Digital Cards – Stand out from the crowd!
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Businesses now send more emails than phone calls or posted letters. Email is now the most widely used tool for interaction between businesses and individuals. Over 50 BILLION e-mails are sent each day worldwide and of these emails sent 99% of them do not carry a company’s brand name or logo or are in any way customized to reflect the identity of the business.
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Most companies invest a lot of money to create a website, logo design, paper stationary, etc. but somehow are reluctant to make a very small investment to CUSTOMIZE their emails. How many people visit your website? How many letters do you post? How many Emails do you send? Many market experts are coming to recognize that email can play a powerful role in developing customer relationships and building strong brand identity.
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The reality is that any type of business, big or small, would never send out a letter without the appropriate letter and footer. Why then are emails, the most dominant form of business communication, sent on blank pages?
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Small businesses (home office or people who have a virtual office) to medium size businesses can now take advantage of new tools and technologies that were previously only available to large companies, at affordable prices. Some of these tools allow small businesses to provide the professional appearance rivalled only by Fortune 500 companies, which allows them to compete and differentiate themselves in today’s competitive marketplace. So, everyone can now be equal in the Customer email INBOX!
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So what are the different options / tools available to choose from to customize / brand your emails?:
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Signatures for Business Email: In use by the majority of Fortune 500 companies, the branding of day-to-day ad-hoc email communications through the use of email "signatures" has entered the mainstream. This has now become a popular branding choice for many smaller businesses. As shown in graphic below.
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Signatures for Business Email: Maximum visual impact and a traditional "letter writing" feel with a letterhead/logo, just like your custom paper stationery. As shown in graphic below.
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The above two low-cost and super-simple approaches will immediately improve your brand recognition, make your email stand-out, effectively distribute your contact information and provide direct links’ back to your business (or website). The pricing models for the above two options is consistent with a small company’s budget for a potentially high return on investment (ROI).
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Customized Emails are just like standard emails with the exception that they contain text, images and links, just like a web page. The ability to add graphics means that you can reinforce your branding by including your logo and using your corporate colours in the design of your email. This provides a far more professional impression to the person you are sending the email to and helps develop brand recognition.
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One should also always remember that customized / branded emails are solicited emails and are not, therefore, Spam. The major advantages of these solutions is that users are not required to make any behavioral changes when emailing, or even change the settings of their existing email system, such as Microsoft's Outlook® and/or Outlook Express®.
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Top 5 Reasons why you should customize your Emails:
- BRANDING. Maintaining consistency with branding strategy and visual identity.
- IMPRESSIVENESS. Enhance the professional appearance of communications by branding the email messages your company sends daily.
- INTERACTIVITY. Recipients can click on template links to reach online links.
- RESULTS. Driving qualified visitors to relevant pages on your Web site can increase return on investment (ROI).
- EASE OF USE. If outsourced to a company, a basic template can be ready to deploy in few hours.
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Please keep in mind when you have customized email installed on your email system, you STILL do have the option of choosing whether to send a normal simple email or branded email - just like paper stationery.
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So don’t you think its time that you thought about how to maximize your email communications in line with today’s world!
