Here, we have a bunch of tools that can assist your business at this time.
The tools selected are either free or parts have been made freely accessible to use. They can help you analyse changing customer behaviours or support wider business operations.
The world is in lockdown, prompting different buying behaviours. Businesses need to adapt, and these tools can help the transition.
Long story short, these tools are:
a. free
b. useful at this time
Please read, digest and apply these tools where you can.
What free ad grants are there?
- Ad credits for Google Ads
Google has made a pledge to give small & medium sized businesses worldwide $340 million in ad credits to be used by the end of 2020 across all google ad platforms.
It’s unclear at this time what the exact value of each grant will be. But it has been confirmed that the grant is eligible for SMB’s who have been active advertisers since the beginning of 2019.
Advertisers eligible will be notified in the coming months.
What free trend tools are there?
- NEW SEO Monitor Trends Tools
SEO monitor created a tool specifically to analyse changes in search volume on specific keywords or keyword topics.
The tool measures changes by default from exactly when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
The tool’s homepage has this statement:
“Search Volumes were averages for the last 12 months: pretty stable, in a stable world.
With the radical shifts in demand during the COVID-19 outbreak, the SEO industry can no longer work with these yearly averages.”
- Good ol’ Google Trends
A somewhat more rudimentary version of the above (likely to have inspired it) which also created some funny YouTube videos.
The trends tool can give an indication of consumer interest across keywords. It doesn’t give exact search volumes, but a broad sweeping interest score of 1-100 across a selected date range.
Check out this graph we whipped up of a couple different Retail industries – some are seeing more interest than at Christmas!
We’d recommend playing around with the tool to get an idea of what consumer interest is like within your sector.
What free finance software is there?
- Float App Offer for Businesses Affected by COVID-19
Float app is a cash flow forecasting & scenario planning software, targeted at small businesses.
They’ve extended an olive branch to businesses affected by the outbreak. They offer a free trial by default, but they are now offering an extended free trial. In the trial, you can use their cash flow planning tool where you are able to forecast the impact of the outbreak.
What chat bot software is there?
- EBI.AI LAUNCHES CORONABOT TO SAVE CUSTOMER SERVICES TEAMS
Staff could be off sick, causing your call centre to shut down. Enter, AI.
EBI.AI specialise in automating front line conversations with customers over voice, chat, messenger apps or smart assistants. Among other features, the tool could replace absent customer service staff.
Coronavirus will be creating additional pressure for customer service teams. EBI.AI has created a ‘CORONABOT’, designed to help tackle Coronavirus queries.
Best of all, it’s free for 4 months.
What free ad management software is there?
- Adzooma paid ad management platform, now completely free.
Adzooma is a platform created to unify different ad accounts. The platform can act as a control centre for your Google, Facebook and Microsoft ad accounts.
Making the most of your time is critical right now. Adzooma touts its time saving and profit boosting features.
In their statement on the outbreak, founders Robert Wass and David Sharpe write;
“we can see that while there is a short term drop in advertising spend in the worst affected countries, there is a significant recovery in the weeks after, as spends shift to products and services that are more in demand.
For that reason, we have concluded that the best way for Adzooma to support not just our clients, but all agencies and SMEs is to temporarily open access to the full Adzooma platform for free, to help companies through that drop and recover”
What free communication platforms are there?
- Zoom – Effective Remote Working
Zoom is a video conferencing tool. If your office is now working remotely, this could be essential for maintaining communication. It’s easy to setup and the free version isn’t very limiting. See what you’ll get for free below:
(We use it to have team beers & quiz Fridays)
They’ve even created a load of remote working guides you can digest too. https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html
Vidyard video messaging available to all businesses for free.
Another video technology provider opening their doors to public access.
Vidyard has introduced secure video messaging to enhance internal communications during the Coronavirus pandemic. Now available to all businesses for free.
What makes Vidyard different is in addition to its video conferencing/communication features it also offers an array of video creation tools like screen recording, live streaming, video personalisation and video hosting.
- Google G Suite – Hoping to help businesses & educators collaborate
G suite comprises of Googles productivity and collaboration apps. In places of the world where schools were closed weeks ago, they’ve seen hundreds of thousands of students using Hangouts Meet (free for all) and google classrooms to join school classes.
On March 3 Google released this statement:
“Starting this week, we will begin rolling out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally, including:
- Larger meetings, for up to 250 participants per call
- Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain
- The ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive”
- Calendly – schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails
Calendly ‘basic’ is a free meeting tool where you can share a link to your digital calendar that lets the recipient pick a time that suits them, saving back and forth between companies.
Calendly wants to help people working from home remain connected. To do this, they are offering add-ons to their free basic package, offering Zoom and GoToMeeting integrations — previously Premium tier features — free of charge until June. Google Hangouts/Meet remains free for users who prefer that platform.
- Hootsuite – connected social media management
Hootsuite is used as a dashboard for managing multiple social media profiles. You can schedule campaigns easily and monitor their effectiveness, among other features.
They have kindly granted free access to their professional plan to help small businesses until July 1st.
Hootsuite is a widely regarded and used platform. If you don’t have a social media dashboard already, I’d jump straight on this.
What free survey software is there?
- SurveyMonkey provides resources for the coronavirus crisis
Widely used survey software, Survey Monkey, has always offered a bare bones basic package. For those who need something more, paid plans start for teams at £25/mo per user and for individuals at £32/mo.
Survey monkey are currently offering free template surveys that could be useful at this time. The idea is that, while working remotely, managers can get a grasp of their staff’s wellbeing.
What SEO tools are there?
- Uber Suggest – Now More Free
Neil Patel’s tool, Ubersuggest, is an all-round SEO tool. It can be utilised to gain insights on:
- Keywords
- Backlinks
- Domain overviews
- Content ideas
The tool is already mostly free. Now, it’s ‘more free’. Backlink analysis & additional keyword data has been opened to the public, you just have to sign in (for free!).
What health & fitness tools are there?
- On an unrelated note; for living room cycling enthusiasts, Peloton wavers $1 million to users in exceptional hardship
Many people are worried about being locked in with their families for an extended period. Many other families are worried about losing income.
It’s times like these that people look to trim the fat from their expenses. No doubt for many in this situation, the Pelaton subscription will be the first to go. On the other hand, there is great value in exercise for mental health & clarity, especially in stressful times.
Peloton sees this too, and they are offering $1 million to current users to waver their fees for two months. The fund is for homes under exceptional hardship and is gained by submitting an application.