-ups and more.

With 24/7 support, endless how-to articles and 3 email builders, this is a great email marketing platform for small business owners in each growth phase.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers Thorough approval process
Intuitive interface Up to 30 days of support in free plan
Advanced features anyone can use
30% discount for nonprofits

Price: Get a free plan to send 12,000 emails to 1,000 subscribers. MailerLite’s paid plans start at $9 monthly or $108 yearly. You’ll get unlimited monthly emails and unlock features like auto-resend campaigns, dynamic email blocks and multivariate testing.

Ready to try MailerLite for free?

Sign up and explore our free features including drag & drop editors, rich-text email editor, pop-ups, automation and more. You also get access to our paid features for 30 days! No credit card required!

Sign up free


Oppizi is one of the few marketing solutions that allows you to create flyer campaigns that can be tracked, optimized and scaled.

Using location data targeting, you can reach new audiences in locations worldwide by delivering flyers to their homes or by distributing flyers in your chosen area.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Detailed tracking and distribution reports Limited to physical distribution
Geo-targeting to reach specific areas Costs vary on the distribution area and volume
Campaign creation support


Manage the entire sales pipeline with HubSpot’s straightforward and visual dashboard. This digital marketing platform lets you track leads and customers at different stages and then roll out effective marketing strategies.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Comprehensive free plan Paid plans can get pricey
Customizable and scalable as you grow Annual commitment for paid plans
Powerful yet user-friendly Free plan doesn’t include customer support

Price: Enjoy unlimited data and up to a million contacts in HubSpot's free plan. Paid plans start at $20 a month.


SlickText allows you to build relationships through personalized text messages that drive action. Send mass messages and nurture contacts with one-on-one conversations using surveys, text-to-win contests, loyalty reward programs and more cool SMS marketing features.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Very easy to use, even for beginners Free trial only lasts 14 days
Many integrations with other marketing tools Paid plans quickly add up
Friendly and helpful support team Automated workflows first unlocked at $139 a month

Price: SlickText offers a two-week free trial, after which plans start at $29 per month for 500 texts. This plan includes unlimited contacts, picture messaging and live chat support.


Project management might not be the first thing on your list as a small business owner, but it can help you stay on top of all your marketing efforts!

Trello offers boards, lists and cards to help teams or individuals organize their tasks and projects. This will give you a clear overview of what needs to be done, who’s working on what and how a project progresses.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Easy to use and intuitive interface Up to 10 users per free workspace
Real-time, clear team collaboration Not great for complex, large-scale projects
Integrates with tools like Zapier, Asana, etc. Limited features

Price: Individuals and small teams are often set with Trello's free plan, which includes unlimited cards and storage, up to 10 boards and 2-factor authentication. If you need to scale or collaborate, pricing starts at $6 monthly or $60 yearly per user.


Google Workspace hosts all the tools, including Sheets, Docs, Meet and Slides, you need to make great marketing happen. Since it’s cloud-based, you can access information from anywhere and collaborate in real-time. No more sending emails with attachments back and forth!

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Access everything from anywhere Free trial only lasts 14 days
Real-time collaboration and easy file sharing Not as advanced as Microsoft Office
All essential startup tools under one roof Internet required for full functionality
Free for nonprofits Heightened security risk

Price: There are free 14-day trials available for Google's Starter, Standard and Business Plus plans. Paid plans start at $6 per month per user, with a one-year commitment. The Business Starter plan includes a business email, 100 video meetings and 3 GB pooled storage.


Google Analytics gives detailed insights into what’s happening on your website or app. Track real-time activity, performance, conversion rates, growth and more useful data, then generate custom reports you or your marketing team can use to optimize your marketing.

🙂 Pros 😣 Cons
Free for most small businesses The interface can be complex at first
Reports and dashboard are customizable Data not always as accurate
Comprehensive data reports Limited customer support

Price: Google’s analytics tools are free to use! You can upgrade to their premium 360 plan, but many small businesses won’t need this.


Some of the marketing tools listed might be perfect for your small business needs. For others, you might want to explore what else is out there. This checklist helps you evaluate different marketing platforms:

✓ Does this tool do what I need it to do? Or do they offer custom solutions for my needs?

✓ Can this tool scale as my small business grows?

✓ How often are new features and updates released?

✓ Is it easy to use for myself and my team? If not, are there training resources?

✓ Are the analytics or reports easy to understand and work with?

✓ How easy is it to reach support and via which channels? Was the experience positive?

✓ Does this marketing tool integrate with my existing systems?

✓ How is the performance? (uptime, technical issues, speed, etc.)

✓ Does it meet my security standards? (secure login, data encryption, etc.)

✓ Does the tool comply with data protection regulations?

✓ What does this marketing tool cost (incl. additional and hidden costs)? 

✓ Are there discounts available? (yearly subscription, for nonprofits, etc.)

✓ Is there a free demo or trial version to test?

✓ What’s the reputation of the company?


Creating a framework to market your small business

Having the right small business marketing software in your toolkit is only one part of the equation. The other part is to create a strategy for your marketing efforts.

Open your notes and answer:

  • What is the marketing budget for each quarter and this year?

  • How much time and resources are there available? Who will do what?

  • What’s the timeline for wanting (or needing) to see results?

  • Where does our target audience hang out? Specific platforms?

  • What marketing channels do competitors use? Can I find clues on how effective it is?

  • How much do I know about the channel I chose, do I need help?

Thinking deeply about each question will help you plan a highly effective marketing strategy!


With the right tools, marketing becomes a breeze

Hopefully, this article showed you that marketing isn’t all that overwhelming after all. There are many affordable digital marketing tools to help you succeed and lighten the workload. 

Use a platform like MailerLite to build an engaged community through automated email workflows or schedule social content weeks ahead with Buffer. Even with limited resources, you can get a lot done. That’s the power of small business marketing tools.

So, block an hour in your agenda and get started. You’ve got this! 🙌

P.S. What are your “can’t live without” marketing tools for small businesses? Add them in the comments, we (and other readers) are excited to hear!

Megan de Graaf
Megan de Graaf

I'm Megan, a freelance copywriter who's been crafting content for SaaS and online shops for… more than a decade (time flies!). Most days, you'll find me writing away in cozy cafés all around the world while listening to 90s R&B (Maxwell, mostly).