Instantly Increase Engagement for Your E Commerce Business in Malaysia

For most small business owners it is easy to get caught up in the jargons of your business and forget the importance of making connections with your customers.

There is a saying that customers buy with their heart and not with their brains.

As most email marketers would say that the success of any email marketing campaigns is dependent on the ability for you to deeply forge a relationship with your subscriber.

And the primary requirement for this is to engage your prospects at every touch point of your email marketing campaign.

The best way of engaging your prospects and customers is to send triggered emails that show how much you care for them.

A key differentiation for your small business in Malaysia, no matter how saturated the market is by standing out from the rest through the showing of some emphaty.

And when it comes to different types of triggered emails and their effectiveness in driving engagement, “Thank You” emails take the top slot hands down!

When Should you send one?

Thank you emails open up multiple avenues to engage with your prospects and customers. You can send them at various stages.

Here are 3 stages at which you should send a thank you email in order to get the maximum benefit:

1. After Subscription

The one stage at which you should not miss sending a thank you email is when someone subscribes to your emails.

Use your thank you email in such a manner that your new subscriber feels happy about joining your list. Start by thanking them for their interest in your products/services and ask them to get in touch with you if they have any queries regarding your business. Keep the email causal and make them feel that you are genuinely excited by their subscription.

The best way to avoid being to pushy is to include a brief intro about your business, products, and services and also mention what makes you stand apart from your peers.

2. After Purchase

After making a purchase from your site, your customers will definitely wait for a receipt against the purchase made, and they will surely open it to check as soon as they receive it. This gives you a great opportunity which you must leverage by combining the order receipt with a thank you note.

Doing this will make them feel that you value them highly, thus building loyalty towards your brand.

You can also add tips and FAQ section in the email to make it more engaging, just like what Classic Specs, an online eye-wear provider, has done in their thank you email:

3. Few Days after Order Delivery

Send a thank you email to your customer about a week after they receive the delivery of their order. In this email, thank the customer again for making the purchase and ask them whether they are happy with their new products.

Besides this, add customer support information as a means of info for them to contact you.

The thank you email that you send at this stage of the customer lifecycle should be used to cross sell and upsell.

Find out more about how your small business can send professional business emails with Everworks email hosting here.

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5 Rules to Make a Smashing Small Business Press Release

Content is hard to conceive and it is very common to have writer’s block. With all the new in the world, such as social, listacles, and more.

Sometimes going old school can be a good thing. However, the when it comes to your small business public relations strategy, and the traditional press release is advantageous for your business and brand.

Back in the day, news was only delivered through the early morning newspaper. Fast forward today, the vast majority of people obtain their news either through a Twitter headline, what’s trending on Instagram, or what is being shared on Facebook.

What Is a Press Release / News Release?

A Press Release helps to build meaningful news that can help your small business stand out in Malaysia and build confidence of your customers over time.

A press release is an official announcement (written or recorded) that an organization issues to the news media and beyond.

Whether it’s called a "press release," a "press statement," a "news release," or a "media release," we're always talking about the same basic thing.

While the heading should contain action verbs, the first paragraph should answer the "who," "what," "why," and "where." The press release should also contain understandable language and a quote.

Most press releases are short at just a page long -- two pages, at its maximum. 

The goal is for your small business to ultimately, provide enough information that news outlets or any reader have sufficient material to gather information about your activities for publishing.

It may be tempting to craft a press release tht twists the facts, but remember this is a piece of information that is published to the public domain live for others to see. As it would be positive for your small business, but on the flipside it could also be detrimental.

So instead of taking the press release as a way to earn short-term news coverage, think of it as a long term marketing strategy for your Malaysian small business.

Rule 1: Make your headline irresistible.

Just like writing any article the title, sets up your press release for success. It can’t be stressed that starting with a great headline, is extremely important.

Although this seems like a daunting task, but consider the diction carefully, and you would be creating a highly captivating headline.

Use action verbs, clear, understandable language, and keep your headline simple and short -- fortune (and search engines) reward the brief, so keep your title to one line to clearly focus people's attention on your topline message.

Most importantly, make it interesting: Keep in mind that reporters get dozens, if not hundreds, of releases each day, so invest the time to write a compelling headline. It's worth the time and effort on your part.

Rule 2: Convey the value.

For anyone reading to be inclined to share your announcement, you have to tell them upfront why they should care.

The first paragraph of your release should cover the who, what, why, where, and how of your new launch, update, or development. People don't have time to sift through details and fluffy background information.

There shouldn't be any new, crucial information covered after this section that the reader could potentially miss.

Rule 3: Offer a tempting quote.

It's time to bring your details to life with a quote that reporters can use for context around your announcement and help paint a picture of how your news effect.

Ideally, quotes will be from key stakeholders in your company including your executive team, project leads, or those directly impacted by your announcement.

Quoting key figures and authorities underlines the importance of your development. The chosen quote should shape your narrative and emphasize the core of the announcement.

Rule 4: Provide valuable background information

In this last paragraph, keep in mind that the reader already has all of the important information.

It can be tempting to provide superfluous facts and tidbits about your company or the development of your announcement.

Offer details here that strengthen your narrative, like creative or noteworthy ways your company developed the project or announcement at hand.

Rule 5: Summarize the "who" and the "what" in a boilerplate.

Make your press release incredibly easy to reference.

Describe what your company does in clear, plain English, include a link to your company's homepage early on, and make your boilerplate succinct and straightforward.

To keep yourself honest, ask a friend or colleague to read the press release without context and ask if they can easily and readily explain why the announcement matters.

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5 Ways to Boost Your Christmas Email Campaigns

Hey there small businesses! Make sure you plan a for this, because planning a great Christmas email campaign is crucial to your shop’s holiday success.

There’s the hype and although social media marketing might seem like the trendy thing to do at the moment (and it is worth investing in if you do it right), email marketing campaigns are inexpensive and can actually be very effective

In this post we’ll look at some strategies on the how-tos for running a successful Christmas email campaign.

1. Timing

Timing is important, as with most things. Timing is always a tricky thing in life, isn’t it?

Email marketing is no exception too, especially when it comes to Christmas sales.

With businesses trying to stay one step ahead of the competition during the holiday season, it seems that Black Friday will be a thing of the past soon (or at least not as relevant as in previous years).

This is where you have to be careful. If you’re a B2B business, it might very well make sense to begin your marketing campaigns in early October, as your consumers will need to prepare their own campaigns for the end users. However, if you’re a B2C company and you start sending your Christmas emails out too early, you run the risk of Christmas banner blindness. Your messages might get ignored or, even worse, you might irritate your customers.

Here’s a schedule that we recommend to prepare. It’s a sequence of emails that you should send and your workflow should look like this:

Warm up: inform your audience of the upcoming sale and what they can expect
Reminder: let them know that the sale is beginning very soon
Wake up: remind them that the sale has begun
Follow up: let them know any relevant information for a post-Christmas sale, etc.q
Of course, this isn’t set in stone and it all depends on your offers and your strategy. For example, you might have a “last-minute” sales email in this workflow to advertise your printable gift cards.
All in all, remember, it’s never too early to start planning your Christmas campaigns, but it can be too early to start sending them out.

2. Bring to the front important information.

A lot of companies are going to be holding Christmas sales, so you’re going to do your best to differentiate your offer. The last thing you want is for your customers to miss the benefits of buying from you. If you have a gift guide section on your website, make sure they know. I

3. Design

With all the deals you’ll be offering, you might forget that it is Christmas – and what’s Christmas without decorations? Your emails should reflect this as well. You have a lot different routes to choose from here:  the clean, white Christmas look or the colorful lights.

For B2B companies, perhaps you’ll want to go with a clean, white Christmas look, or include a Christmas greeting in the footer of your email.

A bonus tip for B2B companies, could be to include a Christmas signature.

4. Texts

Again, don’t forget that it’s Christmas time! Sure, it can be a bit stressful at times at home and at work (that might be the understatement of the year), but it’s supposed to be fun, too! “Fun” is the feeling that the email should give your readers.

Make sure you reach deep down inside and get that inner “soul” to make your best Christmas puns. Don’t be afraid to dabble in some cheesy word-play either.

5. Have the correct landing page

It’s hard enough getting people to open your email. The next goal is for them to click on button. In this day and age, two-clicks really is asking a lot from people.

However, if you’ve managed to grab their attention with your email, that means you’re doing something right! The last thing you want to do is guide them to a page that doesn’t show them the information they want to see.

If these potential customers have given you their attention, make sure you hold their attention by guiding them to a landing page that matches your email in style and content. 

The journey this customer takes after that first click should be completely smooth and cause no confusion. For example, if you’ve caught their attention by showcasing your gift guide, then the landing page should take them directly there, not to the homepage.

Don’t waste this opportunity!

Discover how you can send emails that get through with Everworks’s business email hosting here.

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