Relativity - Blog #Mobile

Zoho ClickSend – A Cost-Effective SMS Messaging Service

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 18:06:53 +0000

Zoho’s ClickSend allows you to send and receive all your business communications easily and efficiently. The software has SMS at its core and integration with Zoho CRM creates a powerful and simple communication channel. SMS marketing is now a very potent tool to connect with your leads prospects and customers. You might say that you are literally in your customers’ pockets. The results are more interactions, more engagements and more sales. In this article, Relativity the business technology specialists in East Sussex, with clients worldwide, explores what ClickSend is and its benefits to your company.

What is Zoho ClickSend?

ClickSend is a multichannel business communications platform that offers SMS, MMS, Voice, Fax, Email and Postcard communications. Simply integrate Zoho CRM with ClickSend to send your text messages, voice messages, and more. Zoho states ClickSend has a 98% open rate with 90% being read in the first three minutes. This is much higher than an email open rate. Did you know that an email takes 47 minutes on average to be opened compared with the three minutes of an SMS message?

How Can Zoho ClickSend Help Your Business?

Send and receive SMS messages from your customer database in Zoho CRM
Send an SMS instantly or schedule it for a specific time
View the complete SMS history of customers and leads
Include event reminders and alerts

Benefits of Zoho ClickSend

Click Send is a bulk SMS gateway which allows you to do the following:

Send SMS follow-ups to close sales more quickly
Recover lost sales from unread emails
Send personalised or bulk text messages to prospects
Strengthen customer relationships through surveys and promotional messages
Send personalised messages and have conversations with two-way SMS
Better customer communication leading to higher customer satisfaction

How Can Relativity Help You with Your SMS Messaging?

If you are looking to connect and communicate with your customers across multiple channels quickly and easily, Zoho ClickSend is the app for you. Professional text messaging is certainly on the rise and you will need a reliable SMS platform to make the most of this growing trend. Zoho offers a FREE trial so that you can try before you buy. Businesses that will benefit from Zoho ClickSend include hospitality, sporting associations, retail businesses, marketing and advertising agencies, IT, E-commerce and more. Call the specialists at Relativity on +44 1825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk to find out more.

https://www.relativity.co.uk/are-you-set-up-for-sms-marketing/

Are You Set Up For SMS Marketing?

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:36:56 +0000

It is expected that SMS Marketing will grows in the UK, and will play a major role in diversifying marketing and revenue streams. A recent survey by Attentive reveals that 90% of UK residents are interested in SMS marketing by brands. In the latest blog from Relativity, the business technology specialists based in East Sussex, we look at what SMS marketing is, the difference between SMS and MMS as well as apps such as WhatsApp and iMessage and the benefits SMS can bring to your business.

What is SMS marketing?

Short Message Marketing (SMS) was developed in the 1980s and is one of the oldest texting technologies. It uses text messages to create relationships and fulfil customer requirements. Respectful and compliant texts are sent by marketers to their target audience. Their aim is to drive leads and promote interest in services and products. You might be asking, so what’s the difference between a ‘text’ message and a ‘SMS text’ message? The latter contains only text with no pictures or videos and is limited to 160 characters.

What is the Difference Between SMS and MMS?

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) sends messages that include multimedia content. The easiest way to define the difference is that SMS refers to text messages, while MMS refers to messages with a picture or video.

How are iMessage and WhatsApp Different to SMS Messages?

WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and WeChat are messaging applications, also known as ‘Over The Top’ (OTT) applications. They rely on the internet so a cellular network isn’t required. To send messages via these apps, the receiver of the message has to have the appropriate app downloaded on their phone. All iPhones have iMessage and your message will default to an iMessage if the recipient is using an iPhone. However, if the receiver doesn’t have an iPhone, your iPhone will default to SMS, which is seen as a green bubble on your iPhone as opposed to a blue bubble.

Benefits of SMS Marketing

High engagement rates
Higher conversion rates
Overall cost efficiency
More personal than other marketing channels
Promote stronger customer relationships
More privacy for the recipient

How Does SMS Work?

Ultimately like sending an email, you are trying to sell to your clients. But as with all marketing, you are trying to create brand awareness and thus build loyalty and educate your clients. You own the marketing channel and have full control over the list of numbers and the distribution. Depending on your goals, you can send one-to-one messages or one-to-many messages. As always, you must ensure that you remain compliant in capturing consent from your clients. If you are unsure about how the new UK-GDPR laws affect you, stay tuned as we will be giving you more information about that next time.

Different Types of SMS Marketing Campaigns

New product announcements
Special offers (discounts, free postage etc.)
Exclusive offers for subscribers
Loyalty programmes
One-off sales
Competitions – text to win
Reminders of upcoming appointments

How Can Relativity Help Your Business with Short Message Marketing?

In short, with SMS Marketing, you can reach your clients wherever they are. There are SMS solutions designed to target audience members based on their location, interests, or purchasing potential. With high engagement rates, SMS is showing no signs of slowing. If you feel your business would benefit, please get in touch with Relativity on +44 1825 280123.

Seven Benefits Of Using A Business Website Builder

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 20:59:59 +0000

There are many business website builder platforms available and most are easy to use and affordable. They allow you to do a lot more with your site in a lot less time and you do not have to be that tech-savvy. Building your own website is no longer the daunting task it used to be and you could have your website up and running in next to no time. In the latest article from Relativity, the business technology specialists based in East Sussex, we will look at seven of the main benefits of using a website builder in detail and how all are applicable to you irrespective of whether you are a complete beginner or have advanced skills.

Benefits of Using a Business Website Builder

Programming or Technical Skills Are Not Required

With drag-and-drop technology and a user-friendly interface design, you will be able to type in text, upload images and make changes easily with a simple click and drag of the mouse.

The Site Can Be Edited from Any Computer at Any Time

You only need a web browser and an Internet connection as website builders are online with your web files hosted on the service provider’s server, not your own computer. Changes can be made after you log into your account, and you just click, save and publish and your alterations are live.

Design Talent is Not Necessary

Attractive and appealing templates have already been designed for you with your business website builder. Simply select the template you like from a number of professionally-designed templates and get started. You also can customise the template to suit your requirements and style.

Added Functionality with Collections of Applications

These are free or paid for applications and come with your website builder. Some are built in and others are fully-integrated third-party tools.

Easy Maintenance

Visitors will want up-to-date information including what’s new and news about products and services. Loading news, blogs and articles is straightforward and is good for your SEO.

Adding Media Features is Intuitive

Images, videos, and audio files can be edited easily, removing all of the guesswork from the process. This means you are not reliant on anyone else to make your media look eye-catching.

Affordable Pricing

You will not need a big budget and there are some free plans available or reasonably priced monthly plans. Some even come with free hosting services and free domain names. Most come with free trial periods.

You could have your website fully functional in no time. With pre-designed templates, pre-populated web pages and ready-to- use applications and tools, you just need to add the content, images and any videos and click the ‘Publish’ button.

How Can Relativity Help You with Your Business Technology?

It’s clear that building your own with a business website builder has many advantages and benefits. Your website is arguably your best marketing tool and that is where prospective customers will be looking for you. Your competitors are certainly prominent out there. If you would like any help from the experts at Relativity with any of your business technology, please contact us today on +44(0)1825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk

Just a tip, make sure the website builder you choose is capable of handling your needs as your business grows. Next time we will be giving you our top tips for choosing the best business website builder to suit your requirements.

Collaboration Software – Your Team Really Doesn’t Have To Be In The Office

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 16:01:33 +0000

Online collaboration software can help you streamline communications and improve project task delegation. It is particularly helpful for teams based in different locations or perhaps working from home. The software will stop endless emailing and voicemails and eradicate the need for face-to-face communication when a project element is completed. In this article from Relativity, the business technology specialists based in East Sussex, we discuss what a collaboration app is, the benefits collaboration software will bring to your business, what to consider before choosing your software and how we can help you.

What is a Collaboration App?

In general terms, it refers to any piece of software that facilitates people getting work done together. Teams can work effectively and efficiently, enabling teamwork even though they may be miles apart. This will make your employees more organised and improve productivity.

Benefits of Collaboration Software

Better communication – sharing documents, videos, messages, etc.
Enhanced project management
Improved workflow of Agile teams
Facilitates remote working
Better scheduling
Time efficient – your team can concentrate on important tasks
Increases employee engagement and satisfaction]

What to Consider When Choosing the App Best for Your Business

With literally dozens of collaboration tools available and new ones being added all the time, you will need to know what the main purpose will be and what business needs your software needs to meet including what types of projects will need to be collaborated on. It’s key to have software that is easy to use, as your team will have differing abilities. Decide on your budget, as some software companies offer a ‘free’ version, which may suit your current requirements although further down the line, you may want software with more functions.

What is the main purpose?
How usable is it?
Will it fit your budget?
How many people and departments will be using the software?

Other questions to think about are the types of projects, how your team handles communication and workflow and where you store your project files. Also consider how many people and departments are involved, what other apps your team uses, will all conservations be archived and whether it is just used for work specific projects or will there be social use as well. If this all sounds somewhat overwhelming, why not ask the experts?

Zoho Projects

In a recent article by PC Magazine, Zoho Projects was picked as the Editors’ Choice for collaboration software. It was described as having rich communication features, being responsive and great value. The magazine considered it a leader in both project management and time tracking. The software will allow collaboration on projects with colleagues as well as clients, in fact anyone with access to file sharing, calendars, message boards, wiki pages, chat rooms and a lot more.

How Can Relativity Help You with Your Cloud Based Collaboration Software?

Don’t get left behind. Businesses, more and more are moving towards digital solutions to improve collaboration because of the significant benefits that the software brings. You may find it particularly helpful if you still have people working from home. Zoho Projects could be the game changer that you are looking for in your business. Why not get in touch with the experts at Relativity based in Uckfield, East Sussex? We’ll be able to advise you if Zoho Projects or other Zoho software including Zoho Connect, Zoho Meeting and Zoho Vault could be the right applications for your team collaborations. Call us on 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk for more information.

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Zoho Remotely – A Complete Suite Of Apps To Run Your Business Wherever You Are

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 16:10:08 +0000

Zoho as always, is ahead of the game and has responded quickly to the Coronavirus and fears of people having to self-isolate and is offering a complete suite of apps so that you can communicate, collaborate and work away from your office. In this article from Relativity, the business technology specialists helping clients globally from their base in East Sussex, we not only look at what is included in the Zoho Remotely package, but also the advantages of working remotely and why it might be worth considering in the future for your business.

Communication, Collaboration, Remote Assistance and Productivity with Zoho Remotely

Zoho are offering you a complete suite of web and mobile apps, eleven in total, to cover all elements of your business. We’ve given you lots of information about the different apps in previous blogs, and so to find out more, click on the links.

Communicate From Anywhere and Meet Online

Zoho Cliq, Zoho Meeting and Zoho ShowTime

You will be able to communicate effectively, quickly and reliably whatever you are doing including training sessions, team meetings, client calls and sales presentations. Zoho Cliq will serve as the central hub for your work, so that you can organise a video or audio call with your team and share files and convert messages to tasks. Scheduling meetings across multiple time zones is simple with Zoho Meeting and Zoho ShowTime will allow you to conduct online training courses and receive feedback.

Seamless Collaboration In Any Time Zone

Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints

It is imperative to work as a team from wherever you are in the world, which means planning and overseeing projects, assigning and prioritising tasks and allocating resources. Zoho WorkDrive will let you create team drives, share documents and collaborate in real time. Launching projects is straightforward with Zoho Projects enabling you to track the progress of a task easily and with Zoho Sprints, you can create customised scrum boards and incorporate live feedback.

Remote Assistance

Zoho Assist and Zoho Lens

You will be there for your customers as you understand live issues and share files to answer their questions and resolve any problems they may have. With Zoho Assist you can use multiple devices to contact not only your customers, but your staff as well, giving as the name suggests, assistance from wherever you are. For discovering what your customer is seeing, clicking and annotating images, and obtaining deeper insights – Zoho Lens is the software that you need.

Boosting Productivity

Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show

These are designed for collaboration and so you can undertake tasks such as drafting blogs, analysing spreadsheets and preparing slide decks. Creating, sharing and editing documents can be carried out effortlessly with Zoho Writer and why not use the advanced functions of Zoho Sheet to manage spreadsheets and analyse data? If you want to create a powerful presentation, Zoho Show is just the software for you.

What is Working Remotely?

More and more workers are choosing to work remotely away from the traditional office environment, so that they can carry out their tasks and projects literally anywhere they choose to be, including their home office or a coworking space. Some choose a day per week away from the office, others more. Zoho Remotely is the perfect package for those working in this way and working remotely does have many benefits.

Freedom and flexibility
No travelling required
Better health and wellness
Personal and family commitments can be carried out
Staff can live anywhere
Cost savings to employer and employees
Higher productivity

What Relativity Can Do To Help You and Your Team To Work Remotely

For more information about Zoho Remotely and whether it would help your business in these uncertain times, contact our experts who can advise you on all of the Zoho apps included in the bundle. Call us on 01825 280123 or email info@relativity.co.uk for more information.

Learn more about Zoho Remotely on the official product page or sign up to Zoho Remotely here:

Working Here, There and Everywhere

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:15:24 +0000

Today is the age of mobility, being mobile and being able to work anywhere sounds like the ideal for a lot of people but those same people seem to think it’s a complicated procedure but in essence it breaks down to a small number of options.

All in One Box

The simplest method is to buy a laptop and load all your information onto the laptop and you are good to go. There are some obvious drawbacks to this, collaboration becomes hard, sharing a document involves sending it around from person to person each with their own copy, a nightmare for versioning, calendar and mail box sharing becomes next to impossible. In addition no laptop no work. There is also the backup and disaster recovery consideration, what happens if that laptop breaks or worse is lost/stolen your mobile office could be inoperable for a long time.

VPN/Back to Base

VPN or virtual private network creates a secure connection between you and your office, your machine becomes an extension of your office network and you work just as normal. Collaboration becomes easier as you can work on centrally located files and can connect to your Enterprise level email system. Nothing is stored on your remote machine and as your data is centrally backed up (or should be) if your machine breaks down or is lost you can just setup an new machine and VPN connection. The downside is that the infrastructure and security requirement is quite heavy and can be a regular issue meaning your connection is unstable. No connection, no working.

Remote Control

There are a number of methods under this category, but there are really only two solutions, Remote control and Terminal Services. Looking at remote control first, this relies on a third party service supplier such as Logmein or GotoMyPC. An application is loaded onto your work PC and then at any time you can, via a browser, log into your PC and work as though you were there at the office. I use this service a lot but mainly to support clients, being able to see what they see and control their PC to make changes etc.

The services are all very secure and you can add additional security along the way such as login passwords to your work PC etc. Again you need to have a good connection and your PC in the office has to be switched on. The other Method is Terminal Services/Virtual PC’s here rather than logging onto your specific PC you log onto a virtual PC on a central server, this central server can be running dozens if not hundreds of virtual PC’s. Like the VPN it requires an element of infrastructure and expertise but there are plenty of companies offering this service in an outsourced way. Both methods you are able to use any PC, although you may need to download and install a small piece of software first, most solutions also allow access from Tablets and Phones, although screen size is an obvious consideration if you are trying to use a PC screen on a 3.5 inch phone screen. But at a pinch it is possible. Like the VPN, collaboration and disaster recovery should all not be an issue if its supported and implemented correctly centrally.

Cloud

The big plus for Cloud based systems is that there are normally applications designed specifically form factor of the devices you may use, be it tablets, PC or smart phones. There are, as you would expect numerous different ways to work when utilising the cloud. You could for instance use one supplier such as Microsoft, Apple or Google and work entirely in their infrastructure, whilst they are at the forefront of a lot of cloud services they do not necessarily offer best of breed so if you want the best of breed you would be wise to use a number of suppliers.

One downside is connection, last year I would say this was a real problem, but now most suppliers are starting to offer systems that will work off line but you do need to consider this if you are regularly mobile in areas without internet connections. Rather than going through all the different variations this is the way I work and why: Google Apps for Business: Best for service levels and they supply the main apps we need, ie email, calendar sharing, Intranet. Google are also great for informal document sharing and collaboration with all parties being able to work on a single document at the same time wherever they are.

In addition there are a lot of third party apps which bolt into the Google Apps Infrastructure that we also use. For CRM we use three systems:

CapsuleCRM, very simple to use and has basic functionality and links nicely with Google Apps.

Zoho CRM, this is part of the Zoho suite of apps, it’s a very good CRM system bridging the gap between the simplisticity of CapsuleCRM and the high level versions of Salesforce.

We have also just started to use CallProCRM, this CRM system contains very powerful campaign and call centric functionality, it’s great for processing a large numbers of leads and creating automatic processes and workflows.

For Accounting we have recently moved to Wave, we do not need anything complex just simple Invoicing and Cashflow management, something Wave does nicely although it can do a lot more.

File management: Whilst Google allows amazing collaboration there are times when it’s just not up to speed (but that could soon be changing) so we use Dropbox as well. Dropbox keeps all the PC’s and Mac’s I use in file Sync, I can share and be shared folders by internal and external colleagues and all the files are sync’d offline allowing me access anywhere, if I do not have one of my sync’d devices handy I can always use any browser to download the latest version. Another advantage that this has over Google is that it works with any file type. Security: A lot has been said over the years about how secure your data is when its in the cloud, in the main your data is more secure than it would be located at your office. Google takes this all very seriously having just been ISO 27001 compliant so as long as you take sensible precautions, i.e. good passwords you keep to yourself, don’t log into a public computer and leave it logged in etc. I would have no concerns.

A Final Word on Communication

There is no better way to communicate on the go than via your traditional mobile phone, however as usual there are some caveats, firstly coverage, we have a great land line connection but mobile coverage at the office is very bad, this makes us relying on mobile hard, for that reason we work a two tier system of Voice over Internet (VOIP) that transfers to mobile when we are mobile. Secondly, international travel, this is still very expensive although if you prepare before you travel there are services such as Truphone which can make it a lot cheaper. Skype is another option we use, however we find that Skype is best used in an environment where everyone knows we are using Skype, i.e. current clients and colleagues, the quality is just too intermittent to be used for incoming and outgoing first line business calls.

If this still is still daunting and you do not know where to start Relativity has a number of years experience in implementing and supporting remote and cloud based infrastructures for our clients, give us a call to discuss your needs.