ManyRequests is a client portal and client requests management software for creative services.
There are many free tools for agencies out there, and it's difficult to gauge how good they are until you try them out for yourself.
In fact, if you had to look up all the tools, test their efficiency, and settle on one that works for you... it'd probably take you a few months!
The good news is: you don't have to do that.
The team at ManyRequests curated a list of the best free tools for agencies out there, ranging from content marketing to project management, scheduling, SEO... and a lot more!
This list sorts the good from the bad—and the great from the good.
Let's dive right in!
Free content marketing tools
From stock photos to content research, planning and analytics, these are the best free tools for content marketing out there.
Grammarly
Grammarly corrects your grammatical mistakes and makes your text clearer and more understandable to read.
This tool isn't just your typical spellchecker: its algorithms also flag potential issues in the text and make context-specific suggestions to help with grammar, usage, wordiness, style, punctuation, and even plagiarism!
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo allows you to figure out what kind of content performs well—no matter the industry.
Just enter a keyword, click "Find Content", and... done! The tool returns a list of the best performing, relevant content on the web—sorted by engagement.
You can use Buzzsumo's free plan for written content, YouTube videos, or even to find backlink opportunities.
Pexels
Do you ever run out of images for your blog posts?
With Pexels.com, no more.
This amazing free stock photos bank allows you to explore collections of pictures by topic, which makes it very easy for you to find a relevant feature image for your post.
Canva
Canva is an awesome image editing software.
The tool is extremely accessible and uses a simple drag-and-drop editor to create powerful visuals for your social media, blog posts, infographics, videos, or presentations.
Learning how to use fancy editing tools is a thing of the past—now, Canva does it all for you.
MailChimp
MailChimp is an email marketing automation platform that is free to use for up to 2,000 mailing list subscribers.
The tool also features landing pages to collect e-mail addresses (for example, downloadable content) and automated sequences of onboarding emails for new subscribers.
Exploding Topics
If you have been writing a blog for a long time, you must have experienced writer's block.
What should I write about next?
How about the current hottest topics in your industry? Quick and easy: head over to Exploding Topics, pick an industry and a timeframe, and done.
For example, I can see that in the last 3 months, the interest for "Core Web Vitals" (UX criteria created by Google) has grown by 105%.
Since my personal blog is all about SEO... now would be the perfect time to write a relevant article about this topic.
Use the same strategy for your own industry!
Feedly
Feedly is an amazing content curation tool that combines multiple RSS feeds into one single source of information.
I personally use it as inspiration for new blog posts, to keep an eye on competitors, to stay on top of my industry, and—when I come across a really good article—I include it in my monthly roundup.
Free SEO tools
If you need to get more organic traffic to your website, we've got you covered.
Have a look at our list of free SEO tools for agencies:
Yoast
Yoast is an SEO plugin for WordPress that helps you with your blog and/or website's search engine optimization.
In a nutshell, Yoast assists you with attracting more users from Google, Bing, and social media, by optimizing your pages for all those platforms.
The plugin also checks on your content to make sure you're using the right keywords often enough and in the right spots.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a well-known name in the SEO industry, but you don't have to subscribe to enjoy some of their services.
As a matter of fact, the company offers a myriad of free tools to assist your SEO efforts.
Among their most popular ones, you can find the backlink checker, keyword generator, and broken link checker. They all have their niche uses for finding backlinks or new content opportunities.
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a website traffic intelligence platform.
Check on your competitors, track your market share, and make the right strategic decisions through an abundance of information and very detailed reports.
See how well specific websites perform in search, on social media, and spy on their audience and competitors—free of charge.
Free social media management tools
Staying on top of your social media marketing game can be a tough nut to crack—and depending on your business size, handling all your accounts and replying to your customers on every platform can quickly become nightmarish!
However, we've got you covered:
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that allows you to visually plan and schedule your social media campaigns.
More than that, Buffer makes it easy to plan stories, identify the most relevant comments, and analyze your performance on social media.
It's an all-in-one tool that is free for up to 3 social channels.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform with a plethora of features for the social strategy fanatic.
With their free plan, you may manage up to 3 social profiles and schedule up to 30 posts in advance. Analytics are, of course, included, which means you will be able to track your efforts right from their dashboard.
Tweetdeck
If your audience mostly interacts with you through Twitter, then Tweetdeck is the tool you're looking for.
The dashboard offers you a better Twitter experience by letting you view multiple timelines at the same time, making it easier to manage multiple accounts, schedule tweets, and build collections.
Tweetdeck is also highly customizable, which makes it super convenient to work with.
Free website analytics tools
If you're already consistently putting out content and creating new pages on your site, you need to track the impact of said content on your bottom line.
Check out our list of free website analytics tools!
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is used by nearly every website out there, and for good reason. When it comes to tracking organic traffic, who would do better than Google?
The insights and information provided by their reports are simply invaluable for any webmaster out there: session duration, pages per session, most visited pages... not to mention that you can track your ROI on Google Ads there, too!
Hotjar
With a basic plan that allows you to cover up to 2,000 page views per day, Hotjar generates heatmaps, snapshot recordings, and reports that allow you to understand how users interact with your website.
Free project management tools
Leading your team to success and achieving your goals in a defined timeline is a real challenge for agencies, new and old.
If you're looking for a tool to help you meet those objectives, check out our list of project management tools below.
GitHub
GitHub is a code hosting platform designed for collaboration.
It is by far the most popular project management tool for programmers around the world. It features an amazing version control technology that allows you to review the detailed changelog of every version of your software, with all of the relevant information down to the specific code line.
GitHub also offers a myriad of integrations for code performance, error management, and other apps you might have to work with.
Trello
If your agency hires a lot of writers, you might find Trello to be the perfect fit for your needs.
The platform is a simple kanban tool and can be used to many ends, but in my opinion, works really well as a content management tool.
Create different columns for every stage of your writing process, and simply drag and drop your articles or blog posts along the way.
Notion
Similar to Trello, Notion is a very visual project management tool that offers kanban boards, wikis, calendars, and other useful management features.
It acts as an all-in-one-workspace for your entire team, allowing you to add notes, tasks, and layouts to get the job done.
Jira
Jira is an issue & project tracking tool. Although it was primarily designed for software teams, it works for about any project that needs its tasks planned, tracked, and assigned.
Create your own workflows, manage scrum boards or kanban boards, and define roadmaps for your team in just a few minutes.
Wrapping up...
We hope you enjoyed this list of free tools for agencies. Did we miss one? Let us know in the comment section below!