Retaining Customers in a Digital World

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Creating a Newsletter FYI App using simplyfyi

Posted on April 25, 2012 by

In this post, I’ll show you how I created a FYI App for our April 2012 Email Newsletter. The Newsletter was sent to our subscribers with a link to this article. The idea of this post is to show you how the Email Editor Toolbars and shortcuts can be used to create professional looking email communications very easily. Using the ideas in this post, you can create your own newsletters and brand them as you wish.

In two other posts, I have written about the simplyfyi Email Editor Toolbar and about the Shorcuts and Personalization Toolbar. I recommend reading these two posts first. Or you can read this post and then refer back to the recommended posts.

I will be making references to the Shortcuts toolbar. To make it easy for readers, here is an image of the Shortcuts toolbar.

To create a Newsletter FYI App, click the “Create a new FYI App” button on the Control Panel page. Then select the “Email” as the channel of communication. Then, specify an email address (I usually type in my own email address so I can test). The next page is the Email Scribe page which is where you will format the email message. This post focuses on the Email Scribe page and the actions performed with the Email Editor.

If you notice, the newsletter has two columns; a wider column on the left which has the bulk of the content. We call this the “Body” of the message. Then there is a “Side Column” which has some useful information and links. I will describe how I formatted the content in both columns.

Body Content

Let’s start with the Thank You image in the Newsletter and the text that goes with it. The image below shows what was typed into the Editor and the corresponding visual effect.

First there is a nicely formatted heading: “A note of gratitude to our customers”. This was created using the [TITLE] tag. Place the cursor in the Editor; click the [TITLE] button (6th button from the left); type in the text between the [TITLE] and [/TITLE] tags.

Next is the “Thank You” image and the text that wraps around it. For this, I used the [IMAGEROW] button (1st button). Place the cursor in the Editor; click the [IMAGEROW] button; set the Image value to the URL of the image; set the Url  value to the page to go to when the image is clicked; set the Width value to the desired width (in pixels) of the image; type in the text between the [IMAGEROW] and [/IMAGEROW] tags. That’s it.

Note: To preview the work at any time, click the “Preview” button. You will see the nicely formatted title, image and text wrapped around the image. Here’s a quick note on “Themes”. In the Preview mode, you can select one of many themes from the “Themes” drop down box. The colors and formats of the shortcut controls change with the selected theme. The Theme last selected before you click “Next” to send the messages is the theme that will be used in the emails.

Next, a customer story was featured. This was done using the [LINK], [TITLE], and [SUBTITLE] buttons (5th, 6th and 7th buttons). A hyperlink to the customer’s website was created using the [LINK] tag. The Url value was the customer’s website; the text between the [LINK] and [/LINK] tags was the name of the customer (a school in this case). I used the normal formatting controls in the toolbar to indent and italicize the customer’s testimonial.

Next, we wrote about the new features of simplyfyi. This was done using the [TITLE] tag for the heading, and by inserting an image using the Insert Image button.

Side Column

The side column is simply a set of [IMAGEPANEL] tags placed one below another. For each IMAGEPANEL, the Image, Url and Width are set to point to the corresponding image, page and image width. The text is placed between the [IMAGEPANEL] and [/IMAGEPANEL] tags. That’s it.

The formatting is handled automatically according to the selected Theme in the Preview mode. To include the Side Column, make sure that you choose a theme with a side column (left or right). When you are satisfied with everything, click “Next” to go to the “Share” page to send out the email messages.

In summary

You can create lovely, branded and personalized newsletters and other customer communications very easily using the Email Editor tool bars. You can copy and paste the content below for the “Body” and “Side Column” of your own FYI App and play around with it to create your own Newsletter. Drop me a line at support@simplyfyi.com and share your experiences creating newsletters using simplyfyi.

Body – Copy and Paste the text and images below into your own FYI App

[TITLE]A note of gratitude to our customers[/TITLE] [IMAGEROW Image='http://www.graphicsgrotto.com/clipartpictures/comments/thankyou/images/cacthankyou1.jpg' Url='http://www.simplyfyi.com' Width='250'] 2012 started off with a lot of hope and excitement as we launched the beta version of simplyfyi. The result of two years of creative energies and software design and development is simplyfyi. I want to thank all of our early adopters for seeing the value that simplyfyi offers and for actually using it. Your feedback has been valuable. We have learned a lot from you in a short period of time. The new features that we are working on are all based on what you told us.

In this first issue of our newsletter, we are excited to share all the happenings behind the scenes. From customer stories to cool tips and tricks, we will share it all. Oh, by the way, we also give you a quick peek how we put together this newsletter to get your imagination ticking for your own newsletter.[/IMAGEROW]

[TITLE]Customer Feature[/TITLE]
[SUBTITLE]Elisabeth Irwin High School, New York, NY[/SUBTITLE]

It was so cool to get a call from the IT Director of [LINK Url='http://www.lrei.org']Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI)[/LINK], a K-12 school in New York, NY. He was looking for a solution to send out several hundred personalized admission emails to parents. We quickly helped LREI to get setup with simplyfyi and within a day, LREI staff were able to send out personalized admission results by email.

Here is what Julia Heaton, Director of Admissions of LREI had to say:

“In choosing to make the change from paper to email for our independent school admissions decisions, we searched for what we felt would be the best service provider for us. Finding SimplyFYI was fortuitous. As its name suggests, it is quite simple to use. Upload your data, makea few clicks and a few checks, and you are done. Last minute changes are a breeze. SimplyFYI saved us time, energy, paper, and money. We look forward to using SimplyFYI for other school communications.”

[TITLE]New Features[/TITLE]
We fed ourselves on your refreshing ideas on improving simplyfyi and went to work with fervor. Here are the new features that we have added so far. True to the idea of “simplifying” your life (pun intended – ha, ha) your work life, these features will surely get you be more productive.

[TITLE]New Feature #1 – Late Data Binding[/TITLE]
In the previous version of simplyfyi, you had a enter at least one email address to design the FYI App. If you were using a spreadsheet you had to upload the data even if you are not ready to send the messages. We’ve made that easier now. You can now create or edit a FYI App and choose to specify the data (spreadsheet) later.

[TITLE]New Feature #2 – Clone a FYI App[/TITLE]

You can now clone a FYI App with a single click. This is very useful to create a copy of a FYI App to create a new FYI App. After you clone the FYI App, you an make changes and save it off as a new FYI App. It’s that easy!

[TITLE]New Feature #3 – Email Editor Toolbars[/TITLE]

The new Email Editor Toolbar  will make your editing experience as familiar as editing a document with Microsoft Word. Replete with cool editing functions, its what we used to put together this newsletter together.

Side Column - Copy and Paste the text and images below into your own FYI App

[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://simplyfyiblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/howitworks.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' width='124']Want to know how this newsletter was created using simplyfyi.
[LINK Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com']Click here.[/LINK][/IMAGEPANEL]
[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://simplyfyiblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/trythisout.png' Url='http://www.simplyfyi.com/tutorials/tutorial12.aspx' width='124']Creating a FYI App to send messages by SMS is easy.
[LINK Url='http://www.simplyfyi.com/tutorials/tutorial12.aspx']Watch[/LINK] this video.[/IMAGEPANEL]
[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://simplyfyiblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/support1.png' Url='http://www.simplyfyi.com/ContactUs.aspx' width='120']We can help you get started with simplyfyi or answer any question. Click
[LINK Url='http://www.simplyfyi.com/ContactUs.aspx']here[/LINK].[/IMAGEPANEL]
[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://simplyfyiblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/google-apps-marketplace.jpg' Url='http://yourimagelink.com' width='124']simplyfyi is now featured in the Google Apps Marketplace. It would be great if you can add a quick review about simplyfyi.[/IMAGEPANEL]

Posted in Tips and Tricks, Using simplyfyi | Leave a comment

Shorcuts and Personalization Toolbar

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

In a previous post, I introduced you to the simplyfyi Email Editor Toolbars. There is a special toolbar called the “Shorcuts and Personalization Toolbar”. This  contains a set of buttons to easily format emails using shortcuts and to dynamically bind data into the body of your emails. The buttons are Image Row, Image Panel, Data Row, Image, Hyperlink and Title/Sub-Title. In this post I will discuss only the formatting capabilities of this toolbar. The topic of dynamically binding data into emails is interesting enough that I will reserve that for a future post.

The figure below shows the shortcuts and functions available with this special toolbar. Also shown are samples of the formatted outputs that these buttons create.

Let’s go over each of these buttons.

Image Row

This button allows you to insert an image and also provide a textual description for the image in such a way that the text wraps around the bottom of the image. While this effect can be achieved using HTML, it can take quite a bit of effort to achieve the desired visual effect easily and without pulling your hair with HTML and CSS. So we decided to provide this short cut button to makes life easy for everyone. A common example of the effect produced by an Image Row is a product description with an image. Let’s see how to use the Image Row short cut.

Inserting an Image Row in your email message is very simple. Place your cursor where you want to insert and click the Image Row button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[IMAGEROW Image='http://yourimage.jpg' Url='http:/yourimageurl.com']Description[/IMAGEROW]

Then you do the following:

Note 1: The values for “Image” and “Url” should be enclosed with single parenthesis Eg: ‘http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png’ and ‘http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com’.

Note 2: If you need to resize the image, you can set the width or height properties for the image as shown in the example below:

[IMAGEROW Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' width='150']Description[/IMAGEROW]

Alternatively, you can also use the height property:

[IMAGEROW Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' height='120']Description[/IMAGEROW]

***Figure***

The figure above shows an example of these steps and the final effect. As you see, the text will be automatically wrapped around the image. The font of the text is automatically set based on the Theme that you choose for your email. Its that easy!

Image Panel

The Image Panel lets you to insert an image and also provide a textual description for the image directly blow and within the confines of the width of the image. I find the Image Row very useful to place in the side column of my email messages. It helps me to easily add small snippets of information such as news or to highlight something. Let’s see how to use the Image Row short cut.

Inserting an Image Panel in your email message is very simple. Place your cursor where you want to insert and click the Image Panel button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://yourimage.jpg' Url='http:/yourimageurl.com']Description[/IMAGEPANEL]

Then you do the following:

Note 1: The values for “Image” and “Url” should be enclosed with single parenthesis Eg: ‘http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png’ and ‘http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com’.

Note 2: If you need to resize the image, you can set the width or height properties for the image as shown in the example below:

[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' width='150']Description[/IMAGEPANEL]

Alternatively, you can also use the height property:

[IMAGEPANEL Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' height='120']Description[/IMAGEPANEL]

Data Row

The Data Row lets you to insert a 2-column table with any number of rows. The table is neatly formatted based on the Theme that you choose for the email. A Data Row is very handy when you want to show data as a simple table. In the example shown below, I have used the Data Row to show the working hours for a store.

Insert a Data Row by placing your cursor where you want to insert and click the Data Row  button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[DATAROW2C COL1='col1 data' COL2='col2 data'][/DATAROW2C]

Replace col1 data and col2 data with data for each column (data should be with single parenthesis). Insert more rows as necessary and provide the appropriate column data for each row. That’s it!

Image

This button allows you to insert an image. Insert an Image by placing your cursor where you want to insert and click the Image  button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[IMAGE Image='http://yourimage.jpg' Url='http://yourimagelink.com'][/IMAGE]

Then you do the following:

Note 1: The values for “Image” and “Url” should be enclosed with single parenthesis Eg: ‘http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png’ and ‘http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com’.

Note 2: If you need to resize the image, you can set the width or height properties for the image as shown in the example below:

[IMAGE Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' width='150'][/IMAGE]

Alternatively, you can also use the height property:

[IMAGE Image='http://www.simplyfyiapps.com/images/how it works.png' Url='http://simplyfyiblog.wordpress.com' height='120'][/IMAGE]

So what’s the difference between [IMAGE] shortcut and the HTML image button?  Using the [IMAGE] shortcut, we can replace the Image and Url values with merge fields, where the values come from a spreadsheet. This will allow us to create images dynamically. More on this and the topic of dynamic data binding later.

Hyperlink

The LINK (hyperlink) shortcut inserts a hyperlink. Place the cursor where you want to insert and click the Link  button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[LINK Url='http://www.yourlink.com']Description[/LINK]

Then you do the following:

So what’s the difference between [LINK] shortcut and the HTML hyperlink button?  Dynamic data binding. We’ll discuss that in another post.

Title and Sub-Title

[TITLE] and [SUBTITLE] are shortcuts that are great for headings and sub-headings. They are formatted according to the Theme that you choose for the email. Place the cursor where you want to insert and click the Title or Sub-Title button. This action will insert the following in the editor:

[TITLE]Title[/TITLE] or

[SUBTITLE]Subtitle[/SUBTITLE]

These shortcuts can be used for dynamic data binding as well.

In summary

The “Shorcuts and Personalization Toolbar” provides an easy mechanism to include visual components into you email communications without having to deal with HTML. The toolbar also allows you to dynamically insert text and images to create highly personalized messages.

I recommend that you read Creating a Newsletter FYI App using simplyfyi.

Posted in Using simplyfyi | Leave a comment

The simplyfyi Email Editor Toolbar

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

Email Editor Toolbars

The new Email Editor Toolbars, shown in the figure below, makes creating and editing email FYI apps a breeze.The first four toolbars perform specific editing functions. They are very similar to the editing and formatting toolbars in Microsoft Word. The functions performed by the toolbar buttons, shown in the figure above, are self-explanatory.

You will find 2 sets of these toolbars on the “Email Scribe” page. One is for editing the main Body of the email message. The other one is for editing the Side Column text of the email message.

Formatting Shortcuts and Personalization ToolbarThere is another toolbar, highlighted in the figure above, that helps you with formatting shortcuts and to dynamically insert images and data in order to personalize email messages. We will discuss this toolbar in another post.

I recommend that you read Creating a Newsletter FYI App using simplyfyi.

Posted in Using simplyfyi | Leave a comment

Small businesses urged to embrace SMS text marketing

Posted on July 11, 2011 by

Small business across the globe have been turning to SMS marketing techniques to increase brand awareness, it has been reported.

Writing for UK News Reporter, industry commentator Mike Johnson explained that text messaging is seen as being “a direct, personal and reliable” means of promoting goods and services.

He said that by building a permission-based or ‘opt-in’ marketing campaign, small businesses can generate large lists both of potential buyers and already-converted customers.

Using these lists, business owners can interact with their customers “easily and effortlessly”, Mr Johnson stated.

“The client base becomes subscribed to a newsletter, but unlike email or paper-based newsletters or updates, people will actually pay attention to the text messages that they’re receiving,” Mr Johnson stated.

“Just like email marketing, SMS text marketing also involves lead generation, relationship building, value adding and of course, selling.”

He claimed it can take less than five minutes to set up and send promotional messages to a few customers, helping to create or sustain relationships.

Earlier this month, Steve McGrath claimed that email marketing constitutes a vitally important advertising tool for small businesses.

The ad expert told Ultra Marketing that the channel remains vitally important for such enterprises.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-gb/Content/Pages/news.aspx?cbcid=667

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Welcome to simplyfyi.com

Posted on June 13, 2011 by

simplyfyi.com a web service which makes it very easy to send personalized messages to any audience by allowing you to embed data from popular cloud applications into email, SMS and interactive voice response (IVR) communications.

With a few clicks, you can embed data from online spreadsheets (Google, Zoho, EditGrid) into your day-to-day communications to your audience. Oh, you can also embed data from Microsoft Excel.

Just like you, we had this need to somehow include user-specific data in a spreadsheet into emails. It used to take hours of clunky work only to be repeated day after day. We said that there must be a better way and that was the genesis of simplyfyi.

simplyfyi offers two advantages:

  1. It saves time and makes you more productive
  2. It empowers you to engage with your audience (customers, patients, students and so on) in a very personalized manner. A Personal Touch – isn’t that what customers are looking for – some attention? Isn’t that what you are trying to give you customers?

simplyfyi lets you do just that.

This blog is where we will teach, share and learn with the global small business community about how digital communications, the web and intelligent devices are influencing all of us. We will give you tips on getting the most out of simplyfyi and share customers stories.

Bill Gates once said “Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system’, to coordinate its actions.” Simplyfyi Communications aims to make communications an integral part of a business so naturally that the business can “come alive” and be made to treat customers with compassion and a true sense of service.

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