We’ve just added the ability to track email opens to Sortd. Email tracking is great for timing your follow-ups on opportunities to improve your results, and for chasing up internal emails to make sure things get done! Here’s how it works…
When you compose or reply to an email, you’ll now notice an icon next to the Send button that looks like this:
Enabling / Disabling
To track emails you simply enable the Open Tracking feature (note: it will be on by default so you can turn it off for emails you don’t want to track).
Viewing the Open status of tracked emails
If you want to know which mails have been tracked you’ll see an icon in your Sent Items (and Inbox). If it’s gray the mail has been tracked but hasn’t been read.
As soon as a mail has been read, the icon will change to blue. It will update in real-time – no need to refresh.
Tracking status in the mail preview
You’ll also see the tracking icon in thread view (note that tracking works on a per message basis, so you can see which specific messages in the conversation have been read).
Activity Stream
From here, if you click on the icon you’ll see more details, like how many times a particular message has been read, on what device, and in some cases the location of the recipient.
What about GDPR?
We would advise that you use your discretion with open tracking. If you are based in the EU, Sortd has an option for overriding tracking for EU-based recipients – if this setting is on, even if tracking is enabled – email sent to recipients based in the EU will not be tracked.
Please read this post on the Sortd Knowledge base to learn more about how Sortd deals with GDPR.
I haven’t used Sortd in a while, how can I try Email Tracking?
Email tracking is a premium feature in Sortd – it’s unlimited on either the Pro or Team plan. If you want to try it for free and you haven’t yet used your 14 day free trial of premium features, you will need to Upgrade. Read more about how to upgrade here – you’ll get a 14 day (no credit card required) free trial. If you have already used your premium trial please log a support ticket and we’ll try to arrange an extended trial for you.
Reminders are one of the most useful tools to add to your email if you know how to use them right. They are particularly handy for things like following up (eg. closing a deal / a task that needs to be completed to deliver a project); or for getting back to an email that you don’t have time to respond to right away (eg. sending a proposal).
If you are a big emailer, having the ability to add reminders to your messages can take your results to a whole new level. In this post I’ll explain how you can use Sortd’s simple but powerful reminder features for following up and planning ahead.
Setting a follow-up reminder when you send a mail
If you want results you need people to get back to you. Following up and doing it consistently is a necessary weapon in your arsenal, especially when you’re trying to get someone’s attention. People are busy, just like you, and you sometimes just need a way to get on their radar. Sending a simple follow-up mail creates top of mind awareness and can be a super effective way to get results.
It can be as simple as this…
“Hi Jon, just following up on my mail below. Regards, Wayne”.
You wouldn’t believe how effective an email like that can be for getting results, and it’s so easy to do – but you do need a system that will “surface” the mails that you need to respond to at the right time. That way you don’t need to remember anything.
Whether you’re trying to close a deal, complete a project on time or bring a funding round to a close, Sortd has a number of handy reminder tools to help you manage your follow-ups.
The most natural way to work follow-up reminders into your email workflow is to set them right after you send a message. Every time you send an email you will notice a bar that slides up from the bottom of your screen.
Setting a reminder to follow up is as easy as clicking “Set follow-up reminder” right after you send the mail. You’ll see a quick selector that will let you specify the most common options with one click – like “later today” or “tomorrow”, but if you want to specify a date and time click on Custom.
When the reminder date is due you will see browser notification, and you’ll receive a reminder message on the thread, which will bring the message to the top of your Inbox – you can send a follow-up mail right then and there.
Setting a reminder on a mail in your Inbox
We’ve learnt some interesting things about our customers’ email habits over the last couple of years. It turns out that you aren’t the only one who marks emails as unread when you want to get back to a mail later. I’ll admit, I do this myself on occasion and it actually works pretty well, but it also has a problem – if you keep the mail in your Inbox you are going to read it over and over again – it’s going to hog your attention. And if you leave it there for long enough eventually it disappears below the fold and you’ll likely just forget about it.
This is where Snooze comes in. If you aren’t already a snoozer try it out for a week – it’s a satisfying, zen-like email experience that quickly becomes completely addictive.
Snooze, Reminder and Add to List buttons in Gmail
Sortd has 3 ways for you to manage your ’email in progress’ – what combination of these you use is really up to you (they are all useful for different things). In Gmail mode, when you open a mail you will notice 3 new buttons underneath the search bar.
These buttons are for Snoozing, Setting a Reminder and Adding to one of your Sortd lists.
Snooze button
This button snoozes the email, which means it will be archived right away and placed back at the top of your Inbox when the reminder date is reached.
In full screen mode, look out for the Snooze option next to the Archive button in your Sortd Inbox.
Reminder button
Clicking the reminder button simply sets a reminder. There are some one-click options like ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Next week’, but if you want to specify a date and time click on Custom.
Add to list button
You can use this button if you also want to add the email to one of your Sortd lists. This can be useful if you want to also keep the email on a categorized list (eg. you might want to keep all open emails for a particular client on a dedicated list for that client).
Next steps
One of the most useful features in Sortd is the ability to set a next step on a task – just a note that this is a team feature and only works on team boards. Setting a next step will prompt you for an action date and set a reminder automatically – this is a great way to keep track of progress on deliverables and keep the momentum going. It also gives you a way to keep track of progress on an individual task.
You’ll see the Next Step option when you open a card on a team board. I’ll cover it in more detail in another post.
Being smart about how you set due dates and reminders can make you much more reliable, and much more effective at getting the results you’re after! Use these powers wisely 😉
Sortd has always been a great way to manage your email. But how do you grow your business? Introducing Sortd for Sales! This is by far the simplest and most intuitive way to keep track of your sales pipeline. It’s still just your email, only now you can see what deals are going to close, when and what they are worth to your business.
It’s the same old Sortd you know and love, but with all the things you need to be better at working your pipeline, closing more deals and keeping your team in the loop on where things are at.
No more clunky spreadsheets or frantically trying to figure out what’s going on before sales meetings. With Sortd for Sales you focus on your pipeline and the rest takes care of itself.
How does it work?
At its core, Sortd for Sales is a special type of board known as a Power Pack, but it also comes with a shared Contact Database for managing all your contacts and a really straightforward Sales Report that tells you everything you need to know about how your deals are progressing.
Power Packs are very similar to standard boards, but they give you the ability to do more. Sortd for Sales works differently from a standard board in the following ways:
It’s collaborative, so your Sales Team can all work from the same board (you can also filter the board to show only your deals).
Each list is more than just a list – it’s a stage in your Sales Pipeline.
In a quick glance you can see the amount in each stage of your pipeline.
Items on the Sales Board are not tasks, they are deals – when you click to view something on the board you will see a new Deal View.
Here’s what your Sales Pipeline might look like:
Viewing a deal on your board shows you the stage it’s at in your pipeline, the amount and the date you expect the deal to close:
And if you want to feel like the boss you are, check it out on your Sales Report:
Where can I find Sortd for Sales?
To add a sales board, use the board switcher on the right in fullscreen mode (note you can add as many boards as you want)…
What if I don’t have Sortd installed anymore?
If you don’t have Sortd installed anymore just head over to the Sortd web site and install it again from there. Any data you had from before will come up again after you log into Sortd from Gmail.
That’s all folks!
If you have any questions or comments please post in the discussion forums and we’ll do our best to answer you there.
Today we’re excited to announce some awesome new features. I won’t bore you with the preamble – here they are…
Snooze
Sometimes emails just have no place in your Inbox (or anywhere else in your life). With Snooze you can now temporarily send them away, to return back to your Inbox at a more convenient time. Look out for the Snooze option next to the Archive icon in your Inbox.
Follow-up Reminders
We’ve already had reminders for a while but we’ve just added a new twist to the story. Now you can add a follow-up reminder to an email immediately after sending it. You don’t even need to move your mouse – after you hit the send button, the Sortd reminder button comes to you.
An awesome new Gmail loading screen
Sortd adds a beautiful image to Gmail’s loading screen every time you load Gmail. Just because 🙂
