Tools For The One Person Marketing Shop

Published on

March 15, 2025

Do More For Less

Economic turbulence typically makes businesses and people alike more cautious with their money. People don’t buy as much, which in turn forces businesses to cut costs. And unfortunately one of the first expenses to go is marketing.

Common questions I’m asked these days when consulting with resource-strapped organizations about marketing are about how to do more with less. Especially in the North American education sector, marketing budgets are tighter than ever.

Fortunately, I’m a big believer in the power of constraints to induce innovation and creativity. As the former Digital Community Facilitator at Ryerson University, I successfully scaled a one-person operation into an award-winning in-house marketing & communications agency.

How did I do that? By arming myself to the teeth with tools and resources that would help me get the job done. Now, marketers love their tools. But as Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic series shows, there’s an overwhelming amount to choose from.

That’s why I’ve compiled what I hope is the most definitive list of tools available to us. These are tools that I have either personally used, or have been crowdsourced by my team. They are mostly free, or relatively inexpensive. And they will all help you to transform your ideas into reality.

I’ve created this list with a one-person marketing agency in mind, and I hope to update it annually. Bookmark this page, and refer to it when it’s time to get things done. And don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to know how to use them or if you feel something is missing.

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