Tips Archives - Design Shard

Why to start email marketing with SendPulse

SendPulse is one of the leading email marketing platforms which offers integrated solutions: emails, SMS, push notifications, SMTP and API. It was launched in 2015, and now is a successful startup with representatives in 8 countries. SendPulse team offers cost and time efficient service to over 250,000 active users including large and small businesses and individual business owners that increase their sales and brand awareness through affordable tools.

It’s all about efficiency

Trust and commitment to a simple yet high-quality communication lay at the core of SendPulse resulting in impressive numbers: average email open rate is 15% while SendPulse helps to elevate it to 25% and more. It’s a customer oriented company; thus, it offers up-to-date technologies for mobile, desktop, and tablet users. Almost 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and SendPulse team considers this fact while developing mobile-friendly versions of their products.

Event-based email marketing

SendPulse launched an email marketing services centered around automation that allows sending emails, SMS and push notifications based on user actions. Intuitive interface lets you drag and drop desired events such as emails, web push, SMS, filters, conditions, actions, and goals to easily adjust your campaigns to the needs of the users, and create a personalized automation flow.

Artificial Intelligence

Do you know how many people actually read your emails? SendPulse makes sure that you do and implements artificial intelligence, which tracks down emails, analyzes your campaigns and predicts users’ behavior. Then, it automatically opts for the best time and channel to deliver your message. That leads up to 70% higher open rate. SendPulse tools help you segment users by their interactions with your products, and check detailed statistics on each newsletter and campaign: time of email opening, time between receiving and opening, clicked links, type of device, CTR, open rate, and many more. You can use this data to hold A/B tests and pick the most effective version which can be sent out automatically.

Drag-and-drop email builder

SendPulse offers amazing opportunities to its users giving out 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails, and 120+ email templates and designs for free. No extra efforts or HTML knowledge is needed to create a top quality email optimized for all devices in a drag-and-drop email builder. In a matter of minutes, you can import, create from scratch or edit ready-made templates. There is also a tool for setting up customized web forms for users to subscribe to your emails with further detailed statistics.

Easy to use web push and SMS

Web push notifications and SMS solutions are just as clear and simple. You can edit or create new templates, check the preview, and send SMS or copy the code of a push notification to your website.

API and SMTP: fast integration

SendPulse offers an SMTP integration with MS Outlook, The Bat or any other email client. There is also an option to receive a full API integrated with a CMS, CRM or other system for sending messages from personal projects. All settings are comfortably stored on the SundPulse user dashboard.

Discovering new opportunities

SendPulse made it to the TOP-3 finalists of The Next Web SCALE 2016 program and was acknowledged as one of the best startups of 2016. They also launched a Startup Accelerator Program that provides a $5,000 grant for email marketing development. SendPulse experts share their experience and coach all the participants of the program who bring innovative products on the market.

Customers first

24/7 support is ready to solve any possible issues and answer questions. Every user is heard, and SendPulse considers their feedback constantly upgrading existing tools and adding new useful features.

10 Top Productivity Hacks for Designers

Designers, just like any other creative professionals, just cannot keep working mechanically. They need to be at the peak of their physical and mental state in order to deliver quality output. So, here are a few hacks that should help the designers improve their efficiency as well as the quality of their work.

1. Take Ample Breaks

In order to do your best, you need to be physically fit. So, do not overstretch yourself. Take care of yourself by taking ample breaks.

2. Eat small meals

A heavy meal makes one lethargic and sleepy. It is not ideal for any kind of work. If you must eat a hearty meal, do it at the end of the day. Otherwise, break down your meals into smaller portions to be taken several times throughout the day.

3. Exercise Daily

Some exercise always helps. If you are not a gym person at least take some time out for a walk every evening. It will refresh your body and mind and help you refocus on your work. Yoga or meditation might help too, but you need to find a good teacher for this purpose.

4. Break down the Tasks

Do not just look at the final outcome of a large project, break down your work into smaller parts and categorize them in terms of importance and priority. This way you will have a clearer picture of what is to be done and when.

5. Delegate repetitive work

You do not have to do everything yourself. If you are getting good returns for a major project, the best way is to delegate boring and repetitive works to others and focus on what you do best, i.e. the creative parts where your inputs matter the most. The previous step of breaking down the task will also help you in this regard.

6. Find online resources for the basics

There are many interesting online services that can provide quick solutions to various problems. For instance, nowadays you can find suitable fonts, graphics, and background templates for all purposes online and many of them are even free. Use them to save your time and build upon them.

7. Turn off the Wi-Fi

Yes, in this day and age, the internet can be your biggest ally as well as your biggest enemy. Most of us habitually keep checking Facebook, Twitter and various news sites, wasting valuable hours every day. It will be better you turn off that connection for some time and reward yourself with an hour of surfing only if you finish your task on time.

8. Use Technology to measure efficiency

Nowadays there are many innovative smartphone apps that tell you how efficient you are. They keep track of how much time you are spending on various websites and give you reminders. Find something that suits you and use the same to measure and improve your efficiency.

9. Find a Hobby

As counterintuitive as it may sound, a hobby can be of great help. It helps for you to engage in something else other than your work. This refreshes your brain cells and sharpens the mind. So, do not just watch TV during your leisure time. Play with the Rubik cube or read a book that enhances your knowledge.

10. Use Social Media Productively

If there is a problem, do not hesitate to ask for help. In this day and social media can be your most important ally here. Join relevant interest groups to ask queries and get advice from experts in your field. This can also be a great place to build rapport and find collaborators from the comforts of your home. Spend some time to learn how to use social media effectively for work.

Keep All Your Ideas On File

The great thing about inspiration is that you can never know when it could strike. For this reason, you need to make hay while the sun shines. To a large extent, this relies on basic preparation. You should always keep a text document or spreadsheet handy at a place you can easily access any time that you like. Any time you get an interesting idea that would be great as a post on your blog, write it down in this file.

When you have a routine of doing this each and every time, you will soon have a large inventory that you can work from, even if you do not feel particularly creative.

Get Ideas from Other Bloggers

One way to quickly and consistently develop ideas for your blog posts is to gain constant exposure to the type of blogs that you aspire to. You could use a feed reader like Feedly and subscribe to various blogs. Check in to these blogs at least once a day and view what they publish.

Do not be afraid to steal some of the best ideas that have worked on other blogs. There is a lot that you can learn from those who have succeeded before you. If you read an inspiring post from one of your competitors, note it down in your ideas file. It may just prove to be the bit of inspiration that sparks a new idea in you.

Ask the audience

A foolish blogger will go out in search of inspiration, while efficient bloggers will let ideas come to them. It is easy to crowdsource ideas for your posts by studying the comments on your blog, checking the replies you get on Twitter and keenly listening when people talk about your subject matter.

When you understand the questions that people are asking, and know what gets people excited or confused and know their stories, you have gone a long way toward developing great post ideas. Talk to you readers and find out the things they would like to know more about and then give them this information. Although it sounds extremely simple, there are few people who actually take the time to do it.

Ask Others

When you are stuck for inspiration, it is important to remember that there are many other bloggers who have been there before but have managed to conquer this hurdle and have documented the process they went through. A great way to overcome writers’ block is to have a look at some of the excellent post ideas that your peers in the blogosphere have come up with.

When you ask and find out what great posts you have written in the past that still bring in loads of traffic in the weeks, months and even years after they were first published, you will know the kind of content that works.

You should then think of how to expand on this content. Is it possible to dissect one of these posts and provide its ideas in more detailed steps? Could you write a follow-up post? Is it possible to refresh the post by including newer ideas? Your readers and other bloggers can help you find the answers to these questions and more.

Ride On Trending Topics

Today, there are many ways to discover hot topics. An excellent way to come up with content that many people will want to read and share is finding out beforehand what it is that people are looking for in their searches. Some of these are:

Google Trends
com/search
com

All the above sources will give you an idea of the type of content that is most popular at the moment.

Tell the Story So Far

There are times when the best posts are those that tell your entire story of your blog in a single, condensed version. No matter what you blog about, it is likely that you have been doing it for a while. What you need to tell your readers is:

What have you managed to learn during this time?
What is it that has changed during that time?
If you could give yourself a piece of advice when you started out, what would this advice be?

Writing this kind of post is more than an exercise in narcissism; the posts could end up being incredibly useful to others in your niche. Everybody starts somewhere, and you could help someone else learn from the mistakes you made early in your career.

Give Something Back Through a Guide

Many bloggers ask: What kind of blog post is the best? The answer to this is surprisingly simple. The best blog post is one that makes people click through and read more of your posts. Surprisingly, few bloggers link the posts on their blog together adequately to capitalise on this fact.

You should take time to re-read your old posts, group posts that are related together and order them in a sort of mini-guide to enable visitors to your blog to read them in sequence, in a meaningful way. Always include an introduction, add a conclusion as well as some brief descriptions and links to the relevant posts. This will ensure that you have a guide that will lead visitors on a quest around your blog.

Conclusion

Every blogger gets great ideas for their posts every day. What proves difficult is organising these ideas in an actionable way. Hopefully, the ideas in this post will offer you useful guidelines that you can follow while allowing your creative juices to flow.

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Creating a Home Office that Invigorates Creativity

When you have been toiling away at work for hours on end, it’s easy to lose your creative drive and become bogged down in the minutia of your day-to-day operational demands. For anyone working in graphic design, this creativity block can be a serious detriment to your business’s prosperity. That’s why we at Modernize have found it to be essential to have a home office that recharges your creative batteries, all while promoting productivity and organization, too.

Increased Productivity

Usually a person’s home is where they find solace, and it is when your mind is the most at peace that your creative juices will flow freely. A study conducted by Stanford University noted that in-office employees were 13 percent less productive than their home-based counterparts due in large part to noisier working environments and far more illnesses. By working from home, you are in charge of every aspect of the space from music selection to temperature, giving you an office where you will be the most comfortable. Plus, when you work from home you are able to optimize each minute of your work day by not wasting time in sitting in traffic twice a day!

Inspirational Nooks

Sometimes you have to see past the computer screen to know exactly what to design in the digital world. By having a home office that surrounds you in inspiration rather than a dull cubicle, all you need to do in order to break through a mental block is to look around your office to find that creative boost. Whether it’s pictures of your family on vacation, an item of geeky fandom, or a painting of enlightening quote, these elements will help put your task into perspective and refocus your attention on solving the task at hand.

Clutter is Killer and Aesthetic is Key

When you are designing your home office, though, show some restraint on not overcrowding your space with these motivational items. Scientists at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute have found that when your environment is cluttered, it makes it significantly more challenging for you to be able to concentrate. Since you have the freedom to design your space as you see fit, opt for a streamlined office aesthetic that makes you feel invigorated and refreshed, being sure to include plenty of organizational solutions.

Improved Finances

If you are one of the many graphic designers who have chosen to run their own business or be an independent contractor, then it is especially beneficial to choose a home office versus a traditional office environment. Creativity is virtually impossible when you are stressed about being able to pay your bills. A home office will not only lower your overhead, but it can put money back in your pocket when you take advantage of any tax deductions available for an at-home business.

By taking the time to think about what inspires you and your career goals, you can create a home office that invigorates your creativity and optimizes your productivity.

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Web Hosting 101: What You Need To Know

The Internet has been a revolutionary instrument for businesses, whether big or small. Sure, traditional ways of advertising your products and services like printing leaflets and banners can be beneficial.

However, in today’s highly industrialized and competitive world, having your own website has been a crucial part of customer engagement and brand promotion.

For a business to succeed and last long, brand promotion should be a mixture of online and offline methods. Nowadays, people rely heavily on the internet.

According to Mintel flagship report American Lifestyle 2015, 69 percent of Americans seek out reviews on goods and services before purchasing something.

Out of those who seek advice online, 70 percent rely on independent review sites while 57 percent utilize social media platforms for recommendations.

Whether what restaurant is best for a dinner date, what travel agency offers the best itineraries or the best sportswear for pilates, consumers seek others’ opinions to validate their choices.

Moreover, instead of going on an actual store, customers would prefer to browse the company’s website first because of convenience and practicality it brings. Thus, in a world where online connectivity has been a need, a business with no online presence would decrease its chances of having customers.

Lastly, an updated website now equates to building credibility and good reputation.

This is where website hosting comes into play

Website hosting allows both individuals and organizations (both public and private) website accessibility through the World Wide Web. In order to connect your website to the internet, you have to choose a unique domain name. It serves as the identity of the online site.

The moment it gets registered and verified, the website gets a space in the online world. Web hosting also includes other web services such as file maintenance and data center space and connectivity. This type of service is usually offered by internet service providers which charge users a fee depending on the services’ complexity.

Periodic and customary improvement hosting

Periodic improvement Includes webpage and restructure and rearrangement

Customary improvement comprises of content development, ensuring integrity of links and including unique marketing strategies online like publishing blogs, creating newsletters and launching promos or new line of products. Hence, it plays an integral role in business improvement.

Although web hosting companies provide different account functions, there are definite features that offered by the majority of the well-known firms. These attributes should be considered in choosing the right service provider for your company. One of the functions that one should take note of is called cPanel or control board.

cPanel allows business to examine crucial aspects on a website such as internet traffic obtainment and intensification. Through the control board, you will know the amount of people who visited your site for a particular time frame and how they were directed to your site.

Likewise, when looking for a web host, it is important to put into consideration the amount of storage and bandwidth offered. Be careful when service providers offer “unlimited storage” because in the Terms and Services you will read that it is unlimited until you exceed the “normal site usage.” It is best to go with a website host that sets definite data limit.

Bandwidth, on the hand is the amount of data offered by the website host dedicated for you and your online visitors’ uploads and downloads in a monthly basis. For popular brands and blogs, bandwidth is something to keep an eye on at all times. Make sure to choose a website host where all calculated visitors can be accommodated. Online site back-up is also a crucial feature to consider. Remember, business sites are more susceptible to data loss than your personal computers.

Online threats that lead to data loss may come from the following:

1. Website hackers who may want to steal credit card information of clients or to merely cause trouble.

2. Awry updates that can make a website down for a number of hours. Although regular updates mean increased security and new features, it is not a hundred percent guarantee because of the multiple components a website has.

3. Computer malfunctioning. While a lot sees storing of files in the computer in a nice way to keep it protected, backing files remotely is a better option because your computer crash or stolen, you can still have your important files recovered.

4. Human error may come into the picture. It is possible that a contractor, freelancer or a regular employee might accidentally delete an important file or press the wrong button. Having a site back-up would ensure that simple human errors would not deter business operations.

5. Viruses and other malwares can be a pain in the ass. The find ways to pollute your website even if you ensured safety of third parties. They can be included with themes or plugins that would crash your website upon downloading it.

Also, do no hesitate to ask your web host what kind of framework support they offer especially for content management systems. Most online subscribers love WordPress so it is a plus when a host can provide an easy set-up for WordPress or the blogging system you prefer.

Lastly, make sure that your web host will let you host multiple sub-domains to make managing accounts easier. Although there is usually a limit on how many sub-domains a client can have, make sure it suits your company’s needs. Most website hosts would provide you a section in the administrator panel so you can consequently add sub-domains.

Types of web hosting services

Prior to availing any web hosting services, it is important that one has an understanding of the types of web hosting services, the server that caters to your business needs and your allocated budget.

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting can be a fair choice for individuals who just want to build a website for fun and have no plans of monetizing it. In a free hosting environment, connection speed is slow most the times and the website’s downtime is frequent. Additionally, advertising banners are added to your website without your permission. Some web hosts would advise you to purchase your own domain name to receive free hosting services while others would offer a free subdomain under them. It is better to choose the former so that you still have your own domain and web space.

Shared Web Hosting

In a shared web hosting environment, you and other website owners share in a single server. The server includes the physical machine and all the software applications within it. The shared web hosting service should comprise of a system administration to regulate control within users. This kind of web hosting is not suitable for software-extensive website clients since the server’s capacity is shared among the users. On the bright side, it is generally cheaper than other types of web hosting such as dedicated web hosting. The services usually include e-mail and web statistics support and services, auto script installations, up-to-date PHP and MySQL, basic monthly technical support. It also uses various kinds of web-based control panel system such as DirectAdmin, InterWorx and cPanel.

In addition, the service providers are the one responsible ensuring security for the server and maintaining technical support. It may be Linux operating system or Microsoft Windows based. However, the downside of shared hosting is that it can be slower when users are browsing at the same time.

Dedicated Web Hosting

In a dedicated web hosting environment, you have your own website server. This permits businesses to have faster-running websites. You can also maximize the server’s capacities without having to share it with other website users. Dedicated web hosting can be pricey as opposed to shared website hosting but ensures you of a better, more secure system. This is usually availed by businesses that generate a lot of internet traffic.

Dedicated web hosting also bring a lot of convenience because the service provider will handle all concerns such as monthly technical maintenance, security assurance and web server reliability. They would also be in change in ensuring the quality of the hardware. In some circumstances, some web hosts will provide monetary compensation in the event of hardware failure as part of the Service Level Agreement.

Cloud Web Hosting

This is probably the most innovative type of web hosting. Cloud Web Hosting originated from Cloud computing. The servers in this system collaboratively processes tedious tasks while manages huge amount of data. They can act as a supercomputer because it assures flawless experiences for clients and their online visitors. It also permits files to be hosted on limitless number of servers that act together as one system. Lastly, the separation between services such as FTP, e-mail services and content management ensures that if ever there is a failure on one device, the other services would remain unaffected.

Importance of web hosting

An updated website compensates for a company’s fixed working hours.
Your organization cannot operate 24/7 because it is expensive, inefficient and workers would be burned out. However, if the website of the company is up-to-date, this gives utmost flexibility and convenience for the customers to browse upon the services and products offered.

Website hosting makes delivering messages and ideas to consumers easier.
According to Jeremy Ellens, contributor of Entrepreneur magazine and Co-founder of Yamazo effective marketing strategy appeals to consumers’ emotions rather than reason. With that being said, a brand needs to establish deeper value and importance in their marketed products and services. A website can be instrument is propagating the desired message by images, videos, digital content, animation and even customer testimonials to the entire world via a web network.

Website hosting allows companies to create databases and exciting features.
An organized database is vital in operations and marketing because it efficiently stores and systematizes huge amount of data within a single software application. In addition, it allows users to multi-task manageably. Without database management, tasks would be done manually and it would take longer. Hence, the web hosting’s database management would foster a smoother working environment. On the other hand, a lot of exciting features can be added to your website through web hosting. This includes community forums, blog walls, chat panels and shopping carts. These features can definitely attract more customers thereby increasing your revenue.

Website hosting enhances the company’s reliability and professionalism.
During “down time” or moments when a website is inaccessible to online consumers, the business appears unreliable because people cannot see the company’s profile and products. Down times make you lose potential buyers and can be detrimental in your revenues if it happens frequently. In choosing the right web host, calculate the amount of traffic you expect. Having a website also means that a company is accountable to any eventualities like wrong deliveries or shipping issues.

It ensures linked email accounts for correspondence.
A web hosting package should include email accounts that link to your online site. In this manner, business electronic mails are well-organized and separated from personal mails. Furthermore, consumers would remember because the e-mail address matches the website domain name.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, if you are starting to establish an online business website, it is safe to say that website hosting is an instrument to one’s business success. Business owners should be aware of the innovations that can help in their operations. Moreover, and they have to make use of the newest technologies to improve their services and products. If not, it would be a reason for one’s fall down.