How to Choose A Managed Hosting Provider (Industry Tips Inside)

Managed Hosting is complicated, but there is an easy way to understand it. The term is ambiguous and because of this, it is common for every service provider to deliver different solutions.

Managed hosting is in essence an extension to dedicated hosting, where hardware is owned by the service provider and is leased to a single client. This client manages the day-to-day management and maintenance of its servers.

Dedicated hosting is different, by its day-to-day management and maintenance of its servers, as it is handled by the service provider compared to the clients themselves.

Due to the ambiguous defnition, many different business offer different ‘levels’ of management to its clients.

Your managed hosting should include:

Server Monitoring – 

The process of scanning servers in search of any irregularities or potential failures.

Security – 

This includes virus scanning, spam filtering, firewall configuration and operating system updates in addition to standard physical data centre security measures.

Full Back-up and Storage – 

Imagine deleting a file by accident and having no way to recover it. Now think of it on a  company wide scale. Losing data can be costly in every sense of the word; it can cause a loss of money, time and customer trust.

Managed Hosting Providers are far more likely to have both the physical and technical capabilities in place to carry out the back-up/storage process correctly.

Server Configuration and Maintenance – 

Managed hosting providers can offer specialist staff with the expertise to ensure that the hosting solution is initially configured to meet the customer’s requirements effectively and subsequently, to perform the necessary server maintenance to keep the platform running smoothly

Support – 

An attractive benefit of managed hosting is that – if there ever is an issue – there is always qualified support on hand. In ideal cases, companies make human telephone support available 24/7/365, however in some, support is offered via email.

There are also business benefits to managed hosting, which usually include, but once again are not limited to, the following:

Flexibility - 

Managed Hosting is a flexible solution – not a one size fits all service – and providers can work with customers to achieve a solution tailored to suit the budget and individual requirements of their business.

Reduced cost of operation – 

The hardware and expertise required to manage hosting in-house can be very costly; with many businesses, the cost outweighs the benefits.

More effective use of resource – 

If your company employs IT staff then you know better than anyone that skilled IT employees can be costly. With this in mind, it makes sense to make sure that you put this resource to the best possible use.

Learn more about Everworks dedicated hosting here.

Read More

How To Dramatically Improve Your Cold Email

When sending a sales email, always put yourself in the context of meeting someone you’ve never met before for the first time.

Sending a sales email, is just like trying to force someone to marry you on the very first hello.

When you send a sales email, you could have the most compelling subject line. The most enticing content. The most exciting CTA.

But if I don’t know you and who you represent: Why should I trust you?

If you want to get a better response rate for your sales emails you need to answer that question. And one of the best ways to do that is with social proof.

What is social proof and why does it matter for sales emails?

Social proof is proving your credibility by pointing to other people or organizations you’ve worked with that already have credibility with your prospect.

In our experience, it’s the quickest way to go from a random name in someone’s inbox, to a person they don’t mind to work with.

If you’ve spent hours writing the best subject line, clearly articulated your proposition, and given an exciting call to action, all this will be in vain if you don’t make me feel comfortable with you. And without social proof, all of your efforts will be but for a lost cause.

Below are the 3 levels of social proof you need to show to gain someone’s trust over email:

This is a simple concept. But it can be complex to get correct.

You can’t just write to tell someone to trust you. You need to show it to me. More than that, you need to show me social proof on multiple levels:

1. Company credibility: Who have you worked with that I know and trust?
2. Product credibility: What verifiable results have you created for people with your product?
3. Personal credibility: Who are you and why should I trust you?

What types of social proof can (and should) you use?

There are tons of ways to show social proof and which one you choose will depend on what you have available.

However, before choosing any type of social proof to include in your sales emails, you need to ask two questions:

First, does this social proof resonate with this specific prospect? 

Next, will the prospect perceive this social proof as credible? 

With that in mind, here are the best ways you can show social proof in your sales emails.

Your customers

Happy customers are the best source of social proof. Instead of you telling a prospect all of the value they’re going to get, they get to hear it from someone they know who has already gone through the process.

You have a few options when choosing the right customers to use for social proof:

1. Famous and popular brands
2. Companies in the prospect’s market
3. Local companies they might be familiar with
4. You can use customer social proof by talking about them in the third person. 

Common connections

If you don’t have any customers or any you feel confident highlighting, you can create social proof by showing a common connection you have with the prospect.


However, you have to be careful here. A common connection isn’t just one of 5000 people on your LinkedIn or Twitter. It has to be a real connection you both know and trust.

Revenue and profits

Money talks. And highlighting verifiable monetary success is a great way to prove your legitimacy.

Have you done some impressive numbers in the past year?  Or pass a major milestone?

Any social proof connected to money has to be easily verified by another source or else it’s useless.

Press

Press doesn’t carry the same social status as it once did, but it’s still a great way to show you’re worth talking about. You can assume your prospect will click any press links you include.

Associations or former employers

In certain situations, the places you’ve worked in the past or where you went to school can be used as social proof.

Accomplishments

Again, in certain circumstances, relevant accomplishments or personal awards can help build your personal or product credibility.

Whatever social proof you use, assume your prospect will try to verify it. No matter what social proof you give, it has to be honest and verifiable. 

Beyond that, your personal online presence needs to have credibility as well. Most people will check your LinkedIn or social media profile to see who you are. And if those pages are shady or unprofessional it can make any social credibility you’ve developed to die with them.

Where to place social proof in your sales emails

The next question after what kind of social proof to use is how do you use it? The short answer is: It depends.

If people are abandoning your emails early on: Add social proof to the beginning to grab their interest and engage their imagination.

If people are reading your emails but not responding: Add social proof right before or after your call to action so people feel confident about responding.

There’s one more place you should use social proof that is so underutilized. Your signature is a social proof machine.

What do you do when you don’t have any social proof?

Social proof is a powerful sales tool. But if you don’t have any yet, there’s still a few options you can use.

First, you need to recognize that personal social proof is important to everything you’ll ever do as a sales rep and an individual. Your brand and reputation will follow you everywhere you go. And while it takes time to build, it brings massive returns in the long-run if you keep up with it.

Next, honesty and openness can be just as strong as social proof. 

Instead, if you don’t have any good social proof to show, just be transparent about your situation

This kind of vulnerability can be incredibly powerful and make someone want to trust you, even if you don’t have the proof to back it up yet.

Always remember, if I don’t trust you, I won’t talk to you

You wouldn’t let a complete stranger into your house, so why should a prospect reply to your sales email if they don’t know you and trust what you’re saying?

With social proof, you give your prospects a reason to believe.  Use it. And build that trust. Because without it, I don’t have a reason to talk to you.

Learn more about how Everworks's professional business email hosting will help you to deliver consistent email responses every time here.

Read More

The Straightforward Guide On What Colocation Is and Its Benefits

Malaysia now has over 31 million people. 67.7% of them are Internet users.

In this post, I'm going to cover everything you need to know about Colocation and how to use Colocation to benefit your business.

Colocation is essentially space in a data centre that you rent for your servers to benefit from data centre infrastructure.

By the end, you'll know more about Colocation than most business owners, about taking your online service from great to spectacular.

Let's get started.

What is Colocation?

The first thing you need to figure out about Colocation is a clear simple meaning or definition of Colocation.

Colocation is data centre space which is available for rent.

If the goal for you is to have your servers deliver world class results. Your servers should be placed in an environment (within a data centre) that has facilities to deliver world class results.

For example, you need information fast for a client who wants to work with you. And your servers should perform at an equal pace or quicker than you so that you are able to provide world class service to your clients.

Key takeaway: It's important for your business to deliver fast.

There are a few reasons for this.

First, if you can save some time through speed, you'll be able to do and deliver more for your business.

The biggest benefit of speed is if you are speaking with a potential client who is interested to buy, you'll be able to sell more effectively. When your sales pitch is delivered without interruption, it gives incentive to buyers when they are making a decision to buy.

For instance, imagine if you were interested to buy a new service or product and was doing research.

Wouldn't you miss out on those who are slow to respond, because someone else was first to sell to you?

"That's because speed is very important in selling, and is one of the key components to better sales conversions."

The second reason is that it makes your business easier to work with.

One of the main reasons why clients don't buy from you is because there isn't a sense of urgency.

If you are able to act and communicate quickly on information your buyer is interested to learn, it is more likely that you are able to convert a sale.

How does Colocation benefit your business?

So far we've covered what is Colocation.

However, what's arguably more important, is figuring out how Colocation can benefit your business.

After all you only need to get a small slice of a data centre's power to see exponential results for your services.

First, using Colocation is an inexpensive way for you to benefit from high connection speeds (bandwidth).

Second you would significantly reduce any delay in service delivery because of higher reliability.  For example, power supply has been carefully implemented into the infrastructure to make sure your servers are always turned on.

Third, there is a lower risk of someone unnecessarily physically accessing your servers. Your servers are secured with available options such as CCTV monitoring and lockable cabinets.

Conclusion

If you've allocated funds to buy servers, install them in a data centre to maximise its potential. It should help your business to deliver the world class results your clients demand for.

However, your servers can't just maintain themselves. For example, you might need more computing power (better RAM) to service a growing customer list.

You need to make sure your servers continue to have the best hardware and software you need it to have to service your growing business.

After all, the goal that you should be focused on is to provide world class services to your clients.

From reading this post, you now know everything you need to know about Colocation. So get out there and find a reliable one!

Do you already have a Colocation? What have you found to be the best strategies to install and maintain your Colocation?

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

Instantly Increase Engagement for Your E Commerce Business in Malaysia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Should you send one?

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

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

1. After Subscription

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

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

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

2. After Purchase

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

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

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

3. Few Days after Order Delivery

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

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

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

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

Read More