9 Free Resources You Can Use Every Day to Market Your Creative Business

Sometimes you just want to do everything yourself. Or, you don’t know how to delegate your marketing needs to another person, because quite frankly you haven’t figured out what works and what doesn’t.

And then there’s that feeling when you say want to say f**k it. Or, “What’s the point?” But then you resign - you know you must must promote your business, but you get overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.

So here are 9 free marketing tools and resources you can use on any given day. Each provide various sparks of motivation plus a good dose of reassurance that you’re probably doing a lot of stuff right.

1) I start with the marketing Queen, Marie Forleo. Delivered in a straightforward manner, she‘s a New Jersey gal who knows how to sell. And she’s full of heart and freebies. Her paid program, B School, has some 40k participants around the globe, plus she’s creative, funny, outgoing, and motivating. She provides formulas for how to drive traffic to your site, and use ‘inbound marketing’. I.e - get more customers to come to you.

2) Miki Agrawal - she’s not a “marketeer” but she kills it at marketing. Her brands like Thinx are a result of a personal need and when it comes to creating visual marketing assets for any project I find myself frequently repeating her advice: “Does it pass the refrigerator test?” (jump to 15 minutes where this is addressed) I.e - is your postcard, business card, poster, ad, etc personal enough that someone would want to put it on their fridge? If so, you discovered something powerful. Watch her youtube videos (for free) and take notes.

3) Interested in Geeking Out over SEO? (Search Engine Optimization - the results in Google or Bing that get your site higher up on page one). SEMRush Webinar series is a GOLDMINE of information. These free webinars are live, and did I say free? And they’re held by the best and brightest SEO geeks from all over the world. There are zero gimmicks, here. These brilliant people just enjoy talking about what they do and want to share it with you.

4) Amy Porterfield. This warm, generous host of a podcast called ‘Marketing Made Easy’ offers a ton of online courses for how to market your business. But her email is free and so is the podcast. While she targets individuals who’d like to run an online-only business, she offers tons of free and very applicable tips for any business. Oh, and she worked for Tony Robbins so she knows her stuff.

5) Seth Godin. The master marketeer. His quirky, brainy, and insightful advice is loaded with digestible tips. If you’re bootstrapping, if you have investors, if you have an agency, or if you’re freelancing, he offers little bits that apply to the bigger picture.

Image via Unsplash

Image via Unsplash

6) Add some laughter to your morning email routine with Talking Shrimp, and learn a bunch about writing your own copy. Laura Belgray, the mini genius behind Talking Shrimp works for NBC, Nick at Night, TNT, and has a daily blog and plenty of paid classes, too. But for free you can get her email delivered to your inbox which will remind you every day the critical value of getting your copy RIGHT (she also offers a free copy-tips download).

7) Very cool agencies that inspire, or good companies who present a powerful online presence are worth noting. Enter Sister London. Take a peek at their site and see what grabs you. These ladies are doing it right. Remember - you can always learn something new. It’ll become your own when you execute what inspires you.

8) Duct Tape - Owner, John Janstch is pretty buttoned up if I do say so myself. In his t-shirt and sports jacket or button up shirt + blazer, he delivers for big-box company. But here’s the thing - the marketing formula used by a marketer at Verizon or Nike is the same formula you can (and ought to) apply to your own small business. And Duct Tape offers a very special funnel-like resource for a very streamlined and specific method of implementing your marketing strategy. And John Janstch really wants to help. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably slightly Type A and that part of your personality will be thankful.

9) This one takes a little work - but more like mental work. Get into the mind-frame of consistently thinking about people (influencers) or companies (brands) that really grab you. You may find that you’ll go back to these again again. Or you’ll get excited when you see their images on Instagram or read their posts. Do a study of these businesses. What ‘voice’ are they using when they write? What style or tone do they communicate by use of images? Are they partnering with anyone? What are they promoting and how? Let these case studies become your best teachers. Their examples and triumphs can easily be replicated - but remember, when you do it, the idea becomes your own.


Here’s a few more people and co’s that inspire me every day:

Block Shop textiles - These sisters offer daily creative sparks via their Instagram feed and Stories. They’re also marketing savants, so take notes.

Casey Neistat - The quirkiest video producer out there. Or “Vlogger”. He rose from nothing to securing an amazing video deal with CNN through his daily vlogging experience. He’s a born story-teller.

Mother Bees - A service-provider and distributor of nutrient-rich food products, this sweet company has totally nailed their target market with a soothing and trusting approach.

Justina Blakeney - She’s a self-made interior design guru with a Target partnership while openly sharing she only pays herself $60k/year because she’s more interested in long-term investing for her business than a short-term pay-out.