If you’ve ever listened in or participated at one of my online webinars you probably know I love Gmail (http://www.gmail.com).
If you’re looking for a great tool to help you manage your email more effectively, one that is chock full of great features, one that will cut down on the time you spend searching through email and referencing old email, one that will ELIMINATE 99.9% of the spam/junk that is thrown your way, Gmail is your answer.
Oh yes… and it’s 100% FREE.
I switched to Gmail about 7 years ago after using Microsoft Outlook for years. After a third Outlook “crash-and-burn,” with limited ability to restore even though I had diligently made back-ups regularly, staying with Outlook simply wasn’t an option.
I’ve never looked back, never regretted it, and quite honestly never had a problem with GMAIL.
Gmail Pros
- It’s free
- It’s very stable
- It’s fast
- 99.9% spam protection
- Virus protection (attachments are automatically scanned before you can download them!)
- They give you TONS of space, you can store/archive EVERYTHING if you want (I have messages dating back to 2007)
- There is easy access from any PC, laptop, iPhone/iPad, or any mobile device connected to the Internet
- There are dozens of features to help you manage your email (i.e. filters, auto-responses, labeling, and much more!)
- There is great support at the Google GMAIL Group
Gmail Cons
- It might not work seamlessly with some of your other desktop software or enterprise applications
- You can’t “back-up” or download your email box, if Google tanks you’ll be in trouble (unlikely)
- They run Google Adwords inside the interface and some might find that aggravating
- Gmail collects mail from your hosting server and may not collect email as quickly as you’d like it to (i.e. slow fetch)
A couple things you’ll want to know up front…
Once moving to Gmail you DO NOT have to send email as something@gmail.com. You can, but you don’t have to.
You still use the business email address you have always used: yourname@yourcompanydomain.com email address. I hope you’re using yourname@yourcompanydomain.com as an email address, and not @aol.com or @yahoo.com because that is a mistake.
You continue to receive and send email as yourname@yourcompanydomain.com, but now do it by logging into Gmail and using your Gmail account.
It definitely IS different from most email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) and it WILL take a little time to get comfortable with it. The people at Google are some very smart people and they think very differently. This is a good thing, in my opinion.
Trust me, once you get past the initial learning curve with Gmail, you’ll LOVE it.
All of the clients I’ve worked with who I’ve recommended moving to Gmail were really glad they did!
Why not get started today!