Onsharp is excited about a new hosted service we offer: SugarCRM.

 "CRM" stands for "Customer Relations Management," and that's just what SugarCRM does for you. By gathering and storing information, it assists you in managing your customer interactions in sales, marketing, and service areas.

With SugarCRM, you can

• track an email marketing campaign
• manage your leads
• help Sales close deals
• facilitate follow up customer service.

With this kind of data at your fingertips, you're in a position to make decisions on the basis of information, not guesses. Departments can assist and support one another more easily, since they can share details. Less time goes toward catching everyone up or searching for lost records and notes, and more goes toward finding, keeping, and caring for your customers.

The easy to use SugarCRM dashboards give you quick, reliable access to essential information, and show strengths and weaknesses of your operation -- big or small.

We can host the service for you and we can also customize SugarCRM to your specifications. Onsharp uses SugarCRM for customer relations management. Let us show you how SugarCRM can sweeten your business.

Onsharp's SmartPay has something new to offer the community.

As a part of our commitment to the environment, education, and the community, we're offering a free download for educators.

"Taming the Paper Tiger" is a unit on paper and the environment, including a reproducible folktale, hands-on, multi-level lesson plans, and a coloring page. The unit is free for educational use. Download "Taming the Paper Tiger" for your home or classroom.

This unit meets North Dakota State Curriculuml Content Standards  in a number of areas, including English language arts, math, health, library/technology literacy, and science.

We hope you'll share this resource with your kids, teachers, and others in your community.The more we know about our environment and how to

 

A recent study found that only about a third of businesses have a strategy for their online marketing.

What are the rest doing?

Sometimes, they're setting up a web site and hoping it does... whatever web sites are supposed to do. Sometimes, they're following the latest fads they read about: this week it's Twitter, next week it's MeetUp, last week -- well, nobody remembers last week.

Sometimes they're doing nothing at all.

Web marketing, like all marketing, requires a strategy. You wouldn't conduct your other marketing with random stabs, and you won't get the best results by conducting your web marketing that way, either. A good strategy based on data, a commitment to follow through on the strategy, and a plan for gathering the information you need to track results and fine-tune your plan -- these are the elements of a successful web marketing strategy.

At Onsharp, we meet with you to discuss your objectives. We develop a complete web marketing strategy for you. We collect data and report to you regularly on the progress your efforts achieve.

This is our 3-D process: 

• Discover
• Develop
• Deliver

Visit our process page to learn more about how we do it. Request your free 3-D glasses, too, so you can see the page in 3-D! Visit our resource center for more to read and watch about online marketing.

When you're ready to take action, contact us.  It's the first step toward a web marketing strategy that will make you stand out from the competition.

What was the last YouTube video you watched? What was the last one you shared with a friend, posted on Facebook, or emailed to everyone in your address book?

Last time you got together with friends, you might even have heard people talking about that video with the cat... you know, the one where...

Sorry. Got distracted.  Because that's what happens at YouTube: visitors get intrigued and watch not only the video their friends are talking about, but others as well. YouTube passed the million views a day mark years ago. For many viewers, video is a fun and easy way of learning about news, new ideas, and new thinigs. YouTube is a preferred information source for a growing number of internet users.

Can it be a good resource for your business?

Check out Onsharp's new video for an example of this kind of online media. We're showcasing our company, our services, and some of our clients, too.

Online media can be incorporated into your website, and it can also be aired at video destinations like YouTube, where it may reach a completely new audience.

One of the advantages of uploading your video to YouTube is that you will then have an easy way to embed it in other websites: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo lenses, your company blog, and many more web pages can show your video and help you get the word out.

Here are some things to consider when you plan a video about your company or organization:

• Production quality is key. The quality of your video says a lot about your company.  Sure, you can shoot a quick spot with your phone's camera in your car, saying "umm" and apologizing a lot -- but is that the look you want? If you're trying for wide distribution, then it's worth hiring a professional to prepare a good marketing piece for you. Contact Onsharp to discuss your media needs.
• Add some text. Google is getting better at identifying videos, but it's still necessary to give the search engines something to work with. Wherever you put your video, make sure that you have the name of your business, your products, and other essential informaiton in written words on the site.
• Include a call to action. When your customers watch that video and want your product, they should be able to find you and get their hands on that product they want. A link to your website is a must.The object is always to bring your customers to your place of business, online or in the physical world. 

Fortunately, the cost of online video is very economical compared with TV ads. You can reach more people, and more receptive people, too, and keep your marketing budget looking good. Contact us to find out how you can take the next step with online media.