Marketing – Page 17

10 Useful Sites All Marketers Should Save to Their Favorites Bars

If you’re a marketer who often finds yourself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of marketing resources available online, rest assured that you’re not alone. There are many useful sites and apps out there, but that doesn’t mean that all of them are right for you. Each marketing expert must determine which marketing resources and sites best suit his or her needs. I’ve been accumulating my own list of resources over the last little while, each of which occupies its own comfy spot in my Favorites bar. These useful sites might not all be right for you, but I’m sure that some of the items on my list will end up occupying your Favorites bar as well—that is, if they aren’t already there.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a site used for scheduling and managing social media posts and metrics across different platforms. Hootsuite can be used for over 35 popular social networks, including popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Not only does Hootsuite allow you to schedule posts, it also gives you information about who is reading, liking, and sharing those posts. I could go on forever about all the advantages of using Hootsuite for keeping your social media strategy on track, or you could go ahead and try it yourself.

2. Google Analytics

Marketing experts worth their salt understand the importance of tracking and measuring their efforts. What’s the point of organizing and following through with campaigns if you don’t know how well—if at all—those campaigns are working to improve your conversion rates? Google Analytics is one of the best marketing resources for keeping track of your progress, and it will ultimately help you improve your marketing strategy. Like the other useful sites listed in this post, Google Analytics is free to use.

3. URL Builder

Though URL Builder is part of Google Analytics, I have this site saved as its own page in my Favorites bar. I regularly depend on this useful site to create custom URLs that enable me to track the activity of my site’s visitors. While some of the other sites in my Favorites bar are reference sites with information to which I often refer, URL Builder has a practical application that I use often. Creating and distributing great content is all well and good, but if you can’t keep track of how that content is helping your site improve, your job isn’t being done in its entirety.

4. Canva

People who work in marketing must wear multiple figurative hats. We sometimes fill several roles, including writer, researcher, manager, and even graphic designer. This last point is where Canva comes in handy. One of the better-organized graphic design sites out there, this useful site allows marketers to create custom presentations, flyers, and other graphic images. Its fun, fresh, and simple modern design allows even amateur designers to create professional-looking pieces. With free access to sites like Canva, marketers for even the smallest companies no longer have any excuse for not creating beautiful, professional content.

5. StockSnap.io

In case you haven’t heard, corny stock photos are out. Gone are the days of businesspeople smiling back-to-back with their arms crossed across their chests. Instead, websites are now making use of real photographs of nature and of normal people in everyday situations. There are a few useful sites for finding copyright-free photographs, but StockSnap offers a particularly beautiful collection of images for you to use in your marketing efforts.

6. HubSpot’s Marketing Blog

Content marketing is a fairly new phenomenon. If you’re looking for a credible source of diverse information regarding the glamourous field of content marketing, look no further than the HubSpot Marketing Blog. It’s one of those marketing resources that I rely on much more than I sometimes think I should. Some of the posts cover general topics like the psychology of marketing, while others are detailed accounts of specific topics like buyer personas. Whatever you need to know about marketing, you can probably find it on HubSpot.

7. Pocket

Ever come across an article, video, or other piece of content that you thought would be great for your blog or social media, but that you didn’t have time to look at? With Pocket, you can save all such content in one place, then look at it later. You can download Pocket on your phone, tablet, or computer, and once you’ve saved something to Pocket, you don’t need Internet access to look at that content again. Pocket is a great app for keeping track of useful sites and marketing resources, and it can help you stay organized.

8. Scoop.it

This content curation site is useful not just for distributing your own content, but for finding other great marketing resources and useful content to share with your followers. Scoop.it users add their own content to the site, along with a description, allowing other people to view that content according to topic. It’s basically just one big platform for sharing things, and—as we all know—sharing is caring. Especially in the world of marketing.

9. Piktochart

If you think infographics are super cool, but you haven’t the foggiest idea how to create one of your own, have no fear—Piktochart is here. This site allows you to make professional infographics quickly and easily. Infographics can be great forms of visually interesting content; if you don’t have any for your site yet, I recommend that you check out this cool marketing resource. Did I mention that it’s free?

10. Google Drive

While not strictly a marketing resource, Google Drive can be a content marketing team’s best friend. If you’re working with a team of people, this large online storage space can help you share files and collaborate without having to deal with the hassle of over-sized email attachments. Google Drive also allows you to work on the same content from different computers, tablets, and even smartphones. If you want to have access to your work wherever you go, or if you’d like other people to have access to it, Google Drive might be the site for you.

Conclusion

The age of content marketing is here, and with it, an abundance of resources for marketers like you and me. If you make use of some of the resources above, you’ll surely have an easier time navigating the competitive and complex world of content marketing. You might even have a bit of fun along the way.

Marketing Letter Samples Promotion and Sales

Some of the other types of letters that people often ask me to help them with are known as marketing letters, sales letters, and/or promotional letters.

Marketing and sales promotion letters are used to cover a wide variety of different situations when promoting products and/or services to individual customers and/or business clients. When writing one of these, the main idea is to summarize all of the key points of the offer, in terms of benefits, and then make a call to action that will get them to act right away on the offer.

Following are a few samples of real-life marketing and sales letters that were written to cover a variety of promotional situations. These real-life examples should give you a good idea about how to write a typical sales and marketing letter.

Marketing and Sales Letters – Various Business Promotions

Promotional Letter – Solicit Participants In New Client Referral Program

Promotional Letter – Advise and Recruit Potential Exhibitors for An Event

Promotional Letter – Introduce New Small Business To Potential Clients

Promotional Letter – Promote New Customer Incentive Program To Dealers

As mentioned earlier, the above marketing promotion letters were all written for actual real-life business situations that my customers presented me with.

Donation Letter Sample Hospital Campaign

Donation letters are used for a wide variety of fund-raising initiatives. They typically request financial contributions, or in-kind donations of other resources, from targeted individuals and/or organizations. The sample donation letter below is typical for a hospital program donation campaign. It targets former patients of one service, who received a clean bill of health, to make financial donations for the upgrade of equipment and facilities in the department where they were tested and/or treated.

(print Donation Request Letter on institution letterhead paper)
May 20, 20xx

To Patient List:
Patient address line 1
Patient address line 2
Patient address line 3

Dear [Patient Name]:

You are receiving this letter as a follow-up after your recent treatment at our Colon Cancer Prevention Center (CCPC).

I have been advised by Dr. [Name of Doctor] that your procedure went smoothly and that your results were normal and therefore another colonoscopy will not be necessary in your case for five years. This is the best possible outcome for such a procedure, since your bowel and colon were found to be in excellent condition with no sign of polyps or other abnormalities.

In order for the Colon Cancer Prevention Center to function effectively into the future we are beginning a seven-year capital investment program to upgrade our equipment and facilities to state-of-the-art level technology. This upgrade will include up-to-date CCD and fiber-optic equipment as well as the latest in 3D imagery CT scanners. The total cost of this program is estimated to be $21.5 million. The hospital’s capital acquisition fund can cover only $14 million of this requirement. Therefore, to help us meet the $7.5 million shortfall we are asking you and all other clients who have (and will) receive endoscopic examinations at the CCPC to voluntarily contribute whatever you can afford to this important equipment acquisition fund.

I am sure that I don’t have to tell you how important this upgrade in equipment will be to our ability to effectively screen all of our patients into the future. As you are no doubt aware, bowel cancer is now the leading cause of cancer in men over 50, and that early detection is critical to allowing us to take measures to stop this very survivable condition before it progresses too far.

In closing, any financial assistance that you can give us in this important fund raising campaign will be gratefully accepted. Accordingly, a member of our CCPC Fundraising Campaign Team will be contacting you personally by telephone in the coming weeks to discuss your possible donation to the campaign.

On behalf of everyone here at the Center I thank you in advance for your kind and generous support of our mutual cause.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Jason Farista, MD
Director, Colon Cancer Prevention Center