November 24, 2008
Ok, it's November, Thanksgiving will be here next week, Christmas comes soon thereafter and you might be tempted to do some pretty "no so smart" things in your email marketing, writes Clickz. It's like the guy who knows the dance is about to end for the night and still hasn't danced with that special girl. So he starts pulling her to th dance floor, making a fool of himself, or worse.
As the holiday's approach don't make foolish email blunders and damage relationships with your current and prospective customers.
Remember:
- Risky moves drive more spam complaints.
- More spam complaints damage your sender reputation.
- A bad reputation makes ISPs block your e-mails from customer inboxes.
- Blocked inboxes reduce your delivery.
- Reduced delivery means reduced e-mail results.
I highly suggest you read the full Clickz article here. Read up on email marketing at the Smallbiztechnology.com resource page.
tags: email marketing |
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November 20, 2008
If you make international calls from your BlackBerry, you might save a chunk of change by trying this service, currently in beta, from Truphone Anywhere. It works in 33 different countries and promises to reduce international call costs to as low as $0.06 per minute.
Once you download the free software onto your phone, it will ask if you want to make a Truphone call any time you dial an international number. If you accept, then Truphone connects the call. If you decline, the call will be dialed through your regular cell phone carrier. Charges are paid upfront by purchasing pay-as-you-go credits.
Note that Truphone Anywhere is meant to save users on calls from their home country, not while traveling abroad. Their press release warns that using the service while abroad might result in higher charges.
Find out more at http://www.truphone.com
Laura Leites, Assistant Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com
tags: blackberry, cell phone, international, phone calls, Truphone |
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November 20, 2008
As each generation of smart phones and PDAs gets more powerful, we can accomplish more out of the office than ever before without always needing to lug a laptop along. In turn, service and content providers are tailoring more products specifically for use on mobile devices.
One of the latest is Hoover’s Mobile, designed specifically for iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile users.
“Hoover’s understands the mobile needs of sales professionals - they need the right information and tools that fit into their day-to-day work schedules and workflows, especially since an increasing number of these professionals now use mobile devices as their primary tool,” said David Mather, president of Hoover’s. “We believe we are delivering on these needs with the launch of this new mobile product line.”
Customers who typically use Hoovers.com to identify and evaluate potential sales leads or markets can now use mobile devices to access, sort and synchronize millions of company records on-the-go. In addition, business professionals on the road, in the airport or at a tradeshow can now integrate with other key features such as GPS custom location, radius search and custom call queue abilities.
If you're a Hoover's customer, you can download a beta version right now at www.hooversmobile.com. Hoover's is actively looking for consumer feedback and suggestions during the beta period, so here's a chance to help shape this new product so it meets your needs.
Laura Leites, Assistant Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com
tags: hoovers, mobile, sales leads |
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November 20, 2008
For many businesses, particularly retailers, this coming month is the highest volume selling time of the year. Right now consumers are nervous about the economy, their jobs, and therefore their budgets, so expect them to be especially picky about where they spend their holiday shopping dollars this season.
The aggressive holiday sale pricing has already begun, but sellers can't rely on price alone to develop customer loyalty. Your reputation has to be good to keep buyers coming back, but it is also important in wooing first time purchasers. Think about the product reviews on Amazon.com and how they can influence whether you buy a particular item. The testimonial page of retail and service companies' websites can make a huge impact on a shopper's confidence in buying from them. It's the third party credibility.
Read the rest of the story
tags: customer service, ratepoint, testimonials |
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November 20, 2008
According to a recent survey conducted by online payroll service SurePayroll, the majority of small business owners believe there is a clear business value in popular social networking Web sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
According to SurePayroll Online Marketing Manager David Rohrer, the online presence of small businesses is becoming more important to remain competitive with big businesses.
"It is no longer just an outlet for personal use -- it's rapidly becoming a must for business success," says Rohrer. "Big business is tapping into the blogosphere and posting their company profile pages in online communities. Small business owners need to do the same. What's so great about the online world is you don't need a million-dollar marketing budget. In fact, the most effective online connections are free personal communications from a business owner to their community."
If you need proof that social media works and is thriving in the minds of smart small businesses consider Wiggly Wigglers, a rural England-based natural gardening mail-order company that won the 2008 Global Dell Small Business Excellence Award.
By using social media to connect with current customers and reach new ones, Wiggly Wigglers:
- Serves 90,000 customers worldwide and delivers its products across Europe;
- Cut its advertising budget by 80 percent when the company turned to social media over traditional advertising;
- Facebook fans currently stand at 898, with over 170 discussion topics;
- Hosted a total of 50 weekly podcasts from the “Wiggly sofa” reaching thousands of listeners per week, and San Francisco Chronicle readers rated it their “favorite gardening podcast;” and
- Built its catalogue based on Wiki ideas generated on its Facebook page by experts and customers.
Maybe you're thinking, this is all fine and good for some hip English company - but what about me?
Social media is for EVERY small business owner. It's just a matter of determining to step out and start somewhere. Why not start now? Make your first Facebook page for your business.
Read the rest of the story
tags: social media, surepayroll |
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November 20, 2008
As smaller businesses, our needs are often quite different than larger businesses. By the fact that they have larger budgets, more staff, are more regulated and all sorts of other differences puts them in a entirely different sand box than us.
However, there are many things they are doing that would make sense we learn from. PC World writes about this. One tip is to buy compatible computers and cell phones. If one computer breaks down, it's so much easier to swap parts from a common inventory or even in a pinch have two employees share a computer, especially on a business trip.
Imagine having 15 different cell phones - that often means different batteries and chargers for each one. Having the same cell phone means you can have a common supply of power adapters and even software configurations for all phones.
PC World writes To keep incompatibilities to a minimum, you should try to stock hard drives from the same vendor, and to standardize on the same model of peripherals such as printers, mice, and keyboards, too. You can also make use of Windows Inspection Toolkit or similar utilities to keep track of the specific configuration of your systems. Finally, use drive imaging software such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to make copies of your basic system installation, so that it can be recovered easily in case of virus infections or other problems.
Check out the full article to learn what you can copy from the "big boys".
tags: general |
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November 20, 2008
Earlier this week someone asked me if the free version of security software from AVG was ok to use on their computer - compared to the fee based versions.
It really depends on how secure you want to be and the security features you need. The free version of security software has minimal security features. In AVG's case it does protect your computer against viruses - but that's it.
If you want more protection, you should invest the money to purchase the fee version. These fuller versions contain protection against malisiously programmed web sites spam blockers and so much more.
In a related noted Microsoft will discontinue its security suite, Microsoft OneCare, in favor of a free security suite, writes - Two years after jumping into the PC security software market, Microsoft is scaling back its ambitions there. The company said Nov. 18 it’s discontinuing its $50-a-year OneCare software in favor of a give-away program due next year called Morro.
AVG, Symantec, McAfee and TrendMicro all have powerful security suites - that one must pay for. I think using free security software is like buying the cheapest security you can for an expensive car. Why?
That exspensive car is your business computers. Isn't it worth the $50 or so that it costs to buy security software to ensure it's as protected as possible?
tags: avg microsoft, mcaffee, security, trend micro |
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November 20, 2008
Security is of course very important.
Without a secure environment in your home, computer, business, around your children - whatever - you will not feel safe and often times you won't be safe. Being secure, in a digital world, although at times seemingly complicated does not have to be.
A few simple steps can keep you relatively secure, writes David Strom in the New York Times. One of the tips he writes is: ADD THE ‘S’ Travelers should take care to type “https” at the beginning of all their sensitive Web site addresses (like those of banks), especially when using a computer in a public place. Web browsers normally use the hypertext transfer protocol (http), but many sites (not all) also accept https connections, which provide extra security. Users of Google’s Gmail can automatically force secure connections with an options setting in the program.
The next time you're out and about, keep your data secure by following a few simple steps. One of the most important steps is to be vigilant and cognizant of what you are doing. For example, don't just click on a link you have received by email. Think about it and in fact don't click, go directly to the web site, especially if it's an email from a financial institution.
Read CNN's 7 Security Blunders Here.
tags: security |
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November 19, 2008
Hosted databases can be a powerful tool for businesses to manage everything from customer contact information to product details and sales records. However, it doesn't do much good to store information if you can't access it easily.
Trackvia recently announced improvements to its search capabilities, adding search-engine style commands to let users drill down to specific information without having to weed through as many irrelevant results. You can now search your own database the way you search the internet (or better, depending on how many of these tricks you already know):
- Phrases: Quotation marks, as in “New York” instead of New York, indicate that the terms must appear together.
- Exact match: An equal sign, as in =Rob instead of Rob, will only return records with an exact match (i.e. Rob, but not Robert).
- Negative match: A minus sign, as in white sox -red, means a term (i.e. red) must not appear in a record.
- Dates: You can now search date and time fields with expressions like Oct 23, 2007 or simply February.
- Empty fields: Searching on (none) will return records with blank fields.
- Specific fields: Putting a field name before a term, as in first_name:Wilson, limits the search for that term to that one field.
Read the rest of the story
tags: database, search, trackvia |
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November 19, 2008
Simple Steps Businesses Can Take to Protect Themselves from Cyber Crime
Susan Sarna, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for EMBARQ Business
When the World Wide Web launched almost 20 years ago, it generated a lot of buzz about how it would revolutionize the way we do business, but many questioned whether these projections were fact or just grand words.
Today, few can argue that the Internet has transformed business operations. For example, it has changed the way we share information, talk to employees, advertise jobs and sell services and merchandise to customers. It has opened the door to resources from all over the word. It has become such an essential tool for business success that few can afford not to have a Web presence.
But the Internet has done more than change the way we work; it changed the way criminals commit crimes. Cyber criminals view the Internet as a tool they can use to launch daily cyber attacks such as computer viruses, worms, spam, phishing and identity theft, and the Web presence that businesses need to be successful is what makes them vulnerable to these attacks.
Read the rest of the story
tags: embarq, security |
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