10 Important Best Practices to Include in Your Email (for 2019)

All of us receive plenty of emails during the day, and to help your emails stand out and grab attention there's small nuances in email that you should be paying attention to.

Start here: What is email design?

Email design is strategic placement and creation of an email that appeals to your reader, or customer. Typically, you would want your design to be attention-grabbing, aesthetically-pleasing, and focused on your brand image to promote recognition with the receiver.

Why is email design important?

Your potential customer only spares your email 1.1 seconds before deciding if your message is worth their time or not.

Design has never been as important to successful marketing efforts, and it's key to keep recipients reading and interacting with your email.

Below you'll discover the 12 important best practices in include in your email for 2019

1. Craft a strong subject line

The subject of your email is the first piece of information your reader sees. Although the statement is brief it holds importance to pique the interest of your readers. The objective is to grab their attention to motivate them to open and read your email.

Here's a checklist of what your subject line should do:

1. Grab attention in as few words as possible
2. Provide value to encourage them to open your email
3. A good summary of what they should expect to read

2. Write a pre-header

This is the second thing your reader sees. This has equal weight to crafting a strong subject line. Don't repeat the strong subject line.

3. Be concise

The point of email is being straight to the point. Here's a great read on how to write short emails.

4. Maintain your brand through email

Impression is everything in today's age. This means your email should be branded to the point that they do not need to look at who's sending the message to know it's from you.

Tips on keeping your brand consistent through email:

• Use the appropriate email tone. Great tip on managing your voice when writing copy here.
• Incorporate the same colors and fonts.
• Include your logo, and relevant digital assets.

5. Keep your layout clean for a better user experience.

Manage the layout of your email. If you bunch together words in a single paragraph, nobody is going to read your email. More on user experience design here.

6. Personalise email

This works great to enhance your brand and at the same time improves email retention.

7. Incorporate unique content

Include unique images, videos, GIFs, and animations to break up the written content.

Here's great resources for free photos:

1. Pexels
2. Unsplash

8. Don't be afraid to use emojis

You can get emojis to use here.

9. Use responsive design

Users today are sophisticated and have various ways of accessing their emails (desktop, laptop, mobile device, etc.) Ensure their experience of reading your email is flawless regardless of the platform they choose to view through.

10. Optimise with CTAs

We often neglect this but a good call to action (CTA) helps you to convert your email readers to take action.

Where to get enterprise email hosting in Malaysia? 

Try our web hosting solution.

Read More

3 Killer Ways to Get Your Prospect to Always Respond to You

Not all prospects are very responsive. Often an email get's ignored or a response is delayed. A call is answered but time is always of the essence. Trust me, it isn't your vigor or lack of it, it's an exception rather than a rule.

It's common for your prospect to go dark after being responsive after awhile. You need to find creative ways to reignite the interest in what you are offering before the deal sways to someone else.

Silence doesn't mean a bad reflection of how you've handled your sales process. It takes two hands to clap and yes this doesn't mean you stop improving, but sometimes it's them. For many reasons their interest in your product (sometimes their own job) has waned.

However, if this is often happening then it's time to brush up on your questioning and closing skills. If they turn cold for any reason whatsoever, come up with follow-up strategies to try to re-engage them and get a new deal rolling in the future.

Here's 3 killer ways to get your prospect to always respond to you!

1. Change your closes.

Closing is the final interaction, and often the most important one. It is when you, as the salesperson, is asking the reader / prospect to commit to doing something -- regardless of the size of the task.

Great example of closes include:

1. Asking a prospect to read a white paper,
2. Scheduling a call,
3. Making an introduction, or 
4. Providing an important resource or information.

Don't be tempted to repeat the last close repeatedly when the prospect goes quiet. Instead maybe setup with the contact or their boss.

Make your close specific instead of vague. For example:

I'm trying to get a better understanding of your organisation. Where can I learn more about [ project / team / announcement? ]

2. Find a way with another point of contact

A breakup email may get an answer from an unresponsive prospect, but you run the risk of burning a potential sales opportunity for good.

Here's an example we've used after a prospect has gone cold after a few months:

Hi [ name ]

I found this white paper recently, and I thought of your company while I read it -- I think a lot of the lessons would be very helpful to you. I've attached it here. Please give me a call once you've read it because I'd love to get your thoughts and ask some follow up questions.

If this doesn't receive any response you can close in a passive-aggressive manner:

Since I never heard back from you, I assumed you moved on. If there's any hosting related inquiries that you might have in future, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

3. Call your prospects back at different times.

Right under your nose, but not done: Call and email your prospect at different times. We often get into routine and this habit. We make it a point to call at 2:30pm every week on the same day.

Getting into routine isn't bad practice, however, it is good to consider that your prospect may have a commitment at that time and may face difficulties responding to your call.

Send emails reliably with enterprise service at an affordable price. Great deals here.

Read More

5 Ways to Make Your Sales Email Convert Like Crazy

Writing effective sales and marketing emails can be difficult and a struggle. But consider, a single email could make or break a deal.

It's just as important to know what to include in your emails, it's equally important to be persuade as much as stand out.

There's no catch and you definitely do not need to be a professional copywriter to know how to write a sales email which converts more dollars.

" It's not what you write in your email, it's how you write it. "

To help you start, here are 5 ways you can make your sales emails convert like crazy. 

This is so easy you can start in under 5 minutes.

1. Humanize

It's often easy to forget that the email you're pouring time and effort into is meant for another person. An example which is common in the Malaysian workplace is the use of "Dear" to start an email.

The salutation of "Dear" isn't wrong, but it creates a sense of formality. This means distance. In certain situations you might not want the distance, but rather a more casual relationship to engage better.

A great way to put this in a nutshell is to create a perception that your reader is actually talking to you, and your email is just a means of transport to communicate your message to him/her. 

Remember, being overly casual does not always mean "closing the gap" it could be a practice that might not be well received. You want to measure how casual or formal you can be, depending on the industry you are in and to whom you are writing this email to.

I prefer to start my emails with "Hi" and to end the email on a more personal tone with "Catch up on WhatsApp."

2. Be clear with your intent

Obvious but often not done. State the purpose of your email right at the beginning. 

I work for a business web hosting company, so my value proposition when opening any email I would write could be: "We offer affordable packages while ensuring your website is almost always turned-on (99.99% uptime) and for you to save your hair when it comes to technical jargon (great 24/7 customer support)."

3. Write email based on your reader's objectives

This is difficult even for me, as it's only natural to write an email based on what you want to achieve and very rarely about the reader's objectives.

A good way to implement this is to always keep in mind; 

• What does your reader want to know? 
• What does your reader care about?
• What is your reader's expectations?

 This would be more convincing, 

" Even if your children are 8-hours away studying in University, ask how they are this instant without worrying about the connection. " 

 compared to, 

" The best International Calling rates in the country with the widest country network. "

Although this may perceive to be a more compelling message, this may not be true for every audience.

If you are selling a complex product to technical experts, granular details could be key in your communication strategy. 

4. Repeat the key sales message

It can often be difficult to keep an email short, and in most situations there's often a lot to cover.

A good practice to follow is to repeat what you've written at the start. This may mean a repetition of the same message, but the intention here is to be deliberate. You want to emphasize the importance of this message you've mentioned.

5. State an obvious next step

Rather than ending your email with thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon, take advantage of this space to direct your reader to take an action you desire them to take.

For example:

Call or Email me now

In my enthusiasm to help, I may have provided a lot of information above to digest. If you have further questions or if you'd like to go through this together, please connect with me by replying to this email or by dropping me a quick WhatsApp at +6x-xx-xxx-xxxx.

Consider these tips in your next email, and share with us your results. For more tips on sales, marketing, or the web stay tuned for future posts.

If you'd like to learn about how we keep other businesses online all-day and everyday reach out to our sales team here.

Read More

Cheat Sheet on Which Website Changes to Prioritise

There are generally two ways websites change, either big or small.

There is the revolutionary change requiring a periodic 4 to 5 year redesign and there are the little evolutionary changes that happen in between the revolutionary change that are the enhancements, and support handling.

Some changes to websites are simple content changes, while others are serious maintenance normally requiring new features and integration.

There are millions of things you can do with a website and each of them has a cost and benefit:

1. The time/effort/costs needed to make changes varies in time. It can be finished quickly or can take months of planning, programming and testing.
2. The results of the websites changes also vary wildly while some have a huge impact on marketing outcomes while others have none at all.

Adding a new title tag or modifying it, adding a new section or dropping a video has a return (benefit) on investment (time and cost).

Together they can be plotted on a chart showing the relationship between benefits with time and costs.

Time and Money: The costs of website updates

Websites are magic, it allows anyone to interact with your business globally. However, it still does need time, and money or both.

If you have an in-house marketing team, with a solid content management system (CMS), then changes to texts and images don't incur additional expenses. These are basically free website enhancements to the company.

Big design and programming changes normally mean calling your web developer.

Here is a quick overview of possible website enhancements and whether marketing time or there is a required investment into design or development incurred:

Relationship between traffic, conversions and website changes: the benefits

Before making any changes to your current website you should ask this question.

What is the outcome you expect to achieve out of this change? Is it to enhance your brand, gain better conversions or you are responding to feedback you have received from your users?

Each and every investment into your website should align with a goal.

These business goals lead to website needs, where commerce sites are usually higher sales transactions or information sites are for lead generation through better traffic and a higher conversion rate.

That's how essentially websites make money.

Here are some main goals of websites that people use as a benchmark:

1. Increase conversion rates: Maximize the percentage of visitors who visit the site to take action through the website that align with the visitors' perspective and psychology.
2. Increase traffic: Grow brand awareness and top line traffic levels through better alignment between website, search, social, email and paid marketing activities.
3. Easier management: make the website more efficient marketing tool with more flexible templates and tools so no update takes longer than expected and the ability to integrate actively with other systems when practical.
4. Website uptime: Ensure that the website is up during critical times when customers meet most often. Find out more about great hosting here.
5. Internal politics: Keep people happy, especially highly-opinionated people, and people with power. Some website changes don't have any practical marketing purpose.

Beware of opinions! When an opinion is stated look for evidence to support or refute that opinion. You could probably find it in Analytics which is a great tool for making better decisions about website updates.

Below are some examples of website changes that align with goals mentioned above and we see how the benefits matchup according to our experience:

There are a few updates to your website that could potentially hurt the marketing results (yes this is true and can happen to you too!) and here are some common examples:

1. Adding a design element that pulls the visitors attention from the call-to-action.
2. Building an expensive feature that isn't rarely used.
3. Updating the title tag of a page that already ranks high for a valuable phrase.

Set priorities

Things by now should be clear.

Look at every possible change to your website in context of costs and benefits and you should be well on your way to determine objectively what business goals need to be solved and what changes potentially have a negative impact on the site or could potentially hurt marketing results.

Create a worksheet with some of the points above that is simple. The most important aspect of this exercise is to have a clear statement of purpose. The risks of action without outcomes without a clear direction can be bad.

Not sure? Test.

There is no certain answer to every method. You can still be clear about the goals and look carefully at the costs that might be incurred.

If costs are marginal then try quickly and measure the impact of the change over a fixed time to compare with other changes that occur on the site.

If costs are high, weigh the risk and proceed with the test or you can choose to prioritize the lower cost updates, only making the bigger changes after you've exhausted the smaller, simpler updates.

When Updates Reach Limits

Eventually you will hit the point where updates have reached their limit and it is possibly a time for a redesign.

An updated website has a lifespan of around 3 to 5 years depending on the business and the industry, and updates might not be keeping in line with market trends.

This should be a clear indication to stop making updates and proceed with plans for a new redesign.

What do you prioritise for website changes?

Read More

5 Don’ts of Email Signature Marketing

As discussed previously, there are great tips to using your email signature.

But here is 5 tips of what not to do for your email signatures.

1. Do not Go Overboard

You need not go overboard by including every single detail and contact information. Only add contact information that is necessary and regularly used.

2. Avoid Multiple Fonts

Although you can experiment with colors and fonts, it is difficult for the reader to follow.

3. Avoid Using Images for Signature

Using an image as your signature is a big NO.

With many devices and email clients having default settings that block images, an email signature that is in an image format will not be visible to all.

Also, not hosting images in your signature on a web server can turn against you.

4. Avoid Personal Quotes

Personal quotes in a business email signature can be a turn-off. Avoid them unless you are a writer or you have a mighty good reason to do so.

5. Disclaimers

Do not include long disclaimers in your signature.

Just add a few lines and then, if the need be, include a link to a detailed version.

Learn more about Everworks business class hosting here.

Read More

5 Hidden Tricks to Convert More Emails for Your Business

The email signature. You’d be surprised how many people actually read this. It is in general just information tagged at the end of your email, but do not look down on this as it is valuable space to let your recepient know a little bit more about you and what is going on.

An average employee sends out about 30 emails a day, and it could be to either customers, prospects, partners, investors, and more.

If there are 50 employees who send out such emails for 250 business days, there will be 475,000 annual sends.

Just imagine the brand visibility all those professional email signature can help you get, besides driving traffic to your website, and creating awareness about your company’s initiatives.

Here are 5 Best Practices you can follow for your email signature marketing efforts:

1. Lay out a good email signature design

A maximum of 7 lines – that’s the ideal size of a professional email signature.

This should contain your key contact details, social media icons and advertising message. However, it is important to consider the design of your signature.

Your key contact details should always be in the color of the email body text for consistency. Links can be in different colors.

Maintain a fixed font type and size throughout the mail. You can experiment with the font but it’s better to stick to the websafe fonts, so as to ensure its legibility across devices and email clients.

2. Link Email Recipients to Your Website and Blog

Every email sent from your Company should have an email signature accompanied by a link to your website. Surprisingly enough, very few companies stick to this basic rule.

By providing a link to your website, you are giving them an option to re-engage and stay connected with you.

3. Connect with them through social media

Include links to social media pages on which you post regular updates – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. in your email signature.

4. Inform them of Upcoming Events

Is there a conference at which you are invited as a speaker? Are you coming up with a trade show? You can change your professional email signature to reflect the happenings in your company.

Create a simple banner, with a link to a landing page describing the details of the event, and place it below your main email signature.

5. This is a MUST

Different countries have different laws. So depending on where you run your business, it is mandatory to add a few details about your Company in your email signature.

Therefore, it is best to consult your legal representative to find out more.

Learn how you can send professional business emails here.

Read More

Enhance Customer Loyalty At No Costs (Your Business's Email Hidden Superpower)

It is common for most businesses in Malaysia to consistently follow the saying that every “Customer is King”.

So why don’t do it for your Email Marketing too?

You can do this through the act of boosting customer loyalty programs through email marketing.

Psychologically, most people just want to be remembered and feel important. 

Once this happens, there is bound to be loyalty.

Also, multiple studies have shown that loyalty mailings generate higher transactional rates and revenue per email.

Below are 4 examples of customer loyalty programs you can use for your small business email marketing campaigns in Malaysia:

1. Early & Exclusive Deals

Providing your customer with early and exclusive deals like discount vouchers, early holiday bonuses, one time offers, etc. (just for them) is a great way to break the ice.

Showing them that they come in your VIP list will make them feel wanted. This will make them look forward to your emails and offers, keeping them loyal

2. Appreciation Emails

We love to be appreciated.

Thanking your customer for being a part of your brand journey is again a great way to grab attention. So, appreciate your customer and make them feel you are thinking for them.

3. Reward Redemption

Shooting emails that offer rewards and exclusive offers for old customers, initiating them to visit your brand again, can help increase communication. It opens a platform for the customer to engage in and come back.

4. Reward Expiration Reminders

Shooting emails with reminders for last day of deals, or ‘use before’ a particular date vouchers, or discount coupons codes for only a day can help create urgency and increase traffic.

Learn more about how you can host your email on an enterprise platform that scales along with your business here.

Read More

5 Tips On How You Can Use Email To Your Advantage

It is widely known that email marketing is one of the best channels for engaging subscribers and nurturing leads.

Below are 5 Tips on How you can use email to your advantage

1.  Make use of interactive content

As Social metrics have noted that interactive content is the best way of garnering a subscriber’s attention. It doesn’t only make the emails more accurate and simpler but also brings out its fun elements and informative side. For example, you can include embeded links which show GIFs.

2.  Subscribe to an email savvy brand

Good emails pave avenues for a successful email marketing campaign.

However, finding emails that stand out on a regular basis is a tough task. So, to get hold of some creative email ideas, subscribe to a brand that’s email savvy.

How I organise this in my inbox is to create a custom email filter which sorts these emails into folders for easy reference in future.

3.  Watch on your competitors’ email campaigns

Apart from subscribing to an email savvy brand, keeping an eye on your competitor’s email campaign is also a great idea to get a competitive edge over them. See what strategies they are implementing to capture the subscriber’s attention.

Pay attention to how they write their content, design their email templates, and layout their email campaign and how they include their Call-to-Action.

4.  Make use of professional images

Nothing grabs a subscriber’s attention more than a high-end, professional image.

It doesn’t only help in breaking long walls of text but, also gives you the option to include something attention-grabbing.

A great resource is Pexels.com

5.  Go the automation way

Another sure-fire way of keeping your email marketing top-notch is by opting for automation.

From welcome emails to drip and triggered campaigns, email automation helps you do it all instantly. This is the reason

Although this reduces your workload, you shouldn’t skimp at the opportunity to personalise whenever possible. While it sends welcome emails automatically to help establish a connection with your new subscriber, it uses drip campaigns to send unique content at regular interval and keep the customers involved.

Learn more about how you can host and access professional business email from Everworks here.

Read More

Marketing Agencies Don't Want You To Know This (Email Marketing Secrets for Small Business)

The Internet presents opportunity for any sized business. The Internet also connects everyone so long as they have a connection to the digital domain.

People use the internet to communicate, shop, date and transact, while marketers target their prospective audiences over the internet, making it the foundation of a peaceful online shopping ecosystem.

Here are some statistics that prove why Email Marketing is such an important tool and should not be missed.

It’s common for most business owners (especially those in Malaysia) to be an  owner of a brick-and-mortar shop. Having an online presence reduces the restrictions on your target audience. For example, you are not tied down to an audience that is conveniently located around you only.

It is proven that the best way to communicate with your customers is through email.

Learn how email marketing can help your small business.

1. It helps to Build credibility

Building relationships is the foundation of any business. You can do more with email marketing, as you are able to build trust and recognition among your subscribers by sending helpful and educational information.

2. Increase and Build visibility beyond your location

Irrespective of their geographic location, you will be able to send emails to your target audience with just an email ID and this will help improve the visibility of your business.

3. Cheaper alternative to most physical forms of advertising

Assuming you are sending an email to an email list of 1000 subscribers, you may be spending < RM10. Research shows that you can earn up to RM34 for every RM1 you spend on your email campaign, you will find out that emails are the most profitable marketing channel.

4. Increase awareness about your business. Increase traffic visits (online and offline). 

A successful email is the one that manages to make the subscriber click and get redirected to a relevant landing page (for omnichannel businesses) or your storefront.

5. Market with a personal touch 

Connect personally with your customers, by segmenting the information that they want to receive. By tracking the customer journey, you can personalize the email copy to building a meaningful relationship.

6. Turn one-time sale into a repeat order / Help patrons stay connected with new updates

Anyone who purchases from you may lose contact as they step out. By having them in your mailing list, you can keep in touch with them. This will enable them to shop from you time and time again.

What your business needs to implement email marketing?

An Email Service Platform (ESP)

Email inbox services such Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook cannot be used to send bulk emails owing to restrictions placed to avoid spamming. You need to invest in a professional email service provider to send emails in bulk.

Some provide services for zero to nominal fees for emailing less than 2,000 subscribers, while others charge you based on the mailing list strength. If you are starting out, you can choose MailerLite, MadMimi ReachMail or MailChimp. We conducted a review for MailChimp. You can read about it here.

Templates are readily available, but it is good to have a customer outsourced professional to help you with this. However, sometimes you need to design a custom email template for providing a good user experience.

Tips to start your Email Marketing

Build your mailing list both offline and online

To start out, you can talk to your existing customers to share their email addresses to get information about your business. Some of the ways to create excitement are:

1. Coupons and Sales Promotions
2. Loyalty or Rewards Programs
3. Company News and Updates
4. Contests and Sweepstakes
5. Free Content like E-Books
6. Products or Service Information
7. Exclusive Peeks at New Products

What emails would you send?

Newsletters

For prospects / customers to exchange their email and time to read your emails, be prepared to send them valuable information. Do not sell to them as they would associate this with spam, and you would lose email authority.

In addition to newsletter you should also send:

1. Transactional emails like order receipts, upsell & cross-sell emails, re-order reminder emails that are associated with building relation post-purchase.
2. Promotional emails to inform your customers about special or limited stock events and promotions
3. Holiday and seasonal emails for the brands who conduct special campaigns during holidays.
4. Customer loyalty emails for existing patrons to show how valuable they are to your brand.
5. Separate your mailing list as per preference and hit Send
6. No two customers will have same interests. You need to learn / understand their preferences and what products they are interested and segment the email list accordingly. This ensures that the customer receives the information that interests them.

Learn more about Everworks email here. You’d be surprised what email can do for your business.

Read More

How You Should Introduce Yourself Over Email and Be Ridiculously Successful

We write emails everyday, and it's easy for everyone to write anything they intend to say to anyone. 

But writing an email to a stranger to get a response. That's not so easy. 

As most doing sales in Malaysia would point out. The typical professional email gets drowned out on a daily basis and having them open up the email would be a miracle.

Here's a framework we developed for Sales professionals here in Malaysia to introduce yourself in an email:

1. Write a motivating subject line.
2. Customize your greeting to the industry and situation.
3. Make your first line about the person you are writing.
4. Make sure to explain why you're reaching out.
5. Your email should have a purpose and provide a value.
6. Always include a call to action so the person knows what to do next.
7. Say thank you. Courtesy goes a long way.
8. Send follow ups.

This is a good place to start: By Way of Introduction

When introducing a new topic, person, or idea, you would say, "By way of introduction ...".

You can do this by including examples or a short interesting story to give your new subject context.

For example: Our next guest will be Bryan, by way of introduction, I'd like to share a few of Bryan's accomplishments with you.

Send great email reliably with 99.99% uptime. Discover emails tailor made for Malaysian business professionals just like you.

The steps for Malaysians to introduce yourself over email and be ridiculously successful

Step 1: Choose a strong subject line

This is the 1st thing any recipient sees when they receive your email. The importance of the subject line should not be overlooked.

The key is to pique their curiosity. Unless it is an email from someone they expect or recognize, there's little guarantee they'll read yours.

Here's a list of subject line examples you can use:

1. Question about [goal]?
2. [Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch
3. Hoping to help
4. Idea for [topic the prospect cares about]

Step 2: Pick a salutation

This is the first word of your email body. The greeting you choose makes a difference and depending on industry the conservative nature requires an expectation to the tone.

If it is a traditionally conservative industry, like in finance or government, the traditional "Dear" salutation is generally accepted.

However, if you're in a more relaxed industry such as, tech, media, travel, or fashion, use "Hi", "Hello", or even "Hey".

This might not mean much, but it shows you've done your research.

After a salutation, you'd normally follow with the person's 1st name. These days, this is the norm across most industries.

Please do not include their last name (surname) it will make you sound robotic and including a Mrs./Mr./Ms. gives the impression that you are too young.

Step 3: Compose a strong opening sentence

This is the hook. The opening line is the most important part of an introductory email.

Why it's important? If your opening line succeeds you give your recipient reason to keep on reading.

Avoid, "My name is [name] and I'm reaching out because ...". Your recipient receives numerous introductory emails over time.

It is very likely when receiving emails with this opening line, your recipient would read your email with haste. Why? Because there's no reason for them to continue reading.

Consider these instead:

1. I noticed you manage the procurement teams at [company].
2. Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?
3. Just heard your segment on radio about [topic], and I've never learned so much over radio before!

Step 4: Explain your reason for contacting him/her

Here's where you continue to pique their interest and to connect the dots.

The key here is to make your explanation as relevant as possible. You want them to feel that they are not just a person on a list that you're just emailing.

If your 1st line is: Have you ever thought about taking your current advertising efforts online?

Your 2nd line could be: I would with companies like [company A] and [company B] to help them manage their advertisements online.

Step 5: Add value

The basic principle is to give before receiving. Before you ask for anything, you want to make sure you 1st provide the recipient with value.

Adding value does not necessarily require Ringgits and Cents. A thoughtful, authentic compliment is also a way of providing value.

Here are some ideas:

1. Recommend an article they might find helpful
2. Suggest a useful app or tool they can use
3. Offer to make an introduction to someone who they'd benefit from knowing

Step 6: Make a request

Here's the crux of it. Your call-to-action (CTA).

The goal is to remove as much friction from your task as possible. For example if you would like them to meet with you, provide a link to your meetings tool so they can instantly see when you're both available and book a time.

Here's some ideas on how to write for your CTA:

1. If you're thinking about how [proposed idea] could apply to [topic interested in], I have some ideas I'd love to share. Here's the link to my calendar: [link].
2. Would you be willing to comment on the [blog post] I wrote? It would be great to have your unique perspective (and hopefully get some discussion going). Here's the link: [link].
3. Are you open to answering a few questions about [topic]? Happy to chat over phone or email, whichever's most convenient.

Step 7: Say "Thanks" and sign off

The best emails are short, sweet, and concise. Additional information and unnecessary details reduce the the probability of your recipient reading your email.

Just say, "thanks", "thank you".

Step 8: Follow up

There's a chance that when you send this incredible introduction email, that they don't respond.

Here are a few things you could try:

1. Send them actionable advice.
2. Send a how-to guide and offer to follow up in person.
3. Invite them to an upcoming event.
4. Bring up a pain point your buyers have faced previously and present the solution that you've provided.

Emails are digitally transmitted messages, and it's widely used in Malaysia today. We've included some ideas above on how to improve your sales efforts through email.

If this guide has helped you please share with us your experiences below - this hopefully will help others in their quest as well.

Read More

How You Can Be More Efficient With Email At Work

..Runs into the lift

..Rushes out to the door

beep..8:59am "phew, just on time"

Boots computer.. "first things first, gotta check email to see what's the status from Atikah and Wong"

This daily routine sounds familiar doesn't it? I'm attached to checking email constantly. This isn't surprising because email has been and continues to be the most popular form of communicating for businesses.

Times are changing, and there's an increasing amount of options for workplace communications options. Apps like Slack and Workplace by Facebook are changing the way for workplace communications. However, there are some that still prefer having a conversation in person, where apps like Skype help to streamline the distance gap.

Even with an increasing number of new technology, email isn't a thing of the past -- at least not yet --. Increasing options of communications is making it trickier to remember the right "etiquette" when emailing.

Email helps us to recap, reconcile and remember important conversations and helps to streamline when there's too much going on. Until a new more organised approach is introduced to the world and is universally accepted, email is staying, and that's why it's important to make effective use of email.

"Read on. Here's a quick and easy list of Do's and Don'ts to help you maintain effective use of email."

How to use your email in the workplace effectively

The Do's

1) Personalise

It's really important to personalize your emails, no one likes talking to a robot. You should come to realize that the person who is receiving your email is a real life human being, not a computer robot that is processing your request. Adding some personality to your email will make it easier for the person receiving it to relate better with your email's intended purpose.

2) Adapt

There's a saying that different people respond differently and these reactions are largely bound by the characteristics of the person. Here's an example, what if you sent a data focused email to someone who isn't motivated by data. This person receiving this email would not know how to adequately respond to your objective, because there's a disconnect. Learn to adapt your writing style, content body, etc. to the person receiving it. This will greatly increase your email's effectiveness.

3) Always check before clicking "send"

This should go without discussion, really. It's actually very shocking to receive an email that has not been checked. Spelling errors, and grammar mistakes are not game changers. However, if your email had been written in a manner you did not intend it to be and its been interpreted wrongly, this would demotivate the receiver from cooperating with your intentions.

4) Check your email on your own time

Like with most tasks, email shouldn't be treated any differently. Some emails are urgent and require immediate response. However, more often than not most emails can wait and I do encourage you to take the time to think carefully before responding.

5) Keep your inbox clean

It's shocking. How everyone is not making an effort to ensure that they're email inbox is sorted and kept tidy. I've witnessed the amount of wasted time anyone goes through when backtracking their email to search for urgent information. Here's how you can clean up the mess.

---

Email is still an important tool for business communication today. Take advantage of the sheer amount of email use everyday by implementing strategies to harness its wide user base. Learn more here.

Read More

Use Email to Transform The Way You Work

Email is now part of our everyday life and is going to remain to be for a long time to come, backed by research at IBM email isn't dead. Email has gained widespread popularity as it has reliably provided a quick, instant, 'formal', way of communicating through the widely available internet today.

Email can be overwhelming, and instead of managing email, what we needed was a better way to communicate, ultimately engaging in deeper engagement and better outcomes.

EVERWORKS Web & Email Hosting solution is a platform where the focus is on the communication between people bringing together messaging with web access to allow greater accessibility and flexibility, and here are the concepts behind the design of EVERWORKS Email Hosting solution:

A) Better value: A system that integrates website, email, and database hosting to provide you with scalable options. Business class email allows you to build you business identity, filter for spam to keep your inbox free of clutter, with an internet connection and any internet browser grab your email anywhere, and access to 24/7 expert help.

B) Clarity over clutter: An intuitive control panel helps users to take quick action on content previously scattered across multiple applications.

Here are some intuitive ways you can use email to ensure effective communication between internal and external networks:

1. Keep your messages brief

Reading from a computer screen isn't easy, use shorter paragraphs and bullet points; cut straight to the chase. Avoid using capital letters as it sends unintended interpretations such as the appearance of being bossy (ICAEW 2008).

2. Stay organised

There is an age old saying that staying organised allows you to get more things done, stay more focused, and remain in control over most situations. Take this approach to email and invest 2 hours of your time right now to go through your inbox, create filters that give automated actions to specific email to reduce repetitive tasks and allows you to manage and attend to the most important emails first. Find out how I keep my personal email organised by just using Gmail, and the Mailbox app.

3. Advantage: Email as evidence

The advantage of email is it is a stored accepted form of instantaneous form of communication that is applicable in many ways. For example emails can be used as evidence, that there exists proof of communication between the sender and the recipient, although there are issues in the form of relevance, authenticity, hearsay, original or duplicate documentation, and unfair prejudice (Sarah, 2010). Consult a lawyer to develop an email framework to follow to fully utilize the advantage of using email as evidence. Is there a need to consult a lawyer? Yes as laws differ from place to place and it is highly recommended that you find a representative lawyer that is familiar with domestic laws.

photo by Caden Crawford

References:

1. ICAEW 2008, 10 ways to use email effectively, ICAEW <http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/library/subject-gateways/career-and-personal-development/communication-and-presentation-skills/small-business-update/10-ways-to-use-email-effectively>
2. IMB Smarter Planet 2015, How To Use Email To Transform How We Work, Forbes, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2015/02/19/how-to-use-email-to-transform-how-we-work/>
3. Sarah 2010, Legal consideration for electronic evidence, Part 3: Applying the rules of Authenticity, <https://crlgrn.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/legal-considerations-for-electronic-evidence-part-3-applying-the-rules-of-authenticity/>

Note:
If you like articles like this please bookmark this blog as there will be more similar and other topics regarding technology, business, telecommunication, and EVERWORKS related updates. Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below.

Read More

Increase your MAIL Server Performance Process

Dear All Valued Customers, 

In order to better serve you and improve our MAIL Servers' performance processes, we take account security very seriously. There are a number of things you can do to help increase our servers' performance. To ensure that your important email accounts remain safe and to prevent email accounts getting hacked, we strongly recommend following these steps regularly:

To keep your account safe, here are a few tips on how to create a strong password:

1. Use a unique password for each of your importants accounts

Use a different password for each of your important accounts, like your email and online banking accounts. Re-using passwords is risky. If someone figures out your password for one account, that person could potentially gain access to your email, address, and even your money.

2. Change your password often

If someone has figured out your password, they might be accessing your account without you knowing. Regularly changing your password helps limit this type of unauthorized access.

3. Use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols in your password

Using numbers, symbols and mix of upper and lower case letters in your password makes it harder for someone to guess your password. For example, an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters is harder to guess because it has 30,000 times as many possible combinations than an eight-character password with only lower case letters.

4. Don't use personal information or common words as a password

Create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information and use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, you can select a random word or phrase and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as "sPo0kyh@ll0w3En"). Don’t use simple words or phrases like "password" or "letmein," keyboard patterns such as "qwerty" or "qazwsx," or sequential patterns such as "abcd1234" which make your password easier to guess.

For Technical Enquiries, kindly contact our Critical Velocity Support Team at our :-

Office: +603-7806-3550

E-mail: cvs@everworks.com

Hope you have a good hosting with EVERWORKS Solutions.

photo of girl  Some rights reserved by Baba G

Read More

How to Choose an Email Marketing Vendor

There will be a day when you will need to choose an email marketing vendor. Either it would be launching a new business or your current provider doesn't satisfy your growing needs. With email vendors today able to streamline your email marketing efforts to ensure that you are compliant with spam laws there is little issue with the various available options out there in the market.

But the big question is, with so many available options, which do you actually choose?

There are web-based vendors that make it easy to put a daunting campaign together. While, every business and marketing department is different, I have compiled a probable common attribute that can be used generally for comparison purposes.

What to expect in an email marketing vendor?

Templates: Some vendors have templates that are already ready to go and this really helps businesses get up and running quickly. This helps marketers who just want to change a few basic things and immediately fire out their content. Templates are a great way to jumpstart email marketing communications.

Ease of design: Having a template is great, but if editing it is a pain then it wouldn't be a good decision, to choose that particular email marketing vendor. Although not necessarily the designs provided as a template may fulfill your every desire, but with a template that is easy to tinker with is a definite must.

Customization: Templates not your thing? If you want to upload your own personal brand or design, make sure you keep a look out for customizable features embedded into the email marketing vendor's service. You would ideally look for a feature that allows you to upload your own HTML and CSS.

Connection options build your list

Social Icon Integrations: It would be surprising and rather unusual to see an email marketing vendor that does not integrate social media. Considering that it is a must nowadays. Additionally pay attention to whether there is a Facebook integration, choosing a vendor that does this is an added bonus, because most businesses have Facebook, and tapping into an existing user base can be very beneficial.

Web Forms: Most vendors offer forms, but choose a vendor that allows you to customize your forms easily.

Look for automation features

List Management: Add to manage your contact list so that it is current. Having this part automated really saves valuable time for marketers.

Contact Upload or Sync: Your contact list can be in a different place, because you were using a different vendor before this, and having your new/current vendor automate the transfer process saves you a lot of time.

Trigger-based Autoresponse: Having multiple campaigns running at the same time would require for you to have a certain level of automation to have flexibility in your campaigns, from sending out a response when customers reach a milestone, to a note on their birthday, etc.

A/B Testing: Small changes can be either easy or hard to make, and having a vendor that allows you to do split testing easily could make a big difference in your email marketing efforts.

Analytics: Most vendors provide free reporting tools, that allow you to make key decisions based on automated data collected to keep you well informed of the performance of your campaigns.

The stumbling blocks of pursuing email marketing

Education: Although email marketing has many perks that most conventional methods don't it does require an investment of effort to learn. There can be a learning curve involved, but fear not, because the internet is readily available to teach you basic to advance techniques of email marketing. Additionally, ensure that your vendor has a fairly decent education page that teaches you what you require to effectively use their system.

Pricing: Most vendors offer monthly subscriptions or yearly with a small discount. Pay attention to the finer payment options, because some features that is on offer for more monthly may not be necessarily needed for your business. 

Again identify what you need and what actually would benefit you. Ensure some of the key features listed above are satisfactory and you should be good to go.

A quick tip would be to create a comparison sheet to see which services you have found to be fulfilling your own needs plus the general requirements stated above.

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for most businesses, as exampled by some of the major global brands, that use it to their advantage to ensure that their customers are always kept within the loop of things.

Please share with us what you think:

What are your recommendations for a good email marketing vendor?

What is your experience with browser-based email marketing vendors?

Email designed by Martha Ormiston from the Noun Project

Read More

Troubleshoot Outlook

I personally felt that I should write up a post on troubleshooting Microsoft Outlook when it comes to custom email settings for EVERWORKS Email Hosting Solution. Seeing error codes scare me as much as they scare you. This post is short and sweet with easy to follow guides. It should give you a systematic solution; hopefully getting rid of the pesky error message.

Firstly just to be absolutely sure,

when configuring your custom email settings in Microsoft Outlook you should go through "EVERWORKS Email Hosting - Outlook Help" and filter through the steps just to make sure it is right. Sometimes it could be the minor mistakes that cause a lot of complications. Just run through the steps in the post, and see if the error message still pops up!

IMPORTANT NOTE: TELEKOM MALAYSIA HAS BLOCKED PORT 25, AND PORT 25 MAY BE BLOCKED IN YOUR COUNTRY TOO.

If the problem still persists...

If you have already gone through the point above and still have not resolved the error code here are the last few steps you should follow for EVERWORKS technical support to serve you as efficiently as possible:

Step 1

Screenshot the error. Keep a good documentation of the error that you are facing so that you can have something to show and illustrate better to EVERWORKS technical support.

Step 2

Define clearly what you did. Accurate, step by step documentation helps greatly. 

Step 3

Shoot an email to our technical support (including everything inside Step 1 and Step 2 attached within the email), and they will help you with what ever it is you need. 

cvs@everworks.com

---

Whenever facing a problem don't panic! You always have EVERWORKS trusty support ready to service your needs and solve the problem together with you!

If this post has helped you greatly please share more about your experiences in the comments section below!

Read More

Business Email - Step 4: Email Options

We recently published our Business Email series to help you with your business email management strategy. As each post is posted up, we will dive deeper into each chapter to discover a better business management strategy.
Catch up on the previous chapters here: Step one, two, and three.

Knowing which email, hosting email, and requirements doesn't just stop there!

Find out what is the easiest solution available for you. Here is an easy breakdown of what you need to know most importantly.

EVERWORKS offers a simple all in one email solution that services almost every major need.

Here we have a breakdown of EVERWORKS's email offerings:

BasicWorks, MidWorks, and PremiumWorks suggests what the name actually means. Choose what is best for you! (Still not sure what to choose? Worry not, drop us an email and we will gladly help you out!)

This concludes our Business Email series! Hopefully this has given you plenty insight on how to manage and choose email. Stay tuned for more!

Tell us what you think:

1. What are your thoughts on the options given?
2. Between BasicWorks, MidWorks, and PremiumWorks which would you choose and for what purpose?

Follow us through our feed to follow our future updates through email and more.

Option photographed by Hope for gorilla from Flickr | Resourced from Rackspace

Read More

Business Email - Step 3: Email Requirements

Over the last few weeks we have covered in our Business Email Series: Hosting Email, and Which Email? This week we take a look at creating your email system requirement list. A breakdown of everything you may need now or in future. Breaking it down onto a list of requirements better prepares you for what are your immediate needs and gives you good control with anticipated growth requirements.

Begin identifying requirements by:

1. Auditing your system for current usage requirements
2. Polling current users for feedback on the current system
3. Review current email regulations in your country, or region to better protect your email rights

As you complete these steps, here are several tips that will help you along the way.

Talk to the right people: A person on the field, compared to an in-house employee might have a very different idea to what and how email should be efficient or useful. That is why it is important to gather information from a wide array of individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and expertise to gather insight that would generally give everyone a good system to use.

(Having a tough time with internal surveys? Consider using Survey Monkeys to ease up the process of asking a large audience questions that you need answers to.)

Gather and analyze relevant data: Determining logs, failures, crash reports, and system outages to better improve your current systems, to meet the growing demands of your company will better improve your email response service team's ability to respond to an inquiry. Finding problems and solving it will prove to be vital minutes in revenue and productivity time earned.

Security: As covered before, advantages and disadvantages of free email vs hosted email, security is a major concern. Obvious security protocols are great, but when it comes to a greater need of security emails should be kept only for the eyes of the intended recipient. Ultimately it saves you greater hassle, and potentially large sums of money!

Tell us what you think:

1. Does breaking down what you need into a compiled requirements list help?
2. What other advice would you add to help other readers?

Follow us through our feed to follow our future updates through email and more.

Mission Impossible photographed by Alex Turton from Flickr | Resourced from Rackspace

Read More

Business Email - Step 2: Hosting Email.

We recently published our Business Email series to help you with your business email management strategy. As each post is posted up, we will dive deeper into each chapter to discover a better business management strategy.

So far we have discussed on which email to choose from; in-house or outsourced email. If you have decided to go for the outsourced email route it doesn't stop there, because not all outsourced emails are the same. After deciding to outsource your business email, the next step, is to find out which type of hosting you need. There is consumer and business email. Both determines the requirements or maturity of your business.

A small business might be okay with the limitations and risks of free email, provided by Google or Outlook. Ideally you want a plan that can grow with your business as your needs will change according to the performance of your business. Having to migrate data comes with all the little issues when it comes to migration, and this wastes a lot of time.

Comparing the EVERWORKS Business Email Hosting Package against Google's Email Hosting Package might bring this argument further to light. (Click the image for a larger preview)

Consider hosting your email professionally to save you future hassle, and save you time.

Tell us what you think:

1. Is Business Email Hosting necessary?
2. What is your experience with Google Email Hosting?

Follow us through our feed to follow our future updates through email and more.

Danbo photographed by Jenny - vmabney from Flickr | Resourced from Rackspace

Read More

Business Email - Step 1: Which Email?

Last month we concluded on a series on how to Build Your Startup Internet and Mobile Business to help you with starting up really quick and easy. 

When considering Business Email, the first thing you need to consider is where to run it on-premise or hosted. When making your decision you should consider 3 major, broad factors, as we move through this Business Email Guide.



Here are the 3 things to consider:

Value: Is what you pay for worth every penny you spend?
With non-revenue generating applications like email required by almost all, businesses sink in large amounts of money, while gaining no business advantage on having an email that works. Although, the Business Email, can be used as a channel to stay in touch with leads that could lead to a generation of revenue, and having email that works helps that; email is after all only just a channel for communication. However, businesses risk their reputation with their customers when their email doesn't work. Should you consider to host internally or to whisk off everything to a dedicated email provider, is a tough decision to make.

Most businesses are unaware of the heavy costs of email-specifc IT Assets could incur them. A wrong security patch, could leave them vulnerable and eventually cost thousands to rectify. Everything else that follows owning, and maintaining a server is also put into play; space, cooling, electricity, technicians, software, etc.

Support: Is help readily available when you need them most?
"Oh No! There is an outrage going on, the email server is down! Just what is wrong with it? Can't it just stay up for us to stay in touch. Just when I need to send out that important email."

Do you face this issue often? Can you afford to lose time troubleshooting or have an online response waiting to solve any problem that you may encounter? Of course this assumes that you have picked a package with a responsive support! Determining the level of support you require is how much in-house expertise is available and the amount of control you require for your business email.

Features: What does your email need to do for you?
Consider all the nitty-gritty things that users complain about, against the required heavy capital investment remedy. Should you be investing a large budget and long hours, or offload to an email provider that is already ready to service everything you need at a fraction of what you would have invested into initially?

Business Email, can be complicated; but consider these 3 broad factors and take it into account. Consider every possible scenario before coming to a decision.

For better assistance consider seeking help from our ever ready reliable support. (read more on our "No Fuss. 6 Hour Response.")

Tell us what you think:

1. Are Business Emails a headache?
2. Should Businesses consider emails an asset or a liability?

Follow us through our feed to follow our future updates through email and more.

Servers designed by Ken Hawkins from The Noun Project | Resourced from Rackspace

Read More