Cheers Australia!

Tips on Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: December 9, 2009

Best practices in email marketing demand communications that go beyond advertising, respect the customer, and speak in a familiar one-on-one style. Email is “the most personal advertising medium in history,” says Seth Godin, whose book Permission Marketing set the rules that transformed email marketing into what it is today. “If your email isn’t personal, it’s broken.”

Smart marketers, recognizing that people’s aversion to spam destroyed the customer loyalty they worked so hard to build, had already begun to address the problem with best practices that focused on permission. Today, what’s best is often defined by the size of your company and the industry you’re in.

  • Don’t waste your readers’ time – An email inbox is a busy place, you won’t get much attention.
  • Permission matters — Not only do you need to have permission to email people, but it helps to remind them of how they gave you permission, as specifically as you can.
  • Relevance trumps permission — Just having permission is not enough, the content you are sending must also be relevant.
  • Make unsubscribing easy — There’s no point emailing people who are not interested.
  • Image blocking is common — You can’t rely on people actually seeing your images.
  • Bring back tables — Structural tables are still often necessary for creating columns.
  • Add inline styles — Gmail removes anything else.
  • Don’t forget your plain text version — You can make blocks of text more readable.
  • Meet your legal obligations — For example, CAN-SPAM for US senders.
  • Test, test, test — It’s the only way to be confident about your design working.

An email inbox is a very noisy environment, with calendars, notes and folders all competing with the actual emails for space. Given that a reader may only ever see your subject line before deciding whether to read your email, you can’t afford to waste time. Make sure that your emails show right away why they are worth reading. Consider starting with a succinct table of contents to help decide whether they should read on.

Email Marketing is a tricky matter. It is powerful, but easily abused. It is easy, but really difficult. May these tips, tricks and secrets make it easy and powerful to grow small businesses.

Acidgreen offers its easy-to-use, fully customisable email marketing software.
L2 / 107 Alexander St, Crows Nest, NSW 2065
contact@acidgreen.com.au

Bed Sheets for Every Bedroom

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: November 10, 2009


Bed sheets are in everybody’s bedroom. That is why knowledge about them is essential for anyone who wants to have a good night’s sleep. The bedroom sets the tone of another day, so this area in the house has to be prepared to give the user a well-rested time. Check out some bedding basics that can be applied in just about any bedroom.

Bed sheets, bedding linens, pillows are all part of bedding basics. Decorative covers, on the other hand include a bedspread, comforter, quilt or duvet cover, and a mattress pad. Here are some tips on creating the a beautiful bedroom you will always look forward to:

Decide well on your bed cover.

Most of the time, the main attraction or what we say, the focal point of the bedroom aesthetic would be the comforter, bedspread, quilt, or duvet cover you choose for your bed. The Egyptian cotton material makes good quality bedspreads, comforters, and of course pillows. Matelasse, cotton chintz, chenille, or even velvet contain tight weaves and thick threads that make your bedspreads durable.

An old and faded comforter can be brought to life with a duvet cover. It is like a pillowcase for anyone’s comforter. Add to that is their ability to be easily laundered.

Add more blankets.

Giving more blankets to your bed add to comfort and warmth. Chenille blankets, as well as those made with fleece and cotton can be added between your bed sheets for additional warmth during the cold season. To make things more luxurious, putting on a cashmere blanket on your sheets create a style for your bedroom.

Spice it up with pillows.

Some people love to have more pillows onto their bed. It becomes more fun when you cover them with pillowcases with decorative and interesting prints. Various types of pillows such as king-size ones, accent pillows like bolsters or neck pillows, offer instant glam to anyone’s bedroom. Normally, people stick to a monochromatic style for beddings and bed sheets, but you can always experiment by trying different prints and texture for your bedding, as long as they look good together.

The White Linen Company provides you with the finest quality bed linen, towels and home accessories at outstanding value for money.
PO Box 56, Collaroy Beach NSW 2097
Phone: 1300 786 026
Fax: 1300 786 028
Email: info@thewhitelinencompany.com.au
Web: http://www.thewhitelinencompany.com.au

Great Barrier Reef for Reef Diving Enthusiasts

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: November 4, 2009

Reef Diving – There are a wide range of dive sites along the Great Barrier Reef, there are calm, protected, shallow spots around the islands, perfect for first-timers, there are gentle reef sites, rich in fish life and corals and the deeper sites on the outer reefs for those with some experience. All sites are best reached by boat ranging from luxury cruisers to spectacular sail boats. For those visitors who have never put their head under the water, but want to see if they can enjoy snorkelling or diving, there are excellent one-day, first-time dive trips. Diving from Cairns offers a truly unique reef experience for the traveller who seeks a more personalised and relaxed approach to exploring the Great Barrier Reef by mask, snorkel and fins.

Reef diving in Australia especially on the Great Barrier Reef is an experience most divers have dreamed about, but few take the opportunity. The reef itself has long held the reputation of being one of the most popular places on the planet to dive – the rich abundance of underwater animal life and the easy access to many parts of the reef are two reasons why divers head to the area in their thousands every year.

Here are some facts about the Great Barrier Reef that will convince you to go reef diving:

•  It is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2 900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
•  The Reef stretches for 2600 kilometres down the coast of Queensland.
•  CNN has included it on their list of the seven natural wonders of the world, and it was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.
•  Most of it is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps reduce the impact of fishing and tourism and protect the numerous endangered species that call it home.
•  215 species of bird are attracted to the reef or nest in its islands.
•  Salt water crocodiles live in mangrove and saltmarshes on the coast near the reefs northerly reaches.
•  More than 1,500 species of fish live on the reef, including the clownfish, red bass, red-throat emperor, and several species of snapper and coral trout.
•  Four hundred species of corals, both hard corals and soft corals are found on the reef.

What to see in Southern Queensland are sandstone formations covered with hard and soft corals, numerous ledges, caves, pinnacles and gutters to explore. Depending on the site: tropical fish, crayfish, sea urchins, anemones, bat fish, mackerel, starfish, sea whips, gorgonians, turtles, stingrays, nudibranches, spanish dancers, cowries, coral trout, small groper and bottom dwelling sharks such as wobbegongs.

If you plan to go reef diving in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is a must-see you cannot let pass.

Scuba World was established in 1979 as a small, modest dive shop in Toowong, Brisbane. Thirty years on Scuba World has grown into one of the leading dive stores in Australia.
PO Box 906, Mooloolaba, QLD 4557
Phone: (07) 5444 8595
Email: info@scubaworld.com.au
Web: http://www.scubaworld.com.au/reef-dives.php

Contact Centre Software Solutions

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 22, 2009

Contact Centre Software – Your ability to provide excellent customer service reflects on your business and affects your bottom line. So how do you develop a call centre with the capacity to cope with peak workload; staffed by efficient, intelligent agents; handling customer requests the right way, the first time?

Your contact centre is your main customer interface, but is your contact centre fulfilling your business needs? Has your contact centre met your expectations for return on investment (ROI) and profitability? The right contact centre software is designed to solve critical problems and identify areas for future development. It provides you with a prioritised action plan enabling you to deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction and retention. Here are contact centre solutions that deliver a real business advantage.

Virtual Contact Centres
Link up all your customer interaction points with a single routings strategy. Treat multiple sites as one large contact centre, find staff in rural areas, and balance the workload. Decrease costs as you increase customer satisfaction.

Workforce Management

Looking for an easier way to manage your call centre workforce? Want to maintain workplace rules whilst maximising agent satisfaction? We can tailor and deploy a feature-rich workforce management solution to suit your environment and priorities.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone menu design

Help customers to help themselves. A well designed IVR solution can reduce staff and customer management costs whilst providing a solution that has become the expected business practice.

Outbound call routing

Proactively call customers for sales and promotions. Manual dialling is slow and inaccurate – predictive dialling can substantially increase your productivity.

Predictive dialer
This is vital for minimising operator time wastage during outbound calling, filtering answer machines, busy, disconnected and engaged calls to maximise efficiency.

Computer telephony integration
Never again do you need to ask for their customer number. CTI eliminates this need as the information is provided by a POP screen ensuring all information is correct and recorded.

Digital recording
This is essential for technical support, customer service and voice contracts.

Speech recognition

This provides the ease and freedom to ‘talk’ to the right agent. Australian customers are extremely receptive to this new technology and enjoy the experience. Enhance your reputation and upgrade to speech recognition, it’s easier than you think to integrate with your existing systems.

Skills based routing or inbound call routing
Delivery of the most important customers to the most skilled agents ensures efficient use of resources and a pleasant experience for the customer.

The contact centre environment is evolving from the traditional phone call to email, live web chat and video, backed by business analytics reporting. Connect to the reliable quote provider of the right call centre software solutions.

DoMyQuote provides quotes for contact centre solutions and on-demand contact centre services, scaling from a single agent to thousands of agents across any site in Australia.
Domyquote Pty Ltd. Unit 2 23-25 Arnold Street, Killara NSW, Australia 2071
Phone: 1300 360 890
Email: info@domyquote.com.au
Web: http://www.domyquote.com.au


Button Badges Increase Demand in October 2009

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 21, 2009

Button Badges – Manufacturing has delivered 100% of all button badges orders on or before time for the month with 99.80% of these orders being right first time. This is how we measure our performance in line with our vision of being a national leading supplier and the reality is that by setting this high standard our valued customers will return.

Sales have performed strongly against target and after some dramatic last day button badge orders we achieved our business objectives for the first quarter of financial year 09/10.  There was some great energy in the office and I am personally delighted with the way the name badge teams have performed during this period.   Their commitment to customer’s service with passion does make a difference for sure.   We have acquired some excellent new name badge clients who have seen the value of our name badge solutions that take away delays, reduce costs and improve the service levels to our valued clients.  Our award winning SOL’ID on line solution has continued with a steady increase in orders and there are currently running at double compared to the same period last year.

In addition to the name badges we are now developing the system to manage other personalized products for corporate customers.  A new marketing campaign for the SOL’ID on line name badge solution begins this month targeting companies that value identifying their staff in combination with raising the value of their own brand. Button Badges, Metal Badges, Badge Lanyards and Photo ID Cards have also been strong performers for the same period.

There has been a great team effort in redesigning the process flow for the name badge production line and with other external training the results are more outstanding.  Well done again to all the team and we look forward to celebrating in true style later this month. We are delighted with the performance of the company from all functions who have performed to the highest standards and again have raised the benchmark against our competitors for the button badge products, services and solutions.

Signal Advantage manufactures button badges. These are wonderful introductory tools. Companies are increasingly recognizing their importance in the customer relationship process.

Creating Effective Banner Ad Designs

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 13, 2009

Banner Ad Design

The click-through-rates and conversion rates are reported to be higher in image and animated ads. This means that advertisers get exponentially better value for money when creating image-based banner ads. With a proliferation of text based ads, studies show that more and more users are ignoring and blocking out these text ads while image and animated ads stand out and contrast well in comparison. The ads are typically more relevant and qualified and for once both the advertiser and the web user are happy.

Banner ads used to be popular in the 90’s but have been pushed aside as their effectiveness seems to dip. Now things have changed, and everything has taken on new directions. Banner ads are now back and booming with various formats and campaign executions. Research has shown that ads toward the centre of the page, above the fold, and that blend in with the page tend to perform the best right now. The larger ad sizes or formats, especially the large rectangle (336×280) and the leaderboard (728×90) also tend to perform the best at this point. In other words, these tend to be the best paying ad sizes, formats, locations, and colors.

With the banner ad revolution going on it is important to work with someone who knows the most effective techniques for banner advertising. To plan, design, and execute an effective banner ad campaign is imperative in a highly competitive Web market. Effective banner ads mean that these convert to sales, and leave a lasting impression when seen.

Here are some tips on creating effective banner ad designs:

• Create quick loading banners. Opt for a smaller file
• Always have a call to action message or image
• Write an attractive, catchy headline – something that is similar to the headline of the entry page
• Use trick banners – those with scroll menus, check boxes, or underlined texts that look like links. They work better
• Change banner ads frequently – test, experiment, and measure effectiveness.

The creation of such a delicate and important tool for your business must be left in the hands of professional graphic designers. Select an agency that creates banner ad design with exceptional marketing caliber.

Acidgreen is committed to providing excellent customer service and work closely with our clients to ensure a quality end product like banner ad design.
Phone: 1300 139 658
Email: contact@acidgreen.com.au
Web: http://www.acidgreen.com.au/banner_ad_design.html

Teacher Recruitment Agencies: The Advantages

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 7, 2009

Teaching Jobs in Melbourne – As with any outsourcing service, getting a trusted third-party or agency for teacher recruitment brings a lot of benefits. There are several ways to track down a good teacher using in-house efforts, yet it could mean so many resources wasted. Although some people are hesitant in tapping teacher recruitment agencies, the key really is to select a third party firm that can guarantee a custom search for a teacher suitable for your school.

Here are some advantages or benefits of outsourcing recruitment needs for a teaching position.

You save time, money, and effort.
Because the recruitment firm will do whatever it takes to meet your demands, your time and energy will be put to a better use. You have the opportunity to work on your core competencies like helping teacher develop better lesson plans, coming up with excellent student activities, or devising a way to get more parents involved in their children’s learning growth. The best part is your valuable resources are being utilized for good investment.

You gain more choices in selecting the best teacher.
Some schools still opt to do their own hunting for potential candidates while getting the service of third-party providers such as teacher recruitment firms. This way, it is very obvious that you have a wider range of choices of suitable teachers for your school.

Additional Advertisement
Usually, when seeking the help of outsourcing agencies, they post ads on your behalf on popular job posting sites and even newspapers and prints. Of course, when you choose a trusted agency, they will still do their own screening of the candidates seeking the teaching job position. These advertisements are actually additional exposure for your school.

Remember, in order to get the best results for outsourcing your teacher recruitment needs, one should do his or her own research about the most qualified expert teacher recruitment agencies available in your area.

Primary Education Management has evolved to become one of the most respected and professional teacher recruitment agencies in Victoria.
PO BOX 1049, MELBOURNE VICTORIA AUSTRALIA 3039
Freecall Hotline: 1300 889 235
Fax: 1300 889 135
Web: http://www.primaryed.com.au
Email: info@primaryed.com.au

Guide on Lighting Products for the Consumer

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 7, 2009

The choice of lighting products by regular consumers is increasing due to the various  lighting technologies that bring different advantages to the consumers and are used in different applications. With so many models, coming in all possible sizes and shapes, people find it easier to opt for a personal style when decorating the interiors of their residences, at least when it comes to lighting fixtures. This phenomenon has a simple explanation: the use of light is no longer reduced to simple illumination purposes, but goes further than this status towards self-expression, mood lighting, accent lighting, architectural lighting and even landscape lighting.

Most people still choose the lighting fixtures alone and their choices vary between three “root- styles”: elegant, traditional and contemporary. The average consumers choose their light sources based on price (cheaper are winning), but some take into consideration other factors as well and the most important is energy efficiency. Dimming the light is one way to cut back costs but it also saves energy and extends lamp life. Compact-fluorescent lamps and light emitting diodes (LEDs) are also very popular choices.

LEDs are quickly expanding into the world of architectural lighting into many specific applications once occupied by metal halide or tungsten halogen lamps (think MR16 sized) such as spot lighting, marker lighting  in stairs, railings, and doorways, and wall washing. Wall washing is when a light or series of lights, usually but not always colored, are positioned and often aimed (physically or through the use of lenses) to spread a wide swath of light onto a wall. Colors can be used for moody effects and colors can be blended from lamp to lamp even within a single fixture. Today light sources can be used to create a mysterious atmosphere, to enhance the mood of a room or to spotlight an artwork. When it comes to mood lighting, there’s nothing better than concealed light sources to highlight a painting or backlights to generate a warm glow behind curtains or pieces of furniture.

Nowadays, people have varied preference on lighting and lighting products. Some even buy based on want, rather than on need. The most important thing is you know which lighting product will achieve the purpose, regardless if it is aesthetics or functionality.

Rala Information Services has been publishing Lighting Art & Science magazine for more than 28 years. It is the only publication totally dedicated to lighting. It provides a wealth of knowledge about Who’s Who in the lighting marketplace.
Address: Rear 205 Darling Street, Balmain NSW 2041, Australia
Telephone: (612) 9555 1944
Email: online@rala.com.au
Website: http://www.lightingproductshowcase.com.au

Skin Care Tips for Firmer Skin

Posted by: allthingsaustralian on: October 6, 2009

Skin firmness is affected by our lifestyle – from the food we eat, to our hygiene, and our overall lifestyle. If we do not live right skin loses its firm. It might be unnoticeable in early youth, but we can’t ignore it later. The best advice is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and observe proper skin care to achiever firm skin even at an advanced age. Additionally, choosing the right body care products is necessary.

Here are some tips for firmer, younger-looking skin:

Moisturize your skin daily.

Eminence Organics provides the most natural, skin-friendly body skin products

Eminence Organics provides the most natural, skin-friendly body skin products

Weather and bath products such as soap can leave skin dry. Even airconditioning can do so. These are factors that make a skin to lose its moisture. The tip is to moisturize everyday. Apply special cream or oil right after bathing. Apply on face, neck, and hands. Lotions with less dye and fragrance are often the nost effective.

Wear sun screen.

Whether you are out in the beach or simply walking down the streets, sun screen should always be your best friend. Sun can dry skin cells and do pretty much damage by fastening aging processes and causing serious diseases. Therefore it is more than important to apply sun screen lotion everyday.

Perform some exercise regularly.

Exercise has more benefits for your body aside from keeping you fit. It adds elasticity to your skin. Also, regular exercising helps your skin to take up more necessary oxygen. When aging this skin ability can be strongly reduced.

Eat fiber-rich food.

Vegetables and fruits help you detoxify your skin and your whole system. Vitamin E-rich foods are especially helpful in maintaining healthy and firm skin. Food intake quickly reflects onto our body weight and skin condition, so make sure you eat the right ones. Drinking plenty of water like 8 glasses a day is also a good practice.

Get enough sleep everyday.

Although the busy life we have in this time and age demand so much of our time, it should not stop you from giving yourself and your skin enough rest for skin cell regeneration. This also puts you in a good mood which is always reflective of your external appearance. It makes your skin glow and look firm.

These are just some of the simple tips to follow if you want to have firmer skin now and in your older age. Skin care need not be a difficult task. It only requires your willingness to get into healthy living.

Eminence Organic Skin Care. By choosing Eminence you join the fight against global warming. Our commitment to keeping the planet green crosses over all aspects of our company, from farming, harvest, green packaging, to getting the products to you.

Green Living Cosmetics Pty Ltd
PO Box 216
Clayfield QLD 4011
T 1800 142 182
T +61 7 3262 1349
F 07 3262 4182
E Send Email
W www.eminenceorganics.com.au

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