There are many advantages to today’s virtual business world. You get to work from home and eat pizza at your desk in your PJs while jamming away on your documents. You don’t get stuck at the water cooler with that same guy—you know the one—every day. And you don’t have to do nearly as much business travel, meaning you can make all those critical sales presentations right from your desk, eating that pizza in your PJs. Awesome, right? Well, if we’re honest, not really.
Any great salesperson will tell you that to make a sale you have to win hearts and minds. And it isn’t easy to do that from thousands of miles away. Also, presenting without a room full of people offering you reassuring nods can be a bit daunting. How do you present with confidence in web meetings when you don’t even know what the person on the other end is doing while you present, never mind what they are wearing!
At YouDazzle, we’ve worked hard to give you the tools you need to present with confidence and get the results you need no matter where you might be. Here’s just a few ways how:
Make your data room your new conference room: YouDazzle’s professional, secure data rooms mean you can easily send your audience to get the documents you are referring to, making information sharing effortless and effective.
Provide that missing “personal touch” with co-browsing: Make your sales interactions more interactive and convert more leads by viewing your website and other sales materials in real-time with your prospects, recruits and customers. No more hoping folks visit your website and buy. Be there live to answer questions, solve problems and build stronger relationships. Shop together, fill out forms together, and grow your business.
Meetings can be spontaneous again—no matter where you are: Simply share your personalized web address for real-time meetings. Instantly share your files and screen from any computer or device, including iPads, iPhones and Androids. Much simpler and faster than 1st generation web meeting products like GoToMeeting and WebEx, YouDazzle is the only way to share files live from tablets and mobile phones.
So, relax, take a deep breath. Have another slice of pizza even. And get ready to dazzle your prospects. And don’t forget to reward yourself for your success with a new pair of pajamas! (Seriously, we think you might need some.)
Here at YouDazzle, we don’t mind telling you that we are fans of Dropbox. It’s a great tool! But frankly we’ve long thought that it is a bit too impersonal and not quite powerful enough to share with prospects and partners. So, we’ve spruced it up, and our users—and longtime Dropbox users—are loving the results. PC Magazine even pointed out our Dropbox integration as one reason why we are one of its 25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012.
So, what’s our secret sauce? It’s simple:
Custom branding: Add your own branding to Dropbox folders and make your brand stand out whenever you share content and collaborate online. Add your logo and color choice in seconds to present a consistent and professional image.
Web meetings: Instantly share Dropbox files with up to 100 people at once. YouDazzle web meetings are 100% browser-based, require no download, and work with virtually any computer, tablet, or device.
Commenting: Extend the collaboration capabilities of Dropbox by adding comments to your files. Exchange feedback and ideas with team members, clients, customers, and prospects, and keep everyone in the loop.
Activity analytics: Keep on top of who’s looking at your files. Stay in touch with trends and decision-making processes with instant feedback on deals and projects! No more wondering if someone viewed your files.
Enhanced viewer: View Dropbox files without leaving your browser in large format with helpful viewing tools like zoom and multiple page display. YouDazzle viewer supports 300+ popular file types including MS Office files, PDFs, and many more.
So, give it a try today and let us know what you think. We believe that together YouDazzle and Dropbox bring Cloud-based information to life in a way never before possible!
Well, OK, You do have to try, but today’s virtual workplace gives us endless opportunities to create not just our own businesses but our own business “lifestyles”. We can work from a desk, from a patio, from a local Starbucks. However, no matter what lifestyle we might choose, there are still some constants in what makes a “virtual” business person successful in mind, spirit and pocketbook.
Put on some polish: Although you may be working in your sweatpants, nothing about your business needs to be rough and tumble. Create branded data rooms for your files and make sure you have a consistent look and feel across all that you do.
Connect with people in meaningful work ways: Even if you are operating from your mobile phone in your neighbor’s backyard, you can hold web meetings that can be interactive and insightful. Opt for solutions that require no downloads, work on all platforms and feature co-browsing, which is the new feature that everyone is going to expect of your meetings in the future. Don’t just show people something, guide them to solutions.
Connect with people in meaningful non-work ways: Feel like Facebook is your only outlet for human interaction? That is not good, my friend. Give yourself time every day to escape from your work cave, no matter how glamorous it might be, and see friends. Heck, even make some new ones. Let’s face it, no one likes to be alone all the time.
Start a blog: People love to learn from other’s experiences (including their mistakes). Let your customers and prospects hear your real voice, despite the miles between you. It will do wonders for your personal brand equity and allegiance. And it will get the word out on your business too.
Do everything in moderation: Rome was not built (or even destroyed) in one day. The biggest peril of working virtually is that your office goes with you everywhere. Your best work in not the work you are going to do at 2 a.m. Even though you have the ability to work around the clock, try to establish regular work hours and stick with them. The most successful people aren’t the ones that work the hardest; they are the ones that work the smartest.
So, you can see how these tips will help your mind and spirit, but what about the pocketbook, you say? Well, if you use these tips to create balance in your life and power in your business, the money will follow…and thanks to GPS it can find you no matter where you are!
One of the most amazing by-products of the social media revolution is that it is easier than ever to build networks online, connecting people that might never have met through common interests or reuniting people who haven’t spoken in twenty years. Better yet, the overall digital revolution has created “self-service” customer care, where our customers can do everything from buying our products to renewing our services to recommending us to friends without us ever having to be involved. This is incredible and saves us a ton of time, right?
Well, sort of.
While automation is amazing and linking in via social media is powerful, there are still some times when some good old personal touch makes all the difference. Let’s face it, we aren’t in Jetson times yet—although who wouldn’t love a conveyor belt to get them dressed in the morning. There are still some times where opportunities are lost when the personal touch is forgotten.
Here are some cases in point:
The “cold” visit: So many times consumers visit a website only to leave without making a purchase or signing up for more information. Why? For the same reason that sometimes you will abandon a purchase at Target if you can’t find someone to help you. Sometimes people need a little guidance. Use features such as co-browsing to be there to help out your customers. Just a little widget with a friendly person to help can make all the difference in the world.
The long-time customer carrot: Even in today’s digital world, people like to feel valued. It isn’t enough to just throw people coupons. Keep track of what people do and every once in a while say thank you in person or at least with a truly personalized note, not just an automated offer.
The new product: Don’t just throw something new out there and expect everyone to love it or even read what you put on your website. Take time to show customers all that your latest and greatest has to offer. Bring them in, make them excited, build ambassadors for your brand. Let’s face it, the only way to get people talking for you is to talk directly to them in the first place.
The renewal: Every time someone renews your product, you have the chance to get them to expand their relationship with you. The problem is, if everything is automated then there is no time to actually talk about what you have that could be even better for this particular person or company.
So, yes to social media tools, yes to automation, yes to technology. But let’s not forget what really drives people: other people. A slick new tool isn’t what really dazzles customers—it’s the personal touch. Just think: the most amazing box of chocolates means nothing without the handwritten card that goes with it this Valentine’s Day . . . Well, maybe that’s not the best example. But if you aren’t sending amazing chocolates, send your customers some personal attention instead!
One of the challenges of today’s virtual business world is finding a way to still make human connections with colleagues, partners, customers and prospects despite the miles between us. Gone are the days when people visited prospects’ offices and made cold calls, now salespeople can quickly get on same page (literally) and control the customer experience from beginning to end.
There is a great online tool you can use to bring back those bygone days of stopping by with a box of chocolates or yet another mug: Co-browsing.
Co-browsing basically means that you can share your website—and anyone else’s website—with someone else in real-time. Co-browsing makes it feel as if you are actually sitting in a room with someone else again, surfing the web and working together. And, if you are in sales, that personal touch and in-the-moment responsiveness helps you achieve your ultimate goal: converting more leads.
Things you can accomplish with co-browsing include:
Reacting in real-time to prospects’ needs: Rather than waiting and see what sales materials seem to spark the most interest, you can browse your secure, Cloud-based data room in real-time with your prospect, finding the most relevant information quickly and even demoing your product effortlessly and effectively.
Filling out forms together: Let’s face it, countless sales opportunities are lost because someone gets tripped up by a question, has a submission error or simply just loses steam half-way through the process. With you by their side, you will never lose a sale to a form again.
Shopping together makes you stay together: Co-browsing is the perfect way to make sure your prospect finds exactly what she wants—or better yet what you want her to find! There is no better way to make online shopping more effective and efficient than by being there to give your customer a hand.
So, you can see how easy it is to grow your business online with co-browsing. And if you really, really miss those mugs? Well you and your customer can design one online together!
There are certain terms that have become passé in the tech space, words that have lost all meaning in their over-use, words such as best-of-breed or cutting-edge (or our personal favorite, bleeding-edge, whatever the heck that is). But a few years ago would you ever imagine that an innocent term like collaboration could become so loaded?
In today’s world of all things social, collaboration has started to signify everything from editing photo books as a group to creating budgets as a team. Everyone and their brother claims they have a solution that will let you work together in ways never before dreamed possible.
Consider this definition from Wikipedia:
“Due to the complexity of today’s business environment, collaboration in technology encompasses a broad range of tools that enable groups of people to work together including social networking, instant messaging, team spaces, web sharing, audio conferencing, video, and telephony. Broadly defined, any technology that facilitates linking of two or more humans to work together can be considered a collaborative tool. Wikipedia, Blogs, even Twitter are collaborative tools. Many large companies are developing enterprise collaboration strategies and standardizing on a collaboration platform to allow their employees, customers and partners to intelligently connect and interact.”
If everything from Wikipedia itself to Twitter are collaborative tools, how can you possibly decide what tool is best for your business? Well, we at YouDazzle wanted to offer some simple criteria: present and share, keep your information central and accessible on all your devices.
How can you apply this to your business in a simple way? Deploy a simple solution that combines web meetings, screen sharing and online file sharing:
Present and share—creating Cloud-based data rooms where you can share files is a simple, organized way that you can present information and see what people are viewing when, accessing analytics that will help you give your partners, colleagues and customers what they need to best do their jobs. Add to this a web meeting solution that doesn’t require any downloads or other fuss, as well as some co-browsing features and you have an easy way to communicate, present and share.
Keep it centralized—having an online space where you can store all of your files in an orderly way, including tracking revisions, makes all the difference in the world. Forget about complicated platforms as they just mean more IT support headaches and endless passwords, create a branded data room that can build your image while controlling your content.
Accessible—having that online data room means that you can share documents, track projects and involve people as needed all from one simple place. Best of all, with a Cloud-based solution you are fully mobile, you can accomplish collaboration from anywhere, meaning you have way more options than ever before.
See, once you get past the hype, not everything has to be coined “collaboration .” After all, people are looking for an easy way to share and present information without all the complexities. And if that isn’t best-of-breed, I just don’t know what is!
2012 is looking to be a great year as we have some exciting news to share! We have been chosen by PCMag.com to be featured in their “25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012”. PCMag.com has chosen their 25 favorite apps ranging from cloud services to financial services and everything in between. What they have in common is the ability to enhance, grow and improve the success of your business. YouDazzle is ecstatic to be apart of such a great list. YouDazzle has been working hard to provide you with the tools you need to grow your business through affordable online file sharing, easy web meetings, seamless integration with Dropbox and a professional way to present your company through custom branding. With 2012 off to a great start we will be continuing to provide you great service and great features to help you succeed! Check out the article at www.pcmag.com Do you use any of the apps on the list? If not, then what are you waiting for? Get started today!
So, you use Dropbox regularly to sync files with your colleagues and peers across all of your devices, right?
But, wouldn’t it be great to be able to extend Dropbox capabilities with features like:
Customized Dropbox folders with your own branding
Instantly share Dropbox files via web meetings without any downloads
Add comments to your Dropbox files
Or view who’s been accessing your files
Well if you’ve answered yes to any of these questions; then we have some exciting news for you, now you can! YouDazzle has integrated with Dropbox to bring a richer experience!
Now it is easier then ever to offer a professional experience that is second to none! Need to upload your files to your YouDazzle account? With the Dropbox integration there are more ways then one now! Hate lengthy downloads to conduct web meetings and share files? That’s a thing of the past now! With YouDazzle you can easily be conducting a web meeting and simply drag and drop a file into your Dropbox for a seamless flow. Need to ensure your files can be accessed from anywhere in a safe and secure manner? Now you can access your files in more ways then one! You can access your files through your mobile browser or through your Dropbox app.
It’s Monday morning. The glow of the weekend is still lingering. But here comes your first web meeting of the day. And we all know how that will play out.
10:00. Dial-in. Launch meeting in browser. Dial passcode. Where’s the passcode?
10:02. Dial *. Hold music. Click link. Your online meeting requires an updated plug-in. Would you like to download it? Yes.
10:05. The meeting organizer has not yet arrived. Is that me? Crap, it’s me. Dial #. Dial *. Dial #*. Where’s the passcode? No, the other passcode. No…stop…just give it here.
10:09. Plug-in has finished downloading. Please restart browser. Meeting organizer has arrived. There are 34 people on this call.
10:10. Good morning. Sorry we’re late. I’m rebooting my browser. How’s the weather in Louisville?
We live in a high-tech world, where everyone is just a Tweet or text away. We multitask on our devices, we edit movies on our laptops. So why is it that we still can’t have a simple web meeting?
It’s simple. It’s the data, stupid. There is both too much data and too little. And both are always too late.
On the too much data front, how impossible is it to remember a dial-in, a passcode, a conference code and more, all for just one meeting? And what about those plug-ins? It seems like just when you least expect it some new plug-in or some update to your old plug-in is needed to even get your meeting started. If web meetings are going to be a viable option, we need to be able to take advantage of all the technological advances we’ve made in other arenas and be able to have a simple interface, no numbers to remember and no downloads. The way we see it, you should be able to invite someone to a meeting as easily as you share a Word doc with them.
And speaking of sharing, one of the other major issues with web meetings today is that there is no quick and easy way to pull up or refer people to needed files during a meeting. Everyone has lived through the agony of being asked for a different document than the one you already have opened and then having to scramble about your machine to find a different document, with of course the whole world watching.
We’re advocating for a kinder, simpler way of sharing data. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just point people to an adjacent data room during your meeting, letting them download the document they need without you having to worry about it. Because, really, don’t we just all need one less thing to worry about?
So that is our thought of the day (or data): if we want to save web meetings (and add 10 years back to our lives) let’s simplify them—and ban passcodes while we’re at it!—once and for all.
“Ch-ch-ch-ch changes!” We’ve just released a new user interface (UI) for YouDazzle that includes several highly sought-after features!
THE NEW VIEWER
We have significantly improved upon the user interface. It’s simpler, more elegant and more intuitive. We optimized the screen real estate and made the action buttons larger. We added a gallery view and the ability to preview images directly from the data room. Additionally, we made major improvements to the document and image viewer with more viewing space, more viewing options, more tools, easier-to-see comments and a significantly faster viewing experience.
THE NEW MEETING ROOM
We made some major changes to web meetings to address user requests. The interface is more streamlined and intuitive with a larger viewing space, more presentation options including real-time annotation, and a significantly faster and more professional viewing experience.
Some of changes that we think you’ll be most excited about:
NEW ELEGANT, INTUITIVE UI
Everything from file sharing to web meetings to notifications has been improved with simplicity and ease-of-use in mind.
NEW DATA ROOM AND WEB MEETING VIEWERS
Faster and more streamlined viewing experience.
GALLERY VIEW
Quick snapshot of all your files.
IMAGE PREVIEW IN DATA ROOM
See images on main data room page so you quickly identify key files.
ABILITY TO ADD MULTIPLE USERS TO ACCOUNT
Add as many colleagues to your account as you want for free.
256 BIT ENCRYPTION
Store and share your content with confidence knowing that your data is always transferred with 256-bit encryption.
USER INTERFACE TUTORIALS
In application pop-ups that guide users through key features to enable even faster start-up.
And there’s more! We didn’t stop at UI changes; our team has also done a lot of work behind the scenes to enhance the application’s overall performance and logic. Expect a more robust, faster and professional user experience.We are indebted to you, our beta users, for your feedback, suggestions and support. Thank you in advance for any additional feedback and suggestions you are willing to share with us.
We look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy the new and improved YouDazzle!
