Learn How You Can Make Your Social Sharing Explode

Content marketing and social media are two different thing. Neither content marketing nor social media can be done well without the other.

Social media is only a slice of your content marketing strategy pie. Social media should always be included when you devise a content marketing plan, while website, partnership sites and search engines should also be considered.

There are various ways to distribute your content marketing. With that being said, social sharing should be placed as the top priority.

Every piece of content you post online should be promoted, linked, or reposted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. Social media is a direct path to brand loyalty and engagement with your target audience. Content marketing’s objective is consumption, while social media revolves around participation.

Social media comes with other benefits as well. For instance, social media is a fantastic tool to obtain valuable audience insights. Most of the social networking sites offer some sort of analytics. One of the few notable ones include Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, which rivals even the king of analytics, Google Analytics with their audience nuggets.

Social media postings allow instant feedback. For websites, it might take days or even weeks to analyse and evaluate how well the new content is resonating. Social media allows you to know within hours. Social shares can get you these valuable insights. When people share your content, it’s a signal that you’re doing things right. In fact, sharing is even better than commenting because sharing allows you to reach even more people while commenting doesn’t, and it isn’t always a good thing because it might be a bad comment directed towards your company.

Although results vary according to the social media platform you chose, there are still many ways that can increase sharing.

Go Wild With Visual Content

‘Visual content is the new black.’ This phrase has been thrown around since 2012 to depict the effectivity and efficiency of compelling visuals.

Visual content is extremely shareable. Try to think for a moment, do you see a witty meme and cute puppy photos shared on your Facebook news feed often? Most probably, the answer is yes. Why? Because they are hilarious, fun, and something out of the box that they can relate to. Your objective as a content marketer is to be the source of a photo that people share.

• Think twice before using a stock photo. At times, stock photos lack a source of life and personality. It’s good to have a little fun sometimes with humorous photos that you might find ridiculous. It’s good to incorporate comedic elements to entertain your audience and show that you’re not a one-dimensional cardboard.
• Release the designer within you. Don't give yourself excuse to use plain and boring visuals. Let your creativity go wild and be open to out-of-the-box ideas. Incorporate interesting design with compelling texts in your visuals.

Regardless of the nature of your campaign, it is always good to include one or several visual elements/content that are light, fun, and entertaining. After all, everyone likes a little laughter to loosen up from time to time.

The Power of Videos

Producing a video is extremely difficult and hectic, but they are worth the time, money and effort. Research has proven that digital video content that are interesting and compelling enough has a much higher chance to go viral.

Another suggestion to incorporate videos into your content marketing strategy is to plan a series instead of a one-off video. This gets your audience hooked and tuned in to you from time to time.

These videos can be as simple as vlogs or even silent videos, meaning videos that insert text to convey their message instead of having people speaking or voice overs.

If there is a slightly higher budget you can even conduct an interview based video, where you collect opinions from the public that revolves around the central theme/topic that fits your mission statement. Organisations with a relatively higher budget will choose to produce PSA (Public Service Announcement) themed videos that incorporates emotional elements that are capable of touching and evoking the public’s emotions.

These videos lay a huge impact to the public because it touches on their fragile and sensitive inner emotions. It shows that the organisation has a sense of humanity and actually cares about things happening around us, making the audience feel that they care about them. Ultimately, portraying the organisation in a positive and likeable way.

List-based Articles

Research has proven that in recent years, list-based articles have gotten very popular. This is due to the fact that users prefer digestible content on social media.

List-based articles’ content are broken down into bits that are direct and easy to consume. It also adds the ‘share’ factor that drives users to repost/reblog/retweet.

Make sure the subject of your articles are of your audience’s interests. When writing these articles, make sure your content either addresses their needs, or is captivating enough to make them read and share. A few great examples is, “Twitter Goes Public: 21 Things You Should Know”, “6 Types of Employees - Which Are You?”, “6 Ways To Nail An Interview”.

These subject (and their headlines) are intelligently crafted and it prompts people to click in out of curiosity and interest.

Baiting

What is baiting on social media? Baiting is the act of selecting a hot topic or trend that fits your brand and ask a question informally on your network. For instance, if you’re an alcohol company, bait your readers several times a week:

“A research done recently shows that 62% of whiskey drinkers like to mix their whiskey with apple juice. How do you like your whiskey to be mixed?”

“Herbal tea-flavored whiskey?! What do you think about this Oriental whiskey flavor?”

“They say night time is the best time to enjoy whiskey. Which part of the day is your favorite time to enjoy a cup of whiskey?”

The key to this is to be moderate and encourage participation among your audience. If people start making an interesting or insightful point, thank them because they are giving you alot of attention. This will also drive them to invite their like-minded comrades into the conversation.

All in all, these tips will no doubt increase your social sharing, but your work doesn’t stop here. You must set a goal in mind, either to convert your followers into legit customers or garner more followers and promote brand loyalty.

Keep your objective in mind every time you post and be thankful for all the participation you get in social media because it shows your audience’s loyalty towards your brand. After all, the ultimate goal of social media is to turn customers into a voluntary marketing army.

Read More

Learn The Secret to Unlocking the Content Marketing Treasure-trove

The phrase ‘content is king’ gets thrown around very frequently to highlight how important content is. In my view interactivity plays an important role and should not be discounted from the content creation process.

Interactive content is extremely beneficial for business as it attracts audience, boosts engagement, increases web traffic, and increases conversion rate. Businesses often neglect the importance of the interactive element as they are too driven to produce more content. Producing excessive content will make it seem generic and even make your audience lose interest when you see them swimming off to other competitors that are most focused on content that are engaging.

Think of it this way, if you’re planning to buy something online, what is the first thing you do? You'll want to make sure you check online to read reviews and when convinced you will try your level best to find the best deals you can get in the marketplace. Access to an array of information freely has caused today's consumers to be more savvy when making a purchase with online research taking a foothold in the decision making process before a buying decision is even made. This is different from conventional purchasing habits. However traditional recommendations from high-value connections in your network which consumers view and trust highly still play an integral role in the buying decision too. This is why ever more so you should facilitate a consumer's behavior by servicing their need for information with interactive thoughtful ideas to further enhance their decision to purchase from you.

Interactive content is the fundamentals of lead generation and conversion. It enriches your marketing plan as it elevates it to a different tier that creates an engaging experience for your customers.

Interactive content is different from traditional content as it seeks to engage and entertain its users. The mechanics of the internet and websites have allowed content to exist in different forms that can be presented in various ways.

The few common and effective interactive content are:

i) Infographics

ii) GIFs,

iii) Videos

iv) Podcasts

v) Webinars

The examples above do not represent the boundaries of interactive content. Interactivity should be embodied by creative freedom. Innovative elements with the guide of thought to engage the audience by providing an experience can unlock a lot of potential in the content you produce. Rather than taking the side of the informant, why not gamify, request for an opinion, or start a conversation, because these are some of the building blocks to making highly successful interactive content. Have your audience engage and interact with your content and you would have developed a valuable community that shares and relies on the information you recommend to them, and this can indirectly lead to better sales opportunities and strong positive brand perceptions.

Now, the million dollar question: Why, and how is interactive content beneficial?

Enriches The Appeal Of Your Website

Interactive content contributes heavily to make a website seem well-designed. We cannot deny that humans like to be satisfied visually. We like seeing beautiful things and are always mesmerised by things that are visually stunning. This is why the way a website looks is crucial in attracting and sustaining your audience.

With that being said, the thing that truly engages them is the interactive content you have distributed over your website. Interactive content emphasises more on visual elements, which is much more appealing than normal content. It enhances the overall ‘beauty’ of your website and has a higher chance in making page visitors to explore your website because let’s face it, no one would be interested in navigating through a boring website that is lackluster in its design and content.

Entices Your Audience To Buy

Interactive content grabs an online user’s attention. Furthermore, it’s extremely informative and educative. The interactive mechanism allows users to understand the product more in an innovative way, along with relevant information that drives the users to purchase.

It also important to intelligently incorporate your interactive content with your website’s call-to-action (CTAs) widgets. Delivering content that entices your audience should also be capitalized, build content so that it translates to measurable goals. By incorporating these in your strategy your audience will be more convinced to interact with the product or service in which you have to offer.

Increases Social Sharings & Engagements

When people had hands-on experience on how remarkable your interactive content is, they will surely share it with friends, either by mouth or through social media. Word of your business will reach more people, increasing brand awareness.

Keep up the momentum and provide updates constantly to entertain your audience and keep them on the hook. Utilise social media as a tool to spread the news about your interactive content and get more people to visit it.

Boosts Your Business Revenues

Successfully improving readership and website visits means that there are more people who will mostly likely end up buying your products/services. It exposes your content to more visibility and more people will visit it and experience it themselves. The increase in readers/viewership automatically translate it to higher sales for your business as the chances of people buying your products/services are higher.

Most companies put attracting customers/readers/viewership as their utmost priority because your business needs to get a notable amount of visibility and exposure in order to reach the right people that are interested in your products/services.

Interactive content is the key to acing your content marketing strategy. It drives leads and conversions, which ultimately results in the boost of business revenue. Devise your content marketing plan carefully and be sure to produce interactive content that will lay an impact to your audience.

You can find more information on how you can deploy your interactive content here through EVERWORKS unique mobile distribution gateways.

Read More

Website Redesign ROI

The ROI of website redesign can be hard to quantify with no concrete metric that can be used to directly relate to ROI measurement. Like any ROI the calculations are based on cost and results.

Costs

Website pricing really varies. The costs range from free DIY tools to millions of dollars for high-end digital agencies. Web designers can start low for a freelancer or expensive for a complex website from a big web development firm. Generally the price of a website relates to the amount of time it takes to create it, as there are very little or no material costs, since pixels and code aren't bought like inventory the costs are based on the estimates of time required for design, programming, communication, and license purchase.

The content (writing and images) also takes time, whether handled by the web firm or a freelance team or the company itself. This adds up to a total amount of hours that must be used multiply with the hourly rate equating to the total project fee.

Here are some of the major cost factors:

• Project management and communication: How many people required to work on your project.
• Design: Is this an off-the-shelf template being used or something made custom.
• Programming: Is it a standard feature or more custom?
• Team: Are there a lot of specialists required?
• Content: Is it a site that requires a lot of new writing? Is there photography or video production needed?
• CMS Platform: This isn't really a factor because different platforms can still be made use to achieve complex things. WordPress is also used for sites like CNN.com
• Licenses: Important thing to factor in when using some features or functions or images on your site. This can incur an additional cost to the project.

Results

There is a clear distinction between the objectives of the website where revenue generating metrics can be calculated directly from e-commerce sites or in the value of leads for a lead generation website.

There are many factors that affect the calculation for the return on investment, but generally they are:

• The cost of creating the website
• The cost of maintaining the website - post-launch operating expense (content marketing and advertising)
• The traffic - number of visitors is normally a measure of a successful marketing activity not web design.
• Conversion rate - this is a web design metric and not a marketing activity as this has an impact on conversions but together the traffic times the conversion rate equals results.
• The website lifespan.

Just compare objectively costs and returns over a period of time to identify if the right marketing strategies are in place to drive relevant traffic for conversion to occur.

Ensure that you suffer from very little downtime to ensure that your website investment is given sufficient opportunity to display its potential conversion capabilities to your target customers here.

Read More

10 Effortless Ways to Secure Your Wordpress Website

I've had my website hacked once, and believe me it isn't anyone else should experience. When your website gets hacked you end up spending a good amount of time trying to fix things that you don't necessarily understand. Thankfully the hack wasn't deep it and if it was, that would mean all of the effort that I have previously put into my website going up in smoke in a flash. I learned things the hard way, I had to patch multiple things and change my web host and that did the trick and fixed everything. More on the importance of choosing the right hosting plan later below. I do acknowledge that not everyone is as lucky as me. I've got a friend that had not just his site taken down but his whole domain blacklisted.

I did some research and it seems that WordPress site hacking is much more common than we would like it to be and it is steadily rising. A lot of people, like me, have their sites hacked too. Although I shouldn't sound so enthusiastic over this, but it is a sad fact.

Wait didn't we all ask this one question before:

Why would anyone want to hack my site? It is worth nothing.

I know, I know our site isn't up there in with the stars of the show. But after reading up a bit it seems that a great majority of attacks are automated where hackers (people who hack our websites) create bots (pieces of software) to crawl the online web space and look for vulnerable websites. Why would they do that? It seems that if they are successful the hacked website gets added to their portfolio, so to speak, and used for whatever objectives that they might have.

Wordpress is awesome, and popular, but it does have its problems. So to say WordPress security doesn't happen automatically. Think of it this way, why go after a CMS that nobody really uses. Going after the most popular one makes the most "hacking sense".

This is the beginner's guide. An absolute must just to make sure that bots don't find you too easy to hack.

This you must do:

1. Secure your Admin account

Don't use an obvious login/username for your administrator account like "admin" for example. This is too easy for anyone to guess, instead try "darth-vader" or "king-alexander". You might be wondering right now hey wait a sec, doesn't Wordpress not allow you to change WordPress once installation has been set? Don't worry there is a way around it all you have to do is:

Create a new user account (Users > Add New), then assign the new user an Administrator role;
Delete your original administrator account (also in users) then you are good to go!

2. Use an Editor account for content work

Using your main Administrator account for editing/publishing work can be risky especially if you are using wifi at a cafe or a public space. You should instead work on an Editor account for all content work you do making the login not so obvious. To do this go back again to creating a new user account (Users > Add New), then assign a new user to be an Editor. Now you are good to go!

3. Use secure passwords

1. Don't use passwords that are easy to guess. 
2. You can sign up for LastPass (don't worry it's free) and set that ultra secure password as your main password.
3. Then use LastPass to generate safe passwords for everything going on with your site.

4. Limit login attempts

Password guessing is a big threat. A bot, or human can make multiple attempts at guessing your password combinations until they get it right. They might not succeed in 10-20 attempts but if you are using a semi-complex password the 100,000th attempt can be successful.

5. Secure your own machine 

Securing your website would be pointless if the machine you are using to access the site is compromised. This is a simple solution that most people overlook. Install good anti-virus software and take good care of your computer.

6. Update WordPress regularly

Updating WordPress is one of those things that everyone knows it is important to do, but it still ends up being forgotten. For every change of a new release of WordPress they release a change log, every bug that has been fixed is listed. Look at it as a manual for hackers who want to target older versions of WordPress. The solution is simpler than you would think it is. Just enable auto-updates for your WordPress sites or make an update manually as soon as you see a notification on your dashboard.

7. Update plugins regularly

Updates shouldn't just be on WordPress make sure you repeat the update process for your plugins.

8. Backup.

Backups won't secure your site from being hacked, but it is an absolute necessity in case things do get out of hand. Backups are invaluable. You can restore your site back to normal no matter what bad things might happen.

I use a free plugin WordPress Backup to Dropbox; or you could do it through a more feature-rich solution VaultPress (this costs money).

9. Choose the best web host you can afford.

Cheap hosting can lead to a host of problems. Think of it as renting a computer that has little management on it. This may not be the issue with your site but it can be the server itself that got hacked.

Some quality recommendations:

1. EVERWORKS
2. Bluehost

10. Download plugins and themes from known sources

Same old rule with email. Only download email you know rule. Same applies with themes and plugins. Go for the tried and tested reputable offers such as ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. They do a fair bit of reviewing for each new theme and plugin submitted there so you should be fine.

Is this a bit too overwhelming to implement all at once? Don't sweat it. Make sure you update your WordPress it is by far the easiest thing to do.

Read More

Foreign Investment Mobile Opportunity

EVERWORKS leverages on foreign small-cap opportunity as there is a noticeable gap where investments into this segment represents little exposure to the investment ecosystem and there is a tendency for it to be underinvested. With historically good returns international small-caps represent a good place to invest as there are better growth opportunities abroad, less covered by analysts and as a result represents more opportunity to discover undiscovered underpriced companies.

There are three primary strategies that we tend to follow:

1. The first strategy we tend to follow is our want to get to know the companies that we want to invest in. How we discover information in a diluted information space is represented in a few fundamentals that we really like. We have a strong tendency to invest into an industry that is similar to the one that we are currently pursuing as we have strong expertise in the technological engineering departments to identify what are the strengths the company can offer that we might be interested in. We tend to do fundamental research into the market competitiveness situation and talk to people that are knowledgeable in the industry.
2. Secondly, we follow the future, where at one period of time there was only 500 apps and now some over 500,000 apps available for the iPhone with 3G or 4G data usage expected to increase from 27% to 80% by the end of the decade so we own companies that are innovative to take advantage of the increased demand with ways to meet this through the employment of technological infrastructures and strategies.
3. Thirdly, we invest in hard performance companies. We look for companies with strong cash flows and positive net working capital before justifying our interest in the target company. Among some of the other areas we look into include low liability commitments and healthy cash flow that is able to repay monthly commitments without the need for separate financing or dependencies.

These represent a general guideline for out foreign investment process but there are variations that may affect our decisions even when the fundamentals above indicate a strong possibility for investment. Amongst some of the major factors that may influence our decision to invest or not to invest represents exchange rate risks, the liquidity of the target company, and the overall economic performance of the country being invested into for the particular industry we are considering.

Within our ability to take advantage of our competitive advantages in our existing business model and infrastructure we are able to identify key areas that our investments lack. We don't necessarily invest for financial gain, but we look towards the benefits those companies can bring to our current environment to strengthen our competitiveness against our current competitors or to strengthen key areas that represent a threat to our business model.

We also consider the opportunity to diversify our gains and strategic ability in key regions to counter movements of our competitors or to take advantage of regulatory environment that promotes our business model.

Foreign investments represent to be an opportunity for us to develop a strong internationally diversified network for mobile related opportunities to expand into and for strengthening our position competitively against our competitors.

For related opportunities or ways to participate in this please feel free to refer to our webpage for products that may be part of an ability to develop a capability for your business to build a sustainable competitive advantage. 

Read More

5 Tips for Creating The Perfect SMS Marketing Message

Text Message Marketing (SMS Marketing) has only 160-Characters, but can leave a lasting impression on your customers. It is also very personal and care must be taken when crafting a message. This fundamental character limit forces you to make sure that the text message being marketed is clear and simple.

1. Always Deliver Value

This may seem obvious, but with a strong personal attachment to the mobile phone you have to make sure that you have a strong time sensitive offer to give people a strong sense of value. They need to feel that they are getting something that others are not and it was a good decision to give up their mobile phone number. Good SMS content can come from exclusive offers that are different from sending out vague sale alerts resulting in a tendency for the customer to regard it as spam and want to opt-out. This is consistent with the need to be clear and concise. 

2. Speak in Plain Language

Do not type in acronyms. Although it does shorten text messages, but it leaves customers questioning what those acronyms mean. It is better to speak in plain simple language, so that there is clear ability to digest the message with a short glance. This eliminates the need to decipher code and leave an impression that your brand as coming off as "trying to hard".

3. Display Business Name First

Many people neglect this. Often numbers sent out are using automated processes and systems. Put your business name first to remove all doubt. Although, there is a possible way to display a name as a caller ID, but issue arises when the user is actually unable to respond.

4. Add Interactive Call to Action

You can engage a customer by mobile by adding quality call to actions. Discussed here are two primary methods of engaging a user with SMS:

• User reply with a keyword trigger, an auto reply, or forward to an application.
• Add a URL linking to a mobile web page. Google map, mobile video, application download or other rich media. Use a URL Shortener like bit.ly to save on characters and bit.ly has analytics so you can see how many recipients visited the link and with what device.

5. Remind about made opt-in decisions

Customers should be reminded of how they came to be on your list, whether a loyalty program member, previous purchaser or previous competition entrant you shouldn't generate frustration in the user as a perceived spammer.

Find out how you can start your SMS Campaign now here.

Read More

8 Must Know for SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing is the future of marketing. It is simple, 160-Characters, to send out a clear and concise  text message. However, simple as it may seem, there are principles that should be kept in mind when sending out text messages.

SMS marketing is awesome. Great to send out direct marketing, to customers. It is personal and easy to reach customers anywhere, around the clock because of the portability the mobile phone gives to its user. There is also a evidence suggesting that SMS has a much higher engagement rate as compared to email marketing; data shows a 90% read rate within 5 seconds of receipt.

With most marketing tools there are considerations to be put into place. A subtle not explicitly stated rule in most cases that should be followed to ensure that the user's personal privacy has not been violated and the freedom of choice for the user is maintained.

1. Make your SMS Campaign Opt-in

Encourage customers to choose to opt-in rather than blasting them with a surprise message. As highlighted before the mobile phone is an intensely personal device and a message from an unfamiliar number can be intrusive in nature.

2. Offer value

Your message should convey or deliver value and relevance to the target recipient. You can include special offers, coupon codes, an exclusive invitation, or more information regarding the product or assistive information to help buyers make an informed decision.

3. Timing

Do not send out a message in the middle of the night. Consider the obvious rules of courtesy and monitor the behaviors of your target audience. What they might do at a particular time of day. For example: Commuters spend time on the train browsing on their phones, but sports fans might not be too impressed with a message midway through a game. Your message should include, "win __" or "special offer if you show this message to the front desk to get a voucher of 50% on your day's purchase". Alternatively, inform opted-in customers that your company will be sending them a fixed total number of text messages a month and that number so that it is non-invasive manner of approach to their day-to-day use of the mobile phone.

4. Interaction

Always prompt an action (call-to-action). This should be a rule in everything marketing related. Text messaging is very interactive with URLs enjoying a much higher clickthrough compared to links in emails. You can use SMS messages to prompt customers to vote, complete questionnaires or take part in research surveys. These are amongst the few great ways to gain knowledge to help shape future marketing strategies.

5. Correct language.

Regardless of your target audience, your manner of speech should be appropriate. You want to appear professional as well as engaging. Don't fill up your messages with slang-filled conversation "YOLO" or "ROFL" - it just makes customers uncomfortable. Be clear, accurate and polite. That should be more than sufficient.

6. Exploit urgency

Because of the instant nature of text messaging, there is opportunity to make an offer for a "spot" deal to customers. This works as there is no delay like other marketing channels and demands a quick response from customers.

7. Respond quickly

Customers expect quick response, so if interaction has been initiated make sure you confirm their actions immediately. Customer participation can be easily and quickly rewarded if the campaign is tightly integrated across multiple channels.

8. Measure success

Lastly, and most importantly is to check with the performance of your delivered message to the response rate. This helps you to compare and to develop better future campaigns.

Above was the 8 Must Knows for SMS Marketing. You can find out how you can start a campaign now with EVERWORKS' SMS delivery gateway. 

Read More

10 Reasons Why You're Missing Out on Killer Lead Conversions

If you are still unconvinced of how SMS can help enhance your marketing strategy or if you haven't considered integrating SMS into your marketing strategy this blog post is for you. There has been big pull factor especially for Malaysia with a 140% penetration rate in mobile phone usage and with growing uses of SMS in businesses globally SMS might just be the next best thing after PayPal.

Here are 10 advantages of SMS marketing that might just persuade you, that you too should join in on the bandwagon:

1. Quick. Actually Instant.

SMS is lightning fast, sending and receiving messages to your subscribers' hands within a few seconds. The average time for all mobile carriers and SMS services is less than 7 seconds from sending to the receiver. There are other marketing strategies that are fast in their own right, but nothing compares to the swiftness of SMS.

2. Flexible platform

You have flexibility to send a large amount of messages to a targeted group or sends thousands of SMS messages to your entire list. A great SMS marketing service makes it easy to customize your text message campaigns to the needs of your SMS subscribers giving better control and ability to tailor suit messages to individual customers. A short promotional message or a quick industry update, SMS molds itself into whatever needs your business require, easily integrating into your broad or focused marketing strategies.

3. Instant Opt-In and Opt-Out

Short codes allow opting-in and opting-out consistent with the nature of SMS, quick if not instant. Unlike other opt-in or opt-out options, SMS only requires one step, and besides entering a mobile phone number or short code there is rarely any personal information required up front. If speed is what you are looking for subscribers will appreciate the simplicity.

4. High Open Rate

Comparing to email marketing SMS has a high open rate, where almost every SMS sent is opened (and read), whereas only a fraction of emails sent are actually read. There is always a tendency to look when a subscriber gets a vibration or sound signaling a text messages, but subscribers have a choice to not open your email.

5. High conversion rate

with sms there is a high rate of subscriber action. From promotions to contests there is more action compared to any other marketing or promotion strategies.

6. Reliable

Unlike email, SMS doesn't have to battle against spam or other email filters; it is a direct connection to your customer base unlike any other marketing strategy; there isn't any barriers.

7. Short Messages

160-Characters can be a challenge to most businesses, but this limit is good as it forces you to be clear and concise. This allows customers to get to the point immediately without sifting through content that isn't always necessary.

8. Cool factor

A large demographic of consumers have abandoned email and turned to short text messages. This allows small business who are looking for the next innovative solution that is affordable to implement a head start in winning the battle for the next generation of shoppers.

9. Limitless Market Potential

There is a large number of active mobile phones. Since mobile phones are able to receive text messages there is an unlimited potential to tap into this virtually limitless market potential. Mobile phone users represent all demographics - a marketing gold mine.

10. Green

Text messaging doesn't use print material and requires little energy to operate a single message output, suggesting an efficient handling of resources.

The above are the 10 Benefits of SMS Marketing. Looking for ways to implement this start now with EVERWORKS SMS Delivery Service that allows you to send sms to your customers for a competitive price.

Read More

Announcement - We Have Moved!

Warmest greeting from EVERWORKS Group of Companies.

We are happy to announce that EVERWORKS has moved into our new premise at Endah Promenade. It is a 4-storey building and EVERWORKS Group of Companies office will be occupying from Level 1 to Level 3. This new premises will enable us to have the whole group under the same building.

Here is our new address:-

Address:	A-1-9, A-2-9 & A-3-9 Endah Promenade No.5, Jalan 3/149E Taman Sri Petaling 57000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:	603 - 8800 9999
Fax:	603 - 8800 6666
Website:	www.everworks.com
Follow us at:	www.facebook.com/everworks

In line with our move, we have also enhance our customer support line and you can reach us at:-

Technical Support Tel:	603 - 5110 8888
Mobile Support Tel:	603 - 5110 9999

As in any move to a new place, we do expect some teething problems and would appreciate your patience.

Thank you and we look forward to your continuous support.


Best regards,
EVERWORKS Group of Companies

Read More

Advantage of SMS Payments

SMS payments are a means of paying for goods, services or products via a text message sent from a mobile phone. This represents a big opportunity for SME businesses in Malaysia to capitalize on a market that is unable to make Internet or credit card related transactions. Opening up a new payment option that could unlock a new market for businesses targeting targeted market segments.

This works just like a standard SMS with the system purchasers sending a text message to pay for a item or service and a clear transaction is created between the purchaser and vendor. The cost of purchase, is added to the monthly phone bill or deducted from a  pre-paid balance by the mobile phone operator allowing for a clear simple method for end-users to monitor their expenses on a single statement. This also mitigates inherent risks of publishing personal credit card or bank details on the Internet.

SMS is quick. In fact it's lightning fast, allowing your messages to be put into your subscribers' pockets or purses in a matter of seconds after you send. This ensures that there isn't any latencies involved. There is also an instant opt-in and opt-out option which is inherent with SMS's quick nature and requires only one step. 

Advantages:

For the customer

1. Quick and easy to use
2. Purchaser does not need to have to enter their credit card or bank details, or even have a bank account.
3. There isn't a need to remember passwords or usernames with payment websites like PayPal.
4. It is more secure, as there isn't a need for the release of personal or account details.

For business

1. Instant access to millions (billions) of mobile phones equipped with SMS facilities worldwide. There is a large penetration rate for mobile phone users in Malaysia, equating to 140%.
2. Access to millions of customers that do not have a bank account or credit card that has prevented them from buying goods and services before.
3. No need to verify customers' identities or worry about chasing payments or cards being denied.
4. All the billing is handled by the mobile phone operator.
5. It is easy and quite often costs little to set up.

Conclusion

Although there is a growth in other forms of payments such as Near Field Communication payment option and payment via web applications, there remains a simple fact that most basic mobile phones are capable of sending and receiving text messages meaning that SMS payments are seen by many in the industry to be a major player in future mobile payments. Start receiving payments through SMS now through EVERWORKS innovative SMS Payment Gateway.

Read More

How to Increase SMS Subscribers at Checkout

One of the best ways to increase SMS Subscribers is through in-store campaigns. Having in-store campaigns are the most logical solution, but there is a big question that remains unsolved; where do we put our in-store campaigns? One suggestion is placing ads on your SMS Marketing campaign at checkout; more specifically on the point of sale system. 

Below is an example of a brand that uses the point-of-sale system to advertise their SMS Campaigns. In general an in-store advertising for SMS campaign generates a 2.3% to 3.2% opt-in rate. This is a fairly good response.

The disadvantage to the example above is the lack of an initial opt-in incentive. Where demonstrated previously can be highly persuasive and customers are willing to give up their handphone numbers for a fixed amount of text advertising per month to benefit from the offered incentive. This is quantifiable when a recent study showed that by offering initial incentives it increased their SMS Subscriber growth at a rate of 520%.

The reason to why customers are not opting-in could be largely due to the lack of incentives you are providing to them. Brands like Julep were able to generate 5,000 new SMS Subscribers within the first 24 hours of launching their SMS campaign, or why Taco Bell gained 15,000 new subscribers in the first five weeks of their campaign were because of incentivized campaigns prompting opt-in.

This can be done by encouraging your customers with a reward, coupon, or deal to join your SMS campaign much like Julep and Taco Bell have done, and you will be able to grow your SMS subscribers at a much faster rate than before.

Ready to start your SMS Marketing Campaign with a proven robust platform that helps to deliver your marketing messages to your customer? Consult an EVERWORKS Expert now.

Read More

Digi Increases Its 4G LTE Network Covering 60% of Malaysians

Digi recently increased its 4G LTE network covering 60% of Malaysians and what this means for most users:

• 99.9% accessibility to Digi's 4G LTE services
• 2x faster web page loading
• 2x faster latency
• 3x more stable connections
• 80% more than 5Mbps speed consistency
• 10x faster LTE relative speed

How is this an opportunity for SME Business in Malaysia?

Digi's response to increased network coverage indicates a potentially strong relation to Malaysian's mobile penetration rate. Indication that there is a strong user usage of mobile phones and increasing more opportunities for SMS Marketing initiatives.

How to build an advantage?

Strong mobile penetration in Malaysia provides a strong argument for a SMS Marketing Channel to be used alongside tried-and-tested marketing methods. There are strong arguments for the profitability of participating actively with target customers through their mobile phones and in return providing additional incentives and exclusive deals to push them to continually engage with your business.

What to avoid?

Misplacing customer trust. Customers expect transparency and honesty when companies approach them. What this means is periodic and limited broadcast of text messages would be more than welcomed as it was a self-initiated request, but over excessive message sending may lead to a strong negative response instead of the desired effects. Simply put; don't spam.

EVERWORKS provides a reliable and robust SMS Delivery Service that caters to your SMS Marketing Campaign needs and more. Contact an EVERWORKS Expert now.

Read More

Case Study: Text Messaging Recruiting Example (Target)

Previous posts addressed the various methods on how SMS Marketing can help to spur increased sales and provide as an important variant to the tried-and-tested marketing channels. Much sales can be obtained with a strong and robust platform to help support your broadcasting needs, a solid marketing strategy and the understanding that customers are more likely to participate with provided incentives build into the offer.

Question. SMS Marketing is an alternative marketing channel, but does it apply to other parts of the value chain too? The answer is yes. A lot of focus has been placed on the end-user or customer indicating a downstream approach to improving the value chain. However, there are places further upstream that can further enhance your competitive product offering as well. 

An example: SMS Marketing used when recruiting new employees, a Target case study. Doubts may be cast on this, but some of the largest brands are already doing it. 

The recruitment poster at Target instructs prospective employees to submit keywords and email address to a short-code to learn more about potential seasonal opportunities. After texting a prospective employee receives a text message in return with a link directing them to target.com/careers and also telling them to look for an email about job opportunities. One day after the potential employee receives an email in their inbox as indicated from the message that they have sent a day prior. 

This example illustrates that text messaging can be used to increase recruitment efforts, especially during seasonal times.

Looking to find a service provider that will help you establish your SMS platform to reach potential new employees please contact experts at EVERWORKS for more information.

Read More

Case Study: Kiehl's Experiences 73% Redemption Rate

SMS Marketing draws a fair bit of competitive pressures with arguments that SMS is a thing of the past and in the growing digital age of apps may prove to be surplus to requirements today. This post won't address the advantages and disadvantages of SMS Marketing compared to having an application on the smart phone but rather, look at providing either a strong alternative marketing channel to consider or a reliable cost effective solution to start with from the get go.

We will look at Kiehl's, an American cosmetics brand retailer that specializes in making premium skin, hair, and body care products.

To raise awareness about the new marketing campaign Kiehl's was involved with, they used in-store signage, email marketing and social media to promote the use of their SMS Campaign; which they called Kiehl's Alerts. The cosmetic company had two opt-in methods, one was signing up online, or through SMS by texting the SMS Keyword "KIEHLS" to the SMS short code 25687. 

Part of their geographic marketing approach to determine the closest store to their customers they were asked to agree to share their location with Kiehl's so that the cosmetic company could send up to three location based text alerts a month; this was triggered when the customer was within a certain radius of one of Kiehl's 45 test stores.

After the 6-month program, Kiehl's found that 73% of customers that had signed up for their SMS Marketing Campaign had made a purchase, and 81% of respondents in a survey sent out remembered the SMS marketing messages from Kiehl's, meaning that 90% of customers made an in-store purchase during the 6-month program!

How does this apply to your SME Business in Malaysia?

Geofencing a fancy term for Geographic location based anonymous tracking, might be something that your business may not require yet, but the core idea was how effective SMS is in providing incentives to your customers and serve as a valuable reminder of the special products and services you can offer to them as a means to provide instant information for them to make a decision.

A clear consistency is how companies' disclaim the number of text messages they will send to the users giving them ample notice and expectation reducing the likelihood of regarding messages sent by the company to be considered as overly excessive; a prevention method for a negative emotional response (spam).

Are you interested in launching your SMS Marketing Campaign, that produces similar results to what Kiehl's has experienced from their campaign? Contact the SMS Marketing Experts at EVERWORKS and let us help you get similar results that Kiehl's experienced through a robust platform for your own SMS Marketing Campaign.

Read More

How to Grow Your SMS Subscribers Faster

Previous case studies have indicated that SMS Marketing is a powerful alternative money generating activity. Growing your SMS Subscribers faster leads to an increased potential to meet growing sales requirements or to maintain customer loyalty.

A study conducted by HipCricket found that 44% of consumers were willing to provide personal information like their mobile phone number in exchange for a reward or coupon deal. By encouraging your customers with a reward, coupon or a deal to join your SMS campaign, much like Kohl's, as you can see below, you will be able to grow your SMS Subscribers at a much faster rate.

Pitfalls to avoid

First, do not pursue cold customers that have little interest in what you offer to them as the additional marginal costs involved with having a not effective subscriber list adds up over time, and may prove to be an inefficient measure for customer adoption with SMS Subscription against customers without SMS Subscription.

Willing consumers demonstrate a need for the product or service that you offer, but more often than not just require convincing to choose your product or service over existing competitors. This can be provided through incentives that fulfills their desire for exclusivity or incentives to push them to action.

Second, avoid overwhelming your customers' with too much information. Periodic text messages help to remind and provide incentive for your customers to respond and relate to the exclusivity offers you offer, but over enthusiastic (spam) wards a negative response from customers that would put an otherwise effective SMS marketing campaign rendered to be more damaging than good.

How to deal with worried customers?

It is important that you always provide worried customers an option to unsubscribe if there ever reaches a point that they may feel the need to do so. However, from research conducted there is an average of only 2.3% of SMS subscribers unsubscribing after receiving the initial opt-in promotion, as they were initially willing to receive and gave acceptance to the clear indication of the number of messages sent to their mobile phone from your business; as provided in the example above.

Conclusion

As previously stated there is a strong indication that with 44% of customers willing to provide brands personal information like mobile phone numbers in exchange for a reward, coupon or deal, plus an average subscriber retention rate of 98% for SMS campaigns after they have received the initial offer, is a sure fire way to grow your SMS Subscribers faster than ever. Need help growing your own SMS subscribers contact EVERWORKS experts to provide you with a robust platform to discuss about how you can go to market now.

Read More

Retailer Makes $2.5 Million in Sales with Mobile Marketing Campaign

There is fierce retail competition in Malaysia and with increase in costs of late, an increase in sales doesn't sound like such a bad idea. 

Are you looking to increase sales but have already tried various marketing channels? Do those marketing channels provide little return on your investments? Have you tried mobile marketing? 

If not, partner with a local expert in Malaysia to provide you with a robust platform to go to market. 

Results of the retailer's mobile marketing campaign (according to Vibes) are:

• Started mobile marketing campaign in the summer of 2014.
• Customers were sent a welcome offer indicating preference to subscribe, along with a discount, as long as they spent a certain amount in-store.
• Retailer grew their mobile marketing database by more than 250,000 customers since launching.
• The retailer generated $2.3 million in sales from their mobile marketing campaign during a 3-month period.
• On average, each new mobile subscriber generates $10 in annual sales for the retailer.
• Retailer is projecting to hit 1 million mobile subscribers within the next 10-months.

A surprising fact was that the fact that this retailer compared their website visitors that were SMS subscribers to their website visitors that were not SMS subscribers. The results? Shocking. What the retailer found is that visitors to their website were also SMS subscribers made 32.4 purchases for every 1,000 visitors. However, when compared with visitors that were not SMS Subscribers, their website only made 5.4 purchases for every 1,000 visitors, hard to believe but true.

This reveals that although tried-and-tested marketing campaigns serve an important role for driving customers to your business, an alternative method would be to stay involved with customers and to provide relevant information to customers to enable a more interactive response to your customers' demands and desire for exclusivity; VIP Status.

Read More

Announcement - Maxis Planned Downtime Notification for MPG/BMG/EWIG - 14th August 2015

Dear Valued Customers,

Kindly be informed that ECP/BMG services by Maxis will be unavailable as per below details:

Duration: 6:00 hrs

14th August 2015

2:00AM ~ 8:00AM GMT +8

Impact to users:

1. SMS/MMS MO will not be delivered to Content provider.
2. SMS/MMS MT will not be delivered to Maxis users.
3. SMS/MMS DN(Delivery Notification) will not be delivered to Content provider.
4. EWIG charging will not available.
5. BMG ECP/CRM portals will not be available
6. USSD system will not be able to do charging.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For urgent inquiries please contact this hotline 017-382 8028 or drop an email to mpxg@maxis.com.my

For management inquiries please email info@everworks.com
For technical inquiries please email cvs@everworks.com

Read More

Announcement - Maxis Planned Downtime Notification for MPG/BMG/EWIG - 7th August 2015

Dear Valued Customers,

Kindly be informed that ECP/BMG services by Maxis will be unavailable as per below details:

Duration: 6:00 hrs

7th August 2015

2:00AM ~ 8:00AM GMT +8

Impact to users:

1. SMS/MMS MO will not be delivered to Content provider.
2. SMS/MMS MT will not be delivered to Maxis users.
3. SMS/MMS DN(Delivery Notification) will not be delivered to Content provider.
4. EWIG charging will not available.
5. BMG ECP/CRM portals will not be available
6. USSD system will not be able to do charging.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For urgent inquiries please contact this hotline 017-382 8028 or drop an email to mpxg@maxis.com.my

For management inquiries please email info@everworks.com
For technical inquiries please email cvs@everworks.com

Read More

Alternative Option for SME Growth Driver Diversification

More people today use mobile devices as compared to years before. This has been driven with the sudden drive and demand for greater functional use and portability. This is heavily driven by growing global demand for more flexibility to perform daily tasks. The advancement in technology has made the smartphone indispensable to every modern person's daily life. Diversify your business and develop a unique proposition with proven results that drive greater profitability.

It is important that you look for a SMS Payment Gateway with these features:

1. Unlimited MO and MT. There should be no limitations to the amount of ingoing mobile originated and outgoing mobile terminated traffic providing you with the necessary scalability requirements;
2. SMS Helpdesk support. It is always integral to any operation to have available support to help with any payment-related disputes and management of your managing your sms business's reputation;
3. World-class datacenter with dedicated high speed fiber optic channels to ensure secure connections;
4. Easy API access with an emphasis on a short-integration method;
5. and flexible payment schemes to ensure adequate cash flow management to accommodate different payment terms of differing Telcos.

Small Business Diversification for Growth

Diversification options can be costly for most small businesses and therefore choices are not many but with EVERWORKS SMS Payment Gateway solution it can give small businesses opportunity to diversify with an affordable entry.

Transaction Costs

It is also important to identify with a provider that will not be charging you too high of a transaction costs. You can refer to EVERWORKS SMS Payment Gateway breakdown of revenue sharing here.

How it works

This method of diversification looks at fulfilling the key driver: adaptation as the business seeks to less risky and quicker deployment of an alternative localised internationalisation strategy. This would represent to be a more cost effective solution when compared to other vertical value chain involvements. 

Read More

Announcement - Maxis Planned Downtime Notification for MPG/BMG/EWIG - 1st July 2015

Dear Valued Customers,

Kindly be informed that BMG services by Maxis will be unavailable as per below details:

Duration: 0:15 hrs

1st July 2015

7:50AM ~ 8:05AM GMT +8

Intermittent failure of charge related to prepaid MSISDN for below listed services.

1. EWIG Charging
2. SMS MT
3. MMS MT
4. SMS MO

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For urgent inquiries please contact this hotline 017-382 8028 or drop an email to mpxg@maxis.com.my

For management inquiries please email info@everworks.com
For technical inquiries please email cvs@everworks.com

Read More