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Essential Elements to Include in your Email Signature

Posted by: standss | Comments (1)

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

What are the essential elements of information that you should include in your signature…

It’s a matter of personal choice what you wish to add in your email signatures but it is best to keep signatures as small as possible but still convey enough information to help the reader and represent you.

Here are some things you might want to include in your signature:

ESSENTIAL

Your Name (obviously)
Your Phone Number (don’t lose out on a sale just because you’ve made it hard for someone to call you for more information)
Your website URL (makes it easy for them to find out more about your company by clicking on a link)

OPTIONAL

SMALL corporate logo and slogan (for branding purposes)
SMALL Picture of yourself usually instead of the corporate logo (depends on the nature of your business… better suited to people in sales… or where you are the brand you are promoting)
Links to follow you on Twitter, Facebook etc (can be useful for social media marketing)

A WASTE OF TIME

Email Address (they can just click reply… don’t waste space at the bottom of your email)

Did we miss something? Let us know by leaving a comment on the blog.

Categories : General, Outlook Email Tips, Outlook as a Business Tool

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Creating marketing and sales emails that get superior responses (all from Outlook)

Posted by: standss | Comments (0)

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Do you use Outlook to create and send out marketing or sales emails? Like you, your customers probably have too many emails in their Inbox. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention so…

Here are some simple but essential tips on formatting your emails so that they actually get opened and read.

Put your company name in the From line so that they know where the email is coming from

Unless the recipients know your name specifically, make sure that your company name is in the From line. (You can control the From by changing account details in Outlook)

Have a Subject line that grabs their attention… within 50 characters

Your target audience is going to decide whether to read your email now (or later or never) based on what is in the Subject line. Why 50 characters… long Subject lines may not get fully displayed if the user has too much on his screen.

Put text rather than images at the top of your email

If your user is previewing your email, only the first lines get displayed. Put something there which causes him to want to know more. You can highlight your text using colors but don’t use images at the very top.

Put the most important content at the top of the email

Most people now have email clients that lets them view the top part of the email as soon as they click on it (like the Reading Pane in Outlook). Make sure that you have the MOST IMPORTANT information displayed there… or at least have the type of information there that will make him scroll down to read more.

Make sure that your email does not look like bulk email

Use a tool like Email Merge for Outlook to send personalized individually addressed emails to your customers. Studies have shown that your response rates can increase by up to 3 times.

Find out more and download a fully functional version of EmailMerge for Outlook from our website.

Use these simple tips and you should find your sales and marketing emails get better responses

Categories : Outlook Email Tips, Sales and Marketing with Outlook

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Why (and How) you should split your Outlook data file into 2

Posted by: standss | Comments (0)

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Outlook by default saves all its e-mails into one file. Prior to Outlook 2003, there was a limitation of 2 GB to your Outlook data file. Although 2 GB seems like a lot, this space can be filled quickly particularly if you receive a lot of attachments.

Once you reach that limit, there is no real warning. Outlook just slows down, e-mails start getting lost and in some cases Outlook just stops opening altogether. Retrieving your e-mails from this corrupt PST is a nightmare.

In Outlook 2003, you have the option of using the new Unicode format of Outlook data file which can hold much more data. However if you upgraded Outlook from an earlier version then chances are that you are still using the older format with the 2 GB limitation.

Irrespective of whether you are using the new or old format data file, you should split your Outlook data into at least 2 files. Your main PST file should not be used like a filing cabinet for old e-mails. Create a separate PST file to save e-mails that you want to keep for future reference. This leaves your main Outlook data file lean and mean so that Outlook is able to open up quickly. To create a new Outlook data file:

For Outlook 2010:

Click on Home tab
Select New Items > More Items > Outlook Data File…
Outlook suggests a default location for the file. I recommend that you change this to a folder that you backup regularly, possible a sub-folder in your My Documents.
Enter a filename and click OK to create the file.

For Outlook 2003/2007:

Click File > New > Outlook Data File
Outlook 2003 Only: Outlook 2003 uses two types of Outlook data files. If you will be using the data only in Outlook 2003 or later, choose MS Outlook Personal Folders File. Otherwise choose the Outlook 97-2002 option.
Outlook suggests a default location for the file. I recommend that you change this to a folder that you backup regularly, possible a sub-folder in your My Documents.
Enter a filename and click OK to create the file.

You can create as many Personal Folder files as you need. Most users only need to create one in addition to the one that Outlook creates by default.

PST 1: Default Folder created by Outlook
PST 2: Use to store Project E-mails

If you have a very high volume of e-mails (particularly with large attachments) you may want to have 2 PST files for your Project E-mails, one for Active projects and one for Completed projects.

How to Move Emails from One PST to another (Using Drag and Drop)

One simple way of moving your emails from one PST to another is to Drag and Down the email to the appropriate folder. This method is simple and it works but:

It can be time-consuming to find the right folder if you have a lot of folders
It is easy to accidentally drop the email into the wrong folder

Using QuickFile to move your emails

Our Outlook addin QuickFile has the ability to remember where you commonly file emails related to a project/case/person and it will provide you with a list of recently used folders. You can simply:

Select the email that you wish to move
On the QuickFile toolbar/Ribbon, click the QuickFile button. This will display the QuickFile screen.
You can select the appropriate folder from the recommended list(based on your previous filing)
Click Move

The email will now be moved to the appropriate folder.

QuickFile is the Fastest, Easiest and Error-Free way to file emails in Outlook. Users tell us that they can file as much as 90% of their emails at the click of one button.

Click here to learn more about QuickFile for Outlook.

Categories : Outlook Email Filing & Management Tip, Outlook Email Tips, QuickFile for Outlook

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Do NOT CC customers from Outlook

Posted by: standss | Comments (3)

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Do you have an important message that you need to communicate to all your customers now? Your customers are already saved as contacts in Outlook… so maybe you could just create an email and CC it to all of them. NO!

Using the CC field to send out your sales and marketing emails is not recommended. It can result in annoyed customers and lost sales because:

You are violating your customers’ privacy: When you use CC to send out emails, every person who receives the email will be able to see everyone else’s email address. The problems this can cause are:

Your customers may not want other people to know that they are working with you.
Your customers may not want other people on your list to have their email address.
One of the recipients may decide to use your list for their own marketing efforts.

A good example of this recently happened at our golf club which circulates its weekly newsletter using the CC field. A few of the members have simply copied the list and started advertising all kinds of things… from cars… to computers… to garage sales. I’m not quitting the golf club because it is the only one close to my home but your customers may quit on you.

Your email may never reach your customer: One of the rules that junk email filters use to work out if an email is spam is based on the number of recipients. Stuff too many people in the CC field and suddenly your email ends up in the Junk Email folder where it is never read.

Your email never gets read because it is obvious to the customer that this is a bulk mail out: Even if the email gets to your customer, it looks like a marketing email. He thinks you’re just trying to sell him something so he either deletes it… or leaves it in his Inbox to read later (how many of those emails do we ever read later?).

… can you use the BCC field instead!
The BCC field is no better at customer communications. Because the email is not addressed to the customer, the junk filters either move it to the junk folder… or the user recognizes it as marketing and deletes or ignores it till too late.

So what can you do?
If you’re one of the tens of thousands of users of the Email Merge for Outlook addin, you already know. Email Merge takes your chosen list of people (from Outlook or Excel or wherever) and:

Creates a separate email for each person… with only their email address in the To field.
Personalises the Subject and/or body of the email with their personal details (name, company name etc) if you want.
Sends the email out immediately or schedules it out at a time suitable to you.
It does all this and more inside Outlook using a Wizard that steps you through the process in a few minutes.

If you haven’t tried Email Merge yet, click here to learn more and download a fully functional version of the Email Merge for Outlook addon.

You’ll be sending out your first set of sales and marketing emails within 5 minutes.

Categories : EmailMerge for Outlook, Outlook Email Tips, Outlook as a Business Tool, Sales and Marketing with Outlook

Comments (3)

Let Outlook colour special emails (for example emails with notes)

Posted by: standss | Comments (1)

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Here’s a quick tip that you can use to get Outlook to automatically display special emails in a different colour so that they stand out in your Inbox (or any other folder)

In this example we will be using this technique to display in green bold any emails that you have added notes to (using Email Notes for Outlook).

Emails with Notes highlighted

Step By Step

1. Go to the Folder in which the emails are. This can be the Inbox or any other folder.

2. In Outlook 2010, Click View on the Ribbon and then click View Settings.

On all other versions of Outlook, on the menu at the top, Click View – Arrange By – Current View – Customize Current View to display the Customize View screen.

3. In Outlook 2010, Click the Conditional Formatting… button

On all other versions of Outlook, click Automatic Formatting… button

highlight Email Conditions

4. Click the Add Button

5. Enter a name e.g. “Emails with Notes”

6. Click the Font button and using the resulting screen to choose how you want emails to be highlighted (I chose the colour Green and Bold). Click OK to return to the previous screen.

7. Click the Conditions… button to display the Filter screen.

8. Click the Advanced Tab

9. Click the Field button > User-defined fields in Inbox > EmailNotes
10. For the Condition: drop-down, select “is (exactly)” and for the Value: enter “Yes”.

Conditioning Filter

11. Click Add to List

12. Now OK your way back to the Outlook Inbox

You should now notice that any emails with notes would appear in the format you have defined.

In this example we have used this technique to highlight emails with notes linked to them. You can also use the same technique to highlight any emails that are important to you (e.g. emails from you main clients/manager etc).

Categories : Email Notes for Outlook, Outlook Email Tips

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The NEW BEST way to make notes on Outlook Emails (Email Notes Complete Make Over)

Posted by: standss | Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

The promised update to Email Notes is now ready.

Email Notes for Outlook was already one of our best selling addins but this MAKEOVER makes it so much EASIER.

See for yourself just how much cooler and easier Email Notes now is.

As a result of this update the price of Email Notes will be GOING UP… but you can still buy at the old price till the END OF THE WEEK.

And before I forget… existing users don’t need to purchase again. Just download and install the new version and it will automatically pick up your existing license information.

I hope you find the new version as exciting as we do. I look forward to receiving your comments.

Best Regards,
Sanjay Singh

PS: If you’re not a user of Email Notes yet, try the free trial today. You only have a few days before Email Notes prices will go up by 50%.

Categories : Email Notes for Outlook, Outlook Email Tips

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Empty your Outlook Deleted Items automatically when you quit

Posted by: standss | Comments (1)

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Here is a simple tip to make Outlook empty your Deleted Items folder automatically each time you quit.

WARNING: I am assuming that you know that the Trash Can is not the same as a filing cabinet… and that once you have deleted an email (and sent it to the Deleted Items folder), you no longer want it!

After you make this simple settings change Outlook will display a message similar to the following every time you close Outlook.

Delete Prompt

In Outlook 2010:

Click File.
Click Options
Select the Advanced tab.
Tick the box labelled “Empty Deleted Items Folder when exiting Outlook”.

Outlook Options

Click OK

In Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003:

Click Tools
Click Options
Select the Other tab.
Tick the box labelled “Empty Deleted Items Folder when exiting Outlook”.
Click OK

I hope this quick tip helps to keep your Outlook data file cleaner and leaner.

Categories : Outlook Email Tips

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How to get back a message you have Sent?

Posted by: standss | Comments (0)

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Have you ever wrote and sent a not-so-diplomatic email while in a bad mood and later wished there was only some way of calling the email back?

The Good news is, Outlook already has a built-in Recall feature which lets you do just that.

The Bad news is, it only works with Exchange server accounts and has a very low success rate, mostly because recall only works with unread messages.

For those who have a Exchange Account

If you would like to recall a email you sent a co-worker:

Go to the Sent Items folder and open the email you want to recall
In Outlook 2010/2007, click on the Other Actions menu (or Actions depending on your Outlook settings) and select “Recall this message…”
In Older versions, click on the Actions menu and select “Recall this message…”

2010/2007

Older Outlook

After clicking Recall this Message, a dialog comes up, giving you the option of Deleting the message (if unread) or replacing the message with a new one.

If you enable the option to be told if the recall was successful, you’ll get a message back within a few minutes letting you know if the recall was successful or failed.

Note: the above method is only useful if the email you sent has not been read by the recipient.

Prevention is better then Cure

We all have heard the saying above but often enough end up looking for cures rather then preventing the mistakes in the first place.

SendGuard for outlook is a simple add-in which allows you to delay all or selected emails for a preset time in your Outbox. This lets you change your message if you’ve had a change of heart after clicking Send. For the super cautious, SendGuard can be configured from the settings screen to get confirmation before sending out emails to all or selected recipients.

What would you perfer, sending the email and then looking for a way to recall it OR safeguard yourself from sending the email in the first place?

let us know by leaving a comment on our blog

Categories : Outlook Email Tips, SendGuard for Outlook

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Email Overwhelm: Keeping all your ideas together with the email until you are ready to respond

Posted by: standss | Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

How much time do we WASTE looking at an email and rethinking the same thoughts again? How many ideas are lost by the time you get around to responding to an email? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to make notes on your emails… ready for you to use later?

Ideally you should only have to read an email once and then respond to it. In the real world this is not possible.

Like me, you probably open an email, read it… have some thoughts on it (maybe write your notes down on a piece of paper)… decide you need to get more information and then leave it for later.

Then when you are ready to respond… you can no longer remember or find your notes… so it either takes longer to respond to your email… or it doesn’t contain all the information it should have.

Here’s how you can use Email Notes to IMMEDIATELY jot down any thoughts you have while reading an email. The notes get added to the email (just like sticking a note to a piece of paper) for your later reference:

1. Select an email and click Add Notes button on the EmailNotes toolbar
2. Type in your notes
3. Click on Save button to save the note contents

EmailNotes is also great if you need to add notes to emails based on phone calls.

Now you can have all the information in one place for when you are ready to respond.

Email Notes for Outlook was basically designed by our 30,000 or so readers and customers… we have made writing notes on emails AS EASY AS STICKING NOTES TO A PIECE OF PAPER!

• One click to add and link notes to emails
• One click to view and edit notes linked to an email
• Forward, Reply and Print your emails with or without notes
• … and much more

If you’re not using Email Notes for Outlook yet… you owe it to yourself to try it out. There is a fully functional 30-day trial on our website

Learn More and Download EmailNotes

Categories : Email Notes for Outlook, Outlook Email Tips

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Email Overwhelm: Filing and Finding Emails almost Automatically.

Posted by: standss | Comments (1)

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

In an earlier post, we identified 3 Types of Email Overwhelm. One of the causes of email overwhelm is the time and effort needed to keep all the incoming and outgoing emails organized.

Normally the manual effort required means many of us just give up and leave everything in a mess.

This article shows you exactly how I PERSONALLY USE QuickFile for Outlook on a daily basis… I hope you find ideas in it that will help you take control of your emails.

I am able to file 90% of the emails at the click of a button

QuickFile adds a toolbar inside Outlook. Whenever I select an email, QuickFile changes one of the buttons to the name of the folder I last used to file a similar email… most times the email needs to go into the same folder. One click and the email is moved out of my Inbox.

What I like:

I am actually filing my emails because I don’t have to hunt through a tree of folders.. one click is so much faster.
My Inbox doesn’t feel like a list of endless tasks because it only contains emails that still need my attention.

A COPY of my Sent Emails are automatically filed to the correct folder

QuickFile prompts me for a folder every time I send out an email. The prompt contains a list of folders where I am most likely to file the email…. Double-click and the email is automatically filed to the correct folder after it is sent.

(The prompt can be turned off if you prefer to bring it up only when you want by clicking Send&File instead of Send)

What I like:

Without this, emails in my Sent Items folder were NEVER filed. I don’t look at Sent Items as often as my Inbox and it’s just too easy to forget.
QuickFile can either move the original email or file a copy from the Sent Items folder. The copy feature was implemented as a result of user DEMANDS and I really find this useful. A copy gets filed to the correct folder and I still have a copy in my Sent Items for quick reference. Many users tell me that they also use the Sent Items emails for filling in timesheets.

I don’t let Newsletters distract me

I subscribe to many different newsletter emails. Most of these newsletters do not need my urgent attention… they do not need to be added to my list of things to do.

QuickFile lets me treat any email in my Inbox as a newsletter at the click of a button. After that any email from that email address automatically gets moved to a folder dedicated to Newsletters, which I then read at my convenience.

What I like about this:

My Inbox does not get cluttered by newsletters… there is less stress each time I look at my Inbox.
I’m not distracted from my real work by an email with an interesting topic
QuickFile reminds me once a day to look at my newsletters with an email in my Inbox… I do a quick scan to make sure that I am not missing out on anything time-sensitive.
Many emails that I was spending (wasting) a lot of time reading no longer seem important… now that they’re not in my Inbox, I don’t feel as compelled to read stuff that I won’t actually use.

I (defer and then) deal with non-urgent emails in batches

Many productivity gurus recommend that you don’t deal with emails first thing in the morning but… we’re in a different time zone from many of our customers… I need to reply to them first thing to ensure that we are able to communicate while we are still both at work.

I start from my Inbox and deal with each in it. If it’s urgent I deal with it there and then.

Otherwise, I use QuickFile to defer it to 11 am… a time I have set aside for email processing. QuickFile moves the email out of my Inbox and then brings it back at 11 am. (QuickFile can defer each email to a different time of your choosing).

What I like:

My Inbox does not contain emails that I have decided not to work on now. This keeps me focussed only on what I need to think about.
The email automatically appears at a time of my choosing.
Batch Processing emails is actually a much more productive way of dealing with emails instead of getting distracted by emails 50 times a day.

I am able to find Email Folders by typing any part of the folder name

I have many folders of several levels inside Outlook. Finding the right folder to file or retrieve an email can take a long time… OK… it takes less than 10 seconds but it feels like a long time.

QuickFile adds a Find&Goto Folder button to the Outlook toolbar. To find a folder all I need to do is click on the button and type a few characters from anywhere in the name of the folder.

QuickFile shows me all matching folders and I double-click to go to the correct folder. Easy!

What I like:

I don’t have to remember where the folder is or it’s exact name.. or even the start of the folder name. QuickFile will do a find anywhere in your Outlook file and based on any part of the folder name
It makes answering queries that requires reference to old emails much much faster.

That covers my favourite ways in which QuickFile makes me productive.

If you’re not using QuickFile yet… you owe it to yourself to try it out. There is a fully functional 30-day trial on our website.

Learn More and Download QuickFile

Categories : Outlook Email Filing & Management Tip, Outlook Email Tips, Outlook Search Tips, QuickFile for Outlook

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