S3 Blog

Emails are one of the most popular forms of communication today and people spend a great deal of time reading their e-mail each day. In order to get the most from your e-mail marketing you need to make sure that you are following the 10 best e-mail marketing practices, which are:

1. Be consistent - regardless of what type of business you are if you frequently e-mail your customers you need to keep the look of your e-mails consistent. This will help to imprint your brand image into the minds of your customers and will keep your subscribers coming back for more.

2. Think about the Tuesday / Wednesday response time - this is the theory that the best time to send a business e-mail is on Tuesdays or Wednesdays as people are more responsive to e-mails on these days.

3. Utilise a sign up confirmation - in order to avoid your e-mails being classed as spam you should go for a double process for your customers to opt in. So after a customer has entered their e-mail address on to your website you should send them an e-mail to confirm their subscription. It also appears to contain a link to your e-mail marketing program within the e-mail which will help to verify that your customer signed up to your e-mail subscription.

4. Give subscribers a one click unsubscription option. If subscribers no longer want to receive your e-mails allow them to opt out using a one click unsubscription.

5. Be personal - make sure that you address your subscribers by their name in the first line of the e-mail. Doing this helps to build customer confidence in your brand as they feel as though they already have a personal relationship with your business.

6. Avoid spam filters - spam filters will take any e-mails that they consider as spam and either put them into a spam box or block them totally. So when you’re writing your e-mails try to avoid words such as discount, free, save or any monetary symbols.

7. Half second subject line - make your subject line of your e-mail is short and punchy. When we e-mails subscribers usually spend approximately half a second reading the subject of each e-mail, so make sure you capture their attention with a short subject line.

8. Offer a free bonus - although many e-mails claim to offer something for free many fail to deliver. So for your customers a money off coupon or even a free e-book if they subscribe to your subscription - and make sure that you give it to them.

9. Always have a signature on the bottom of your e-mails - by providing your name company details, a link to your website and the cover how to unsubscribe your e-mails will be more attractive to your subscribers.

10. E-mail based information /learning -why not offer a 10 part in learning course which will be e-mailed to subscribers? This type of e-mail is hugely popular and can help your subscription list to grow substantially.

The Internet contains a wealth of information and millions of people use it as a resource to find out more on thousands of subjects. Different groups have seen just how useful the Internet is for community based learning and sharing information and are actively engaging in this each day. So how can the Internet be used for this type of information sharing?

1. Internet-based groups, these are like online mini communities that come together using websites on which comments and ideas can be posted. This type of group also tend to use chat rooms and instant messaging to speak to each other. Information can also be posted on to the group’s website and these tend to be updated regularly. Internet-Based groups are so popular that there is literally a group for every kind of topic on which people regular contribute and visit frequently.

2. Community-based learning sites, a slightly different and often involve actual learning. People are able to take online learning courses to further their knowledge on a particular subject. These are very useful for anyone who would like to get back into education but are reluctant, for whatever reason, to attend classroom-based activities. One of the advantages of learning online is that an individual can do as little or as much as they like each time they login and it can be done at any time of the day or night.

3. Social networking sites are also used as a place to share information between people. This could be in the form of messages are photographs and even videos. There are also social networking profiles which are related to businesses or other activities which people can also join and share further information on this topic. Using social networking sites is not an easy it is also a very fast way of communicating with many different people within minutes.

4. Educational institutions also use the Internet to help people to share information and learn. Many people benefit from these types of websites as they are able to access information quickly and easily and can further their learning this way.

5. Business websites are another way in which people can learn and share information although these do relate to particular businesses.

There are of course other ways online which relate to community-based learning and sharing information. If you want to use the Internet for this purpose it is quite easy to do so. Simply go online and do a little research on the subject you are interested in, soon you’ll be able to find Internet-based groups that you can join and information sharing sites. As the majority of these offer free membership you will not have to pay to join and you can start sharing information and start learning almost instantly. If you want to be involved in community-based learning and sharing information go online and see what is out there.

During times of crisis it can be difficult for anyone to see anything positive and it is very easy to focus the negatives, particularly when you are in business. When negativity strikes, in the form of a recession, falling sales and so on finding anything to be positive about can be a real struggle. However it is possible to turn negativity into positive action, you just need to know how this can be done effectively.

Turning negativity into positive action is not about ignoring bad times when they occur it is about not letting them decide how things are going to continue in the business for the next 12 months or more. Whilst it can be incredibly hard to find anything to feel positive about when sales have dropped, a business can use this as an opportunity to be positive and think about their sales process, their costings and their CRM solution. It can be easy to panic when sales start to fall (especially during a recession) and this can lead to business owners to think that they soon be out of business – but this is jumping the gun somewhat. Negativity happens in life and in business and it needs to be dealt with without panicking and making hasty decisions.

Instead of seeing falling sales figures as a sign of imminent doom for a business it should instead be a sign for a business to revue their internal processes. When this happens turn the negativity into positive action by finding out the reason behind the falling figures. Many might argue that during a recession there is little point in doing this as the recession is to blame but it there is every chance that this is not the real reason. Sure, a recession will alter customer’s spending patterns and habits – but there could be an underlying reason for the drop in sales. So do a little probing and find out why your customers are not returning to you. You could find that your customer relationship management is letting the business down, or that your sales team are not following up on quotes in a timely manner and losing sales. Perhaps your customers no longer feel engaged with you due to something that the business has done – make use of all the options that are open to your business and find out what is going on.

Negativity will always be an issue in business, but it is up to business owners to decide how to handle it. By remaining calm and finding a way through negative and trying times positive action can occur and this will benefit the business in the long run. So the next time that negativity strikes your business spend some time thinking how this has happened and how it can successfully be avoided in the future. Doing this will help business owners to focus on the processes and practises of their business and will play a large part in turning negativity into positive action.

As the song goes “The times they are a changing” and never more so than in the current economic climate of the UK. Over the past 12 months or so the recession has hit thousands of businesses – both large and small, hard and as a result many have now gone bust. The times are changing and there has been a huge shift from the financially frivolous times of the 1990s and early 2000s to a time where millions are out of work and many cannot even afford to pay their mortgages. During the 1990s spending large amounts of money and actually being prod of this was very much the order of the day. Move forward 15 years and the UK is now experiences a credit crunch and those people who had racked up massive amounts of credit are now feeling the strain.

So, how are the times changing for businesses?

- Businesses are also suffering and many are now feeling the pinch as customers are now looking for cheaper deals on the internet and on the high street.

- Spending money recklessly is not seen as something to aspire to and this is forcing many retailers to drastically rethink their pricing plans.

- Business need to see the value of using good CRM (customer relationship management) software tools. Using such software can make all the difference to businesses that want to make the most out of every single customer contact that they have.

- Businesses need to recognise that they have to engage their customers to keep them returning to them time and time again. It is now no good to just market and sell goods or services, customers need to feel as though their thoughts and ideas are valid for a business and identify with the business. Feedback sections on websites and blogs are really useful for this to happen.

- Businesses now need to focus on new ways of reaching their customers. The internet has virtually limitless potential for businesses and there are plenty of methods that a business can choose to advertise which are diverse and attention grabbing.

- The recession has also taught business owners that nothing lasts forever and it will always pay to have a strategy in place for tough times. This can provide a business with the cushion that they need if the economic climate of their country changes.

- Businesses need to be flexible in their approach to their customers and their means of contacting them. With the advent of freely available mobile technology there is more scope to contact customers through email marketing, SMS messages and social networking sites. Smart businesses take notice of this and move with the times.

- No business can ever afford to rest on its laurels and assume that they will always have a strong customer base. This is foolhardy to say the least and all business owners should be constantly looking for ways in which to improve the service that they provide.

A recession can devastate a country, it leaves people out of work and struggling to make ends meet and it can ruin businesses. Over the past 12 months the UK has seen many large household name businesses go bust and innumerable small to medium sized businesses fold under the strain. Today, anyone talking a walk down a city’s high street cannot fail to notice the sheer number of boarded up shops and empty business space going to waste. Previous to this high streets up and down the country were filled with consumers spending and shops jostling for space.

Now, thanks to the recession the UKs shops and city centres are a very different place – but it is not all doom and gloom. Many businesses have weathered the worst of what the recession had to throw at them and they have come out of the other side. In other words for some businesses the recession has actually made them stronger. So how can the recession make some businesses stronger than before but cause others to buckle and collapse under the economic pressure?

Smart businesses always try to have some kind of contingency plan in place should the worst happen, and sensible business owners knew this. By making small but significant changes businesses could protect themselves for the recession. These could include implementing methods that would save the business money or looking into new ways to retain customers. Doing away with old and outdated methods of customer contact or recording information is one good way of doing this as it saves money and time within the business. Taking notice of customer spending patterns is also useful as this can help a business to predict spending patterns for the next 12 months or so.

Many businesses who are still in business after the recession could be seen in a way as being ‘recession proof’ and while there is no guarantee for this it certainly gives business owners a greater degree of confidence. Customers too gain confidence in businesses that can stay afloat during a recession which is good news for those businesses.

It can be easy to assume that a recession will weaken all businesses – but this is not the case at all. Recessions do change customer spending habits and can make people think more before they spend money – but they do not prevent people from spending money. Consumers still need to buy products and services even during a recession and continue to do so, so businesses should stand their ground and they will reap the rewards. Rather than crumbling at the first sign of economic crisis business owners should implement strategies to help them deal with a recession and see it out to succeed.

Recession does make our businesses stronger, but only if there is a firm base to start with. Having a poor infrastructure will cause a business to fail regardless of a recession. The only difference is a recession sorts the wheat from the chaff and strong businesses will get even stronger.

When your business is doing well it is all too easy to rest on your laurels and believe that this will continue indefinitely, but this is not the case, particularly in light of the recent recession that has hit the UK. Business owners are now facing the fact that they need to compete or get beat and as a result they are looking for ways in which to do this. Here are a few suggestions on how you can compete and beat your competitors:

1. Do away with old and outdated ways of recording customer contacts, using complicated and ineffectual methods to record customer contacts creates confusion and vital information is sometimes missed. Without streamlined way to record contacts conversions can be missed and customers lost.

2. Cut down on the number of software applications your business uses – spending thousands each year on software licenses eats away at money that could be spent on other areas of your business, such as advertising.

3. Check out what your competitors are doing – if you have no idea what your main competitors are doing you need to find out, and fast! In order to compete you need to know and understand your competition or your business is out of the running and is already beaten.

4. Use email marketing to reach more customers – more and more businesses are seeing the value of email marketing as it is a fast and effective way of sending advertising directly to their customers. S3 CRM offers email marketing as one of its features and this can help any business to instantly compete with its rivals by enabling users to plan, create and send email campaigns in minutes.

5. Create a business website if you don’t already have one. The internet is an amazing way of generating business and the chances are that your competitors are already doing all they can to increase their internet presence.

6. Think about using other internet methods to further spread the word about your business brand. This can be done in many different ways including blogging – these are massively popular right now and a great way to engage with your customers and keep them interested in your business, social networking sites – create a profile for your business and spread the word, or you might want to take out advertisements on these sites as they get huge amounts of traffic. Not only are these types of methods effective, they are also cheap and they encourage customers to visit your business’s website more often.

As you can see there are a variety of ways in which you can start to actively change the way that your business competes with your competitors if you are not already doing so. Customers are becoming more and more fickle when it comes to choosing who and where the purchase good and services from so it is essential to engage with them and make them feel valued to retain their custom.

Today the number of people with internet access in their homes is staggering when compared to even 15 years ago. Mobile communication has meant that even when a person is on the move it is possible to communicate with people all over the world at a fraction of the cost and it is all due to the fact that new technology is becoming cheaper. Desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, mobile phones etc are all getting cheaper by the day and this is increasing the potential for businesses to reach more customers than ever before via the internet and mobile communications.

Traditionally, new technology was only available to those in business or people who were wealthy enough to afford it as it was so costly. Now everyone is basking the glow of the internet at home, at school and even when travelling. With the advent of social networking sites keeping in touch has never been so popular or so easy. In order for people to connect to such sites electronics companies have realised they needed to make new technology cheaper and therefore more accessible for everyone. They realised that doing this would increase their profits tenfold and keep customers wanting the latest technology at low prices.

Gone are the days when only a handful of people had mobile phones and laptop computers, and instead in their place are people of all ages and abilities who are all wanting to have new technology for themselves. This increased demand for new technology means that more items are being sold, so more are being manufactured, bringing down the cost of new technology for the consumer. So now there is no reason why anyone who wants to keep up to date with new technology can’t do so for a very reasonable price.

As well new electrical technology getting cheaper software applications etc are also getting much cheaper as companies can design and implement new technology cheaper and faster than ever before. CRM (customer relationship management) software for instance used to be incredibility expensive for a business to buy and run and now the smart businesses are recognising that many companies are providing this cheaper than ever. To put this into perspective it now means that there is no reason why a small to medium sized business should not benefit from using CRM software to assist them.

Using a good CRM software solution is not only cost effective (especially since new technology is getting cheaper) it can also increase a businesses profits substantially. Making these savings for a business means that new technology can be seen as even cheaper as it can pay for itself in just a few months, rather than being seen as expensive and unattainable. New technology is constantly being developed and as it is now so cheap and so widely available there is no logical reason why consumers and businesses can’t embrace this new technology and enjoy it.

Finding a software solution that you can virtually run your business from can seem like an uphill struggle and that is why a great deal of businesses wind up using several different software applications. This is not only hard to work with (no one likes to have to have four or more applications open at one time and have to flick between them constantly) it is also very expensive. Due to this many small to medium sized businesses find that they have to cut corners or decide which software solutions they can afford to run at the expense of others. If you are the owner of a small to medium sized business that wants an amazing all round CRM solution S3 CRM really is a one stop shop. Here is what you can expect from S3 CRM the most flexible, accessible, comprehensive, cost effective and user friendly CRM solution available:

- Customer contact and employee contact information storage – here users can store all customer and employee contact details in different categories for easy retrieval.

- Storage features – quickly and easily store all information relating to a customer with their contact details so no information will ever go missing again.

- Quoting and invoicing tools – create quotes in moments on multiple lines and with VAT added as standard. When a customer accepts a quote users can easily turn these into invoices to be sent at a later date.

- Employee calendars – this feature allows a business owner to see which employees are available, on holiday or away sick.

- Project tools – use this feature to plan and implement projects, assign projects to users and see which users are in charge of which projects. Using this means that no project deadline should ever be missed, even if the user in charge of a project is absent.

- Email marketing – create email marketing campaigns in minutes and send them to your email marketing list.

- Reporting tools – see which invoices are outstanding, who has replied to email marketing, which customer has the most repeat orders and much more.

- Easy to use dashboard – users can create their own dashboard with all their regularly used features and tools on it. Business owners can tailor theirs so that they can see their business at a glance.

- Accessibility – as S3 CRM is web based users can log into their account from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection which means that business owners can stay in touch with the office even when they are not in the country.

- Easy to use – S3 CRM is so easy to use that anyone can learn how to access and it’s features in just a few hours – so say goodbye to long and expensive training days for employees. Just sign up a new user and they can be using S3 CRM in well under one day – without any intensive training.Cost effective – S3 CRM costs £4.99 / $9.99 per month which makes it one of the most reasonably priced CRM solutions on the market.

In addition to these features S3 CRM also offers – document storage, meeting planning tools, route optimisation tools, recycle bin – the list is endless, proving that S3 CRM really is a one stop shop.

An ISP or Internet service provider is the name that is given to a company that gives its customers access to the Internet. Some of the ISPs will also offer e-mail accounts as standard as part of their pricing plan and some may offer other services such as data storage. Choosing an ISP for your business can be quite tricky, obviously businesses want to have the best deal from their Internet service provider which is both cost-effective yet gives the business the Internet access they require.

One good way of choosing an ISP business is to take a look at some of the ISPs that are around on the Internet. BT offers a very good packages for business which can include broadband Internet connections and phone lines for one very reasonable price. In addition to this businesses can also have support from business broadband experts at any time of the day night - something which a business may need if they run into difficulties online which need to be sorted out immediately. BT also offers business e-mailing, a data backup service web hosting and even VoIP so that making and taking calls from all over the world is a breeze. You might even want to take advantage of the web hosted conference calls and video options that BT offer its business customers.

Smaller businesses who are wanting to choose an Internet service provider should look towards a provider such as PlusNet who are an excellent ISP for small to medium-sized businesses. Many of the packages which this provider offers are tailored towards a smaller business, which is perfect if you only have a handful of employees yet still want your business to be connected to the Internet and to have all the advantages and features that are larger business would have online.

It may be a wise idea to note down what your business needs are when you are looking to choose an ISP to your business. Doing this will enable you to see which of the ISP providers are unable to best meet the needs of your business. There is nothing worse than choosing an Internet service provider and then a month or so down the line of realising that they are not providing exactly what your business needs for its Internet connection.

When you have chosen your ISP for your business you to get in contact with them and arrange to set up an account with them. By speaking to one of the online advisers you might even be able to arrange for a package which will meet your needs exactly which is a mixture of two or more different plans. Internet service providers want to go the extra mile so you may find that speaking to provider directly is more beneficial than just using the information that is contained on their website. So choose your Internet service provider and start to make the most of using the Internet to your business and branch out into new markets.

Business directories are massive databases which contain business information and contact details, very much like a regular telephone directory. Having your business listed in the right directions online can increase custom dramatically, but it can take some time to get your business listed in the right directions online. Any business owner who is looking to have their business listed in an online directory should be aware of the following points:

• Many of the bigger online business directories such as Yahoo! will require a payment of $299 for Yahoo! to first of all review your business website and then further annual payments of $299 to keep your business listed in this particular directory. One of the advantages of being listed in the Yahoo! directory is that millions of people use it every single day and it continually achieves hit for business websites worldwide.

• When you submit your website to an online directory it can take some time for that directory to complete a review of your website. These reviews are done to ensure that your business is listed in the right category so that anyone using the directory will be able to find your details quickly and easily. So don’t worry take some time your business to get its listing, just be patient and it will happen. Many of the directories will give you an indication of how long it will take to get your listing on their site.

• It is always wise to get your business listed in the bigger directories first, then the smaller directories can be included later on. You must be aware however, that as the majority of the bigger directories require payment to be listed it can be quite costly to have your business listed in several lives directed at any one time. Smaller directories require smaller payment and some will even offer free listings to some businesses - so take a look at the various rates and decide which of the business directories is right for your business.

• Do research and compile a list of all the business directories that you can find which are online. From this you can then make a short list of the business directories which are most applicable your business. For example some business directories only cater for a certain type of business, so it is pointless to try and get a listing in a directory that has nothing to do with your particular business.

• You might consider asking your customers, when they contact you as to which, if any of the online business directories they use. Doing this will give you a clear indication of which are the best online directory that your customers use, then you can get a listing in them if you haven’t already done so.

Getting your business listed in the right directions online may be quite costly and quite time consuming. But the benefits that you stand to receive when you are listed in the right directories online should outweigh these two factors.