8 Free (& Low-Cost) Marketing Tools for Your Event Rental Business

Marketing your event rental business doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

In fact, most customer-facing companies only spend around 5-10% of their annual revenue on marketing. And you too can connect with your customers and drive more new business with only a small upfront investment. 

Whether you’re looking to boost your social media presence, reach your customers via text message, or choose the best event website platform to show off your inventory, we’ve got you covered.

Here are eight powerful yet affordable marketing tools that will take your event business to the next level.

1. Canva

Canva brands itself as a “visual suite for everyone.” This online graphic design tool can be used to create everything from social media posts to logos for your event rental business. Canva has customizable templates for most any business need you can think of, to get the creative juices flowing. Even if you have no design experience, Canva helps you get your business visuals off the ground without having to invest in a professional designer. And if you want to experiment with AI-generated writing and design, that’s an option too.

Canva key features

• 1M+ professionally-designed templates
• 1000+ design types (social posts and more)
• 3M+ stock photos and graphics

Canva pricing

• Canva Free: Free for one person
• Canva Pro: $119.99/year for one person
• Canva for Teams: $159.90/year per person

2. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a go-to pick for email marketing. If you have a lot of customers in your email database already, why not capitalize on that with email marketing campaigns? MailChimp allows event rental businesses to create and send professional emails to their customers. With an email marketing tool like MailChimp, you can easily ask for referrals or send out special offers to your client base.

Mailchimp key features

• Email marketing
• SMS marketing add-ons
• Marketing automation
• Email templates
• Reporting and analytics

Mailchimp pricing

• Free: $0/month for 1000 email sends and one seat
• Essentials: $13/month and one month free for 5000 email sends and three seats
• Standard: $20/month and one month free for 6000 email sends and five seats

3. Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is a great way to get your event rental company in front of prospective clients searching for “florist near me” or “wedding venue in Savannah.” Your Google Business Profile contains all kinds of information on your business, like online reviews, hours, services, photos, and contact information. It’s a must for any business with a local customer base — and completing your Google Business Profile accurately and fully helps you show up in Google Search and Maps results when customers are looking for services you offer.

Google Business Profile key features

• Manage your profile from Google Search and Google Maps
• Add hours, photos, business posts, attributes, and more
• Create posts, offers, and events
• Respond to reviews
• Send and receive direct messages
• Showcase your product and service offerings
• Get insights on how your customers find your business

Google Business Profile pricing

• Free using any Google account

4. SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting is a two-way business text messaging service that allows you to text your customers (and your customers to text back). Email can get crowded and spammy, and not all of your clients will be constantly refreshing their emails. SimpleTexting’s powerful inbox helps you cut through the noise and connect with your clients and prospects via SMS. And if you’re constantly on the go, the service offers an accompanying mobile app. 

SimpleTexting key features

• Two-way texting
• Scheduled texts
• Giveaways and promo capabilities
• Event reminders and feedback collection
• Connect with staff before, during, and after events

SimpleTexting pricing

• Plans start at $39/month for 500 texts and include a local number. There is also a $4 one-time carrier registration fee.

5. Buffer

Buffer is a simple and effective way to manage social media content across multiple platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Google Business Profile — all essential platforms for event rental pros. Plan the perfect social posts for each channel and schedule them from one convenient dashboard, so you can stay on top of your event rental company’s social pages without spending all of your time at your computer.

Buffer key features

• Publishing: Schedule posts for each social network from one place
• Analytics: Analyze social media performance
• Engagement: Monitor and respond to messages and comments
• Start page: Build a customized landing page of your business links
• AI assistant: Repurpose posts and rewrite copy

Buffer key pricing

• Free: $0 for up to 3 channels. Doesn’t include engagement tools or analytics reports.
• Essentials: $6/monthly for one channel. Add additional channels for $6/month.
• Team: $12/monthly for one channel. Add additional channels for $6/month.
• (Note: Paid options have a 14-day free trial option available. Yearly billing options are also available for a discounted rate.)

6. Grammarly

As you begin ramping up your social media and website presence, you may have to write social media posts, emails, or website pages. it can all be daunting if you’re not confident in your writing skills. Luckily, Grammarly exists as your writing companion, helping you fix typos and make sure your writing is mistake-free. The paid version of Grammarly can also help you clean up complex sentences, adjust tone, and make use of generative AI to write, rewrite, or ideate at the click of a button.

Grammarly key features

• Write without mistakes
• Adjust your writing tone and rewrite full sentences
• Generate text with AI prompts

Grammarly pricing

• Free: $0/month to write mistake-free and get access to 100 AI prompts.
• Premium: $12/month to get sentence-rewrite capabilities and additional AI prompts.
• Business: $15/month for brand tones, analytics, and 2000 AI prompts.

7. Squarespace

Squarespace is your ticket to getting your event rental website off the ground quickly. Your website serves as the face of your business, and with Squarespace you don’t need to be a developer to create a website that sells. Squarespace makes website creation easy with its website templates, designer fonts, and pre-set color palettes. It’s also built with conversion in mind. Built-in features help you sell services, showcase your inventory to clients, and market your business.

Squarespace key features

• Website templates to fit every need
• Custom domains included in all plans
• Mobile-optimized websites
• Website analytics on some plans

Squarespace pricing

• Free trial for 14 days
• Personal: $16/month when paid annually
• Business: $23/month when paid annually
• Commerce (Basic): $28/month when paid annually
• Commerce (Advanced): $52/month when paid annually

8. Goodshuffle Pro

Of course, no list of affordable marketing tools would be complete without a mention of Goodshuffle Pro. 

Event rental companies use Goodshuffle Pro to manage all of their inventory, clients, and operations from one platform — but it also has major upsides from a marketing perspective. For example, it has a Website Integration that allows you to sync your inventory with your website, turning your site into a beautiful virtual showroom.

The Website Integration also has powerful SEO benefits, which increase page views from people who are searching for your products. Plus, it’s easy to use. Just ask 20+ year event industry veteran Gary Bordman, owner of Las-Vegas based company AE&ES.

“I’m not a ‘tech guy,’ but I can still create all the website content, and we convert 75% of our website leads.”

Gary Bordman, AE&ES

Goodshuffle Pro key features

• Inventory management
• Conflict detection
• Quotes & contracts
• Billing & payments
• Finances & reporting

Goodshuffle Pro pricing

• Start with a free 14-day trial.
• Goodshuffle Pro pricing starts at $99/month when paid annually and includes one full user and one limited user.
• Add full users for $49/month per user, limited users at $19/month, and read-only users at $99/month for unlimited users.
• Add the Website Integration for $79/month and the Quickbooks Online Integration for $39/month.