Many business owners are curious if Google Plus is worth the time, “I’m already feeling maxed with Twitter and Facebook I don’t think I have time for another social network” they say. Can it really make a dent in the social media landscape for businesses? These questions from businesses of all shapes and sizes are fair especially given the failures Google has had in the past. With the recent launch of Google Plus business pages, businesses are asking these questions all over again.

What we know is that Google is one of the most powerful companies online. While Facebook is the behemoth of social marketing platforms, Google is mounting what some view as a formidable offering for small business. In this post, you’ll learn why Google Plus pages are important, as well as ideas of what you should be doing to build engagement once you have one.

Google Plus Pages – Why?

1. Social is Key – Google is committed to being social. They know that traffic from social sites converts better. One of the many integration points you’ll begin seeing is on the search result pages. This type of social “loyalty building” for Google Plus users has the potential to gain traction as Google’s social initiative moves full steam ahead. Shown below is a Google search engine result page (SERP), which includes proof from thousands of other Google Plus users, endorsing a given piece of content.
   

   Preview of Google Plus Integration in Search Results when Googling “Google's two-step verification”

2. Traffic – There is substantial SEO value to Google Pages. I’m a fan of being found everywhere, especially by and with Google. Creating a Google+ profile means you have an inbound link to the website the page represents, from a Google property. It’s also a good idea to link your website to the Google Plus page.
3. Easy – Creating pages is a simple process. While not required, it’s important to have a logo, image, or avatar that represents your brand when creating your page. Also, be sure to use “http://” when setting your URL. For more specific information see how to create Google Plus business page for online businesses here.

Google Plus Pages – What?

The question you may have is what can I do once I have a Google Plus page for my business?

1. Build a loyal and engaged following – Share on your social media networks that you created a business page on Google Plus, and invite them to circle you to receive updates there. It would also be a good idea to send a friendly email to your customers encouraging them to ‘Circle’ you on Google Plus. Google Plus ‘Circles’ allow you to segment your followers any way you’d like.
2. Engage with others – By using Google Plus Pages, you can send updates, links, photos, etc, but more than that you can engage with other people and pages on Google plus as your brand. People will have to circle your page back in order for you to comment on their stream updates, and other pages currently allow you to comment if they have comments enabled on stream updates. As you and your brand engage in meaningful ways, you will find others will add you to their circles and create more brand awareness.
3. Host a Hangout (live video chat) – This is the feature that makes Google Plus stand out as a social network. Hosting a Hangout and inviting customers to join in is a great way to engage with your target market. The point isn’t to be heard, rather to listen, and provide meaningful feedback to those on the Hangout. Some ideas for Hangout topics, pick and choose as you see fit:
   • Customer appreciation hangout
   • News and happenings in the industry hangout
   • New Customers this Month, Questions Answered hangout
   • New Product Preview hangout
   • Tools of the Trade hangout

In the end, while Google Plus business pages aren’t perfect, you can be sure they are here to stay and will likely improve. Google knows its social initiative must succeed to propel the company forward ...

​It's that time of the year when you run to the shop to kick start your shopping season.

​Economy is not exactly in the pink of health at the moment. It is believed and proven that one of the factors that drive the economy is the growth of small business in the community. Boosting the economy is not a priority on your agenda or mine but what if we contribute little in the way we shop?

This was the underlying idea behind the creation of the Small Business Saturday. ​It started out last year when the American Express OPEN (small business services wing of Amex) created the Small Business Saturday to bring alive the spirit of neighborhood shopping. Their motto is 'Shop small, Shop local'. Today more than 2.4 million people are aware and have 'liked' the 'Small Business Saturday' and many have pledged a small portion from their wallet to the neighborhood store. 

Now while the community gets ready to support the cause, small business owners need to get their act together and be equipped to welcome the eager shoppers and the efficient management that follows soon after. During this season, the number and frequency of visits by shoppers increases tremendously. There's money flowing in and out and inefficient management can often lead to unhappy results.

The 'special personal touch' is what differentiates a small business from the rest. Managing a small business is not an easy task. The fundamentals of running a business are the same, be it small or big. You need plenty of time and resources to brace this period. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to increase the 24 hour limit but there is a magic trick to save time and make your work life more productive. 

Go Cloud.

Cloud computing comes to the aid of small business owners by providing simpler and smarter solutions for efficient management. Zoho was built exactly on that notion and we constantly strive to help our customers save time and increase their productivity. The online applications manage your customers, send invoices, provide intuitive reports and manage your accounting among many other things. You don't have to do everything by yourself. Delegate it to cloud. So giddyup. 

Be armed with cloud computing this shopping season and spend the saved moments to add that 'special personal touch' to everything you do.

Small Business Saturday is November 26, after Black Friday and before Cyber Monday, where people are encouraged to support local entrepreneurs by patronizing their businesses. Whether you’re a business owner or passionate about supporting entrepreneurs across America, I’ve compiled a number of helpful resources to help you fuel the small business economy.

Before you commit to waking up after Thanksgiving at 2AM to rush over to Wal-Mart or Best Buy for the next discounted gadget, consider supporting a local business. It’s too often that small businesses – especially local ones – are passed up in favor of big-box stores and simply can’t thrive during the holidays. Here is an insightful infographic that explains in vivid detail on why shopping local is better for local communities.

After the Thanksgiving holiday, it’s likely you and your friends will be drowning in Black Friday sales and promotions. Small businesses simply don’t have the advertising horsepower (or dollars) to compete at this level. However, many small businesses are offering promotions for Small Business Saturday, and so you won’t feel guilty that you’re paying a premium. If you’re an American Express cardmember, you can even receive a $25 credit simply for supporting a small business.

Talk About & Support Small Business Saturday

• Pledge to shop small businesses on Facebook
• Post a Tweet supporting Small Business Saturday
• Learn more about Small Business Saturday from American Express.
• Like your local small businesses on Facebook
• White House: Support Your Local Businesses on “Small Business Saturday”

Business Owners: Promote Your Small Business on Small Business Saturday

• Print In-Store Signage for Small Business Saturday
• Follow Advice from the Small Business Saturday Checklist [PDF]
• Upload a Video with Your Business’ Story to YouTube
• Small Business Trends: Show the Right Hustle on Small Business Saturday
• MarketingProfs: 7 Ways to Make Small Business Saturday Big for Your Business
• Track the Latest Small Business Saturday Buzz

Here’s a short video that explains how Small Business Saturday works:

Are you running a special offer in support of Small Business Saturday? Go ahead and post it on our Facebook Wall and share the details. Our fans and friends are here to support you!

[Image credit: © American Express]

Recently, I shared how Infusionsoft customer Printer Bees increased the productivity of their lead capture and follow-up activities using Infusionsoft’s sales and marketing software. Now, I will explain how they use personalized and automated follow up to wow their prospects and customers.

In today’s digital world, no customer wants to get the same messages as everyone else. They want personalized service targeted at their specific needs and wants. Think about it this way: If someone came in your store looking for a scarf would you show them the bathing suit section? No. Same goes when customers inquire about you online.

The reality is that it can be tough for a small business with limited time and a small staff to give this kind of personal attention to every prospect and customer. That’s why using technology like Infusionsoft’s sales and marketing software can be so beneficial to small businesses. It helps them increase the productivity of the activities they are doing and shines a light on the opportunities that they might not know exist. As with any new technology, there are best practices that should be followed to get the benefits.

Printer Bees is a great example of sales and marketing automation at its best.

Marketing Automation Can Be Human

There comes a time when a business can’t scale beyond the capacity of its employees. This is when marketing automation can help, but it’s important that businesses don’t forget that people buy from people. Don’t make the experience on the other end dry or boring by creating messages that don’t feel human. Printer Bees lives by this philosophy. It’s ingrained in their customer service process. Infusionsoft is helping them maximize their customer service efforts by automating their marketing in sophisticated, intelligent ways.

Once someone requests a print sample, Infusionsoft triggers an automated email sequence. Printer Bees Founder, Nadine Larder explains, “The follow up emails, which are spread over a month, demonstrate to our leads that Printer Bees cares about them and that we are committed to quality customer service and following up on their requests.”

Printer Bees always sends the emails from the same person. That way people feel more connected to them during and after the buying process. “People open emails from people they know, a name they recognize or is familiar, a person who has provided value in the past,” says Larder. “Our phone number is also posted everywhere so they know if they want to talk to a human, they can.”

Staying in Touch After the Sale

Many small businesses spend so much of their time trying to convert sales that they unintentionally neglect happy and loyal customers. We all know it’s far easier (and less expensive) to market to existing customers.

Printer Bees uses Infusionsoft to provide that type of proactive service to its prospects so they become customers, but they also provide this level of service after the sale so customers buy from them again and again. No leads fall through the cracks. No customer feels like old news. Everyone feels highly valued resulting in more sales and better customer loyalty – and ultimately more revenue. 

“After the sale is when our follow-up magic really happens,” Larder explains.

Larder walked me through a few of her post-sale follow up campaigns that help Printer Bees take customers and turn them into raving fans.

1. Customer Just Ordered

Using Infusionsoft, Printer Bees sends an email to new customers thanking them for their order. The email includes details about what will happen next in the process. This initial email is frequently opened because they just ordered and are eager to know the status of their printing job.  

The first email includes the name, number and email address for the Printer Bees Account Manager (AM) assigned to their account. “Every client is assigned an AM,” says Larder. “Calling customer service at any company ...

It’s no secret that working with small business owners is our passion. We have over 7,500 amazing customers using Infusionsoft to nurture and convert leads, grow sales and save time. Every day, we hear from users rockin’ their apps finding more time to spend with family and doing the things they love. But what about the thousands of small business owners who aren’t using Infusionsoft and are pressured to find the time and resources to grow and thrive?

Good news! We have revamped our Customer Referral program to benefit current customers and enable us to reach out to more small business owners who are ready to take their sales and marketing to the next level. We overhauled the program to include extra giveaways, cooler rewards and more options. The assortment of rewards is huge from travel vouchers to gift cards to Infusionsoft services – you can choose what reward best fits your needs!

Referring a customer and reaping the benefits is easy. You can visit infusionsoft.com/refer and enter your contact information, along with your Infusionsoft application name (e.g., company.infusionsoft.com) and your friend’s contact information. Or, you can visit your My Account area in your application to refer a friend. Here’s a quick video from Joe Manna showing you how easy it is:

For every successful referral, you have the opportunity to beef up your business with more Infusionsoft services, choose from an assortment of personal rewards or use your reward to attend the most exciting user conference of the year, InfusionCon 2012.

The bigger the Infusionsoft community becomes, the more networking, collaboration and value we can provide small businesses. Some details do apply, so be sure to read those first and help us help your friends discover the power of Infusionsoft!

Last Thursday night, Infusionsoft CEO and Co-founder Clate Mask was recognized as the Business Leader of the Year at Arizona’s Governor’s Celebration of Innovation event hosted by the Arizona Technology Council. We’re incredibly proud of this achievement as it reflects the entrepreneurial wisdom and inspiring leadership Clate brings to Infusionsoft. Every. Single. Day. 

Under Clate’s leadership, Infusionsoft has excelled in employee growth and has indisputably become the hottest tech company to work for in Arizona. We have retained an award-winning company culture where people love to come to work. We have strong, sustained customer growth. And we are a key contributor to the local Phoenix business community in supporting local entrepreneurship.

We’re thrilled for this public recognition of Clate’s accomplishment as CEO—now more people get to witness just what a great guy he is, something Infusionites know very well. In accepting his award last night, Clate (true to form) moved the spotlight from himself to instead, his team, crediting the success of the company to the leadership team, company employees, our fantastic customers and the vibrant small business community. “I’m honored to receive this award and very proud of Infusionsoft’s success. Our growth and accomplishments are a testament to the Infusionsoft team’s unfailing dedication to our customers and the small business community. Our dream is to revolutionize the way small businesses grow and we will continue to pursue innovation so we can better serve our customers and the technology community.”

The Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year Award is presented by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona Technology Council, honoring distinction in entrepreneurship, community involvement and management expertise. It is awarded to an individual who contributes to Arizona’s technology industry through sustained growth of their company.

Check out a few photos from the reception on Thursday night:

The latest version of DrivenCRM, 3.0.4, was released today.  Enclosed are the update notes on what is included in this release.  

New Enhancements:

1. Sales Pipeline feature – documentation and videos for training – (soon to come).

2. Template creator and editor – documentation and videos for training – (soon to come).

3. Ability to Activate/Deactivate Countries – must be an administrator level user to gain access to this area.

a. Choose Options and Utilities, Company Preferences

b. Navigate to Company Setup Menu

c. Select The Country List menu

4. Additions to Resource/Employee Setup

a. Choose Options and Utilities, Company Preferences, Employee Setup

b. Double click to choose an existing employee

c. MAIN – Basic user information

d. ADDRESS – address for that users location. Informational only area

e. COMMISSION – allows for configuration of that particular employees structure – percentage on items that pay commission based on either sell or profit

f. SECURITY – moved from main area to specific tab. No change in functionality. Set user password and role(s). See KB article on security and access roles for details on what roles allow.

5. Ability to Create an Appointment confirmation email template and to send the appointment confirmation to contacts from the appointment scheduler.

a. Choose Options and Utilities, Company Preferences

b. Navigate to Knowledge Base Template to create. Must be an administrator to access this area.

c. Once template is created users are able to check off a box when scheduling appointment that will send the email confirmation template out to the contact/contact email address on record for that scheduled appointment. This box must be manually checked off by the user and cannot be set as a default.

6. Phone/Call Email Screen now has the ability to create a follow up while in this window. You will no longer get the follow up creation window AFTER saving a phone call entry or sending an email. Check the box at the top of the communication window to create a follow up, there are icons to the right for adding notes, assigning to a different person then yourself (your login) and setting a date and time as well as reminders. Uncheck the box if you do NOT wish to set a followup.

7. Email screen now has a check box to do a read receipt (read receipts come back into your normal email program “inbox” not into Driven.

8. Ability for SALES only role to see unassigned leads – create a new workspace to utilize, added a component for this.

9. Ability to set vendor 1 and vendor 1 item cost while adding an item to a quote/sales order. To utilize, go to Item research link to add line item to quote/order (feature not available through quick add), once item is located double click. There is now a radio button to “LINK TO VENDOR”. Answer YES, next in the drop down select the preferred vendor and set the buy price/cost. When you save item and return to order this will also make an update to the item vendor preference. Also, when you create a purchase order from this sales order (must be a sales order not a quote) it will automatically default that buy/price and cost and that vendor to the sale (for margin) and for the purchase order.

10. New Cash Sale/Quick Sale Feature

a. A selection box allows the order to go directly into history, defaults to ‘yes’ for cash sale and ‘no’ if you pick a contact.

11. Multi-Pay Invoices

a. During order-entry, selecting ‘take a payment’ will show other invoices not paid yet, check the boxes for the other invoices to pay at the same time.

12. New Sales Order allows contact creation on the fly  

a. When the check box is checked to update the profile, Select ‘Contact Address’ from shipping options and enter a new contact name, overwriting the one that is there, Driven will create a new contact record for the account).  Select Account Bill-To, or Account Ship-To and update the address, Driven will update the account record address.

13. Options & Utilities.. Company Preferences… Shipping Integration, New option to configure manual delivery fees/shipping rates.  Specify a zip code and the desired ...

It's been a year since Zoho Support was launched. Our customers used it, liked it, gave us feedback- positive and negative, asked for new features, made suggestions and proposed ideas. This is what we came up with: a new Setup UI, with a clean, compact look designed to help you set up your Zoho Support account easily.

At Capsule HQ we like to stay paper free. We keep all our paperwork digital which in addition to enhancing our green cred, means we never have to go through stacks of papers or filing cabinets to find our documents. So when we needed a process for getting legally binding signatures from employees and partners, we wanted a solution that could load a document from Google Apps and allow it to be signed easily, without printing or scanning. There are a few solutions for this in the market, but the one we choose was RightSignature which appealed to us with fair pricing and a simple, elegant approach. The good news for our customers is that RightSignature have integrated with Capsule and so you can now use RightSignature to easily send contracts, NDA’s, and forms to your customers and other contacts for legally binding e-signature online. You’ll need an account with RightSignature to take advantage of the integration. For detailed instructions on how to link it with Capsule, visit our support page on the RightSignature integration. Check out this video to see it in action:

CRM makes sense for optimized marketing and reputation building, but as SMBs are discovering social CRM, they’re actually creating new business models, explained Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials and author of a recent research paper on SMBs and social CRM.

Leary goes on to explain that we’ve had adhoc examples of companies using Facebook and Twitter to engage with customers, but now we’re seeing a shift to make social CRM more strategic to business development. Here are a couple of examples Leary noted:

Community as extension of employee base: SMBs are consciously growing communities allowing the participants to act as an organic service and sales force.

Extend products and services: Using feedback from the community, SMBs are pulling in different cloud services to create new offerings.

 

We are proud to announce the launch of our new interface, featuring an action box that lets you launch myERP's features and search for your business data.

 

This new interface is now available to users currently signing up for a new account.  To our existing users, we will send invitations to upgrade to the new interface in the near future.

 

If you've signed up prior to 11/10/2011, you should continue to log in using the link in your email, or by going to https://saas.myerp.com/login

 

For any questions or concerns about the new version, please post in the "Ask Questions" topic, "New Action Box UI"

 

 

 

Happy myERPing!

Consider this. You have created a beautiful monthly financial report using Zoho Reports, that you need to share with your CEO and the various business heads of regions. The CEO would like to see the data across regions while the regional heads would like to see the data from his/her own region alone. Previously, you would have made multiple copies of the report you created and shared a report each, to your CEO and to each business head. Now, this has been made simpler. You can apply filter criteria for each of the users you are sharing the report with and achieve it all with just a single report. This brings in two big benefits:

• Avoid unnecessary crowding of reports due to duplication
• More fine-grained control over data that is being shared

'Filter Criteria' is accessible from the Sharing wizard. You can refer to the help documentation here. Use the new sharing filter criteria in Zoho Reports and see many of your old duplicated reports all cleaned up. Let us know how it goes.

"Don't think about great ideas, think about people's needs."

- El Mau Nuñez

"Cash Flow is Not a Paycheck" - Allen Gardner

"Great service means repeat business." - Carol Ann Harstad

"Get out of your office and meet your potential clients." - Jennifer Unruh

"Don't wait, it'll never happen if you don't start." - WireSpeed Systems

"If it ain't profitable, it's a bad business" - Duncan Yip​

"Take a holiday..." - Martin Grill

Those are valuable pieces of business advice from our customers on Facebook.

What's the best business advice you've ever received? Tell us, by dropping a comment here!

Bug tracking is something software development teams deal with on a daily basis. For most developers, it is a frustrating experience to submit, organize and then fix bugs day in day out. And over a period of time this can become a tedious, repetitive and time consuming process for developers which might lead to delay in addressing their customer needs.

On a similar note, we got a request from one of our user:

Can we add or create a web form for our customers within our website (this is how we currently manage our projects and communicate with customers).  I would set up an additional tab within my customer site -- called "Submit a Ticket".  can we do this ?

Well, now Zoho BugTracker solves this challenge by eliminating the need to file bugs without actually logging into BugTracker with the Web to Bug form. The new Web to Bug form offers the best way to submit a bunch of bugs much faster than usual. With this, your team becomes much more efficient and productive by focusing their complete attention on just one core activity: fixing bugs                  

Where can you find this option?
Just login to your BugTracker, go to Bugs Settings and there you can find the option to create your own customized web to bug form. Generate the iFrame code snippet for this Web to Bug form and embed that in your website. So from now on, the bugs filed in that form gets automatically populated in your bugs database.

Note: Web to Bug form is available for Enterprise and Premium customers and is accessible by Portal Owner, Admins and Managers.

Learn more about this feature at Web to Bug form

Here's the summary of other important features rolled out as part of this update :

Rename bugs tab
Great news for everyone ! You can rename your bugs tab. We had lots of requests coming from users, asking for the tab name to be renamed and finally it's here. Start renaming your bugs tab e.g: Tickets, Issues like the way you wish.

Note: This feature is available for all paid plans and is accessible by Portal Owner, Admins and Managers.

Export your bugs with description
Export your bugs instantly in the desired formats (xls/csv) along with a description. This new option to include the description helps you to figure out the bugs being exported at a glance.

Finally, refreshing new look for Bugs
With this update, your bugs view and bug details page has evolved to better reflect how you actually work with your team. Now you can easily customize columns in Bugs view and of course add a resolution or changesets using contextual pop-ups with ease.

To get started, visit http://www.zoho.com/projects/help/view-issues.html

While you start using these new features to fix your bugs fast, we will be back soon with a very interesting feature to talk about. Until then, enjoy bug tracking with Zoho. Ofcourse, we're all ears at support@zohoprojects.com