Using Facebook to Market your Business

Posted on July 22, 2011 by admin

Almost everyone these days has heard of Facebook. The very popular social media site now has over half a billion users. All of these users represents a potential client base. Below are some tips on how to get started with Facebook. First, you need to set up a page. In the past these pages were known as Fan Pages, but Facebook has recently changed them to simply Pages. By doing this, people that want to become fans of the page no longer have to be elected, the just simply like the page. This was a good move because being a fan of a business or its products or services intimidated some users who felt it sounded like too much of a commitment. However, most members don’t have any problems with sharing which products and services they like. This is subject to change, but you can find Ads and Pages by clicking on the linked word “More” somewhere in the middle of the left pane when looking at your Facebook Home page. Once the left pane is expanded, click on “Ads and Pages”, then click on the ” Create Page” button. Select the type of page you want to create, and assign it a name. Check the box indicating that you have the authority to represent the person, business, brand, or product you are setting a page up for, click on “Create Official Page”, and you’re in business. Once the page is created, you need to configure and customize it. Add a logo or photo, and basic information about the business, product, or brand you want to promote. At that point, you need to get other Facebook users to “like” your page and start to build an audience. How To Attract Customers: The first thing Facebook suggests is that you invite all of your Facebook friends to “like” your new page. That may be fine, but understand that your friends are probably already familiar with your company, or its products and services, and that–at least as a marketing and customer relations tool–there is probably little value in having your friends see the page. In fact, one of the primary advantages of the Facebook page is that you can interact with Facebook members without letting them connect with your inner-circle of friends. Try one or more of the Social Plugins widgets available from Facebook. You can use them on the company Web site, or blog to promote the existence of the Facebook page. Inviting your Facebook friends may defy the goal of setting up the page, but if your business has an established e-mail, newsletter, or blog following those are exactly the audience you want to connect with your Facebook page. Post or distribute an announcement with a link to the Facebook page and invite them to join the community. You should also add a link to the Facebook page to your standard e-mail signature, and you can cross-link with Twitter–both to promote the existence of the Facebook page and to cross-post content so it appears on the Facebook page and on Twitter simultaneously. If you have a budget, and want to pursue Facebook members more aggressively, you can purchase a Facebook ad to promote the existence of the page as well. How To Engage Customers: There is little point in going to the effort of building a Facebook page and attracting an audience if you don’t follow through to engage customers. Now that you have built an audience for your Facebook page, you have to give the audience a compelling reason to visit the page. The rules of the Facebook page are similar to the rules for effectively building an audience for a blog. Make sure you are adding content frequently–preferably at least daily. You want to provide a reason for the Facebook page audience to check in and see what’s new. Equally important as the frequency of posting is the content of the posts. Customers want to be informed and engaged, not pitched and harassed. It’s OK to tie in your products and services where they’re relevant, but don’t simply use the Facebook page as a platform for marketing soundbites. You can post news or stories related to your business and provide unique commentary or insight. You can also use the Facebook page to provide tips, tricks, or information content. Rather than just talking at the audience, though, try to incite comments and feedback from the members to foster a sense of community with the customers. Facebook represents a huge opportunity to market your business and promote your products and services. Make sure you take advantage of the massive audience Facebook has to offer.

A good support for small busines CRM software

Posted on September 7, 2010 by admin

aefore we continue let us get it clear about the CRM software.

What is CRM software?
CRM software is nothing but the Customer Relation Management software. The CRM software is a web based CRM software/application which is used for arranging and organizing the customers’ data. The stored data comprise the information about sales, lead, marketing and the support etc.

The CRM software makes the full profile of the customer’s information regarding the buying and other purchases to make other members of the organization or network have up to date information.

The usability of the web based CRM software becomes clear from the following fact. If your member receives an email of any customer regarding the services info which he bought or an okay sentence, what your member will do if he does not know about the reason, why the customer has sent the mail? Hence with the help of web based CRM software this situation of uncertainty can easily be solved.

One more important aspect about the CRM software is that, with the help of the CRM software you can save money as well as time also. It is a well known fact that a successful organization likes to do the business with the current and past clients instead of searching for the new ones. Hence the CRM software can play an important role in maintaining a good contact between you and the clients.

One more reverse side of the CRM software is that they are not always cheap hence getting CRM software needs little bit mind along with the investment of money.

One of the good ways to select the right type of CRM software is to have a free trial. Today there are lots of free CRM softwares available on the internet, on a trial basis. Even the big companies of the CRM software provide the trial. Hence by getting a free trial you can easily decide the right type of CRM software suitable for your business. In other words these trial softwares are nothing but the free CRM software by which the small budget business can get the benefits.

Unfortunately many small businesses do not know about the CRM software and because of that they fail in their work productivity. In fact the CRM software is an incredible marketing application.
The CRM software also makes the business to make good impressions on the mind of the clients.

You just imagine if a customer calls your organization for an enquiry but the person who receives the calls doesn’t know anything about his enquiry what impression will be made on the customers mind. On the other hand with the help of CRM software any member of your organization will be able to give the exact and right information hence making a good impression on customers mind.

Software as a Service (saas) Explained

Posted on September 7, 2010 by admin

Software as a Service (SaaS) is method of using the software by businesses and interested parties where the software is hosted by the vendor of the software and is delivered to the customers via a web browser on Internet. The same piece of code is used by hundreds of users distributed globally and is hosted in a central location by the vendor. There are many names for this like “on-demand”, “remotely-hosted” and “Application service providers (ASP)”.

The customer who is using this service pays the vendor or host of the software on per-use basis. There is lot of hype about SaaS in the market about its advantages and disadvantages from customer’s point of view.

In this article I explain this in detail about SaaS so that you will be better informed to take a decision about SaaS.

Potential: The concept Software as a Service was first circled in the late 1990’s and since then it has gained much importance and acceptance among the users. Now, it looks like every major software company is providing such service in one form or another like antivirus software which is installed on the user’s pc and gets updated via web, or any software for that matter. According to Gartner 30 percent of New customer service and support application investments will be through SaaS model by 2012. It also predicts that all forms of SaaS-delivered customer service applications in the call center will grow by more than 20 percent per year through 2012. This shows the potential the SaaS business model has and its acceptance by the users. There is wide variety of companies involved in the SaaS business model. Although it is in existence since fairly good amount of time, it is still evolving and companies are still struggling a bit to push it into mainstream. One of the successful companies based on this model is Salesforce.com providing the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software services via the Internet.

Features:

1. No infrastructure costs: The first and foremost advantage of this model is someone hosting your software and you are saving on the upfront license and ongoing maintenance fees to run it on your own infrastructure. This is the primary reason for many companies to shift to this service.
2. No Human capital:Less human resources are needed to maintain the software running and thus saving costs. This also helps SaaS companies as they need to use fewer resources for large number of customers as the servers are located in a central location.
3. No maintainance headache and thus less risky: It is the responsibility of the vendor or service provider to keep the software and servers running it up-to-date with patches and thus provide maximum uptime and fewer overheads for the customers using the services.
4. Low cost of implementation: There is a little bit of disagreement over this among the users, as even though it looks low cost option, it may be expensive over time as you will pay for the service on an on-going basis. This is good for companies offering this kind of service as revenues are predictable and more sustained for long term thus helping them in better forecasting, planning and positioning themselves in the market.
5 Less customization: Customers using this service has less scope for customizations as they need to use the same code base used by multiple other users. Even though the companies offering these services boasts that they are highly customizable for each user according to their needs, it is not generally done in practice from my experiences.
6. Security: I have seen there are some apprehensions among customers in terms of security for their data and systems; particularly if there business-critical applications are hosted and maintained by external companies.  In such case, one can avail these services for less business-critical tasks such as partner management software, Human resources management, etc.
7. Integration and Scalability:Often it is found that these services are not easy to integrate with other applications in the enterprise. There needs to be lot of work done to integrate with other applications as each application has own set of standards and business processes. It is found that SaaS offerings are much scalable as corporations can increase the system resources based on the need of the hour and depending upon the business plans. This will help the companies to reduce on the infrastructure costs for planned for the future. Also it must be noted that sometimes as these services are not customized for each user, they need to be customized seperately to integrate it with other applications of the company and it is not a simple process. Therefore, these services are best suited for Small and Medium businesses (SMB) rather than big corporations.

The Software as a Service is available in many areas of a business like HR management, accounting, legal services, partner management, Customer Relationship management, Email, IT security and content management services. There are number of companies offering the Software as a Service today. Some of them are Salesforce.com, Oracle, Microsoft, WebEx, Citrix, SAP,GoToMeeting.

Future of SaaS:

It is exciting to see the future of the SaaS business model. Already there are signs of it becoming more and more popular as the number of companies which are providing the offerings based on it and number of customers signing up for these applications are increasing day-by-day, especially in the global economic slow down. As witnessed recently more number of big corporations are joining this party as the traditional way of using the software is becoming more of burden for customers.

I am a IT consultant in the Customer Relationship Management(CRM)domain. In my blog Bizknowledge.net I share my knowledge gained through out my career and life’s experiences which will be powerful, useful and ready to implement. You will find many interesting articles and tips related to Blogging, Marketing and Business at my blog.


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Choose The Best Business CRM

Posted on September 7, 2010 by admin

Choosing the best business CRM can be quite a taxing job. There are hundreds of CRMs to choose from in the market and it is difficult to finalize one. Some CRMs are better suited for one type of business than the others. However, it is a fact that all businesses need to make new customer relationships and improve the old ones.

Which One?

Choosing the right software can be difficult but not impossible if a business considers certain factors. There are different functions that a CRM can perform. For instance, it can help make a list of targeted customers and their contact details. It can also help maintain a “to do” list and lay down the tasks to be done by the sales personnel to attract customers.

Reports made by the sales personnel can be extracted and forwarded automatically to the managers using this tool. Now, the sales reps can just concentrate on their main job – selling rather than managing reports. A business CRM is the most profitable way to be seen on the web.

CRM solutions help a business to scrutinize and direct all facets of critical customer relationships to better customer satisfaction, and increase customer loyalty.
 
How It Works?

CRM solutions focus on three main business areas: sales, marketing and customer service. By systematizing key business functions, CRM helps to augment employee performance, rationalize marketing, and center on business customers.

Some of the tools that support the sales process are:
* Contract management
* Sales administration
* Customer preference management
* Lead management

Customer service tools help a business to develop a storehouse of customer service inquiries, to evaluate customer satisfaction and to develop a knowledge base of existing customer service behavior patterns. Marketing tools usually help business users to develop and administer marketing campaigns and to trail marketing campaign success rates.

Invest in a good business CRM to manage tasks like generating leads, processing orders, following up with customers, and collecting cash.

Achieve sales and management goals faster with Quality Integrity at www.qualityintegrity.com. Their Microsoft CRM software helps to support the best sales reporting and business CRM solutions for any organization.

Unlock Microsoft Office: Affordable CRM

Posted on September 6, 2010 by admin

If you have Microsoft Office, it means that you already have an affordable CRM solution. Why do you need to develop another one? Cut costs, unlock Microsoft Office, and take an in-depth look at what Microsoft Office has to offer to successfully manage your customers. Plan, analyze, and make decisions with the help of Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and other tools that Microsoft Office has to offer.

What can Microsoft Office do for you?

Businesses around the world start their day reading/sending email in Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook is a reliable tool that can help you track all your customer interactions and it also ensures that nothing falls through the cracks when it comes to cultivating customer relationships. For example, you can set reminders on a customer’s birthday which will help you build an interpersonal and caring service for your customer.

If your employees are not knowledgeable enough about the in depths of Microsoft Office, don’t worry, they can always be trained. It is very easy and simple! For example, an employee who uses Microsoft Word to type out mailing labels can reduce processing time by as much as 80% by gaining a mastery of the mail merge feature through the training. And it is very easy to learn.

If you or your employees are always on the move, Microsoft Office Web Applications can help access business information from anywhere. These browser-based versions of Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Word make it much easier to access and update information while you or your employees are away from the office.

Microsoft Office is inclusive of a coauthoring feature which enables team members to collaborate on documents easily (Microsoft Word, Microsoft One Note and Microsoft PowerPoint) in real time and avoid email exchanges and having to combine edits.

No matter what activity you are performing —whether it’s formatting or analyzing data—Microsoft Excel is a tool that is most useful to successfully complete a task. You will undoubtedly experience faster calculations in its formula-intensive worksheets because Microsoft Office Excel supports multiple processors. In Microsoft Office Excel, you can quickly format the data in your worksheet by applying a theme and by using a specific style. These themes can be shared across other Office programs, such as Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office PowerPoint. You can even enhance looks of the document by using Excel-specific items, such as Excel tables, charts, PivotTables, shapes, or diagrams. In Office Excel, you can quickly arrange your worksheet data to find the answers that you need by using enhanced filtering and sorting.

Customer Relationship Management solutions are designed to serve as a simple yet powerful tool to streamline business processes and effectively manage and improve customer relations. At the same time, Microsoft Office applications serve as the complete end-to-end solution for all business needs with the added benefit of zero maintenance cost.

We understand that by unlocking Microsoft Office, an affordable CRM, the following business solutions can be taken care of effectively and efficiently:

•    Create and accurately track all marketing activities

•    Effectively manage critical customer data

•    Fine tune customer relationship

Microsoft Office with its set of powerful rich tools can help manage and improve sales, marketing, and build strong customer relations and loyalty. There is actually no need for you to develop your own CRM.  You can cut down the costs of developing a tailor-made CRM.  You can make use of Microsoft Office.  Unlock Microsoft Office today and in it you will find an affordable CRM.

Michael T. Irving is the Founder, President and CEO of Keynetx Inc. With more than 27 years of experience he provides businesses with high quality, cost-effective IT solutions and teaches them how to Unlock Microsoft Office tools to save money on CRM. For more information visit www.keynetx.com