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Tip #1: Color Code Your Emails to Identify Your Key Messages

Often when you open Outlook, you get lost in a zoo of emails while you need the most important ones right away. You can color code messages so you can easily identify important emails from your clients, staff, or referral sources. This will save time and ensure you don’t miss key messages.

• Open Outlook and select a message from a key contact
• Choose Tools/Organize
• Choose Use colors (second item in the list)
• Select a color and click the Apply Color button
• Close the Organize window

The second option under “Use of colors” is “Show messages sent only to me” and assign a color. This means that if this person sends you a message as part of a group message, it will not change color. In the upper right corner of the window is “Auto Format”, which you can use to change the font.

Tip #2 – Create an email signature for standard replies

Many people have created a signature that appears at the bottom of their emails.

How about creating a signature to send when you have a response that you send frequently? For example: a standard response to a product information query. These can be inserted into the email so you don’t have to retype them each time.

• Select “Tools/Options” and the “Mail Format” tab
• Click the “Signatures” button and select the “New” button
• Give the signature a name such as Product Request, click the “Next” button
• Write your standard response and signature
• Use the “Font” button to change types and add enhancements
• Click the “Finish” button

When you receive a product information request via email, simply click the Reply button, highlight your standard signature, right-click and choose the Product Request signature. You can still customize the response if there’s something you want to add to this particular request, but you’re not starting from scratch.

Tip #3 – Organize your messages with categories

Organizing your messages by category will help you streamline your Outlook inbox. This will save you time searching for an email that was sent in the past.

• Select “Edit/Categories”
• Select from the list or create a new category
• Select an email, right click, choose categories and drop it in the desired category
• To view emails by category, select “View/By Category”

I use this method to archive emails that I need to reply to; however, you may not have the time or information to respond when you receive the email. Since these can be multiple topics, I don’t want to put them in a folder where they’ll be forgotten. I create a “Follow Up” category and put the email in that category when I receive it. At the end of the day, I look by category and make sure I’ve done the necessary follow-up.

Tip #4 – Organize your messages with folders

An alternative to using categories is to create folders and send emails directly to a folder. This is a good method if you receive emails from Google Alerts or news feeds that you want to save and view at a later date.

• Select “Tools/Rules and Alerts”
• Click the “New Rules” button
• You have several options, generally you will use “Move messages from someone” to a folder
• Click the “Next” button and select from the list (of people is usually the best)
• In the box below, select a person and indicate the folder
• Click the “Next” button: you can direct the email to go directly to a folder, a category, delete automatically, etc.
• Click the “Next” button and designate any exceptions to the rule
• Click “Done”

I have a Google alert set for internet marketing. Once a day they send me all the articles, blogs, etc. They mention internet marketing. When the subject line says “Google Alert – Internet Marketing”, it’s automatically sent to my Internet Marketing folder. Then, when I’m ready to do some research, I just go to the folder and look at the information.

Tip #5: Avoid misspellings automatically

We often forget to check the spelling when sending an email. This can be easily checked if you turn on the spell check feature.

• Choose “Tools/Options” and click on the “Spelling” tab
• Check the option “Always check before sending”
• Click OK”

The next time you send an email, Outlook will automatically check your spelling before you hit the Send button.