What is the best email management software?

[m1ntie]

Hi, could anyone advise what is the best email management software.
I am currently using Outlook Express but have heard that there are better systems available. Can anyone advise.

[TWD-Tony]

Are you looking at FREE or commercial software?
If you want FREE then the best has to be Thunderbird - by the same peeps that make the Firefox web browser, I use Outlook (not express) that comes bundled with MS Office and it does just about everything I need it to - the spam filtering could do with being a little better but you can soon train it to be more ruthless with suspected spam

[roy]

It depends if you are looking at email in isolation.

In a business environment email is simply one of many means of communication with a prospect or customer and is part of many activities and processes that lead towards a successful sale. If you are to embrace true Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and increase sales potential, then email should not be isolated but incorporated within the customer contact framework. A record of contact with a potential customer needs not distiguish between phone call, face to face, letter or email. The content and the actions taken are key, not the method.

There are some very good email managers out there but they lack the integration that makes a business work well. You need an email client that is integrated with your business process.

In the lower priced end of the CRM market there is:

The full OutLook product which can be tweeked to do some of this if you are a small business and working on your own - beyond that it struggles as a CRM product.

Microsoft Business Contact Management, an extention to OutLook, appears to lack a lot of the integration you would expect from an MS Office based product.

ACT is getting there since it's purchase by Sage but still has some issues it seems.

GoldMine is probably the best known and respected CRM product that can handle any size of business from sole trader to 100+ users and incorporates every possible facility you could require at a sensible price.

There are many more, including a number of hosted solutions which could be attractive if you, or your team, are never on the same site.

In summary, look further that just an email manager and understand how that needs to fit in with your other customer based activities.

[Kregg]

As mentioned by others, it depends on what you mean by email management. If you are looking for bulk email marketing/management tools there are a few good products like www.constantcontact.com, www.verticalresponse.com, and www.getresponse.com.

If you are looking for stadalone email - I agree with TWD-Tony - FireFox is a very good, open source, free, email system.

Roy's comment in regard to CRM is pertinent, but ACT! and Goldmine don't have built in email or bulk email management capabilities as far as I know. They do offer integration with Outlook and probably other email packages.

There are hosted and on premise CRM products that offer contact management, sales force automation, and built in email and bulk email marketing automation tools. AppShore is one of many of the hosted variety.

[roy]

Both ACT! and GoldMine have built in email clients. The GM one is very powerful and handles email as part of the client contact process far better than OutLook.

Both products can use OutLook as an external client, but there really is no advantage.

Email broadcasts can be done easily from GM but may be restricted by your ISP limitations - could be as little as 250 outging emails in any 24 hour period.

It comes back to my original point - email is not something totally separate, it is an inclusive part of the communication process of taking leads through to customer. Putting email off on it's own really doesn't make a lot of sense

[Kregg]

Roy,

Thanks for clarification on ACT! and GM email capabilities. I wasn't aware they had built in clients.

Kregg

[roy]

Just a little clarification on email broadcasts and ISP limitations in case I confused anyone:

If you do an email broadcast in OutLook, unless you really know what you are doing with the setup one of two things will happen.

1. The email will go out with your whole email database in the CC list. Not recommended as it will really P off those in the list by giving out the address to the world and is probably in breach of Data Protection rules.

2. The CC will have that wonderful phrase 'Undisclosed Recipients' which says, in so many words, to you and thousands of others,

Neither is a good way to send them out.

With GoldMine (I really can't remember with ACT!) each email is sent out individually so it will only ever have one email address at the top and nothing in the CC or BC line so it's very personal. Add that to personalising the mail with Dear xxxxx etc and the recipient is far warmer to your mail.

The problem is this ISP issue. Many Internet connection providers limit the number of mails going out on a daily basis to avoid spammers and over use of bandwidth on cheaper packages. I overcome this by 'queueing' the mails and then sending them in batches over a period.

I hope this helps.

If you are into real broadcasting, ie big numbers and autoresponders, then that part may be better handled by a double opt in system like:

aWeber

This is the system that I use for my web page sign ups and eBook requests. The leads are then copied down to my contact management system for further communication.

[PeterCarruthers]

In 1999 I was lost and alone on a project in Australia, and started e-mailing a few previous seminar delegates. By this year that list had grown to 22,000. In an attempt to get those weekly e-mails delivered I have tried a variety of different services.

If it is mass delivery, forget doing it from your desktop. The biggest issue revolves around what your ISP will allow. They are fickle, and hate any large e-mail deliveries. (And, it is slow!) I tried Maximiser, Goldmine, and Act -- and they all failed in this regard.

With regard to mass delivery, I have used SendStudio (www.interspire.com) as well as a few open source products. My problem here was finding a host prepared to accept the high volume of e-mails. (I still haven't been successful.) Since changing to www.aweber.com earlier this year, my 22,000 e-mails are delivered in minutes with a minimum of hassle. (I travel a lot, and a web service is infinitely better, because it is often impossible to deliver a high volume e-mail from your desktop.)

With regard to a personal e-mail client, I switched to Gmail some time ago. Online, it means I can access it from anywhere, from any operating system. I found that the biggest problem I had with desktop clients -- Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple, etc -- was that my e-mails were stored on a single machine. Accessing e-mail from a different machine was a nightmare, and each time I changed machines, I lost my e-mail archive.

[studiobasement]

Outlook Express is a free version of Outlook that you get when you purchase Microsoft Office, personally I would say Outlook 2003 or above, although it does cost to have Outlook on your machine, the features you get with it will allow you to filter emails, dump junk email into a folder automatically and much more, it also is the best software at reading html emails and contains so many features. I have used Outlook my entire PC life.

Go and buy a copy of the latest Outlook or Office (as it will come free as part of the package) and i'm sure you will be more than happy with it.

[Fiona_Fell]

Many online solutions exisit. I would suggest trying one of the Outloook/Outlook Express options as they integrate well with other Office software and allow a similar interface, so you don't have to learn the whole software program just to send a simple message.

Fiona Fell