Constant Contact vs iContact
iContact and Constant Contact are web-based email marketing solutions, that allow you to create and track HTML emails sent to a list of (manged) contacts. While both offer a core of the same CRM features, they also have different approaches when it comes to specific offerings. For instance, pricing is different, monthly email volume is different, design is different and so on.
iContact vs Aweber
If you have clients or prospects you have to followup with them via email. You don't have several choices, either you use your own email client to send them emails now and then, or you use an online email marketing software. The disadvantage of using your own email client is that you have a limit on how many emails you can send at once (Microsoft Outlook should have a limit of about 50 email sent at a time) and you have to do a mail merge, plus you cannot set up automatic email follow-ups. So if you have quite a few clients to contact, the solution is using an online email marketing software. The advantage of an online service is that you can send emails in bulk, you can set automatic follow-ups, and the delivery rate is usually as high as 99%. The disadvantage though is the price, as you have to pay a monthly fee, unlike owning a license for a program where you pay only once and own it. If you want to work professionally and avoid hassles with your email client, use an online email marketing service. There are quite a few email marketing companies, and given that once you sign-up with them you will continue using them for a while, it's important to choose right and pick the best email marketing software. Some of the most popular in this branch are: iContact, Aweber, ConstantContact, Vertical Response, Get Response, Bronto and Mailchimp. I've already covered an article about iContact vs ConstantContact, so this time I wanted to compare iContact vs Aweber. I decided this time to take another approach in comparing iContact and Aweber.
iContact Free Edition
iContact, the large email marketing solution provider, released a free edition on April 12th, 2011. This isn't an unexpected move, considering that some of their large competitors started doing that, what's however surprising is the fact that you are allowed to add up to 500 subscribers and email them for free without paying anything. To me that seems a lot of contacts, and this is obviously targeted for active people/small businesses. To use the free iContact edition you just need to visit their website and sign-up (no credit card information necessary).
Workbooks CRM software review
Workbooks is a UK-based CRM company, founded in 2007, with an emphasis on providing online, cloud-based CRM software for businesses. Their main competitor is Salesforce (SFDC), whose offering they aim to top by delivering data consolidation and integration, as well as a lower cost outlay.
Additional Actions when right-clicking a From or To address
Ever right-clicked in a received email on the From or To email address or name in MS Outlook? If you have smart tags enabled in Outlook then you've seen for sure an annoying menu called Additional Actions that when clicked showed No Additional Actions found. Well, after some research, I was able to find out how to add items to that list.
Read more: Additional Actions when right-clicking a From or To address
Mail Merge using Outlook
If you have a small list of clients and you are using Outlook, one of the solutions to follow-up with them is by using the Mail Merge function. The Mail Merge function allows creating personalized mailing labels, envelopes, form letters, catalogs, e-mails, or faxes for mass distribution.
define CRM
A simple search on Google for define crm will display its main definition as customer relationship management. While it sounds interesting, what does it really mean? Well, the expanded definition gives some hints - CRM could be interpreted as a way to manage the relationship you have with your customers (business relationship). While this is a shallow definition of CRM, it points however in the right direction, it's all about the way you do your business so that you gain, keep and maintain a good relation with existing and future customers.