FastStart programs are designed to introduce you to what Zoho can do for your business and how Prodigm professional services will help you achieve your goals. It's like a maiden voyage on a new ship.

"We don't know what we don't know."

We work with you to initially configure the Zoho applications so you can test and use the key aspects of the each application that you plan to implement. During the Discovery process we demonstrate what the Zoho applications can help you to achieve in business benefits. At the end of Discovery process you are far better informed, and ready to define the project plan with us.

"That's Perfect!"

The phrase we hear a lot in Discovery is "That's perfect." It reflects that we can often exactly meet, not just the stated requirements, but those unspoken requirements, like total data security, guided procedures or cross-silo integration, that makes such a huge difference to productivity and collaboration.

"How much?"

You select an appropriate initial FastStart budget, and we demonstrate how much we can get done for that price in advancing your project. 

Our aim is to provide you with a plan which includes addressing your immediate urgent priorities, setting up a detailed project plan, configuring your required system applications so we can illustrate how they work and how they can be configured to meet your needs. 

ust when you thought Zoho Writer couldn't get any better (i.e the bulked up mail carrier, it's integration with WordPress and the new iOS and Android apps), it does. Zoho just announced two additional document formatting options to help make Writer adapt better to the way you work. Here is a summary of those enhancements.

Collaborative code snippet

Identified from the expressed need of Developers, Zoho has now introduced a code integration tool with Writer. Previously, Developers were inserting their code into documents and then using the comments tool to discuss it, while others would just use it to document their code. Based off of this, Zoho now works in 13 common coding languages (C to Swift, etc.) and combines this with Writer's full-featured word processing capabilities. This integration now allows users to access their knowledge base on the cloud, from any device and from any location.

Quotes

In addition to the Collaborative code snippet, Zoho has also introduced an easier way to insert quotes or excerpts from your favourite writers, and quickly give it a style that stands out.  Default paragraph styles in Writer (Heading 1, Heading 2 etc.) now have a new Quote option, and it’s compatible with MS Word, creating some graceful and simple quote designs for to use.

Many marketers share great content in various forms but fail to use it to drive sales. Creating captivating content through blogs, eBooks, website pages and other content-driven communication tools must be supported by measurable ways of converting your readers into leads. 

With a huge surge in the popularity of video over the past decade, one that is easy enough to understand given the move from desktop to mobile computing, investing in generating video content that is informative and accountable is almost a necessity today.1 The right mix of content will not only bring in more leads but also educate them about the category in which you play. Convert the audience that consumes your content into leads through compelling CTAs, opt-ins, newsletters and gated landing pages for content downloads.

At the early stages of your business, competition is extra important to watch. It is one of your best avenues for learning. Competition is a healthy reality of business and can provide vital lessons from the industry that can lead to consistent improvement in products and services. Stay on top of the key moves your main competitors are making. If a strategy works well for an established player, a variation on the theme might be worth considering.

Automate Your Social Media Marketing

Though highly effective, social media can be time-consuming since it’s ‘on’ 24/7. Take advantage of social media automation tools (like Zoho Social), and services, to help you increase your pool of followers, schedule content at times that are most effective, devise formulas, and more. However, remember to keep your content engaging and relevant to your audience.

Don’t be Afraid to Experiment

Consumers quickly tire when they are told about the same offering, in the same way, using the same media. Try different online and offline promotion techniques to reach your target market and increase conversions. The right promotional mix can boost your sales relatively soon while building enduring relationships with customers over time. Even simple changes to your messaging strategy (testing more than one message on social channels for example) can appeal more to your audience, and drive sales.

#1 - Cost of retention versus cost of acquisition

While gaining new customers could be extremely motivating, nurturing your brand’s relationship with existing customers is far more financially rewarding. Studies reveal that the cost of retaining existing customers can be up to seven times lower than the cost of acquiring new customers.2 Marketing to existing customers reduces costs by eliminating a significant chunk of business development expenses.

#2 - Reduced marketing efforts

As your existing customers have already experienced your brand, your team must devise strategies to build the loyalty of these customers to promote repeated purchases. This can be done by using targeted strategies such as loyalty cards, direct mail and subscriptions much of which also lend themselves well to automation.

#3 - Clearly defined target customers = more effective communication

When your business is frequented by the same set of customers, you can make fairly specific inferences about the groups of people that you cater to. This will help you customize your marketing to deliver exactly the kind of messaging customers would like to hear at different points of the in their purchasing cycle. You can then employ automated stay-in-touch strategies using the segmentation of existing customers within your CRM, which is automatically two-way synced with the mass emailing automation process. Smart automation would intuitively send the first email in a series to a new customer while sending the 55^th email within the series to a different customer who might’ve been around for a while.

#4 - Word of mouth publicity

#1 - When does the lead require your service or product?

A prospect’s sense of urgency is the biggest guarantee of lead conversion. If your offering caters to a current and critical need of the prospect, they will not hesitate to spend their money. If you are unsure of when a prospective customer needs what you offer, start by finding out. Knowing where they are in their purchase journey will help you estimate the likelihood of a conversion.

#2 - Why are they buying your offering and what made them consider you as a vendor?

Knowing your lead’s reason to purchase your offering can help you market more effectively. Knowing the key aspects that the prospect is looking for in a vendor can also help you customize your sales approach and seal the deal quickly. Understanding their pain points can help your team offer the appropriate solutions to prompt the lead to make the purchase sooner.

#3 - Does your offering fit within the prospect’s budget?

Spending time on a lead that cannot afford your goods and services is highly unproductive.Knowing how much the prospect is looking to spend will help your team offer only the solutions that fit the prospective customer’s budget. When a customer doesn’t feel like they are being upsold, it builds trust and a greater likelihood of conversion.

#4 - Who is making the decision?  

When selling, it is essential to know who will make the final purchase decision. Any of your team’s time and effort spent on anyone other than the key decision maker is likely wasted. While it is true that in a corporate environment it’s best to follow the hierarchy, your team can shorten the purchase time by reaching the key decision maker sooner by building relationships along the way.

#5 - Why are they considering you and are they looking at your competitors?

Manage your Brand's Visual Storytelling 

with Zoho Social

Zoho Social's focus has always been around helping businesses grow their presence on social networks that matter the most. And today, we’re thrilled to announce that Instagram is the latest addition to the growing list of networks supported by Zoho Social.

One of the most popular visual social networks for brands, Instagram is currently being used by 48.8% of brands for their marketing. By 2017, 70% of brands will use Instagram as a marketing channel. This isn’t surprising as brands tend to receive much higher engagement for their content on Instagram as compared to any other key social network – about 10 times higher than Facebook and 84 times higher than Twitter.

Businesses using Zoho Social will now have the opportunity to build their brand across all of the key social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram.

With Instagram on Zoho Social, your business can:

Follow visual posts around topics that matter to you. Keyword searches let you discover new content and build your audience. You could follow posts about your brand or products on Instagram. Or, you could search keywords and hashtags that your potential customers are likely to make posts about.

Figure out how your posts are performing best and see the most popular posts. Filter published posts by recency or popularity. See stats for all your posts, so you can understand how your audience is engaging with the content you publish.

Learn more about your audience on Instagram and engage with them. A handy list of all your Instagram connections lets you see how they’re engaging with your content. You can sort this list to discover “brand advocates” i.e. people who are most engaged with your brand. Another way to sort this list is by connections who have recently interacted with your brand. For each connection, you can see the history of interactions they have had with your brand. You can also add in their contact information directly.

  

Get alerts for new activity and respond to comments on your Instagram channel, even while you’re on the move. Notifications on your mobile device and web browser let you know whenever there are new likes or comments on your Instagram posts. Keep your audience engaged by replying to new comments as and when they come in.

And of course, you can manage Instagram (as well as all your other social media channels!) even when you’re away from your desktop, with the Zoho Social mobile apps on iOS and Android devices.

Empower your Workforce with Zoho People

We are pleased to announce the launch of Zoho People 3.0. Zoho People, our human resource solution, is getting a better look and feel with a brand new UI. We present a sleek new interface designed for easy navigability and coupled with smart features to greatly improve your Zoho People experience.

No more worrying about performance appraisal seasons

The much awaited Performance Appraisal module is now a supported feature in Zoho People!

That time of the year can be stressful for HR personnel who have to constantly ask managers for performance reviews. Finally, Zoho People makes it easy to automate performance reviews and run performance management in a way that engages your employees.

Performance reviews helps to identify the skills of your employees and the places they can improve. With Zoho People you can set and track goals, gather 360-degree feedback, run employee self-appraisal and multi-level reviews. You can get insights on individual  and organizational performance with comprehensive performance reports.

Maximize your reporting capabilities with Zoho Reports integration

The new Zoho People UI greatly improves your reporting capabilities. Say you need to get a sales team travel expense report for the last three months, and need to categorize it based on stay, travel, food expenses, etc. Before, creating this report would have been cumbersome. But now, thanks to the tight integration with Zoho Reports, HR departments can extensively customize reports and gather valuable insights a number of ways.

  

Take control with improved administrative features

As an account administrator, setting up your Zoho People account should be easy. That’s why we’ve enhanced the setup experience so you can import your employee details, configure approvals, and perform a number of other basic tasks quickly from the convenience of your administrator dashboard.

This separate admin dashboard  provides you easy access to important data like attrition and new joinee reports. You can also find it simple to customize forms, enable permissions, and making mass updates.