If you are like me, you send A LOT of emails every week. It can get difficult to manage follow-up and tracking. The good news is that over the last few months we have discovered a few tools that make staying on top of email a little easier.
Here is a sample of some of our favorite email management tools.
Signals by Hubspot. Want to know if the last email that you sent was opened? Signals tracks emails and notifies users that their emails have been read. It works with Gmail, Outlook and Mac Mail. This freemium product can integrate with other Hubspot products for more sophisticated tracking, but is a handy tool all by itself.
Boomerang for Gmail. This is a tool for Gmail users that allows you to compose an email and send it at a later time (perfect for those who works crazy hours and on weekends).I really like that it integrates with Google Calendar so I can plan messages that correspond with my schedule. It also has a reminder tool that notifies you to follow-up if you didn’t get a response from an email that you sent. It also has a nifty feature that removes an email from your inbox and makes it appear later – helping you keep focused on the highest priority messages. This is a free tool (for basic use) and only works with Gmail (business and personal accounts), but it’s a huge tool for effective email management.
Streak This tool has features similar to Boomerang and Signals in that it tracks opens and allows for future sending. It also split Gmail threads (a feature of Gmail that can annoy users).
Evercontact. This is a fantastic tool for keeping your contact database fresh. This tool works with both web-based email and Outlook as well as with several CRM systems including Salesforce. Evercontact looks for contact signatures and automatically updates your contacts. This eliminates the need for manual entry of contact details for the people whom you correspond with. It is an intelligent tool that identifies duplicates – keeping your existing contact base clean. The pricing on this starts at $59/month.
Which inbox management tool is best? The jury is still out. I have been experimenting with these solutions for several months and find some value in all of them. I am on free versions of all of the tools and that works well for my needs. It is clear that people are often overwhelmed with the email inboxes and we need better ways to keep our sanity.
What are your favorite email management tools?