Boomerang: Never Forget to Followup on an Email
today I want to talk to you about my favorite add-on for email which makes followup so easy we're going to be looking at a product called Boomerang
About Boomerang
now Boomerang makes its product in a few different flavors here we see Boomerang
for Gmail but it also makes their product for Outlook as well although this says Outlook classic they also make versions for Office 365 and for outlook.com but because I'm a Gmail user we're going
What is Boomerang
to be looking at it from the lens of Gmail the functionality is essentially the same no matter where you use it but we're just going to look at it from a Google perspective so what is boomerang how can it help you well one of boomerang's main features is the ability to snooze a message and you may see this in other email clients as well such as inbox by Gmail there's many other apps that also add this feature as a part of their email management Suite of tools
Snooze a Message
and what does snoozing a message mean well it means if you receive a message
and you say to yourself you know what I just don't want to deal with this right now can you remind me later or can you bring this back later that's the whole idea of the name Boomerang you can select a time frame that's appropriate for you and it will return that message it will show up as an unread message back into your inbox but the feature I
Followup
I want to show you the follow-up feature in Boomerang because I think it's so, so powerful.
Once you've installed Boomerang with your email client, you're going to see a little bit of an addition at the bottom of your composition window or composition box.
Here, we see the blue send button, which is still Gmail, but you'll see down below, with the Boomerang add-on, you have this "Send Later" button and a new checkbox.
Let me give a scenario that I'm sure you're familiar with.
You're asking a question of someone, or you're making a request, and you need an answer.
You want to make sure that you follow up with this person sometime in the future if they don't answer because the question is that important.
So what do you do?
Do you send the email and then go to your calendar and write a follow-up event?
Do you make sure to follow up with so-and-so on this date?
Do you go to your to-do list and make a task for a few days in the future to ensure you follow up with so-and-so about this item?
Well, with Boomerang, you don't have to do either of those steps.
You don't have to get your to-do list or your calendar involved.
At the bottom, we have this checkbox called "Boomerang this."
If I check this box, it says "Boomerang this in 1 hour if no reply."
That means that this message will return to my inbox and show up as an unread message.
That will be my trigger that I have still not heard from this individual.
Now, 1 hour in this fictitious case is too soon, so Boomerang gives you the option to select from a variety of different defaults.
There's also a little pop-up calendar where you can pick a specific date and time.
But for this example, let's say it's two days.
I really want an answer within two days.
I'm going to select two days.
The second drop-down also gives you a few different options:
- if no reply
- if not clicked
- if not opened
- and regardless, which is basically all of the above.
I find that "if no reply" satisfies my needs in almost all cases.
I want an answer, so I don't care so much if they opened or clicked or what else they did with the message—I really want a reply from this individual.
So if I go ahead and hit send, what's going to happen?
If this person replies to my question within two days, that's great—nothing else happens.
I will not have this message returned to me.
But if there is no reply given within this time frame, it's going to show back up in my inbox as an unread message.
Then I can take the next step, maybe it's a phone call, maybe it's a second email, but I am automatically reminded.
This is fantastic for follow-up, regardless if you're messaging with people within your own team, within your own company, or if it's potential clients or people that you don't know so well.
You can choose a time frame that's appropriate for that message or appropriate for that person you're corresponding with and automatically get those follow-ups built into your email client.
So whether you're a Gmail user or an Outlook user, try out Boomerang and make email follow-up easy and simple.
