BrandQuantum - NEWS #Customer Experience

Gartner recognises BrandMail as #1 email signature solution globally

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:08:29 -0500

BrandMail is recognised as top email signature solution worldwide by Gartner

BrandQuantum has announced that its email branding solution, BrandMail, has once again been rated the number one email signature solution globally by technology research and consulting firm Gartner. The recognition comes from user-based comparison reviews published across Gartner Digital Markets, which includes top B2B software platforms Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice.

These rankings are based on independent user reviews, evaluating factors such as Customer Support, Value for Money, Functionality, and Ease of Use. BrandMail consistently ranks at the top across all categories, reinforcing its reputation as a trusted solution for businesses worldwide.

BrandMail is available for Outlook, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 (O365), offering centrally managed, tamperproof email signatures designed to maintain brand consistency in every email interaction.

"We are thrilled by this ongoing recognition from Gartner," says Paula Sartini, Founder and CEO of BrandQuantum. "Our team works closely with customers to develop intuitive solutions that directly address real-world business challenges, particularly around maintaining a consistent brand experience."

She adds, “Customer feedback is central to our innovation process. Without our customers’ insights and ongoing support, BrandMail wouldn’t have achieved this standing. Their input helps us design solutions that eliminate the frustrations companies face in managing brand identity, and ensure every email contributes to a consistent, professional brand image.”

BrandMail continues to empower organisations with tools that enhance their customer communication and ensure a seamless brand experience across all touchpoints.

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#1 Rated Email Signature Software

BrandQuantum software solutions have just got better

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 15:25:09 -0500

BrandOffice and BrandMail new releases for even greater brand consistency

BrandQuantum has today announced the latest updates to its BrandOffice and BrandMail software solutions that help companies to deliver brand consistency across Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook as well as web-hosted email offerings such as Gmail.

Since its inception, BrandQuantum has worked closely with its customers to help them overcome some of their key branding challenges and pain points to meet their specific needs. As businesses and technologies are evolving, BrandQuantum has been developing its software solutions to add new features that will help ease the process of delivering brand consistency using BrandOffice and BrandMail.

According to Paula Sartini, founder and CEO at BrandQuantum, “We are thrilled to be introducing new features to our BrandOffice and BrandMail software solutions. We have been working closely with our customers to develop these new features to address some of the key branding pain points they have shared with us and believe these changes will make a big difference to our users.”

“The latest features not only aim to enhance the user experience with improved speeds but also give users peace of mind with a new encryption layer the new offering provides increased security to users,” adds Sartini.

Some of the latest features include:

BrandMail mail campaign

With BrandMail’s new Mail Campaign tool companies can now create content for newsletters or mass emails without jeopardising customer details or privacy policies. With BrandMail all customer data remains confidential as there is no need to upload recipient details to a third-party tool. The content insert and shared mailbox enhancements allow for a fast, user-friendly experience with newsletters received as they appear on the sender’s side.

BrandMail social media banners

With the rise in social media usage, companies want to drive customers to their social media pages. With BrandMail’s Social Media Banner, companies can select the platform they wish to promote and display its details as a banner on the email. Companies can rotate up to five different banners to create awareness of and drive traffic to their various social media pages.

BrandMe page rotational banners

The popular digital business card, BrandMe Pages, which have traditionally carried a company image, can now be updated to run banner campaigns.

BrandOffice brand data

BrandOffice users now have access to a Brand Data Button from within the BrandOffice menu that allows them to create an agenda slide within PowerPoint using the information included in the presentation. The Brand Data button also allows for data links to be pasted from Excel to PowerPoint as branded graphs. Waterfall charts can also be added to display in brand colours.

BrandQuantum continues to be recognized by G2 as best meeting requirements for the seventh consecutive season

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 14:59:10 -0500

G2 awards BrandMail winner of Best Meets Requirements for the Seventh Consecutive Season

In the G2 Fall 2022 awards, BrandMail has been named winner of Best Meets Requirements in the Email Signature category for the seventh consecutive season. G2 is the largest peer review platform in the world, helping over 5 million people to make informed technology purchasing decisions through over 1 million authentic, timely reviews from real users.

According to Paula Sartini, founder and CEO at BrandQuantum, “We are so grateful to our customers for their continued support and the feedback they provide. Our customers are a critical part of the co-creation of our offerings. We appreciate the dialogue we have with our customers and believe that the requests and input we receive from them is key to us continuing to deliver value. Our development team also deserves to be recognised for their consistent commitment and dedication to excellence and to translating our customers' feedback and requests into solutions that our customers love,” adds Sartini.

Most recently BrandQuantum has developed new features for BrandMail including its latest Mail Campaign offering which was created as a result of customers asking for an easier and quicker way to send email campaigns and newsletters without compromising on data security and privacy. Another exciting feature is the addition of Social Media Banners that will alert email recipients to various social media pages and can be rotated to showcase specific social pages and campaigns, including personal calendar links.

Since its inception in 2014, BrandQuantum has developed software solutions to help companies overcome their brand consistency challenges. In working closely with its customers to identify key brand consistency pain points throughout organisations, BrandMail helps to deliver consistency across all email signatures, banners, content and more.

Gartner names BrandMail #1 global email signature solution

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 14:28:01 -0500

BrandMail is named #1 email signature solution by Gartner

BrandQuantum has today announced that technology research and consulting company, Gartner has rated BrandMail the number one email signature solution globally. The rating is based on comparison reviews across the Gartner Digital Markets which comprises the three leading B2B software search websites — Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice. These reports are independent assessments based on user ratings and reviews.

Across all three websites, BrandMail came out tops for its Customer Support and Value for Money. The email branding solution, which is available for Outlook, Google and O365, also ranked highly for its functionality and ease of use.

According to Paula Sartini, founder and CEO at BrandQuantum, “We are delighted to receive this accolated from Gartner. At BrandQuantum we develop easy-to-use software solutions in conjunction with our customers to ensure that our software helps them to overcome business challenges and helps them to meet their brand consistency needs.”

BrandMail is an email signature management software solution that delivers tamperproof email signatures that are centrally managed to deliver brand consistency in every email interaction.

“We would not have been able to develop the software solutions we do without our customer input and recommendations,” adds Sartini. “At the same time, without our customer’s support, BrandMail would not be recognised as a leading email signature solution. It is this support that reminds us that our brand consistency software solutions remove the pain associated with driving brand consistency across organisations and helps our customers to deliver consistently branded emails that result in consistent customer experiences every time.”

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#1 Rated Email Signature Software

SME TECH GURU | Sustainable technology: small changes for conscious living

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 02:16:01 -0500

Article first published on smetechguru.co.za on 22 April 2022, written by Paula Sartini

We rely on technology daily to improve our lives and workplace efficiencies yet these same technologies have an impact on our environment. Many of the devices we use today from laptops to mobile phones rely on resources and energy that contribute to increasing our carbon footprint and waste.

It is estimated that the carbon footprint of our devices, the internet and the systems supporting them account for approximately 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to the amount produced by the airline industry. Further, these emissions are predicted to double by 2025 unless we do something about it. We can all make small changes to limit the impact of the technologies we use on the environment and work towards more conscious living.

The amount of time spent on electronic devices from laptops to mobile phones all adds up. For example, a study conducted by OVO Energy[2] explains that an email sent with an attachment is estimated to use the equivalent of 50g of carbon dioxide. If you consider that approximately 4.9 billion[3] people have access to the internet and thereby email, the carbon usage of all emails sent by these individuals adds up. According to OVO Energy, if each email user in the UK sent one less unnecessary email daily, it would reduce carbon emissions by 16 433 tonnes which is equivalent to 81 152 flights from London Heathrow to Madrid.

To help reduce our carbon footprint, here are a few tips that we can use to make a difference to our planet together:

Sending smaller emails can reduce your carbon footprint

While sending emails may not be on the top of the list as a key contributor to CO2 emissions, according to Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at the Environment Centre at Lancaster University, computers use energy when you type up the email, when you hit send they move to a network and then when you store the email to a data centre that uses a lot of energy[4]. Based on this process the average carbon footprint of an email can be anywhere from 0.03g CO2e to 26g CO2e depending on the time taken to draft the email and the content included in the email from the body copy to the images.

Using predeveloping content to draft the email could save time in writing the email copy. By ensuring that the correct email content and attachments are sent in the first email, it prevents the need to send several emails about the same issue to the same person, making a difference in reducing the number of emails sent daily from 333.2 billion around the world and minimising the impact on the environment.

Send only the attachments you need to send

Emails containing attachments can release up to 50g of CO2e. By limiting the number of attachments that are sent via email, individuals and companies alike can make a difference in their carbon footprint.

This is supported by a study conducted by The Shift Project[5] that found that exchanging office documents on a shared platform, rather than emailing them across the organisation led to a 40% annual reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions. In addition to modifying how the files are shared, the number of versions of documents archived was also reduced, thereby reducing the need for increased storage on the servers thereby reducing the impact on the environment.

By giving employees easy access to the latest versions of predeveloped content, brand resources and documents that are managed centrally, employees will no longer find it necessary to save various versions of documents or email multiple versions of documents to colleagues that are struggling to find the right version, thereby minimising the impact on the environment.

Reduce the size of images used in your emails

Email signatures and banners often aim to be eye-catching and reinforce the brand, using logos and images to achieve this. However, in addition to adding to the large size of emails before the body content has even been added, these emails can be blocked by recipient servers, resulting in additional emails needing to be sent. This has a knock-on effect on increasing the carbon footprint of an email.

Companies can reduce the size of emails by lowering the resolution of images used in banners and even compressing the size of the images used in email signatures without compromising the quality of the branding. In doing this, it will reduce the size of the emails and help move a step closer to reducing CO2 emissions.

Today we all need to make changes to the ways we use technology if we are to lower the impact on the environment and help our planet. By making small changes to the emails we send and store, we are already on a path to helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the technology we use daily to improve efficiencies and our lives. Let’s make a change together. To help employees achieve this, software solutions, such as BrandMail, should be used to help eliminate the need to store documents and content unnecessarily, send documents to colleagues that can be accessed centrally, and spend time developing content that is frequently used. At the same time every email should carry beautifully branded and functional email signatures and eye catching banners that don’t add to the size of the email. In doing this, employees will be able to reduce their carbon footprint one email at a time.

BrandQuantum develops software solutions to help companies deliver compliant customer communications and documents. The tamperproof email signatures that are sent out with every single email via Microsoft Outlook have built-in verification tools to give customers added peace of mind that your company emails are authentic. The BrandOffice solution offers permission control to company documents so that only those employees that need access to your documents have it. In addition, access to company documentation and templates is tracked and audited to give companies line of site of document usage and overall documentation compliance.

TECHSMART | Sustainable technology: small changes for conscious living

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 06:38:22 -0500

Article first published on techsmart.co.za on 21 April 2022, written by Paula Sartini

The amount of time spent on electronic devices from laptops to mobile phones all adds up. For example, a study conducted by OVO Energy explains that an email sent with an attachment is estimated to use the equivalent of 50g of carbon dioxide. If you consider that approximately 4.9 billion people have access to the internet and thereby email, the carbon usage of all emails sent by these individuals adds up. According to OVO Energy, if each email user in the UK sent one less unnecessary email daily, it would reduce carbon emissions by 16 433 tonnes which is equivalent to 81 152 flights from London Heathrow to Madrid.

Sending smaller emails can reduce your carbon footprint

While sending emails may not be on the top of the list as a key contributor to CO2 emissions, according to Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at the Environment Centre at Lancaster University, computers use energy when you type up the email, when you hit send they move to a network and then when you store the email to a data centre that uses a lot of energy. Based on this process the average carbon footprint of an email can be anywhere from 0.03g CO2e to 26g CO2e depending on the time taken to draft the email and the content included in the email from the body copy to the images.

Send only the attachments you need to send

This is supported by a study conducted by The Shift Project that found that exchanging office documents on a shared platform, rather than emailing them across the organisation led to a 40% annual reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions. In addition to modifying how the files are shared, the number of versions of documents archived was also reduced, thereby reducing the need for increased storage on the servers thereby reducing the impact on the environment.

Reduce the size of images used in your emails

Today we all need to make changes to the ways we use technology if we are to lower the impact on the environment and help our planet. By making small changes to the emails we send and store, we are already on a path to helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the technology we use daily to improve efficiencies and our lives. Let's make a change together. To help employees achieve this, software solutions, such as BrandMail, should be used to help eliminate the need to store documents and content unnecessarily, send documents to colleagues that can be accessed centrally, and spend time developing content that is frequently used. At the same time every email should carry beautifully branded and functional email signatures and eye catching banners that don’t add to the size of the email. In doing this, employees will be able to reduce their carbon footprint one email at a time.

Sustainable technology: Small changes for conscious living

Sun, 15 May 2022 07:45:09 -0500

We rely on technology daily to improve our lives and workplace efficiencies, yet these same technologies have an impact on our environment. Many of the devices we use today from laptops to mobile phones rely on resources and energy that contribute to increasing our carbon footprint and waste.

It is estimated that the carbon footprint of our devices, the internet and the systems supporting them account for approximately 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to the amount produced by the airline industry . Further, these emissions are predicted to double by 2025 unless we do something about it. We can all make small changes to limit the impact of the technologies we use on the environment and work towards more conscious living.

To help reduce our carbon footprint, here are a few tips that we can use to make a difference to our planet together:

Sending smaller emails can reduce your carbon footprint

While sending emails may not be on the top of the list as a key contributor to CO2 emissions, according to Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at the Environment Centre at Lancaster University, computers use energy when you type up the email, when you hit send they move to a network and then when you store the email to a data centre that uses a lot of energy. Based on this process the average carbon footprint of an email can be anywhere from 0.03g CO2e to 26g CO2e depending on the time taken to draft the email and the content included in the email from the body copy to the images.

Send only the attachments you need to send

Reduce the size of images used in your emails

Today we all need to make changes to the ways we use technology if we are to lower the impact on the environment and help our planet. By making small changes to the emails we send and store, we are already on a path to helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the technology we use daily to improve efficiencies and our lives. Let's make a change together. To help employees achieve this, software solutions, such as BrandMail, should be used to help eliminate the need to store documents and content unnecessarily, send documents to colleagues that can be accessed centrally, and spend time developing content that is frequently used. At the same time every email should carry beautifully branded and functional email signatures and eye catching banners that don’t add to the size of the email. In doing this, employees will be able to reduce their carbon footprint one email at a time.

THE CUSTOMER.NET | Marketers are finding their voice in customer data

Sat, 07 May 2022 14:34:11 -0500

Article first published on thecustomer.net on 14 March 2022, written by Paula Sartini

In an age where consumers are creating a sea of customer data, marketers need to sit up and pay attention.

The world changed more in 2020 than at any other time in history. Employees experienced the benefits of working remotely and are resisting the move back to the office. Consumers have exercised their ability to demand what they want. Companies now need to listen to what people want if they are to survive.

Marketers find their voice

The Covid-19 pandemic brought accountability and measurability to business as many people were allowed to work remotely for the first time in their careers. This pushed analytics to the fore as people questioned the value of working from the office verse working remotely. However, this quest for value and measurement is not isolated to employees. Marketing departments are now also looking at analytics to understand the performance of their marketing campaigns and initiatives.

Historically marketing departments focused on implementing campaigns with limited insight into whether they worked or not. Now with the rise in technology adoption, marketers are turning to the data to determine what is working and can push back to the top-level to let them know, able to substantiate with real-time customer data and compare campaigns giving them a voice in the boardroom.

With customers exercising the right to choose, brands need to be purpose-led and cannot make promises they don’t deliver on as people are increasingly aware of what they believe is and isn’t fair.

The buffer removed

Before the pandemic, employees had to follow the right channels for communications and could not go directly to management for information. At the same time, companies had hierarchies in place whereby certain employees would handle customer queries or engage with customers directly.

With employees now working remotely, the communications channels have changed and there is no longer a buffer in place to withhold company information from employees. With fluid communications, internal and external communications have aligned to a consistent voice. This is also driving the authenticity of communications as companies can no longer filter and clean up information as they want to portray it, with customers looking for information to be made available immediately, there is no time to hamper with it but rather make it available to them as it is needed. In addition, measuring responses is now done within minutes, hours and days rather than within months.

Immediacy replaces perfect moments

Traditionally marketing departments spent months creating the perfect campaign. However, with communication channels changing so rapidly, marketers no longer have the luxury of time they once did. Today marketers need to run campaigns quickly, test the results and force correct as necessary.

This is a more strategic approach to campaigns as marketers can see what is working in real-time based on immediate customer responses and feedback. While this has several benefits in terms of the ability to measure the success of campaigns in real-time, it also adds additional pressure on teams to be ready and make adjustments as and when they are needed.

While technology makes it easy to measure the success of campaigns in real-time, it cannot replace the creative process or handle unpredictability which is where human ingenuity comes in.

Marketers to embrace technology and data

Traditionally marketers have shied away from technology, however, in an age where consumers are creating a sea of customer data, marketers need to sit up and pay attention. With an estimate of 2.4 billion emails being sent every second, consumers are spending more time online and marketers need to hone in on this, and lean into the data to deliver what customers want.

This can only be achieved by using technology solutions such as AI and machine learning which improves marketers’ ability to work better, fast and cheaper. For example, while many tasks within the marketing department remain repetitive, these can be outsourced to machines that would be able to do it quickly and efficiently.

This would free up marketers to use these data and analytics to understand customers’ behaviour and gain insight into what they want. This can only be achieved by leveraging the information that is available to them and using this to develop campaigns. The data and quality of data are critical to meeting customers’ needs and marketers will not be able to give customers what they want without the data.

However, while customer experience is increasingly important, how marketers gather and use the data comes under the spotlight as customers are looking for transparency and control. As such many marketers will need to go back to basics in terms of customer data collection and data analytics to get marketing right and prepare for 2022.

FEMALE ENTREPRENEUR SA | Data gives marketers a voice and insights to connect with customers

Sat, 07 May 2022 14:28:13 -0500

Article first published on femaleentrepreneursa.co.za on 5 March 2022, written by Paula Sartini

Marketers find their voice

Historically marketing departments focused on implementing campaigns with limited insight into whether they worked or not. Now with the rise in technology adoption, marketers are turning to the data to determine what is working and can push back to the top-level to let them know, able to substantiate with real-time data and compare campaigns giving them a voice in the boardroom.

The buffer removed

Immediacy replaces perfect moments

While technology makes it easy to measure the success of campaigns in real-time, it cannot replace the creative process or handle unpredictability which is where human ingenuity comes in.

Marketers to embrace technology and data

Traditionally marketers have shied away from technology, however, in an age where consumers are creating a sea of data, marketers need to sit up and pay attention. With an estimate of 2.4 billion emails being sent every second, consumers are spending more time online and marketers need to hone in on this, and lean into the data to deliver what customers want.

However, while customer experience is increasingly important, how marketers gather and use the data comes under the spotlight as customers are looking for transparency and control. As such many marketers will need to go back to basics in terms of data collection and data analytics to get marketing right and prepare for 2022.

THE CUSTOMER.NET | Gathering customer data effectively to create great CX

Sat, 07 May 2022 14:17:22 -0500

Article first published on thecustomer.net on 17 February 2022, written by Paula Sartini

According to new research, how companies use customer data is becoming more important to the customer experience.

Customer privacy is a term that we are all too familiar with, as regulations such as the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have come into effect to protect customer data. However, checking boxes to ensure that you are meeting the requirements of these acts is not going to win over your customers or help you to establish connections. It could also negatively affect the customer experience and damage trust.

While customers seek tailored and personalised experiences that delight, often these experiences feel generic and do not deliver the desired response from customers. This is partly because companies have got stuck in the data, using information such as birthdays to remind customers that we know you and we are thinking about you, but instead, this reminds them that you are watching them.

To create delightful customer experiences today, companies need digital transformation to gather customer information, create unique experiences, drive personalisation and build trust and need to move away from spying on customers to rather engaging with customers.

We are watching you

As customers continue to use online platforms for searching for information, shopping, engaging friends and family on social channels, and connecting to the brands they love, companies are inundated with an abundance of data on purchase history, search history, engagement history and more.

This information may be useful to determine what your customers like and possibly gives you enough information to provide targeted deals and information about the product ranges they have browsed online. But this does not delight your customer and it may even have the adverse effect and lead to negative responses. While some theories state that customers may respond differently depending on where they are in the customer journey, many customers believe that just because you have their information, it does not give you the right to use it.

Rather than adding to the customer experience, many of the interactions from companies remind customers that they are being watched and while they may have provided you with their details as a trade-off for something that they wanted from you, they do not necessarily want to be bombarded with information or spammed with offers.

Company-centric data

According to new research, how companies use customer data is becoming more important to the customer experience. However, many companies are using a mix of customer data that has been collected either via on your own platforms known as first-party data, second-party data whereby companies use other company’s first-party data, and third-party data, which may have been purchased from another source unrelated to the company.

While collecting data from cookies or observing purchasing habits has been a quick and easy way for companies to collect customer data over the past few years, this company-centric approach has a rebound effect on the customer relationship and delivers a lower return on investment.

Based on this, companies need to find new ways to gather customer data that are privacy-friendly and gathered first hand. This move from tracking customer behavior to engaging customers also allows for companies to establish deeper relationships with their customers and build trust.

Customer-centric data

After years of tracking customer behaviour, it could be a daunting process for companies to discover new ways to gather customer data but according to Forrester there is a way to gather data straight from the customer. This approach, which they have coined Zero-Party Data, entails asking customers directly about their context or needs.

Based on this approach, customers intentionally and proactively share data with a brand, helping companies to gain insight into customer’s preferences, purchasing intentions, personal context and how they want brands to engage with them.

This aligns with Justice Theory which adopts three pillars. First, customers will give data to companies based on what they will get for the data and if they foresee a fair outcome, this is known as Distributive Justice. Next, is Procedural Justice, customers are concerned about how the process of data is handled and how well they were treated post-purchase. Finally, Interactional Justice is about the elements of the interaction from the tone of voice and use of language.

By gaining valuable insight and data about customers, companies can engage customers more meaningfully, improve customer expectations and build trust throughout the buyer’s journey. Zero-party data can also be used to tailor personalised experiences, creating experiences of one that are authentic and delight customers.

Customers know what they want

For companies wanting to embrace the customer-centric approach to gathering quality data without infringing on customer privacy, the zero-party data strategy enables companies to gain the information they want in a manner customers are willing to provide to improve customer experiences.

There are several mechanisms available to do this, though companies should not bombard customers with requests for information or overwhelm them with questions. Rather, gathering customer data should be a seamless part of engaging customers and gathering the information that you need to improve the customer experience.

To gather this data, companies would benefit from using tools that are easily available to each employee and gain feedback as part of the customer engagement. For example, incorporating email surveys into customer’s correspondence can help to gather valuable insight into what the customer’s expectations are of the brand and how they want brands to interact with them.

Email surveys can be done quickly and easily using a solution like BrandQuantum’s email offering, BrandMail, which allows companies to incorporate email surveys as part of the email signature. These surveys are built and hosted within the BrandQuantum platform to allow for complete data integrity and security.

Although many companies are waiting for a magic bullet solution to customer experiences, when it comes down to experiences, it is about really listening to your customer and allowing them to tell you what they want.