Most business owners use email every day. Despite the rise in use of Twitter and Facebook, which is a way to potentially communicate with millions of people instantaneously and all at once, email is still the “default” tool for communication by most of us.

In our industry, we encounter many people–both customers of ours and not–who are not sure how their email works. Many people have one primary account, such as yourname@comcast.net, and many other accounts related to their business, such as “sales@”, “info@” “news@” and others. Yet it is confusing how these accounts work together, and also equally difficult know what you should do if you ever get an “over quota” message or people tell you that emails to you can’t be delivered because your inbox is full.

If these are the kinds of questions you have ever asked yourself, head over to the HEROweb site and read the article we just posted, called Email Basics: Accounts versus Aliases.

Are you happy with your email experiences? Let us know!

Welcome to the Learning the Language of Tech Support sessions, where we discuss how to understand what tech support is trying find out from us and how we can communicate effectively in order to get our tech support needs addressed in a timely manner. Lets face it, most of us are very busy and the quicker we can have an issue resolved the better. This series of blog posts will hopefully assist in giving you some background on speeding up the process of getting your technical issue resolved by knowing what to communicate to tech support.

In today’s session of Learning the Language of Tech Support we will be focusing on a common area in which we have all had to contact tech support about, our email. Email has been around since the 70′s and it does not look to be going away anytime soon. So what happens when a tool we have become so dependent on stops working or gives us an error? We will be going over a few common issues that come up with using a tool in which most of us have become quite dependent on.

An issue that is quite common among email users is “I can receive emails, but I cannot send them.” Sound familiar? This issue is one in which there could be several potential causes and solutions. To provide a bit of background on this issue in particular, if you can receive email but not send, it means that something is likely wrong with how your email client is configured or there has been a change on the server that has caused it to work only halfway. This problem is one that is not limited to only desktop or laptop computers, but also encompasses mobile devices such as smart phones or tablets. When getting ready to contact tech support about the issue here is some essential information you will need that they will undoubtedly ask for:

1.    What email client you are using
2.    Incoming and Outgoing server settings
3.    What the server port number for the outgoing mail server is

These three items are pretty easy to find and are the most common questions tech support will ask when you contact them. The first one, Email Client, has a Tech translation of: Program you use to check your email. The most common email clients are: MS Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird and Windows Live Mail. This should be an easy one.

The second can be a little trickier, Incoming and Outgoing servers have a Tech translation of: The addresses in which data is either sent or received through. In other words, the location in which the email client will be connecting to in order to send and or receive the emails. This information is mostly found within the Accounts area of the email client, this is where we go to create a new account and or modify an existing one. Here is the location within the four major email clients:

Outlook 2010:
1.    Go to File > Info > Email > click on the email in question > Internet E-mail Settings

Mac Mail for OS X (10.5 and up)
1.    Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information.

Thunderbird
1.    Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings (for Incoming Mail Server)
2.    Go to Tools > Accounts Settings > Outgoing Server (SMTP) (for Outgoing Mail Server)

Windows Live Mail
1.    In the side menu, right-click on the account in question and select Properties > Servers

Once you have found the Incoming and Outgoing server settings you can even provide those to tech support right off, as it will save a question and thus speed up the process.

The third is a little more tricky to find, the Port Number for the outgoing server has a Tech translation of: network connections, including those that go over the internet, have specific port numbers in which they use to send information. If a port becomes unavailable or is having a problem, then it can stop accepting new data through it, much like a highway; if there is a wreck, then traffic begins to slow down and eventually will come to a crawl. Once this happens the highway is no longer a good way for fast travel from one location to another. As with highways, ports can become bogged down and unusable, which is why there are alternate ports that can be used. Having the current port number handy will allow tech support to know which one is currently being used and allow them to suggest an alternate port, if the issue is stemming from the port.

Outlook 2010:
1.    Go to File > Info > Email > click on the email in question > Internet E-mail Settings
2.    Click on the “More Settings” button and click on the Advanced tab, the ports will be listed

Mac Mail for OS X (10.5 and up)
1.    Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information > click on the current Outgoing server in the drop-down menu and choose “Edit SMTP Server List”
2.    Click “Advanced” and the ports currently available will be listed

Thunderbird
1.    Go to Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings (for Incoming Mail Server) (Ports will be listed on the same screen)
2.    Go to Tools > Accounts Settings > Outgoing Server (SMTP) (for Outgoing Mail Server) (Ports will be listed on the same screen)

Windows Live Mail
1.    In the side menu, right-click on the account in question and select Properties > Servers (Ports will be listed on the same screen)

Knowing this information and providing it right away you are able to give tech support the information they need to diagnose the issue quickly so they can get to the root of the issue.

Have you heard of Google’s new “+1″ button? It parallels the Facebook ‘Like’ button and strengthens Google’s grasp on social media and their attempts to deliver personal, customized, relevant search results.

There is a big difference between Facebook’s system of liking posts and Google’s button, and it has its own unique implications for SEO and blogs, Adwords users, and how you present your business to the masses. For SEO adopters and bloggers, the worry is that a site that isn’t getting “+1s” will be pushed down the search results in favor of sites that are more heavily “liked.” Users can also “+1″ AdWords ads, and although at this time Google says that they won’t use that against their advertisers, they are collecting a lot of information about what ads their users like which we can bet they will find some significant use for.

Check out “Google’s New +1 Button” article, which we just posted on HeroWeb.com, for the complete run down on how you can use this new development to your advantage, as well as these and other pitfalls to be aware of.

Enhancing your website for greater trust and a better customer experience is important, but it can be one of the hardest things to know how to do. We just posted an article on the HeroWeb site about using trust seals on your site.

The article describes what trust seals are (third-party endorsements, essentially, that ensure that your site meets certain trust and security expectations) and some pros and cons about them.

Let us know what your experience has been. Have you ever used trust seals on your site? Did it make a difference in your conversions? Are you thinking about using them? Some sites have seen increased sales when using trust seals, but it can be hard to know whether the increased consumer trust (which hopefully leads to more transactions on your site) is worth the cost of purchasing the seals.

We recently posted an article on the HEROWeb site entitled “Utilize Coupons in Your Online and Email Marketing.” The article goes into some depth about strategies to utilize coupons in your marketing, including how to craft the wording of the coupon so that your customer gets an advantage and you don’t get taken advantage of. The article also includes ideas for ways to distribute your coupons, from ways that you might automatically think of such as emailing them in your newsletters, to offering coupons to shoppers while they’re browsing your site.

Check out our article on implementing coupons and let us know if you have a coupon success story let us know. (Also let us know if you’ve tried coupons and they didn’t work–we might be able to help you figure out why and improve the process for the next time.)

It can be tough to find that “sweet spot” between not too many and not too little—sending emails often enough that your customers receive useful information, yet not waiting too long in between that the customers forget who you are or lose interest. There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, unfortunately. Determining what’s right for your business and your email audience will require a bit of examination.

First of all, if you aren’t already doing email marketing, this article on MightyMerchant’s resource page, “How To Begin An Email Marketing Campaign,” explains in depth how to do just that, from gathering addresses if you don’t have any, to effectively beginning to use the addresses you may already have and track who opens your messages.

Another article we posted in the past, called “Successful Email Marketing,” is complementary to the first article, and discusses things like composing effective subject lines and managing your list of subscribers.

The biggest challenge to determining the best frequency of email marketing is scheduling the time and coming up with good information on a consistent basis. Your email newsletter should have some value in it, besides just offering up products. While it may be difficult to determine an effective maximum number of emails, there is a suggested minimum number. No matter how many contacts you have on your list, you should keep in contact with your list at least quarterly. If more time than three months goes by, you risk your subscribers forgetting why they became interested in your mailing list in the first place. Infrequent messages could lead to a greater number of unsubscribes as people no longer feel your messages are relevant.

Things to think about when determining the frequency of your email marketing are:

1. How often do you add new products? If your inventory changes regularly, perhaps a weekly digest of updates would work well. You would need a very devoted following to send emails weekly or more often, as getting marketing emails on a daily or almost daily basis is often annoying to the consumer and counterproductive.

2. Do you sell products that need continual re-orders? This situation can often be effective with bi-weekly emails reminding people that it’s time to re-order and linking them right to their order pages.

3. For many businesses a monthly emails is a great frequency. This is a prime opportunity to remind people of seasonal or holiday sales, offer discounts or special offers, or highlight one or two products that are new or exciting.

4. Days of the week do matter. People are catching up from the weekend on Mondays and may not be responsive to an email blast. On Thursdays and Fridays, people are wrapping up important work to leave for the weekend or they are often out of the office, so they won’t see your message for days. Tuesdays and Wednesdays typically have greater success rates for opening and responding to email marketing. Statistically mid-week is the best time to send the emails, but many ecommerce sites see high order volume at the start of the week. So, mid-week makes sense but you might want to experiment with other days and examine your open rates.

5. It doesn’t hurt to ask the customer how often they would like to hear from you. Offer a poll question on your website or ask customers at the time of opt-in what frequency they would prefer. Within an email, link people to a preference center where they can set their frequency schedule or topics they want to be kept abreast of. This can make your job of segmenting your email lists by customer base much easier.

6. Follow up is the key. When you have a new contact sign up for your email newsletter, or a new customer who opted in to email, follow up with a thank you or welcome email within 48 hours.

While maintaining a schedule is important—people expect to hear from you at a certain time and notice when they don’t—the really important thing is to send each email message because you have something new, urgent, timely or relevant to tell your recipients, not because you have to meet a publishing schedule you have set for yourself.

Also realize that just because you typically email once a month, or whatever the case may be, if you have big news, it’s perfectly okay to go ahead and send a “special notification” outside of your typical schedule. One of the most appealing aspects of email marketing is its low cost and flexibility, so it can be done on your schedule whenever you have something to say. Just don’t do this doubling up of email every week, or you risk annoying your contacts.

If you have any real life examples of what worked with your email marketing, or what didn’t, let us know.

Once a customer has made a purchase from your site, you don’t want the customer to think that the relationship is over and done and they will never hear from you again. Keep in touch with them, and find out of they are happy with what they ordered. The idea should be: “Thank you for your purchase. What else can we do for you?” Building a follow-up relationship will take time and effort, but the strong customer relationship is worth it.

Once customers purchase something, send them an email order confirmation. Then follow up with order status update including, shipping notice and shipping confirmation emails. Once they receive the item, give them a couple of days to get to know it, then send them a satisfaction survey or review request, and offer a discount code for a future purchase. This kind of value in an email can not only generate revenue but adds value for the customer to continue shopping on your site.

It’s OK to use a little bit of humor in these follow ups. One popular clothing company sends out a review request email shortly after the package arrives. The email is eye-catching and colorful. At the top, it says “It’s Judgement Day.” The email says, in part, “I’m nervously awaiting your verdict. How’s the fit? How about the colour? Does it fit like a glove or itch like a flea? Review your purchase and help your fellow shoppers with their shopping decisions, whilst giving us the thumbs up or down for our part in the whole affair.” The language isn’t stodgy or typically of a corporation. This gives your company personality and helps the customer to feel engaged with wanting to let their feelings known.

In the email are images of the items that were ordered, along with a “write a review” button underneath each one. That not only serves to jog the memory of the person without having to actually go and retrieve the item, but it makes it one-click easy to review it.

Also in this email are links to the website, links to size charts, links to a contact page, and a recommend to a friend link. All of these features add value in the eyes of the customer and lets them know that you’re available and have important information to share. Of course, if you don’t sell clothing, your follow-up email will look different, but the key is to provide real information and make it easy to get the information you want. You want a review of the item and to keep your company in the mind of the consumer so they think of you the next time they want to order something. They want to let someone know they loved or hated the item, and they want the process to be easy. If your email reads and looks just like every other corporate follow up email, they’ll be less likely to differentiate you from the pack.

Setting up a Facebook Fan Page is an important step for any business to take. Here are the steps to setting up a Facebook Page for your business. Remember, a Facebook page will require additional time to update. Be prepared to dedicate extra time to maintaining your page and interacting with fans or work with a firm that can manage your Facebook presence for you.

Steps to Setting up a Facebook Fan Page:

1. First you must have a personal profile for yourself. Create one here: http://www.facebook.com
2. Now go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and create an Official Page for your business.
3. Fill in your company info. Include a blurb about your company. Mention the goal of your Facebook page and why people should “like” your Facebook page. For example: “Like our page and stay informed on the latest news at [Your Company]. We will post tips and special offers.”
4. Upload a Facebook profile picture. I recommend a company logo that people will associate with your brand.
5. Set the default landing page for “non-fans” to your Info page. From your business page, look beneath the status publisher and click Options –> Settings and set the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else” to the info tab.
6. Create your first post using the publisher on your Facebook fan page. Maybe something like “Our Facebook Page is here. Look out for updates on new products and special deals”
7. Update your page anywhere from twice a day to three times a week. This is often the most challenging part because maintaining your page can take time. The more you engage in your Facebook page, the more your fans will engage. Write posts in advance to stay ahead of the game.

Once you have the Basics:

1. Upload photos of your products, your staff, and/or company events.
2. If you have a video about your business upload it in the Videos application.
3. If you have a Twitter account, sync your Facebook page with Twitter so that your Facebook updates will appear on Twitter.
4. Suggest your page to your Facebook friends. (Click the “Suggest to Friends” link beneath your page’s profile picture.”)
5. Announce your Facebook page on your website and/or blog. Add a “Follow us on Facebook” button to these places.
6. Add a link to your Facebook Business Page in your email signature.
7. Announce your Facebook page in your next newsletter.
8. Consider placing a Facebook ad to attract more fans.
9. Sync your Blog with your Business page in the Notes application.
10. Sync your Facebook account to your smartphone so you can make changes on the go.
11. Be sure to “like” HEROweb Marketing & Design on Facebook. We post quick tips on using Facebook to market your business. Let us know about your page and we will “like” your page too.

Helpful Hints:

• To edit anything on your page click “Edit Page” underneath the profile picture. From there you will see a list of Applications (including applications you have added to your page.) Click the edit link under any application to begin editing.
• The best way to view your page is to search for your page’s name in the search field.

Final Note: Facebook is all about interaction with your fans. Make it a two-way conversation. If someone comments on your posts, be sure to respond to them.

With some things, having different service providers makes perfect sense. You go to a mechanic’s shop for a broken transmission, and a tire shop when your car gets a flat. A carpet cleaning company can certainly keep your floors clean, but that’s not who you would hire when your walls need painting. The big difference between these examples and service providers for a website is that the carpet cleaner and house painter don’t need to be able communicate with each other in order to complete their work and do a good job. Many web-related service providers specialize in only one area of website design, marketing or tech support, which means you are left navigating many different vendors when you need service in different areas…

Read full article…

To make it in the Ecommerce game there are a lot of details to stay on top of. I like to think of these details as your assets. Each asset needs to be tracked and cared for. Here is a list of some of the top assets you need to manage:

Your Website. If you are in the Ecommerce biz, it goes without saying that you have a website. Hopefully you have a CMS (Content Management System) for updating your website info, products, and pricing. If not, you better start looking around since being able to actively manage your own website is of paramount importance for running a successful Ecommerce business.

Advertising Spend. If you are doing any type of paid advertising, make sure you have some automated reporting set up so you can stay on top of your advertising spending as well as your Return on Ad Spend. Letting a paid advertising campaign run on cruise control can cause you to burn through a lot of money. So be sure to either track your own campaigns or work with a pro to do the analysis for you.

Domains. Time and again we see site-owners let their domains lapse. Why? Because they have changed their email accounts and never updated their domain registration account. When the renewal notice goes out, they never see it. Be sure to work with a reputable registrar and keep your domain records up-to-date. If you have multiple domains consolidate them with one registrar and do a yearly review of your registrations.

Passwords. I just wrote a post a few days ago on selecting good passwords. As an extension of that discussion you need to put a system in place for managing all your passwords. If you are going full-tilt with Ecommerce, you could easily have a dozen username/password combos to manage. Our quick recommendations: come up with a password creation system and create a list that includes accounts, usernames, and password hints. Don’t keep an easily accessible list of all your usernames and passwords in one place. Such a list represents a significant security vulnerability for your business.

Customer database. There is a strong correlation between your ability to build long term relationships with your customers and your success in the Ecommerce world. Each online order should go into a database that you can utilize later for follow-up offers and customer connections. Equally important is a list of contacts who might not have purchased from you in the past but have expressed an interest in your business or products. If you engage in email marketing, be sure to use industry-accepted practices. You do not want to send emails to customers who don’t want to receive them and you should give your customers the option to opt into your email promotions.

Links. Your success in obtaining top placement in the major search engines relies, in  part, on the links coming into your site. It is your job to encourage links, request them, and do your best to ensure that links coming into your site use link text related to your keyword phrases.

Reputation. In an increasingly social world, more and more customers and associates will have something to say about your business in a range of online venues. Perhaps people will be talking about you on Facebook, private blogs, or review sites like Yelp.com. You want to be in-the-know about what is being said about you and respond when appropriate.

You very well may have other assets that are important to your online business. By putting systems in place to manage all your assets you will be in an excellent position to grow a healthy ecommerce business.