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Effective Email Commerce to Increase your Business

Productive marketing communications is a key element for a business owner to expand their reach into the marketplace. There are many mediums that marketers can use to inform customers, prospective customers of new products, services, and discounts available to them. In this blog post, I will be discussing email.

Email is a cost-effective way for business to get their message out to their audience. Before the advent of the internet and email, businesses used direct mail to reach their customers and many still use this costly method. Email used is to find new customers, maintain an interest from existing customers, and introduce new offerings.

Direct mail marketing first made an appearance 1681 in the American colonies by the founder of Pennsylvania William Penn. Penn published a flyer which stimulated many northern Europeans to settle in Penn’s Woods.

Just like any other type of media advertising email should follow the same format for results.
Headline
Must touch people that read it. (30% Read)
Short & Cleaver / Affect Emotions (laugh, angry, curious, think)

Subhead
Use to break up your copy to make it more interesting

Body (Copy)

Follow the headline – create visual continuity

Compelling, persuasive, clear, precise
Two strong points, two columns, justify
Serif Typeface …. easy to read

Image (Visual) (70% Look)
Photo, Drawing, Graphic
Draws attention to the ad
I/2 your ad when possible
People relate to realistic photographs

Call to Action
———————————————
$5.00 off any purchase of
$25.00 or more
Offer Expires on August 15, 2020
———————————————
Contact Information
Address, Phone #, Website, Logo
Offer  Placement

Before sending emails you need to create a list of email addresses that should be segmented by groups. Your core customers are your primary audience, by keeping them informed you create loyalty and increase sales. The next segment is your target market, these are prospects you want to raise awareness and engage them into becoming customers. Most platforms give you feedback as to which emails have not been opened. If you continue to send them emails they will consider your communications as junk mail and you will alienate them. You could follow-up and send them a personal email asking why they did not read your emails.

As I have stated in previous posts I prefer to discuss products that I’m familiar with using. At this time at Keystone Business Brokers, we are implementing an email program to reach out to clients and prospects. There are at least 20 email platforms with varying features and for our specific use we are reviewing several providers and we expect to be operational within the next two weeks. If you would like to receive our emails with our current listings of businesses available please send your email address to nick@kbizbrokers.com

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Now is the Time to Implement Web Conferencing

Now is the Time to Implement Web Conferencing

With the recent spike in COVID-19, the states are regressing into the stricter quarantine. Business owners need to adapt to the so-called new normal by adopting and using the technology available. Communication with stakeholders which include employees, customers, and suppliers is imperative.

Web conferencing offers the ability for internal teams to work together and discuss strategy face-to-face in real-time regardless of their locations. Businesses no longer have to be encumbered by different geographical locations necessitating travel time and expenses. Web conferencing can best be described as an online tool for parties from varied locations to collaborate. The cloud-based software can be used for mass communications reaching large audiences by using the platforms hosting features such as webinars (seminars) and webcasts (broadcasts).

If you’re new to web conferencing I suggest you consider starting with either Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Zoom is very popular at this time and I just installed it on both my iMac and Chromebook. Most businesses use the Microsoft Office suite (MS 365) may find MS Teams compatible with your software making the learning curve easier.

Zoom Meetings (zoom.com) (descriptions from Zoom website)
Some of the most exciting features of Zoom meetings include:

Easy adoption with WebRTC technology
Join from anywhere on any device
Access robust security solutions throughout
Built-in tools for screen sharing
HD video and audio calls
Support for up to 1,000 video participants and 49 videos
Meet securely with role-based user permissions
Streamlined calendaring services with Outlook and Google
Built-in recording and transcripts
Team chat both for groups and one-on-one messaging
Access to extra features like webinars, chat, and phone

Microsoft Teams (teams.microsoft.com) (descriptions from Microsoft website)
Work remotely and securely with online meetings.

Online meetings

Host audio, video, and web conferences with anyone. Get features such as scheduling assistance, meeting note-taking, screen sharing, meeting recording, and instant messaging.
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/6-ways-to-make-virtual-meetings-more-efficient.

Live events

Hold any meeting live—large meetings, webinars, company-wide events, and presentations with up to 10,000 attendees inside or outside your organization—with Teams live events.

Live events link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/live-on-demand-event-solutions

Large meetings link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/are-you-ready-to-host-large-scale-virtual-presentations

Audio conferencing

Let people join meetings on the go with a global dial-in number or contact each other directly. All they need is a mobile device and Teams.

Plans and pricing link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/online-meeting#customerstoryregion2

Meeting devices

Start Teams meetings with one-touch join on Microsoft Teams Rooms devices from our certified partners Logitech, Xrestron, Polycom, Lenovo, HP, Yealink.

Devices link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/across-devices

If you have any questions or comments about this post please send me an email at nick@kbizbrokers.com