To build a business you need to spend tons of money on the best tools that help you integrate your business, right? Not exactly.
Although there are tons of amazing softwares on the market that offer a laundry list of features, you can find most of those features in free programs that can link together. That means, your business can be using tools like the big corporations for no cost.
This is why we put together 4 automation tools you didn’t know were free. Now, you can automate like the big dogs without breaking the bank.
1. Zapier
Wouldn’t it be nice if all of your applications could talk to each other and work together? Well, they can with a bit of help from places like Zapier.
Zapier uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to help applications speak and interact with one another. Although this is an extremely complicated process to execute, Zapier has found a way to make it easy. You simply choose your application, sign in, set up your triggers, and then sign into the second program and set up your actions.
For example, when someone visits your shopify store and purchases an item, that person’s information will be automatically transferred into your Hubspot CRM.
The only limits with the free accounts are two step zaps and a 5000 monthly API call limit. That means you have tons of room to play with automation triggers and actions each month. MailChimp contacts can be turned into HubSpot contacts without you ever having to touch the system after its initial set up. Talk about a time saver.
If you want to create multi-step Zaps, you can, but you will have to pay for an account or use multiple two-step calls.
2. MailChimp
MailChimp has tons of built in automations for you to use, and that library just keeps growing with time. MailChimp has the ability to notify your subscribers of new content, auto-respond to subscriptions, and even nurture people through a sales funnel with email based triggers and actions.
This is especially great for those companies that are working with a small referral pool because it’s completely free for up to 2000 subscribers. That means you can use MailChimp’s email automation for free to help your business grow. Should you hit that 2000 subscriber limit with MailChimp, you can pay for a larger subscriber pool. Their pricing breaks happen every 500 subscribers, but the intervals in between jump drastically, at least in my opinion.
3. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is still alive and kicking with their platform, and it’s all thanks to this handy CRM. With the HubSpot CRM, you can store all your contacts, integrate your email, and manage your entire business for free. This amazing tool will notify you when people open and respond to your email and allow you to manage every bit of your contact lifeline with them from one easy-to-use place.
HubSpot’s CRM can integrate with a wide array of open API platforms. That means you can link your MailChimp to your HubSpot CRM with Zapier triggers for free.
Oh, the possabilities.
4. Joinesty
Joinesty takes this automated email creation to the next level by using it as a defensive tool. This remarkable extension allows you to generate an email to subscribe to newsletters and offers. They link this generated email to your email, so you only get one email about your subscriptions a day instead of 27.
The reason this is so great is it allows to protect your personal information from sales and backdoor contact information deals. No one will be able to find your information because they will be looking for the information on a generated email that simply encrypts your information and passes it on.
Since it has this capability, it will also let you set up temporary accounts that grant access to your account. If you need to share an email and password with a co-worker, you can set one up for them that can be deactivated later.
On top of the business side of automation, it also uses automation to save you money when you shop online. Joinesty literally tracks down coupon codes and finds better deals for the items you place in your cart.
Although it is only free for a 14-day trial, it was included for all the money it has saved month after month. It more than pays for itself in savings elsewhere, and that’s worth $3.50 a month.
To top it all off, Joinesty creates a password vault for everything you have a password to, so you won’t have to reset your password when you forget it.
Conclusion
You can honestly run a small business off of the free software that is available on the market today. Technology has come so far that we can see the potential in free equipment without losing the potential for success when you use those products.
So the bottom line, it’s possible to get top of the line equipment to run your small business for free, you just have to know where to look.
What free business software and extensions did you use to grow your small business? Are you still using any of your original choices today? Tell us your story in the comments below.