There's green in the air! Whether it's a tribute to St. Patrick, the first buds of Spring, or the prospect of new business in the new year, green is a color that exudes feelings of warmth, strength, and prosperity. Our theme for this issue of NotableNews is how you can increase your prosperity.

Increase Sales With Online Coupons

Coupons are an effective way to increase sales. They are known to push sales for specific items or services, to attract new customers, drive repeat business, and increase business during slow times. It's an old concept but still works well; especially online, since the Internet is the perfect venue for quickly and easily reaching customers.

An excellent way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to offer a coupon that makes the customer feel they are receiving a truly unique "deal". An intriguing campaign we recently saw is MusiciansFriend.com's 'Stupid Deal of the Day'. As the name implies, their prices must be so low that it's a mistake and timeliness is essential. This is reminiscent of the Crazy Eddie campaigns with "prices so low he must be insane."

You don't need a web site to use e-coupons. Start an online coupon campaign by making an e-card into an online e-coupon. If you have an online and brick-and-mortar store, offer the coupon for either type of shopping venue, so the customer has the choice. If the coupon is for brick-and-mortar, make it so the printed version of the e-card clearly has an area for printing and clipping. If you have a custom membership with CorpNote, you have the ability to create a custom e-card that looks like a coupon (don't forget the dotted line and the little scissor icon!). Click here to view a sample customized coupon card. Here are some interesting facts about how effective coupons are:

• Online ads lift offline retail purchases by 19% (Yahoo!/ACNielsen)
  
  
• 79% of the United States population uses coupons, and 69% of primary shoppers report that they "frequently or almost always check or clip coupons" as part of their shopping behavior. (CMS, Carolina Manufacturer's Services)

Getting Paid for what you're already owed...

Being positive in a negative situation shows integrity, patience and good business etiquette. Getting paid can be a tug of war between keeping a positive relationship with the customer and maintaining your company's cash flow.

A positive way of contacting a delinquent client is to send an e-card reminder with instructions on how they can easily pay their invoice, either through a web site link or postal mail instructions. This approach is a step-up from a regular email because you are thanking them for their business and providing them with an easy way to pay their bill. You can remind them of the benefits your service/product offers to further substantiate how valuable your company is to them.

By sending an e-card, you have real-time proof that they read your message and you can follow-up with a timely phone call if necessary.

Using Inexpensive (or Free) Software to Make Custom E-cards

Our members often ask us what software is required to make the art for a custom e-card.

Our pick for graphic designing software in the 'Best Bang for the Buck' category is Magix Photo Clinic 5.5 at $19.99. They have a free trial so you can try before you buy. This easy-to-use photo editing software was our pick of affordable products and offers flexible, creative and intuitive design tools, text effects and photo editing capabilities.

Do you already have PowerPoint? PowerPoint gives you many quick options for creating your e-card including gradient backgrounds, design templates, the ability to insert pictures and a logo, and easy to use and familiar text formatting features. Click here for our step-by-step tutorial on how to create custom e-cards in PowerPoint.

What does the CorpNote team use? We use Adobe Photoshop. If you have Photoshop, view our tutorial showing the design of a simple card with step-by-step instructions.

For all members...

Invitation Manager Enhancements.
You can now provide an "end date" for registration and a maximum number of guests allowed to register for your event. When your limits are reached, your guests will see a custom message you provide.

For individual and custom members...

We've Removed our Logo.
Based upon member suggestions, when a recipient picks up your e-card, they will now see only your e-card design and a link for contacting you. The CorpNote name is subtly at the bottom for copyright purposes. Send yourself an e-card or view our e-card demo to see the e-card pickup screen.