Ahhh...email. What did we do before it came along? Do you even remember the days of handwriting a letter, placing it in an envelope, sticking on a stamp, and delivering it to the post office?
Of course you do! Most of us still do it today as a form of direct marketing.
The advent of email has no doubt changed the world we live in. We can instantly communicate a message to anyone just about anywhere in the world and they can reply just as fast.
Gotta love that email....
I personally have a gmail account, among others, but my gmail is my main account. I know, I know there are those that are going to preach at me about how unprofessional it is to use a "free" email provider and that's fine, go ahead. But I have got to tell you that I have NEVER had a client or customer tell me that I was unprofessional for using gmail. I don't think the subject has ever come up. Matter of fact, with Google being such a house-hold name people instantly recognize it and I have never once had to spell G M A I L like I have when I was using another domain.
Now, I have used a server that a company I worked for had and thus my email did end in the company format and while that is a good way to build recognition, I don't always agree that it is the best course of action. I have done the opposite of most...most would suggest that your email be xxx@YourDomainName.com ...well I have done my own spin of that, mine is more like YourDomainName@gmail.com which still, in it's own way, builds name recognition. Not to mention when I changed companies....talk about a headache to get everyone to change their address books...even had one client call me upset that they were having to make the changes.
Now...let's get to the reason that I wrote this blog.
Outlook.
You do know that you can attach your Outlook to an account like gmail and use it as your main email platform, right? I hardley ever go into my actual gmail account, except to clean it once in awhile although using all of the capacity of a gmail account would be hard as it increases almost daily.
Outlook is a familiar platform for most and if it is not for you, it can be with very little exploration.
The best feature of Outlook, at least in my opinion, is one that keeps me looking very professional. Whenever I click send it AUTOMATICALLY does a spell-check before allowing me to send the email.
While that may not seem like much....go ahead, send an email to an important client that is full of typos, go ahead...I dare ya. Want your professionalism questioned? That's a good start.
Outlook also provides an easy means to search my folders for emails that I have recieved from clients and locates them quickly.
Outlook synches with my Agent Office program thereby allowing me to create a "paper trail" of sorts throughout a clients cycle.
Outlook easily allows me to create new folders in which to quickly seperate emails by client name.
Outlook allows me to create a, in my opinion, great looking email signature that is automatically attached to all of my emails.
Now I know the other providers out there can do everything I have mentioned. But if you use Outlook, you already understand, if not....go ahead and give it a try!
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