Ag MarkeƟng
Ginger S. Myers
Marke ng Specialist
University of Maryland
Extension
Director, Maryland
Rural Enterprise
Development Center
gsmyers@umd.edu
301‐432‐2767 x338
I recently read that there are 16M new websites
launched every month. That means that there
are almost 200M new sites launched annually!
These all contribute in multiples to the unfathomable amount of information on the Web. To that
point - a Google search of the terms “On-line
Marketing Tools” yielded 94M results. When I
refined the search to the terms “Online Marketing Tools for Direct Farm Marketers” there were
still 36M results.
web tools that I use on a regular basis. This is not
an exhaustive list of all the web tools available for
digital marketing, but this list can be a starting
place for creating, analyzing, and updating your
web marketing efforts.
On-line Analytics

Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics
Google Analytics is a free service offered by
Google that tracks and reports website traffic. With
a little bit of setup, it will give you an enormous
amount of information about who is visiting your
site, what they're looking for, and how they're getting there.

Mobile-Friendly Test Tool by Google
www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
This test will analyze a URL and report if the page
has a mobile-friendly design.

Check My Link
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/checkmy-links/ojkcdipcgfaekbeaelaapakgnjflfglf
A building campaign with a broken link is a huge
bummer. Check My Links can help ensure the accuracy of links─whether external or internal ─of a
webpage, giving a publisher or editor the opportunity to make corrections before the page is live.
It would seem to be an almost overwhelming
task to:
1. sort through all these postings to find the specific
web tools and trends that work for your business,
2. design your online marketing plan and website in
a way that attracts viewers and yield profitable
results, and
3. can help you mine out the information about who,
what, when, where and how your web presence
can be improved.
In an effort to keep my Extension and farm
business websites effective, attractive, and keep
my effort in a manageable timeframe, I have
developed a list of mostly free and easy to use
Con nued on Page 2
The University of Maryland Extension programs are open to any person and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion,
ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression.
Staying in touch with Customers and Colleagues
Mail Chimp (www.mailchimp.com)
MailChimp is a web-based email marketing
service. It helps you design email newsletters,
share them on social networks, integrate with
services you already use, and track your results.
Currently the service is free up to a certain number of
emails sent.
Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com)
Managing a business’s social media presence can be a
full-time job. Hootsuite is one of many tools referred to as
a “Social Media Management System” or tool. It helps
you keep track and manage your many social network
channels. It enables you to monitor what people are
saying about your brand and help you respond instantly.
Graphics

Infographics
are visual presentations of information that use the
elements of design to display content. Infographics
express complex messages to viewers in a way
that enhances their comprehension. The volume of
infographics goes up more than 1% each day and
people love them. Infographics simplify
information in a visually engaging way in order
to attract and inform a large audience.
The best infographics for a business to use are
the ones that support their own company of
product area. Creating your own infographics is
very manageable with these online tools:
Easel.ly (www.easel.ly)
Easel.ly currently offers many templates for
use. They are fairly standard in size with portrait
and landscape templates available. The
program is incredibly user friendly and virtually
all its features can be mastered within a few
minutes. A wide array of shapes and icons are
available on your infographics.
Piktochart (www.piktochart.com)
Piktochart is the original online infographic
generator. Currently free and premium features
are available. Piktochart offers a variety of
template sizes (and lengths,) icons and shapes
and other features on the free version.

Graphics, Photos, Inspiration
There are lots of picture and information shared everyday online. Check if you can legally copy and use these
materials. I use these sites for sources: Facebook postings, picmonkey.com, and canva.com.
Engaging in On-line Learning Session to Re-Charge Your Batteries
While not marketing tools per se, keeping our perspectives fresh and energized contribute greatly to our creative
marketing output. These are two on-line resources I have found helpful in engaging my imagination, expanding my
skill sets, and satisfying my yen for a fresh perspective on topics I deal with on a regular basis.
Creativelive (www.creativelive.com)
An online learning platform that broadcasts live classes
to an international audience. The company has dual
headquarters in Seattle and San Francisco, with four inhouse productions area. All classes are taught on the
CreativeLive platform.
TED Talks (www.ted.com)
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in
the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).
TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology,
Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers
almost all topics—from science to business to global
issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile,
independently run TEDx events help share ideas in
communities around the world.