Free marketing tools for Portland small businesses

Built for Portland makers and small businesses doing their own marketing. These tools help you build your brand, evaluate ads, and track project time. 

By Andy Swanson, founder of Firebrand PDX. Updated September 28, 2026.

Portland maker at his market booth writing up the day's sales on a pad
You track
Clients, projects and the work in between
On screen
Reports and Month, Week and Day calendars
You export
Billable hours as a CSV for invoicing

Timerizer time tracker

Track time by client, by project, or by the work that never gets billed but still eats the week, like production days and market prep. Start a timer, switch work without losing your place, and see where the hours went in reports and a calendar.
Export billable hours as a CSV when it's time to invoice. Time tracking is free. If you use an Elgato Stream Deck, a plugin lets you run timers from a key for a one-time US$7.49.
Start tracking your time

Opens a new website.

You enter
6 numbers from your store
On screen
Break-even and target ROAS
By email
Monthly ad budget plan

Break-even ROAS calculator

Find the return on ad spend where an ad stops losing money and the stricter target we hold every ad to before it gets more budget. Built for anyone about to spend money on Meta, TikTok or Google ads.

The email plan adds your daily budget, the clicks you need, the most you can pay per click, and when to pull an ad.

Open the calculator
You answer
15 multiple-choice questions
On screen
Score out of 100 and what to fix first
By email
Breakdown and fix list for all five standards

CAMPAV marketing audit

Score how effective your posting, email efforts and measuring are with the CAMPAV (Consistent, Authentic, Measurable Presence that Adds Value) framework. The tool will also point out the one standard dragging the rest down.

This is a great tool for owners who know something isn't working but can't say what.

Take the audit
You fill in
Who they are, what they want, where they spend time
You keep
Up to three profiles as a PDF

Customer profile template

Write down who your best customers are, what they care about and where to reach them. A check runs as you type and flags anything too broad to write an ad for, like "everyone" or a 40-year age range.

Each profile ends with a one-line message and a starting point for ad audiences. Built on our post on defining your target customer.

Build your profiles
You fill in
What customers see at each stage
You keep
A finished map as a PDF

Customer journey map

Lay out what a customer sees, reads and hears from you at each of the six stages, from first hearing your name to recommending you to a friend. The gaps show up fast once it's on one page.

Built on the six stages from our customer journey post. Your map saves in your browser while you work.

Build your map

Where to start.

Take the audit first if you aren't sure what's broken. It covers everything from posting schedules to reviews, and the result tells you where to spend your next hour.
Build your customer profiles before the journey map. The map asks what each customer sees at every stage, and that answer depends on who the customer is.
Go straight to the calculator if you're about to spend money on ads. Knowing your break-even point before the first dollar goes out is cheaper than finding it after.
Andy Swanson, founder of Firebrand PDX, in his Portland studio

The stack we recommend.

Three tools cover most of what a small brand needs to market itself. We use all three, and we'd set them up in this order.

  1. Google Workspace

    Email on your own domain, plus Drive, Docs, Sheets and Calendar. A gmail.com address on an invoice makes new customers hesitate. Fix that before anything else.
    Try Google Workspace

  2. ActiveCampaign

    Email lists, signup forms, automations and a simple CRM in one place. Every signup from the tools on this page lands there, sorted by which tool they used.
    Try ActiveCampaign

  3. Metricool

    One calendar for scheduling posts to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and more, with the numbers for each channel in the same place. We use it to plan posts and pull monthly reports.
    Try Metricool
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Firebrand PDX.

Portland, Oregon.

A Firebrand Creative studio.

© 2026 Firebrand Creative. All rights reserved.