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Email Best Practices

While the variety of social media outlets we use on a daily or weekly basis have changed how we communicate, email is still the method of choice in business. And it’s used a lot: according to the Radicati Group, email is still the predominant form of business communication, with over 100 billion business email messages sent and received each day in 2013.

For business, email is the primary way to communicate, and having a well‑formed email signature and maximizing its effectiveness is a boon to any type of business entity. When contacting clients via email, there are some best practices to construct an effective signature, keeping in mind the preferences of both the recipient and the email client.

Begin the email signature with an accepted signature delimiter: essentially two hyphens together, this element helps email clients recognize the separation of the body of the email from the proceeding signature lines. 

A good signature will include the individual’s name, company, position or title, and contact information. Lines of text in a signature are better kept to three lines, and 72 characters per line, which generally eliminates text wrapping to the next line. With so many ways to make contact, it’s best to choose one or two to use in the signature—having several options may feel overwhelming.

When using graphics, it's best to have an absolute URL graphic, meaning the graphic should be pulled from the server. For instance, the logo or any icons in a signature should be located on the company server, and then be linked in the signature using the actual URL to that.

It’s important to note that, for some email clients, more than one image for every 40 words can be flagged and end up in the spam or junk folder, so using an appropriate amount of images will ensure messages arrive in the client’s inbox intact.

Located in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, Kinetik IT is a full-service information technology and Internet services provider, offering a wide array of technology and internet strategy solutions, as well as sound advice.  To learn more about services and products, and to stay up to date with Kinetik IT, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

The Cost of Web Hosting

Oftentimes, the rule of thumb for managed web hosting is the higher the price tag, the better the technical support. The monthly cost of managed hosting packages can vary from less than $50 to several hundred dollars.

At Kinetik I.T., we don’t think it should cost a fortune to host your website. We offer managed hosting solutions that are secure, affordable and easy to maintain.  Our web-hosting servers are co-located in a state-of-the-art data center with continuous monitoring and 24/7 toll-free technical support. Through redundancy and reliability, our server configurations allow us to guarantee 99.9% up-time.

Easily Manage Your Domain
Our web hosting service features

  • Server-Side E-Mail SPAM Filter  With 3 levels of sensitivity and 3 different handling options, the filter will reduce SPAM delivery by over 90%.
  • Server-Side E-Mail Virus Scanning – A virus can never make it into your inbox, because the server deletes the virus and notifies you of the attempted intrusion.
  • Rotated Visitor Logs for Statistical Reporting – At the interval you desire, logs are automatically rotated and compressed into time-stamped files for quick identification.

Our goal is to empower you an simple to use and secure control panel so you can easily manage all aspects of your hosting account. Our web hosting allows you to create and manage e-mail boxes, FTP accounts within your domain, generate usage statistics, manage your files on the server, analyze your web site structure and integrity, secure sections of your web site and manage multiple user access, and configure and install common CGI scripts and more. 

To learn more about web hosting, and a wide array of other services and products, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Keeping Rates Competitive

When developing a website to focus on product and service offerings, custom design often comes into play.  For some businesses, a custom build can be not only appropriate but necessary, though not in all cases.  Along with custom design can come ongoing maintenance, specialized knowledge and training, and regular updates.  Besides raising the question of who will maintain the site, ongoing upkeep often equates to ongoing cost.  

According to President Josette van Stiphout, “At Kinetik IT, our philosophy is not to be in the business of holding clients hostage. We want them to come back to us because they want to, not because they have to.  It's a different approach. We want to make sure that our clients are happy with what products we deliver, the customer service and everything that's tied into that. We want to do that at a reasonable price. 

Kinetik IT’s rates have remained competitive for the duration of the company’s existence, with cuts coming not from laying off employees or cutting salaries, but by becoming more efficient and better-performing than the norm.  This client-centered philosophy stems from the understanding that clients may not be able to raise their own rates to accommodate the cost of necessary services, upgrades, and maintenance,

“Our rates are beyond competitive.  We haven't raised our rates in several years, because we want to make sure our prices are reasonable. In order to keep them reasonable, we have to become more efficient as a company rather than raising our rates every year for our clients,” van Stiphout said.  

It's not the easiest philosophy, but it's a philosophy that has been present since the beginning, and one which the company will strive to incorporate as much as possible. Says van Stiphout, “We've been pretty successful at following this business philosophy, but again, it's not mainstream corporate philosophy.”

To learn more about services and products, and to stay up to date with Kinetik IT, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Never Give Up.

Search the internet for the phrase, “Never give up,” and you’ll come across several eponymous images.  Undoubtedly, the most well-known is that of the frog who, while cradled precariously in the craw of a bird about to eat him, is doing his best to wring the neck of his winged opponent.  Another image is that of a mouse wearing the tiniest helmet, perched in front of an ever-so-enticing cheese-loaded mousetrap.  In both instances, the underlying message is that hard work comes naturally when you’re passionate about what’s at stake.

Working in the information technology arena has never been smooth sailing, at least not for any extended period of time.  Since its inception, the industry has weathered its share of booms and busts, followed by more of the same. “I would say, our biggest accomplishment is that in 24 years we've been through the ups and downs of the technology bubble, 9/11, economic downturn,” says Josette van Stiphout, President of Kinetik I.T. “We've had several highs and several really lows and within that 24‑year period. Nonetheless, during the trying times, we did not choose the easy way out, resorting to lay-offs or salary decreases. Instead, we did whatever we had to do to keep our staff employed. We believe our staff is better off not having to worry about having a job or not. We want them to focus their energy positively, such as on exceeding our clients’ expectations.” Our business philosophies and loyalty to our employees are quite different than what is the norm for corporate America.

Working in such a volatile industry, the key to Kinetik I.T.’s 24-year longevity has been in the passion and commitment of our people to deliver high-quality custom desktop and web-based software systems and long-term I.T. solutions for our clients.  We do this by first uncovering, then catering to the client’s most important needs.  Because our employees embody both efficiency and passion for their work, bridging the gap between marketing and technology and revolutionizing the way our clients do business is more than just work to us – it’s our goal, our mission. And we’ll never give up.

To learn more about services and products, and to stay up to date with Kinetik IT, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik IT Phoenix on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.