One of the most productive things you can do for your business is set up your workflow processes. If you are anything like me, almost all of your business activities can be related back to your email in one way or another. Conversations, files, images, tasks, plans and contacts ALL stem from email, so it makes sense to make email your starting point for staying organized, and creating a workflow that makes sense to you. With less and less time to focus, and more and more information to filter, we could all use some tips!
Gmail extensions (to your Chrome, Safari, or Firefox browser) make it easy to not only get started in Gmail, but supercharge your workflow by breaking down ACTIONS commonly done following emails. As former Outlook user, turned to Mac, I needed some of the additional rules I used to have. These are as good and fun as apps, and with a growing library in Chrome they are always worth taking a look at.
Below are some of my favorite Gmail extensions and why:
Yesware -CRM, email templates, track opens
- Email templates. You know those emails that you send repeatedly to leads, or buyers/sellers? Those need to be automated, so that you simply need to change the salutation, but the body of the email stays the same. They are stored within your gmail toolbar, so with one click you can drop in your template. You can have as many templates as you need.
- Track opened emails. Do you ever wonder if someone got your email, or when they opened it? Yesware will let you know, and will let you know how many times it’s opened.
- Team Collaboration/CRM. For a more robust CRM, you can sync with Salesforce, and send leads to your CRM to work your pipeline.
- Me? I keep it simple. Email templates and opens. Easy.
Powerbot -Connects Gmail to Evernote
I’m still fairly new at using Evernote, but have been finding more and more uses for it, especially to how it relates to conversations in emails, which lead to TO DO’s that need action and organization. By connecting Powerbot extension to Gmail, and then to Evernote, it is simple to send an email to an Evernote Notebook, and vice versa, attach a note, or notebook to an email. If you use Evernote for transaction management, you can easily attach emails to the communication records, and attach them to contacts as needed. It takes that step of logging into the app separately.
Boomerang Calendar– Intuitive Gmail calendar and scheduling
This one takes the task of flipping between emails and Google Calendar, and helps you discover times and any conflicts you may have. Boomerang Calendar has three main functions that rock, all within the same Gmail environment.
- Email scanning for suggested times for meetings. You can even compose a new email and Boomerang will add that time into the email.
- Templates for suggesting meetings
- Group meeting planner
Taskforce – Create tasks right from Gmail emails
This is a lifesaver for me! I have played around with various task applications, and certainly have some others I use for other areas. But for my Gmail, Taskforce works much more intuitively than the Gmail tasks, because I can convert them directly and immediately to a task, and my task list runs in the gmail application so that I can see it near my browser bar. It’s almost like the Facebook notifications, so it’s a natural to work into the flow, and I can be reminded very easily. It will also keep the attached email to the task, so its easy to reference.
These are just a few extensions to make your Gmail for intuitive. Don’t forget to check out extensions for fun, web development, and more, for an always exciting world of browser extensions! They are there to make our lives easier.
A couple of others I’m playing with right now. Do you have any favorites I should know about? Let me know in your comments!!
