Use MS Outlook signatures to create automated replies
When talking to my Virtual Assistant (VA) today about the topic for my next newsletter, how to automate marketing procedures, she told me about a new way to use Outlook signatures; at least it was new to me. I’ve known how to use them to create email signatures for my various business entities (I have 4) but it never occured to me that you could use signatures to create entire email templates.
Here’s how it goes. Think about the various email inquiries you receive on a regular basis, you know the ones that you have to reply to a lot, with very little variance to your words? Now imagine hitting reply, inserting one of your saved Outlook signatures and hitting send. That’s it. You’re done. You’ve been responsive, and it’s taken less than 5 minutes.
What if you have to personalize it a bit? You can do that. Take the same steps, modify and then send. It’s still much less time spent than it you started the same darn email from scratch every time, or looked for something similar in your Outlook folders.
Now, take it a step further. Let’s say that you receive inquiries to a new program, or to anything you might ask people to subscribe to or purchase or send questions about, including making an appointment with you. Wouldn’t it be great to have a reply all typed up in your Outlook signature with the link to the questions each prospect must answer, plus directions about how to make an appointment with you?
How to start:
- Make a list of the most frequent inquiries you receive.
- Commit to some schedule where you compose a template reply each day, or week, or whatever interval works best for you.
- Compose a template reply to a type of email that you know you need to reply to and yet are the ones you dislike most (might as well get something off your plate you don’t love first and feel really good!)
- Continue on until you’ve completed your list.
- Experiment, have fun, add more.
Joan
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