The art of crafting the perfect “keep in touch email”

Ah, the dreaded “keeping in touch” email. It often comes across as clunky, or worse: downright awkward. How do you reach out to someone for merely the sake of “keeping up the relationship”? It’s easy with friends and family–you just reach out with a specific memory or sentiment, and voilá! You’re back in the swing of things in no time.

What if you could do the same thing with your business relationships? These working relationships often blur the lines of business and friendship. While that may not be the case with all contacts, at a very minimum, there is frequently something you remember about a specific person. This could be simply his love for golf or her cat’s name is Aspen. Whatever little nugget of information you have, keep it at the forefront of your mind as you craft your email!

Keep in touch email

Hints and Tricks

There are a variety of situations that may necessitate a touching base email. You may want to stay in touch with an old coworker who has left the company. An old superior or higher-up may have mentored you, and you wish to reach out every so often. Potentially, a virtual client–someone you’ve never met face-to-face–is your intended recipient. Maybe you met a person at an event, and want to reach out electronically. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

When crafting this type of email, it’s best to follow these hints and tricks.

Make it brief–but not too brief. You want to keep it conversational, but not too lengthy. Remember: you know this person in some capacity. He or she is not merely a stranger on the street, so keep it personable, yet professional.

4 email templates 

Feel free to use any of these reconnect email samples to speak with an old contact! Simply replace the specifics of these templates with information pertinent to your situation.

1. Person You Met at a Networking Event

Dear Ms. Benson,

It was a pleasure meeting you at the Ben Buck Spring Fling event yesterday! Your tips about finding construction managers were extremely helpful–I actually sent an email summing them up to my team. We will be hiring a construction manager in the near future. I’d love to chat further next week, if you’re available. I hope you have a lovely day!

Best,

Jess Smith

2. Former Colleague

Hey Trong,

How are you? I hope you’re doing well at The New Bank. I was browsing online when I saw this article about the Chicago Cubs. I immediately thought of you! Let’s catch up soon.

Cheers,

John Martin

3. Virtual Contact (Social media, or Someone You’ve Worked with Via the Internet)

Hi Kevin,

How’s your day going? I wanted to email you because it occurred to me that you and my freelance designer, Blake (@DesignerGuy1), might get along well. He’d be an awesome person to reach out to–he has his own design business, and I know you’re interested in a new website! Let me know if you’d like me to pass along his contact information.

Best,

Anika Patel

4. Friend-of-a-Friend

Of course, there are people in between work acquaintance and your close social circle. Sometimes a friend-of-a-friend is someone with whom you’d like to keep contact for the sake of business. You may have met in a relaxed setting such as a bar, or house gathering, so it can be tricky to navigate the waters. Here is a touching base email just for that situation!

Hi Molly,

It was wonderful to meet you at Henry’s Christmas party. I’d love to hear more about your role as a professional editor–I’m actually a writer myself, and want to see if we’d be a good fit for future work. If you’re not too busy, I’d love to meet up for coffee sometime next week and chat, if that works for you! I hope you’re having a lovely day.

Thanks,

Miguel Hernandez

Just remember

Use these templates word-for-word, or spice them up in any way you please. The most important thing to remember when crafting a keeping in touch email is to keep it short, and professional, yet personable. Don’t stress about keeping in touch!

The post 4 Email Templates to keep in touch appeared first on Mailbird.

The holidays are a hop, skip and a few days away. Businesses and independent professionals everywhere are getting ready to close shop for this calendar year. Business is wrapping up, the obligatory gifts have been exchanged, and the hilarious snaps from holiday parties have been plastered on Facebook feeds everywhere. There’s only one thing left to do – send out those holiday emails to all of your customers. It seems simple, right? Just send an email saying happy holidays, and you’re done. But wait! Not so fast. A clever holiday greetings email

There’s only one thing left to do – send out those holiday greeting emails to all of your customers. It seems simple, right? Just send an email saying ‘happy holidays’, and you’re done. But wait! Not so fast. A clever holiday greetings email can help boost your sales and be great for businesses of all kinds. Going beyond a standard “Happy Holidays!” message can help set the tone for customer/client relationships in the coming year. Not sure what to say, how to say it, or what type of email template might be right for you? Allow us to break it down for you with a few of our favorite examples!

Going beyond a standard “Happy Holidays!” message can help set the tone for customer/client relationships in the coming year. Not sure what to say, how to say it, or what type of email template might be right for you? 

4 clever Holiday Greetings Email Templates

1. The Simple Thank You

If you’re looking for a message that is simple and straight to the point, a template similar to this one may just be what you are looking for. Sending a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” message with no marketing gimmicks or offers comes off as genuine to many customers and clients. Add in festive colors and a few holiday themed clip art pieces and voilá! The perfect email template to get your greeting across.

2. The Season’s Sale

Running a small business or being a self-employed freelancer, you understand the value of sending out a personalized holiday greeting messages via email. If you are in the business of retail or sales (with a larger email list), you know that taking full advantage of marketing benefits during the holidays may be more helpful to you. If that’s the case, use an email template that emulates the season/holidays in the design while you use your copy to captivate your customers into action. After all, what would the holidays be without amazing end of year deals?

3. The Donor Reacher

If you are running a nonprofit organization (or just want to spread a little holiday cheer to others), a holiday email can be a great way to reach out to potential donors and raise awareness for your cause. The holidays are all about giving, and sending out a holiday greetings message that captures this in the template can be a great way to raise some funds and make a few wishes come true before the end of the year!

4. The Introduction

Maybe you don’t have customers on your list to thank, and maybe you don’t have products to sell or causes to promote. Maybe you’re gearing up for a company launch with the start of the new year and want to find a way to drum up a little interest in your business or cause.

A holiday newsletter filled with helpful information about your company can be a great way to give new and future customers an introduction to your brand, while also helping you establish a voice for your business. It may seem unimportant, but introductions can be a vital part in establishing a strong customer-company relationship. What better way to do this than with a little holiday email cheer?

Find The Email Template That Works For You

At the end of the day, the perfect holiday greetings email will be all about what works best for you. Think about what you want to accomplish with your email – a thank you and simple greeting, a marketing opportunity, a successful fundraiser, or just an introduction.

A holiday message from a freelancer to her clients may not be the same as one from a nonprofit to its donors or one from a small business to its loyal customers. Using email to send out your holiday greetings message can be an amazing tool, just be sure you use it wisely!

What is the best or worst Holiday greeting you have ever received or sent out? Let us know in the comments section.

The post Finding The Right Holiday Greetings Email Template appeared first on Mailbird.

Let’s be honest, the last thing on your mind before vacation is putting up an auto-responder email. Half the time, your out of office message is probably an “Oh crap!” moment after you’ve already left the office.

Even though you might be soaking up the sun on the beach or tearing up the slopes, your coworkers, customers, and other business associates are still in the office and may not know that you’re unavailable. Failing to tell people that you’re out of the office could come back to bite you, especially if they’re expecting a prompt response.

Before heading out on that much needed time off, it’s imperative that you set an out of office reply to let senders know you’re gone. If you’re feeling stumped, we’ve crafted 7 out of office message samples to inspire you. Check them out below!

1. Basic Template

We don’t always have time to be clever or creative… and that’s okay! At its core, a vacation responder email simply needs to inform the sender that you are out of the office and when to expect a response.

The elements of a great out of office reply are 1) how long you will be gone, 2) when you will return, and 3) who to contact if it’s urgent.

Hi there,

Thank you for your email. I will be out of the office from mm/dd to mm/dd and will have limited access to email / will not have access to email. If this is urgent, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL] or [PHONE]. I will do my best to respond promptly to your email when I return on mm/dd.

Best,

2. Lead Generation

Have you ever thought of an out of office message as a lead generation tool? Well, you should now! It’s easy enough to highlight an opportunity to collect leads in your vacation responder. Just add a little flair to the end of the message and start raking in the leads!

Hello and thanks for your email. I’m currently out of the office until mm/dd with limited / no access to email. If your request is urgent, please contact [NAME] at [EMAIL or PHONE].

In the mean time, did you know we have a weekly / monthly enewsletter? Yep, you heard that right! A weekly dose of all your favorite [COMPANY] content sent right to your inbox. To ensure you don’t miss out on all the good stuff, sign up for our newsletter here.

I’ll be sure to get back to you when I return on mm/dd.

Thanks,

Aside from newsletter sign ups, you could use this opportunity to encourage webinar attendance, sign ups for an online course, whitepaper downloads, or any other lead generation tactic your sales and marketing team implements.

3. Content Promotion

If generating leads is not a key strategy of your sales or marketing efforts, you could also use your out of office message to get more eyeballs on your content. Add a little value to your email by linking to an interesting online resource your company has developed.

Hi there,

Thanks for your email. I am out of the office right now and will not return until mm/dd. Fortunately for you, our resources never take time off and we’ve got this awesome ebook / whitepaper / infographic on [TITLE] that I think you would enjoy.

I’ll get back to you as soon as I get back into the office.

Best,

4. Traffic Driving

Maybe you don’t have any content to promote or you simply want to drive traffic to your website using an out of office reply. Great! A vacation responder is an awesome way to do that. Depending on the page you link to, your message might be different, but here’s an example.

Hey there,

Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, I’m out of the office from mm/dd to mm/dd with limited / no access to email. If your question can wait, I’ll be responding to the emails I missed when I return on [DAY]. If not, contact [NAME] at [EMAIL] or [PHONE] and he/she will take care of you.

Did you email me about [SERVICE YOU PROVIDE]? Great! Read what our customers are saying about how awesome their experience has been. (Link to customer testimonials or case studies)

I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks!

5. Networking or New Business

As much as we’d like it to be, not every away message is for a vacation. Sometimes, you need an out of office reply for a business trip or conference. But instead of simply telling people you’re out, why not use that opportunity to encourage networking or new business connections?

Hi there!

Thanks for your email. I’m out of the office at this super awesome conference [MONTH] [DAY]-[DAY]. Will you be there too? I’d love to connect! Our company will be exhibiting at booth ###. Feel free to stop by! / [NAME], our [TITLE], will be dropping knowledge during his/her speech on [DAY] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]. You won’t want to miss it!

Follow and tweet me @Twitter_Handle for thoughts and conversation on the conference. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

6. Social Media Engagement

The percent of people who follow brands on social media ranges from 44% to 53% (depending on the platform) and 53% of those who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands. So, it would make sense that companies want to build their audiences on social media, especially to create loyal customers.

But most people don’t seek out a brand’s social media accounts. They’re more likely to follow you if asked or presented with the opportunity, which can be done in your vacation responder.

Hey there!

Sorry you missed me. I’m out of the office from mm/dd to mm/dd and will be responding to my emails when I return on [DAY].

To keep up with all the latest happenings at [COMPANY], follow us on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / Pinterest / Etc. (We’re really funny on Twitter, trust me.)

I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks!

7. Funny/Clever

Of course, the best out of office messages are the funny and clever ones. There are tons of examples out there from giving your “auto-responder robot” a personality to using GIFs and memes to joking about what you’re actually doing on vacation. Here are a few clever out of office message samples:

I heard winter was coming, so I decided to go to [WARM PLACE]. I’ll be sipping cocktails on the beach until mm/dd and will not be checking email. Stay warm!

Hate to break it to you, but I’m actually on vacation until mm/dd and will not be checking emails. I’m sure you probably don’t want to hear this since you’re working yourself, so here’s a cat video to cheer you up. I’ll be back from my trip on [DAY]. Enjoy your week!

BAD NEWS: I’m out of the office on vacation until mm/dd. I will be responding to all emails when I return.

GOOD NEWS: My colleague [NAME] has graciously offered to stay behind and cover my work. He/She is basically a superhero. If your request is urgent, you can contact him/her at [EMAIL]. 

Have a great week!

Conclusion

People often don’t realize is that your away message is a unique opportunity to be memorable and make someone’s day, beyond simply telling them you’re out. It doesn’t have to be long or complex—just thoughtful and interesting. So next time you’re setting up your vacation responder, use it to inform, assist, or delight the email sender. It will be a fun exercise for you and a pleasant surprise for them!

What’s the best out of office message you’ve received or written? Let us know by sharing in the comments!

The post 7 Examples of Out of Office Message Templates appeared first on Mailbird.

As in many things in life, when it comes to the success rate of your email blasts, timing is everything. If you’re looking for more email opens and click-throughs to increase traffic, it matters plenty what time and day you send out emails to your subscribers.

This is because your loyal audience (provided it finds content useful or interesting) will share it after reading, leading to increased website traffic, new subscribers and customer conversions.

Best Day to Send Email Blasts

Most studies show that working days have a significantly higher open rate than the weekend. Engagement metrics show that subscribers are mainly active from Monday to Friday. Weekends are considered leisure and family time, resulting in lower traffic.

Best time to send email blast

According to GetResponse, the best day to send emails is Tuesday, with the highest open rate. A study conducted by Experian  found that Tuesday’s emails have an open rate of about 18%. Thursday has a slightly lower rate making it the second best choice. On the Harland Clarke Digital’s analysis, Wednesday made it to the top with Tuesday right behind it. 

Customer.io and MailChimp agree that the middle of the working week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) gets you the highest open rates, especially for informative emails that don’t require any action.  However, the best day to send sales or promotional email is Friday. GetResponse found that Friday has the highest click-through rate, making the end of the week best for actionable email blasts.

So when is the best day to send an email blast?

If you’re looking for a single day that will get your email opened and get that link clicked, then Thursday is your best bet. Based on the overall inbox and traffic activity, the GetResponse research also points to Thursday, peaking in all the metrics: sent email, open rates, and click-through rate. 

Best Time to Send Email Blasts

The lifespan of an email is about an hour after they arrived in your inbox. The open rate drops to less than 8% after 4 hours. After 24 hours there’s less than 1% chance your email gets open. To avoid getting your email sent straight to trash, send it when people are reading their mail.

Studies vary significantly when it comes to the best time to send an email. The tried-and-true strategy is to send out email blasts in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day. Generally, somewhere between 1pm – 3pm is what works best for email marketing, although some also suggest mornings between 9am-11am.

MailChimp noted a peak at 10am, quoting it as the optimal send time across their system. HubSpot gets the most email opens at 11am and  WordStream’s data shows Thursday between 8am-9am as the best time to send email blasts. When MailerMailer ran the numbers they found that early mornings and early evenings have the highest open and click rates (their study draws similarities with that of Experian).

Bets time to send email blasts

However, Campaign Monitor‘s research shows that email opens correspond with an average person’s working hours. 53% of mails are opened between 9am – 5pm, with a slight drop at lunchtime.  47% of emails are opened outside of work and most of the opens occur on mobile devices.

So when is the best time to send an email blast?

Metrics vary for different industries and according to the nature of your email. To determine when is the best time to send an email blast, first consider the type of email you’re sending. For most opens or reads, send your emails blasts between 12pm – 4pm. If you’re looking to engage your audience, send your emails early in the morning between 6 am – 8 am, or in the evening between 8pm – 12am.

Know Your List

Knowing your demographics is a deal-breaker in your email marketing efforts. Understanding the needs and habits of your audience can determine your email open and click-through rate.

Demographics trump any safe “best time to send email” bet. For example, most studies advise against sending emails at night, but if your audience consists of a large number of nurses or bartenders (as suggested in Mail Chimp’s post) with atypical working hours, then you’ll notice an increase in your open rate even at night.

Your niche determines most of your audience, so if you’re in the retail or entertainment industry then Friday’s the best time to send email blasts and reach out to people just as the weekend’s approaching.

Seasons and location play an equally important role. You can easily reach audiences in the dead of winter in the northern hemisphere even on Saturday and Sunday. To reach your audiences who live in different time zones at the right time, customize your email send times.

There’s no one-size-fits-all kind of solution to the question “When is the best time to send an email?” To find out what works best for you, A/B test your send times as often as you can. As your audience increases so will the variety of habits you’ll need to cater to.

Additional Factors

Open rates aren’t affected only by send time. If you’re looking to increase your open rates, you’ll need to consider other factors, such as the frequency of your email blasts, the subject line, the length and appearance of your email message.

Most marketers send email blasts 2-3 times a month and Marketing Sherpa conducted a survey about the frequency of promotional emails, which should give you an idea to start with. However, their findings are based on their audience. Schedule out the frequency of your emails based on your list.

Best time to send email blasts

Subject lines are crucial in email marketing. It’s what gets your email opened and it’s probably just as important as the message itself. Give your email blasts an intriguing title, enough to tickle the curiosity of your audience. Pair it with a quality message and you’ve got a winning combination.

The appearance of your email on the screen, the paragraph organization and overall esthetics, plays a huge role in getting your message across. With over 42% mobile open rates, it goes without saying that your emails should be mobile-friendly. People want something they can skim read, write short paragraphs and include bulletin points. And yes, replace those 1000 words with an image.

Did we forget anything? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post Best Time to Send Email Blasts Backed by Research Data appeared first on Mailbird.

As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

The same goes for making an impression online. Research has shown that online visitors form a first impression of your brand in less than two-tenths of a second. In only 2.6 seconds, that visitor’s eyes focus to reinforce that first impression.

Knowing this, it’s important to use any and every opportunity to present yourself in a positive light online, especially through email communications. One such opportunity that is often overlooked is email signatures.

The best email signatures go beyond just your name and contact information by showcasing you and showing off your brand. So, what are some great email signature examples? We’ve laid out a bunch for, plus some tips for success.

1. Keep it Simple

Not everyone needs an elaborate email signature format to accompany their communications. Sometimes, simple and elegant will do the trick.

The key elements of a good business email signature include your name, title, company and phone number. You may also include an address and your company’s website. But don’t include your email address—that’s redundant and unnecessary.

Here’s a simple email signature example:

2. Use Color

To add visual interest, even to a basic professional email signature, try using 1-2 colors drawn from your brand, logo or any graphical elements you might use.  More often than not, more than two colors start to clash and become distracting, so unless you have a particularly good eye for design, stick with one or two brand colors.

3. Limit Information

We’ve all seen those email signatures that include the whole kitchen sink and tell someone’s entire life story. You know, like these?

This is clearly one of the bad email signature examples. When it comes to deciding what information you should include, remember less is more. The best email signatures are about 5 lines of text, give or take.

4. Add a Photo

With the right tech know-how, or a useful email signature generator, you can easily add a photo to give your business email signature more impact, personality and memorability. Plus, the imagery will draw attention and add visual interest.

Here’s a cool email signature that uses a headshot to put a face to the name:

5. Include your Logo

Another option instead of a photo would be to include your company’s logo. While it is possible to use both a photo and a logo, most of the time this makes your signature too busy and confusion. You’re best to choose just one.

Your email signature format will depend on the size and orientation of your logo. Landscape logos work best in a stacked email signature, where as circular, square, or portrait logos can be placed to the right or left of the text, if desired.

6. Balance your Content

The best email signatures use hierarchy of design to balance content, type, and imagery. Use dividers or white space where needed to separate different elements of the email signature and direct the reader’s eyes. Also, bold, capped, and colored type attract the eye first, so weight the most important information in one of these ways.

7. Include Social Media Icons

Do you or your company have well-managed social media profiles? Why not use your email signature as another way to drive traffic to these platforms? Link to your social media channels using icons representing each site’s logo (rather than a boring hyperlinked URL).

8. Add a Call-to-Action

Beyond social media icons, your business email signature can be used to drive other engagements from your email recipients. For example, you could link to your latest blog post or encourage sign-ups to your email newsletter.

9. Share Company Information

Some companies like to use their email signature as an opportunity to share announcements, such as awards or designations won. You can also list or include badges for certifications received or courses completed. Showing your expertise in your email signature emanates professionalism.

10. Design for Mobile

And finally, when choosing your email signature format, keep in mind that most people check their email on their phone. Pick a design and graphic elements ideal for mobile. If your logo has small text, consider only using the parts that translate well onto small screens. If you’re including links or icons, ensure they’re space out enough for people to click with their fingers.

Conclusion

To find the right balance of content, imagery, and design, think about what truly matters to you and your brand and prioritize. Trying to jam all of these ideas into one signature will just overwhelm your emails. Remember, less is more, keep it simple and be professional—hopefully, one of these email signature examples will inspire you to build an interesting one!

What are some of the best email signatures you’ve seen? What did you like about them? Let us know below!

The post 10 Examples of Professional Email Signatures for Businesses appeared first on Mailbird.

Change is good, even for your Email.

Many users are trying to avoid finding an alternative to Outlook because they remember the long and complicated path to actually mastering the App with all of its features.

And even then, the majority of people use Outlook to “only” manage their Emails and maybe their tasks or calendar and ignore all the rather “complicated” features and functionalities.

Well, we have good news for you. There is light at the end of the tunnel with a new era of the modern email client, that is Mailbird.

With Mailbird, you experience a clean, sharp interaction with managing your online communication. It’s super easy to use. We promise that you will master the application within 5 minutes. Mailbird enables users of any age, as well as non-tech savvy people to learn how to use it fast, and to do so with ease and enjoyment. Mailbird is the best alternative to Outlook and an all-around great email experience.

“I’ve purchased Mailbird for my old mother as well, as it’s easy to use. She’s not in anyway computer savvy, but last weekend I actually got an email from her – the first ever, imagine my (very pleasant) surprise! For me Mailbird is a keeper – easy to use and most importantly easy to configure!! My 80 year old mom is a testament to that.” Lars – May 12, 2015

We will be looking at the following areas and to see if Mailbird is the best alternative to Outlook for you too:

1. Layout and UI
2. Most Popular Features
3. Cost

1. Layout  and User Experience

Outlook is known for its cluttered and “out-dated” layout and UI, making it rather complicated for new and even existing users to handle the software.

Sure, if you use a piece of software on a daily basis you eventually learn how to get around it – in fact that’s even the case with rocket science, but is that the best utilization of your time? Software and apps in 2015 should be intuitive enough to not have a learning curve, so spending a few days unraveling the mystery of using an email client seems like we’re technologically pushing you back to the early 2000s.

Simplicity, a clean user interface (UI), an intuitive user experience (UX) and speed are the main reasons why people try Mailbird, enabling them to master it in less than 5 Minutes (not days!).

User Experience

User experience is essentially all the small little details that you don’t recognize consciously but intuitively guide you to use the software.

Mailbird has many such small elements. Let’s look at some examples –

Example #1 – Let’s say you’re a Dropbox user and you activated the Dropbox app from Mailbird AppStore. Apart from looking at your Dropbox app by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the bottom left, the only other place you’ll find it is when you’re composing a new email or replying to one. It shows up like this –

Non-intrusive Dropbox icon to attach files from Dropbox

Dropbox in Mailbird compose window

And when clicked upon, opens Dropbox file explorer for you to select files to be attached

Example #2 – You might think, Mailbird does not offer as many features and functionalities as Outlook, otherwise the Inbox and menu would look the same, right? That is not quite correct.

Instead of filling the interface with lots of buttons and options, we hid them to show up on certain user actions. If you look at how emails are stacked in Mailbird, it looks just like any other email program, but when you hover over the profile picture of an email message, an action bar shows up on top which makes it easier for you to deal with it.

You can even click on the profile picture of an email message and it will show you all the emails you’ve exchanged with the person.

Quick Action Bar in Mailbird

Inbox – Outlook

Layout and UI

In Mailbird, you can customize the layout and color theme, personalizing your Inbox.

Pick your favourite colour

8 different Layout Options – Pick your favourite

 

2. Most Popular Features

In order to find the perfect replacement for their current email client, people tend to only look for ones that have exactly the same features as their current email client, regardless of whether or not those features will actually be used.

Mailbird has integrated the standard features that users know from Outlook and also offers special Mailbird-only features that have not yet been implemented by any other email client: quick preview of attachments, speed reader, LinkedIn lookup, snooze and many others.

The majority of these are already available in Mailbird’s free version – Mailbird Lite.

Let’s have a look at the most popular features:

[ws_table id=”2″]

Integration with Third Party Apps

Additional features that differentiate Mailbird from other email clients include the integration of a variety of popular apps, turning Mailbird into a true all-in-one communication hub, combining Email, Messaging, Task Management, Calendar and Video Meetings in the most effective way possible for the user.

Mailbird’s all-star developer team continues to add and improve these features requested by you. Think Mailbird needs a certain feature to convince you to switch? We have Mailbird Feature request forum where you can submit your request.

Imagine working like a productivity machine through your email, while also being able to jump on a call without having to switch browsers or to another application. It’s not just convenient but also way more efficient. In Mailbird, as the best alternative to Outlook, you have all your communication power tools in one place.

Featured Apps Include:

• Messaging Apps, like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

• Task Management, Apps and Tools like Todoist, Moo.do, Evernote and Asana, can easily be activated in your Mailbird AppStore.

• Video Meeting Apps, such as Appear.in and Veeting Rooms allow you to easily jump on a call or virtual Meeting, without having to leave your Inbox.
  

  Talk to anyone by creating video chat rooms in Appear.in

  Veeting Rooms – Have a virtual Meeting without leaving your Email Client.

• Calendar App,  Google Calendar gives you a nice overview of your upcoming appointments and enables you to schedule appointments from your Mailbird.

  Sunrise Calendar – plan your day from your Inbox.

3. Cost

Outlook runs at $110 which is pricey for “just” an Email Client.

Mailbird, on the other hand has 3 different pricing options to choose from. Depending on the number of accounts and your actual Email needs, Mailbird has the perfect plan for you which include:

1. Mailbird Lite: Free for up to 1 account
2. Mailbird Pro: $1 / month paid annually or $12 / year  (incl. all future updates)
3. Mailbird Pro Lifetime: $45 once  (incl. all future updates)

Mailbird gives you a 30 day free Pro Trial when you install Mailbird for the first time. This is a great chance to find out why Mailbird Pro is worth that $1 a month.

Still have questions before downloading it? Our team is always there to help you out. Shoot us an Email or tweet us @mailbird.

We are ready to help you and to answer every single one of them. That’s the great value that comes with Mailbird: direct responses and feedback to help you through your email, communication and communication management needs.

Excited to make the switch to the best alternative to Outlook? Simply start downloading Mailbird! You’ll freaking love it.

 

Update: We have launched our Mailbird Import feature, that makes it even more simple to switch over from Outlook. Find all the details on how to “auto-magically” start importing your accounts here.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2015 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

The post Why is Mailbird the best alternative to Outlook? appeared first on Mailbird.

Hey guys,

our developers are working super hard, like, really hard to make email not so bad anymore. Many improvements are made and updates implemented, which usually come unnoticed. Some of these include an improved avatar (aka profile picture) search for all your important contacts. Another is an improved drag and drop email function, performance with 64bit machines are examples of the constant, yet less noticeable, improvements our team is consistently working on.

For the more noticeable Mailbird developments that many of you find super awesome include:

1. Sharing Means Caring

End your friend, family and colleague‘s email struggles by using the ‘Invite Friends‘ option in the Mailbird menu. We mentioned the updated referral system in our last newsletter, so in case you missed it, now its super easy for you to get Mailbird Pro Lifetime for free.

Here’s how it works: https://www.getmailbird.com/new-way-get-mailbird-pro-free-life/

2. Join The Dark Side

Have sensitive eyes when working on a computer for too long? Did you know that Mailbird has a dark theme mode? Try it by simply going into the Mailbird menu > Settings > Appearance > Select ‘Dark Theme‘

3. Create New Thread

You can now change the subject of any reply or forwarded message and with that creating a new thread from it. You can create a new email thread now, when replying to any message in an email convo, change the subject line and voila! New email thread created. We call it “I just became awesome at email convo management!” Awesome.

4. That Special F1 Key Working Wonders Again

We gave the F1 key some life! Today, that special F1 key gives you immediate access to the Mailbird support team. We are here for you! Problems, questions, feedback? Hit that F1 key. Simple.

5. Contacts Manager In Beta

Trust me, we are waiting for the release just as much as you are. The good news is that the new Mailbird Contacts Manager, with contact sync is now in Beta testing. Now it’s up to our very dedicated Beta testing team to test the *#$?!!*# out of it. If they don’t manage to break it, we‘ll be releasing it into the public version very soon. Yes!

The post Mailbird Updates you may have missed appeared first on Mailbird.

In the digital age, even with a growing number of online communication tools, email remains an indisputable classic.

With the increase in email usage over the decades, hackers saw a profit opportunity compromising cybersecurity with intricate and diversiform network threats.

When it comes to email security, most users don’t have an adequate system in place. Assuming email services or the latest antivirus software will all block cyber-attacks.

We have listed the five most common email security threats and how to best overcome them.

Email spam can block your inbox and servers

Unsolicited bulk email, otherwise known as spam, is unwanted email sent in large quantities. It mainly consists of ads trying to sell certain products or services. Although they might seem harmless at first, spam is far from risk-free.

Studies have shown that 14.5 billion spam email is sent every day around the globe, which makes up to 45% of all emails sent. In spite of the development of advanced anti-spam software, individuals and businesses alike suffer the consequences of spam email that finds its way to the inbox. More than half of the participants of a recent survey said that spam was a major problem.

The world’s largest generator of spam email is the US. In the 2^nd quarter of 2016, it accounted for 10.79% of global spam volume. It was followed by Vietnam, India, China and Mexico.

Such a large volume of junk can easily use up valuable server space. It can affect your network resulting in network downtime and bringing your daily business operations to a halt.

Solution:

However, as annoying as it can be, spam is relatively easy to deal with. From creating safe lists, or choosing between automatic and manual filtering, users can avoid overloading their inboxes with unwelcome messages. Email clients and webmail providers have filtering options, which enable users to select a level of protection. Also, permanently delete all suspected junk email instead of moving it to the Junk folder.

Protect yourself from a malware infection

Email is the most common entry point for malware. It is estimated that 2-4% of all emails contain some type of malware. Email attachments are one of the oldest ways to spread malware. The content of the message encourages users to download a malicious file and launch it. Often there’s a link to a malicious site in the body of the message, which thanks to drive-by downloads automatically installs malware just by clicking a link.

Most email services can perform virus scanning and remove a dangerous attachment. With the fast evolution of viruses, worms, Trojans or spyware, the anti-malware software have difficulties to keep up.

Zeus and CryptoLocker are types of malware that infect devices through email. These are some of the most dangerous malware that can empty your bank account. Thanks to this malware, cyber criminals steal millions of dollars every year, even forcing companies to file for bankruptcy.

There are now about 1.7 billion pieces of malware that could potentially infect your inbox. According to Kaspersky Lab’s data, Germany topped the list of countries targeted by malicious mailshots in Q1 2016, followed by China, Brazil, and Italy.

Solution:

Malware is no joke, but there are certainly ways to protect yourself from it. First of all is to install anti-virus/malware software and keep it up to date. Regularly update your operating system and run scheduled virus scans. The simplest way, of course, is to block links and attachments in suspicious emails.

Phishing attacks through email

Phishing is the act of tricking somebody to voluntarily reveal his or her personal information. Those email messages are created to steal money from users by posing as a legitimate company.

The common practice is for attackers to send messages with a link to a malicious site. Those links then take users to a website that will try to convince them to install the malware. In many cases, the link provided in a phishing email leads to what seems to be the website of a reputable business. Oftentimes even posing as one that provides a familiar service such as social media or online banking sites, in order to trick users to give out sensitive information.

Thanks to cunning social engineering cyber criminals, attacks are based on the potential victim’s online activity. According to Wombat, 85% of organizations suffered phishing attacks in 2015. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported in its Q1 Phishing Activity Trends Report that between October 2015 and March 2016 the number of phishing websites increased by 250%.

Solution:

Get informed and understand how scams and phishing attacks work. Learn to identify common phishing attacks and make sure to disable links in phishing emails. Keep your information secure and never enter sensitive data following a suspicious link in an email. 

Block Cyber criminals from your email

Cybercrime has a 1,4% ROI according to a report by Trustwave. Email, unfortunately, is the most obvious choice for cyber criminals to make a profit. Most likely criminals will continue to find new ways to exploit the usage of email and take advantage of users’ poor email security practices to make a fast buck.

Currently, the most widespread web threat is the Blackhole Exploit Kit. Different anti-virus software solutions have detected between 30-90% of all web threats that resulted from this Exploit Kit. Released on a Russian hacker forum in 2012, the Kit can collect significant information about a user, such as location, operating system, browser, the exploited piece of software on the victim’s computer, and exploit their browser’s vulnerabilities. This information is so valuable in phishing attacks that cyber criminals are willing to rent it out for up to $700 a month.

Solution:

To stay safe online, especially while using email, make sure you secure your network with WPA or WPA 2 encryption and avoid using open Wi-Fi. Open links and attachments you completely trust and scan everything you download to your computer for viruses. Pay attention to what you agree to install and only download software from trusted websites.

Email threats are going to be an ongoing issue

Email malware creation increases by 26% year over year, with about 1 million malware threats created every day. There are now more pieces of malware passing around than ever before. Even though we are now far more aware of the email security issues than the early 2000s, phishing reports are growing exponentially.

Email security threats are becoming more and more advanced that Michael Siegel, a research scientist at MIT, believes 75% of breaches go undiscovered for weeks or months. The issue of email-based threats and cybersecurity is very real and users should take every measure to protect their data.

Now, we didn’t list these email facts to put you off email. They are just a reminder that you should take cybercrime seriously and be proactive in finding the best email security solution for you.

The benefits of email outnumber any potential risks. Choose a reliable email client (like Mailbird for Windows or Airmail for Mac i.e.), treat unwanted email with extra caution and gear up with anti-malware software (such as Norton or Avira). Furthermore, avoid downloading attachments from suspicious senders and protect your data with unique strong passwords for all your accounts. These are a few steps to minimize risks and continue using email effectively.

Any tips that we have missed? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post 5 Facts on Email Security Threats appeared first on Mailbird.

For the first few minutes after an interview, you feel relieved and proud all at once. The hard part is over–the actual interview–but now comes the dreaded wait. Did you nail it, and get the job? Or did they hire someone else? Don’t let this anxiety over the response stop you from positioning yourself as a better candidate. An interview follow up message is key to that venture, so make sure a thank you email after the interview is on your to-do list!

Here is a comprehensive list of interview thank you emails. Feel free to use them word-for-word, or just the general feel of the wording. Either way, they will provide a great idea of how to write a great follow up email!

10 Sample Thank You Emails After Interview

General Follow Up Email After Interview

Dear Mrs. Carlisle,

It was a pleasure meeting you today. Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me! I truly believe my background as an app developer, and the prosperity of the app I personally developed, ThymeCrunch, really set me up for success at The Develapp company. Looking forward to hearing from you. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Cheers,

Alan Cho

Share a Mutual Interest

Dear Ms. Lee,

It was wonderful meeting you today, and I really appreciate you setting aside time to interview me. I’m very excited to be considered for the junior actuarial position, in addition to all of the potential opportunities the company presents! It was lovely chatting about our shared passion for sand volleyball!

Thank you so much for your consideration, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of your day!

Best,

Abigail Rumfield

Social Media-Specific Job

Dear Mr. Khan,

It was lovely meeting you today. I really appreciate you taking the time to interview me! I wanted to electronically provide you with my social media accounts, for sake of ease. I’ve tried various social media strategies over the years, and have built a significant following. You can find me on the following platforms:

Facebook: Facebook.com/JamesonOConnor

Twitter: @J_Oconnor

Instagram: @OconnorJ

Thank you so much for considering me for the Social Media Guru position. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Best,

Jameson O’Connor

Thank You Email After Phone Interview

Dear Mrs. Wykowski,

It was phenomenal speaking with you today. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to call me for an interview! I appreciate you considering me for the position as a part-time beauty consultant. If you’re interested, here is a direct link to my portfolio: (Insert Link). Please feel free to reach out with any further questions. I hope you have a lovely day!

Cheers,

Kira Ramirez

Video/Skype Interview

Dear Mr. Miller,

I really appreciate you taking the time to interview me today! It was very beneficial to have a visual of the office–it really provided me with an idea of the office environment. Thank you so much for considering me for the Graphic Design position, even though we were unable to interview in-person. I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you have a phenomenal day!

Best,

Erika Mason

Strictly Virtual Position Interview

Dear Mrs. Prakesh,

Thank you so much for setting aside time to interview me! I really appreciate being considered for the remote secretarial position, and I’m looking forward to learning more about life as a virtual employee. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I hope you have a lovely day!

Cheers,

Jamilla Brown

I Have Further Questions that Didn’t Arise in the Interview

Dear Mr. Johns,

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me today! I really enjoyed our discussion regarding the current state of the stock market. A few questions did come up after the interview, that I would like to ask now.

-When I’m traveling on business trips, will I generally be driving or flying?

-Approximately how long do business trips tend to last?

I appreciate your consideration for the position. Looking forward to hearing from you, and hope you have a wonderful day!

Cheers,

Michael Mokena

“I Really Blew It” Interview

Dear Ms. Burton,

It was wonderful meeting you earlier today. Thank you so much for setting aside time from your busy schedule to interview me! I really appreciate being considered for the Interior Decorator position and wanted to electronically provide you with my portfolio. It can be found here: (Insert Link). Additionally, a former manager will be reaching out regarding my best project! I hope you’re having an absolutely phenomenal day!

Best,

Mackenzie Johnson

You’ve Already Followed Up, But Still Haven’t Heard

Dear Mr. Longbottom,

I really enjoyed interviewing with you last Thursday, and I wanted to touch base. Do you need anything further from me, in order to help the process? I hope you’re enjoying the new dusting of snow!

Cheers,

Killian Thomas

You Didn’t Get the Job, But Want to Keep a Relationship

Dear Ms. Jolie,

Thank you so much for your consideration for the PPC management position. While I’m a bit sad I wasn’t the right fit, I’m sure you did a great job of choosing the best candidate! I would love to stay in contact with you. Looking forward to seeing you at the Women in Digital Marketing seminar later this month. I hope you have a lovely day!

Best,

Emilia Lorenz

Anything you would like to add to the list? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post 10 Thank You Email Samples to Wow Your Interviewers appeared first on Mailbird.

There have been growing reports of IncrediMail (now Perion), a popular Windows email client, are not working well on Windows 10 machines. It appears that crashes, bugs, and more issues related to supporting new Windows 10 updates have cropped up recently. There are also several reports of malware that have lead many users to seek alternatives.

What should you be looking for as an alternative? The bottom line is, email clients need to be concerned with increasing productivity, and effective organization. These elements should work together cohesively to make the user’s life easier. At a minimum, email clients need to consider that everyone is using their software in various business contexts such as fast-paced environments, in-office or out in the field. A solid email client should not only be able to adapt to these environments but should also be fully functioning after operating system updates. It needs to keep up with this ever-changing technological world – and that’s a demanding task!

That’s why we rounded up all the windows email clients for a review. Here are the best alternatives to IncrediMail Windows 10 users who are looking for a similar experience.

The Top IncrediMail Windows 10 Alternatives

1. Mailbird

If you were a big fan of IncrediMail’s customization options like backgrounds, and custom effects, then Mailbird 2.0 is the best alternative on Windows 10 today. Mailbird is an intuitive, smart and effective way to organize emails and communicate with colleagues, clients, customers and professionals. Here is the full run down on what Mailbird 2.0 has to offer.

Productivity features include:

• Attachment Search – search for attachments using keywords
• Avatar Search / Profile Picture Search – search for emails using a profile picture search
• Drag & Drop of Attachments – easily drag and drop attachments into emails
• Inline Reply – Colour coded name for easy inline replies
• Handy keyboard shortcuts
• LinkedIn Lookup – Connect your email to LinkedIn for an easy integrated way to connect professionally!
• Quick Action Bar – archive, snooze, reply, forward, trash that email, mark as important, star or mark as spam…all within 2 inches of your mouse.
• Quick Compose Shortcut – Control + Alt + Space quickly opens up a new message to write emails quickly and efficiently
• Quick Preview of Attachments – View your attachments before downloading them to avoid downloading unnecessary content.
• Snooze – The snooze function can be used in a variety of ways:

1. You can snooze emails during busy times and selectively filter out what kind of email you receive at a given time.
2. Snooze can also be used to remind you of tasks instead of a calendar reminder.
3. Snooze email correspondence with a particular client, customer or colleague until you’re ready to respond (after a meeting, as an example or after or on a certain date)
4. Snooze can be used for accounting purposes (to keep track of payments)
5. Snooze important emails to be re-sent to remind people of an upcoming event (like an upcoming deadline)

• Speed Reader – This function helps you scan long emails quickly. Train your brain to read faster, sift through content and find the information that is relevant to you!
• Unified Inbox – Unified inbox lets you integrate all of your email accounts into one user interface. If you have more than one email, it archives your various folders into one tab that is easy to distinguish. You can unify two emails (like let’s say a work account and a personal account) but keep a third account separate of the two! It’s up to you.

Mailbird also takes it a step further by bringing the entire client interface into the mix with options for enhancing its interface with colors, layouts and custom patterns.

Customizing options include:

• Background theme picture
• Dark Theme option
• Message Sound
• Multi-language support
• Welcome message
• Theme Color
• Vertical / Horizontal layout

A unique aspect of Mailbird is that it has also teamed up with developers to integrate social media apps, video chat apps, organization and task apps, calendars, note taking, contact management apps and more. These are add ons you can add into your interface to create the ultimate customized communication platform.

Some apps include:

• Apper.In
• Asana
• Chrome
• Contacts Manager
• Daily Social
• Degoo
• Dropbox
• Evernote
• Facebook
• followup.cc
• FormSwift
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs/Drive
• Lifehacker
• Moo.do
• Veeting Rooms 

… and more!

2. eM Client

source: eM Client

eM client is another Incredimail Windows 10 alternative. It has a very bare-bones easy-to-use email interface that operates on Windows XP, Vista, 8, and 10 – perfect if you have an old computer still running previous operating systems.

Email Features:

• eM Client supports all major services including Gmail, Exchange, iCloud and Outlook.com
• It integrates email, contacts, calendars, a simple to-do list and a chat function into its interface
• It has a contact and attachment search function
• Supports all standard protocols (POP3, SMTP, IMAP, EWS, AirSync)

This could be a great option for somebody who is new to using email interfaces or for someone who doesn’t need a whole lot of communication platform add-ons. While it does have less UI customization options, it does present a solid and secure communication system equipped with message encrypting, mass mail and delayed send, a built in email-translator, templates and signatures and more. 

Calendar

eM client’s calendar is highly customizable allowing you to integrate internet calendars, tasks and to-do lists effortlessly. Share calendars and tasks with other colleagues, friends, clients or customers. Use the full-text search in events and tasks; send meeting invitations and confirmations, schedule meetings and more.

Contact management

eM client gives you custom contact views, an extensive number of data fields, categorization and folders support, easy access to communication history, an easy way to search for emails from specific contacts and most of all makes merging contacts from various addresses an easy task.

Other Features

The chat function allows you to message people in real-time and sends attachments from a detached window. eM client also offers:

• Central management of desktop clients for companies
• A de-duplicator tool
• Customizable Widgets
• Sidebar for quick access to Contact details, Agenda and Invitations

3. Postbox

Source: Postbox

Postbox is a relative newcomer to the Windows email client scene, but it’s already received high praise for its clean and simple interface. Unlike Mailbird or eM Client, it does not offer a free version. However, Postbox does offer a free trial so you can give it a try on your Windows 10 device.

Main features:

• You can now add dynamic data in Postbox 5 in responses and templates. This means placeholders automatically populate with data from the message itself or through your own custom fields.

• 70 professionally written email response templates for job inquiries, recruitment letters, reference requests etc.
• Quick post – sending messages through various integrated platform apps
• Image scaling and message size indicators – perfect for people who work within photography
• Anti-tracking – a function that allows you to see when your emails are being tracked to keep your information as private as possible!

There are many more alternatives out there, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. However, Mailbird seems to be one of the most effective tools in comparison to many other email software. They’ve managed to win awards since their release date in 2013, continually improving upon their services. Their goal to create an uncluttered, intuitive, and user-friendly interface is an effective solution for email organization. Not to mention – their app integrations have allowed them to continually push the envelope in the field of email communication.

Are you a Windows 10 user? Try Mailbird 2.0!  Did we leave out your favorite email client? Leave a comment on what you use, and why you prefer it.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post IncrediMail Windows 10 Email Client Alternatives appeared first on Mailbird.

Our developers are working super hard, like, really hard to make email not so bad anymore. Many improvements are made and updates implemented, which usually come unnoticed. Some of these include an improved avatar (aka profile picture) search for all your important contacts. Another is an improved drag and drop email function, performance with 64bit machines are examples of the constant, yet less noticeable, improvements our team is consistently working on.

For the more noticeable Mailbird developments that many of you find super awesome include:

1. Sharing Means Caring

End your friend, family and colleague‘s email struggles by using the ‘Invite Friends‘ option in the Mailbird menu. We mentioned the updated referral system in our last newsletter, so in case you missed it, now its super easy for you to get Mailbird Pro Lifetime for free.

Here’s how it works: https://www.getmailbird.com/new-way-get-mailbird-pro-free-life/

2. Join The Dark Side

Have sensitive eyes when working on a computer for too long? Did you know that Mailbird has a dark theme mode? Try it by simply going into the Mailbird menu > Settings > Appearance > Select ‘Dark Theme‘

3. Create New Thread

You can now change the subject of any reply or forwarded message and with that creating a new thread from it. You can create a new email thread now, when replying to any message in an email convo, change the subject line and voila! New email thread created. We call it “I just became awesome at email convo management!” Awesome.

4. That Special F1 Key Working Wonders Again

We gave the F1 key some life! Today, that special F1 key gives you immediate access to the Mailbird support team. We are here for you! Problems, questions, feedback? Hit that F1 key. Simple.

…And we have many more great things coming. Check out our New Years Resolutions to get an idea of what we have planned for 2017.

Any questions? Let us know in the comment section or shoot us an email.

The post Mailbird Updates you may have missed appeared first on Mailbird.

Email mistakes are hard to avoid

We’ve all done it. Sent an email to the wrong person. Forgotten to add an attachment. Hit “Reply All” to a large email chain…the list goes on and on.

Considering an employee receives an average of 121 emails per day, accidents will happen. People are generally understanding when they do, but wouldn’t it be great if you could just avoid those email mistakes altogether?

Fortunately, many big mistakes can be prevented by effective use of inline reply. Some email clients, like Mailbird, have an inline reply feature built in. Your responses are automatically noted as yours when typing inline. Not sure what I mean by inline reply? Here’s a video showing you how it works.

Inline Reply in Mailbird

So how can inline reply help you? For more efficient email management, here are the five big email mistakes you can avoid if you use this feature effectively.

#5 Wait… Which email am I responding to?

Most people have multiple email accounts, and “121 emails a day” is no joke! How does one person keep track of all that information? If you’ve ever started typing out an email, only to realize you’re responding to the wrong email chain, it’s time to start using inline reply. Pronto.

Avoid the confusion of multiple email accounts and the flood of daily emails by responding to the sender in the body of the original message.

#4 But you approved it via email!

Email has a lot of advantages as a communication method. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s instant. And while some things are best done face-to-face or over the phone, it’s becoming acceptable to conduct most business activities via email. Like soliciting approvals for projects, work, etc.

What if someone asks for multiple approvals in one email? Or maybe you’d like to provide a conditional approval (like “Change X, then it’s good to go”)? How do you do that without confusing everyone?

Inline reply allows you to respond to each item individually. That way, you clearly communicate your inputs, while ensuring the recipient fully understands your reply.

#3 You ALMOST got it all…

On that same note, inline reply can help you avoid the unfortunate email mistake of forgetting to respond to the entire message. Sometimes people discuss multiple subjects or pose several questions in one email (guilty!). You want to respond to everything, but might forget something or find it difficult to organize the information in a reply. Using inline reply after each topic or question ensures clear, efficient communication.

#2 Who said what?

If you’ve ever been part of a mass email chain, you know the struggle of scrolling through tons of replies to get the information you need. Luckily, when a mass email requires responses from most, if not all, recipients, each person can reply inline.

This prevents a number of email mistakes—attributing answers to the wrong person, accidently asking someone for a response twice, and wasting time sifting through multiple replies. Talk about effective email management!

#1 Did I miss something?

Email has become a key form of communication. Especially if you work remotely! Oftentimes, a group or team will have full conversations in one email chain. What happens if you miss something important? You have to scroll through email after email until you find what you missed.

Responding inline keeps everything short, sweet, and to the point, without all that “Original Message” fluff.

Conclusion

Clearly, if you aren’t using inline reply, it’s time to start. At the very least, it’ll help you more efficiently communicate via email. Granted not every email conversation is best done via inline reply, but used in the right situations, it will save you time and avoid confusion.

What do you think of the inline reply feature? Do you think you’ll be using it? Let us know in the comments!

The post 5 Email Mistakes That Can Be Avoided By Using Inline Reply Effectively appeared first on Mailbird.

Spam: the bane of every email user’s existence. These pesky messages somehow end up in your inbox, regardless of how many times you delete them. Don’t let your frustration get the best of you! Instead, follow these guidelines to beefing up your cyber security, and reducing the amount of spam in your inbox.

Block Email Addresses of Frequent Offenders

Over time, a number of culprits appear in your inbox day-in and day-out. A pattern will emerge, and you’ll be able to recognize any that fit it. These annoying messages can easily be removed from your inbox. Copy the email address of the offender, and paste it into the “Blocked Senders” list, usually found under the “settings” tab of your email provider. Once an address has been added to this list, it will no longer be able to send you any communications. This will also be applied to the email client, should you be using one.  It’s important to note, however, that you may still receive the same message with this method, but it will not be from the blocked address.

Don’t Sign-Up With Your “Real” Email Address

By far, the easiest way to reduce spam is to create a “junk” email address. Instead of allowing websites to contact you via your personal or business email–where you regularly communicate with colleagues, or friends and family–set-up an email specifically for signing up on websites. Separating these two types of electronic interactions will allow you to keep the amount of spam to a minimum.

In addition to using a “junk” email, remember to uncheck the “subscribe to newsletter” box when you sign up with a new site. This small, easy step greatly reduces the amount of spam email you receive, right from the beginning. Limiting the amount of communication prior to signing up for a website, helps mitigate the potentially overwhelming amount of junk.

Set Up Spam Filters

Most email programs allow you to set up “different inboxes”. More or less, it gives you the ability to separate email by importance or sender. This allows you to mark the most time-sensitive emails and receive them all in one place–without the extra clutter of spam.

These filters are created using keywords. Compiling a comprehensive list is easy. Take a look at the spam email you currently receive and scan it for common or recurring keywords. Enter those phrases and terms into the filter, save, and you’re all set. These emails will no longer arrive in your inbox! In addition to reducing spam, this technique also organizes your emails in a very accessible manner. You’ll never miss a bill again!

Unsubscribe

Yes, it is quite a tedious task, but it’s well worth the effort. Going through each individual email and unsubscribing is time-consuming, but very effective. If you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate, just unsubscribe each time an undesirable email arrives in your inbox. However, if time isn’t an issue, the simplest way to tackle it is to head to the search bar and type “unsubscribe”. This pulls up all emails with an unsubscribe link. Scroll through the list and unsubscribe at will!

Please note, if you find an email from a company you know you didn’t subscribe to, do NOT unsubscribe from it. Clicking that link will alert the spammer that it’s an active email address. In turn, the spammer will continue bombarding you with junk. Instead of unsubscribing yourself, you’ve essentially subscribed to a whole host of junk. If you accidentally unsubscribe from one of these emails, don’t worry! Simply follow the next step.

Report Spam

While unsubscribing from undesirable messages is certainly effective, it doesn’t always provide a feeling of “satisfaction”. Reporting a message gives you that feeling, and it’s very helpful to your email provider. It submits data to the developers, to improve user experience. It also sheds light on how spammers evolve with new email security updates within the system. When you feel like you’ve tried everything under the sun to remove spam, this is a phenomenal way to workaround that issue.

Change Your Email on Public Forums

When posting on online classified sections or other public forums, always alter your email slightly. Spambots crawl public forums for viable email address, and if yours is “readable”, you could potentially be added to new junk mail lists. For example, if your email is Malia@Newcompany.com, type it as _Malia_at_Newcompany_dot_com, along with a note to remove the underscores. Underscores and other special characters cannot be “translated” by these bots. By changing your email to remain legible to humans, but not spambots, you’ll reduce the amount of junk mail associated with your public post.

While spam email can be downright irritating, taking proper precautions from the beginning of each new website you sign up on, will greatly reduce the amount you receive. The reduction in clutter comes with a sense of ease and organization in your inbox. This new year, increase your happiness and cyber security!

Any questions or feedback you would like to add? Leave them in the comment section below. 

The post 6 Secrets to Avoid Spam in Your Inbox appeared first on Mailbird.

How many email addresses do you have? A personal account and a work account? Maybe a spam account to give to cashiers when they insist on getting your email?

Email users around the world have 4.4 billion email accounts. And it’s safe to say that most users probably have multiple email addresses. Considering the amount of time people spend reading and answering email, having more than one email account can make that process even more complex and time consuming.

Luckily, there are ways to effectively manage multiple email accounts. This guide should give you all the insights and tricks you need to do just that.

4 Ways to Manage Multiple Email Accounts

If you have more than one email account, it’s likely you’ll need to check all of them throughout the day. How do you best manage your multiple accounts? Here are a few options.

1. Open each account in a web browser

First, you could open each email account in its own tab in a web browser. For this method to work, your email client must support webmail. The benefit here is that it keeps the email addresses separate, which could be ideal for privacy or if you prefer to keep work and personal separate.

The downside to this is that it can be confusing and it slows down your browsing experience by having numerous tabs open. Plus, each interface is different and you’ll have to click between each tab when checking email.

2. Set up email forwarding to a master account

An alternative to the confusion of multiple browser tabs is to use one master email address, to which incoming email is forwarded from your multiple email accounts. You can do this by turning on email forwarding in each individual account and managing all your emails from a master account.

This method could also work in the reverse, where you receive all incoming email to one master account, then forward emails to the proper account. However, this still means you have several email address to manage and will cost you time sorting incoming emails.

While these approaches do improve upon the previous option, they still have disadvantages. In the first suggestion, when you reply to an email from the master account, that’s the email address the recipient will see (and thus reply to). This could be confusing if you’re mixing work and personal emails. The second option actually adds an additional email account to the mix, making your situation even more complex.

3. Use a desktop email client

Most email clients are made to help people get through their multiple email accounts in the easiest way possible. There are loads of email clients out there for all pretty much every single OS. Make sure when choosing the best email client for your needs, that it supports multiple account management. And this brings us to the next point.

4. Use a Universal/ Unified Inbox

The best option for effective email account management is to use a universal inbox. It may not be called Universal inbox for all email clients. In Mailbird, its called “Unified Inbox” i.e. It allows you to consolidate multiple email accounts into one well-managed inbox. Regardless of the email provider, you can sync multiple email addresses with Mailbird and access emails from all accounts in one inbox. (Your Unified Inbox is denoted by the hexagon icon at the top of the left menu. Read more about this cool feature here.)

Consolidating your email accounts into one inbox lets you access them anywhere, anytime. You’ll save time and energy by only needing to open one program or account, and by keeping everything organized in one place.

Quick Tips to Effective Email Account Management

Now that you’ve set up your multiple email accounts to your liking, there are steps you can take to ensure you stay on top of your newly organized inbox(es).

1. Program an automatic email signature

If you decide to use a Unified Inbox, you’ll be sending emails for multiple purposes from one platform. Which means you might be handling work email and personal email from one place.

The first step you should take is to set up email signatures for your different accounts. Doing so will save you valuable time when responding to emails since you can simply choose a pre-programmed email signature that automatically populates into the bottom of your message. Also, this will ensure the recipient has your contact information moving forward.

2. Sort and filter emails into folders

Another great email management tip is to treat your inbox like your desktop. Each email is a like a file that’s sorted into specific folders. You can do this manually when you receive an email or you can set up a filter. Filters automatically sort emails from certain email address or that contain certain information into folders, rather than having them build up in your inbox.

If you have multiple accounts, a filing system helps keep work and personal separate, or work from one project separate from another, or even work from one job separate from a second job. Especially if you need to archive emails to refer back to at a later date.

3. Set time to check email

With email just a finger tap away, it’s easy to get sucked into your inbox. This is especially true if you have multiple email accounts. The more accounts you have, the more email you receive!

It’s recommended for better focus and time management that you set aside time to check email (and don’t check email outside of your allotted time period). Respond to the quick emails right away—don’t let them sit in your inbox. If they require a more lengthy response, flag them for later.

Further, keeping multiple email accounts organized, especially in a Unified Inbox, will help you get the most of out this time, so you can get back to the important stuff—like planning your next vacation!

Conclusion

Most people probably don’t realize how much time they’re wasting managing multiple email accounts. You might check different accounts at different times, or maybe you’ve just accepted the way things are. In reality, once you set your Unified Inbox or master account, you’ll never want to go back. We hope you find these tips helpful in getting you closer to a well-managed inbox.

Have you found anything particularly helpful to manage multiple email accounts? We’d love to hear your tips! Share them in the comments below. 

The post The Ultimate Guide to Multiple Email Account Management appeared first on Mailbird.

Are Remote Working Teams The Future?

Hiring teams to work remotely may appear to be a risk you are unwilling to take. Questions surrounding productivity, skill, and effort come to the forefront of a hiring person’s mind. There are many things that can seemingly go wrong! 

This notion, however, is completely incorrect. Here are five common myths regarding remote working totally busted.

1. Remote Workers Dictate Their Schedule

While this is true in some regard, all remote workers need to be up and working when their clients and coworkers are doing the same. Sure, they may be able to sleep in longer and cut out the commute, but that doesn’t mean they are their own masters of work-related time. A successful remote worker will have a set schedule that coordinates perfectly with the rest of the teams’ schedules.

2. Work Simply Doesn’t Get Done

The inverse is actually true. By removing the distractions of the office environment, such as coworkers stopping in to say “hi”, or a few minutes of gossip at the water cooler, remote workers focus on the work, rather than other people in the office. With fewer reasons not to pay attention to the task at hand, they can crank out more work each day. Productivity rises when people work remotely.

Credit: Georgi Georgiev from coupofy.com

3. Remote Workers Are Lazy

Nope, quite the opposite is true. Since many members of a remote team work in their physical house–although many do not–they often set aside a “working area”. Remote employees are not sitting in their lounge chairs, as they chat on a conference call. Instead, the use an area of their dwelling as an office. This allows for easier separation of work-life from home-life. This balance is essential to any person working remotely, which is why they create a “work only” space, to boost productivity.

4. Domestic Workers Are Better Than Those Overseas

Talent is talent. If you’ve found the perfect candidate, but he lives on the other-side-of-the-world, don’t fret! Just because he isn’t located within your country or timezone, doesn’t mean you can’t coordinate with him. In fact, as long as you set a standard time for all workers, you can pull in new, remote people from across the globe.

5. Remote Meetings Are Ineffective

Think about it: conference calls have been a part of business meetings for decades. What is the difference between an individual sitting in an office, and an individual sitting in his home work space participating in a conference call? Absolutely nothing. Conference calls, video calls, and chat-based meetings don’t change in effectiveness, based on an individual’s location. In fact, frequently coordinating communication of this type will only increase the effectiveness of remote teams.

Mailbird Weekly Team Meetings Across the Globe

Taking on a team of remote workers can be a daunting task, but well-worth the effort. When hiring these teams, it is important to make sure you are clear about your expectations, including the amount of time spent working each week, specific working hours, and the quality of the work. Once these are in place, fear no more, and begin working with a very driven, talented portion of the business world!

Are you thinking about joining a distributed team or hiring remote workers? Our blog post series on “The Challenges of Remote Working” might be very interesting for you to check out.

Any myth you think we should add to the list above? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post 5 Myths About Remote Working Teams appeared first on Mailbird.

The Best Way To Manage Gmail For Windows Users

You probably have a Gmail account. In fact, according to worldwide statistics there’s a good chance you have more than one of them. Google has announced that Gmail now has more than 1 billion monthly active users – up from the 900 million the company announced last year and up from 425 million 2012. 

It’s a no- brainer why Gmail is on fire right now. Its app has over 90.7 million monthly users for a reason. It’s an easy to use interface which is well integrated with cloud storage, making file sharing easy (Google drive), offers great work-collaboration opportunities (Google Docs) and has countless other features from Google Spreadsheets to Google Slides. Statistics even show that 94% of Gmail users use the integrated translation services in their Gmail account. However, while Gmail has made it big, they have really not done justice to PC users.

Firstly, using the Gmail site itself to manage these accounts presents a few serious problems:

• You always have to be connected to the internet
• It’s difficult to manage multiple accounts
• It’s only as secure as your internet connection

Considering that Gmail makes up over 85% of all global users worldwide, you may find it odd that there is no official application for Gmail for windows. There is indeed no way for a Windows user to manage accounts directly from a PC and there is nothing in the app store that presents this function.

This is the least bit convenient for businesses, self-employed workers, people who work out in the field or in-office using Windows products. Logging into Gmail from the web is a pain, especially if you have multiple accounts to tend to throughout the day.   

That’s why more and more people are using Mailbird. It is the perfect solution to managing Gmail for Windows users. Mailbird makes juggling all of your Gmail accounts (and every other account you have) easy. It brings them all together into one beautiful and lightning-quick app. Plus, with an intuitive and easy to use interface, Mailbird makes it simple to view multiple email accounts under one tab on Windows devices.

Stay Connected, Even When You Aren’t

You can’t always be connected to the Internet. But, that shouldn’t stop you from checking your emails and composing replies effortlessly. The world is moving too quickly to miss out on important email threads – especially if you work in time sensitive environments. In some fields, responsiveness is extremely important – to close that deal, to fix that bug in the system, or to make important arrangements.

That’s where Mailbird comes in: Read through any messages from all your Gmail accounts, even when offline with Mailbird’s auto-sync function. This allows you to see your emails as quickly as possible so you can manage, respond, delete, etc… all without a connection. Then, when you do connect to the internet at a later time, Mailbird auto-syncs your accounts again so you consistently stay up-to-date with changes in your mailbox.

In many fields, email is a primary mode of communication along with chat functions and web calling. With Mailbird, you can easily:

• Check & respond to all your emails while travelling
• Cut down on data usage
• Get crucial information from emails while at a conference
• Use integrated web calling and task apps to synchronize important information into various channels

Never again find yourself left in the dark just because you can’t open your emails.

Emails in Unified Inbox Plus

One Inbox for All Your Gmail Accounts

No more logging in and out of Google accounts just to check your messages! Mailbird does all the work for you. You can also easily respond or compose new messages as any account with our quick functions like quick compose. Other useful functions include: Search by attachment, search by profile picture and LinkedIn Lookup which easily lets you retrieve information and connect with professionals.

Here’s a scenario: imagine you’re in a meeting and you need to open up an important document last minute or you even need to share it in live time with a client. Instead of scrambling to retrieve the information coming off as distracted and unorganized to your colleagues and clients, simply use one of these search functions and you’ll have the information readably available in seconds ready to send to the client through the integrated communication app you’re using.

Did someone send you an email to the wrong address? Simply click the “from” dropdown in the “compose” window when responding and send it from any other account you manage. Best of all, your previous conversation will be forwarded along with it.

Sent the wrong details in a mass email? Don’t worry. With the unsend email function, you can delay the email for up to two minutes to catch your mistake and fix it. You no longer have to worry about awkwardly, sending another email back to every single contact apologizing for the mistake. This handy feature will certainly save you any future embarrassment and keep you on your A-game!

Introducing Unified Inbox!

Did we mention you could view all your emails in the order they were received, across all your accounts, with Mailbird’s built-in Unified Inbox? It even allows you to group emails together as conversations. Seriously, if you need one reason to move your Gmail to Mailbird, this is it. Answering emails across multiple accounts has never been easier.

So, Why Wait?

We could cover all the reasons why Mailbird is the perfect Gmail for Windows app out there, but why not just give it a try. It’s free to download, and you don’t even need your credit card! Connecting all your Gmail accounts is a breeze, and you can get started in as little as 3 minutes. Trust us, you’ll love this smart, easy and intuitive interface. Email will become a breeze!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Gmail For Windows: Here’s a Better Way appeared first on Mailbird.

Merely interacting with your group of remote employees isn’t enough! It’s very important to make sure you build a working relationship with them. These 10 awesome tips lay the groundwork for properly leading a remote team.

1. Use the right tools

Video meetings, IMing, and emailing are all effective ways to keep in contact. Decide which ones work best, and how often you’d like to see these communications. Maintaining a group calendar is extremely helpful, so nobody is left out of group-wide announcements. Do some research to find the best tools, based on your team’s needs.

Here is a list of tools that we would and already have recommended in our blog post series “The Challenges of Remote Working”:

1. Task Management

   • Asana
   • Wunderlist
   • Moo.do
   • Todoist

2. Notes and Documents

   • Evernote
   • Google Drive

3. Time Management

   • Time Doctor
   • Rescue Time

4. Email Management

   • Mailbird (Windows)
   • Unibox (Mac)
   • Unroll.Me
   • FollowUpCC

5. Video Meetings

   • Skype
   • Hangouts
   • Veeting Rooms
   • AppearIn

6. Time Zone Scheduling

   • Easy Clock
   • ScheduleOnce
   • Google Calendar
   • Doodle
   • Calendly

7. Calendars

   • Google Calendar
   • Kin Calendar

8. Human Resource Management

   • People HR
   • Podio

9. Messaging/Chat

   • Slack
   • Skype
   • HipChat
   • WhatsApp

10. File Storage

    • Degoo
    • Dropbox

For any other tools you might need

• Product Hunt

2. Get the team on board with those tools

Find the right tools for your team, and stick with them. Once you’ve found the most effective programs, make sure you hold a training session–don’t just assume people will pick them up right away. Keeping an open line of communication during the implementation of these tools is key to their success.

3. Maintain the “water cooler” culture

Part of the draw of an office environment is the face-to-face interactions and casual banter with coworkers. It’s easy to transpose this type of culture onto a remote team. Simply send a message, or make a phone call catching up with the employee, about the employee, not any current projects. Perhaps she recently ran a marathon, or he adopted a chinchilla. Whatever the event, by asking you’re opening up a more relaxed dialogue. Work isn’t fun when you just talk about work!

4. Have meetings over voice calls

It’s important to maintain both voice and text communication. Since the vast majority of the time, we communicate via email or IM, tone can be lost in translation. By checking in through a call on a regular basis, you’ll make sure your entire team is on the same page. Interacting with the team in real-time is essential to maintain the aforementioned “water cooler” culture. It allows everyone to bond as people, more than can be attained solely through a screen.

5. Host annual “hack-a-thons”

A hack-a-thon is a period of time in which your remote teams comes together for a solid month of intense work. This time allows you to regroup, and plan the next projects in-depth for the upcoming year. Everyone has the ability to input ideas, or throw up suggestions. Open dialogue during these events is crucial to their success, as it provides grounds for creative brilliance. Plus, it allows your team to interact face-to-face, forming more concrete bonds.

6. Ensure they have access to great Internet and mobile connection

Without a solid Internet connection, it’s impossible to communicate and work effectively. Make sure that everyone has strong connectivity, and for those with spotty coverage, offer a reliable mobile hotspot. This could be in shape of a memebership at the nearby Co-Working Space for example. Taking these steps shows you care about your employees, and it mitigates potential technical issues. This is a mutually beneficial and affordable step for both parties.

Taking these steps shows you care about your employees, and it mitigates potential technical issues. This is a mutually beneficial and affordable step for both parties.

7. Set the expectations and culture for the team

Your actions set the tone for the way in which your team interacts amongst peers and higher-ups. By making yourself available no matter what, while practicing tight, frequent communication you set the standards for your team. Therefore, maintaining productivity, providing motivation, and having fun, gives your team the grounds to follow suit. The way you treat your employees is directly reflected in the way they interact with you. Be the employee you want on your team.

8. Encourage work/life balance

Working employees to death will only lead to high turnover and perpetual apathy. Instead, encourage your team to prioritize their own health and happiness. Sometimes a mental health day is necessary after that huge push to finish a project on a tight deadline. When your team is in tip-top shape, they’ll be far more productive. Just like a plant, you need to nurture your team. If you only give them the bare essentials, they’ll do well, but if you give them extra support in their personal lives, they’ll flourish.

9. Encourage everyone on the team to lead a meeting…

…or teach the group something new, as a part of a weekly meeting. At Mailbird, we rotate which person on each of our teams will be presenting business updates. You can mold this idea to fit any group or meeting. This brings your remote team together for a number of reasons. It allows them to take meeting responsibilities, even though they’re not in the office. Additionally, it creates an environment conducive to learning. People retain information when they teach it to someone else, so it’s beneficial for all parties.

10. Be respectful and flexible to different cultures and mindsets.

There are often many ways to reach the same solution. Keeping an open mind to learning about each other’s differences builds a strong team bond. This understanding fosters the notion that everyone has the support of all team members.

*Bonus: make work FUN!

They say you’ll never work a day in your life if you love what you do. Why not nurture this ideology within your workplace? The importance of both work and play is true whether you are in the same office, or working remotely anywhere in the world!

Implement these tips and you’ll see your remote team blossom before your very eyes. If you remember anything from these tips, it’s that finding the right kind and amount of communication is vital. Go forth and communicate!

Are you part of a remote team or are you even leading one? Share your stories and experiences with us in the comment section below.

The post 10 Quick Tips on Leading a Remote Team appeared first on Mailbird.

Don’t Underestimate Email Spam

The boom brought by technology is one that has reorganized almost every sector of the economy. From the way, we pass information to buying goods and services. The internet is no doubt, the cornerstone of our lives in the present day. Despite all the comfort brought by the internet, it has also its impediments.

One of the hindrance internet users are still struggling with is cyber security. Kids and young teens are super internet savvy. They might navigate the internet with a lot of ease, but at the same time underestimate the hazard that may come with its use.

One very common way of scamming internet users, is by sending out spam via email. You can keep your kids safe from unwanted emails using the following tools.

Install Spam Block Software

Spam emails are a form of advertising. Still, they are a fraction of a spam message. The reason to why spam messages get delivered to the inbox is because your email address or kids email were given to somebody. For instance, you disclosed your email to your friends, online forums, sign-up software downloads and much more. A spam block will safeguard your kids from receiving unwanted emails.

To install spam block on your Chrome browser;

• Open Chrome on your computer.
• Click More at the top right.
• Click Show Advanced Settings at the bottom.
• Then, click Content settings under privacy.
• Under pop-ups, select an option.
• You get to decide either, not to allow any site to show pop-ups or allow all sites to show pop-ups.

Below are 2 examples of spam block you can install.

POPFile

First, it’s a flexible and powerful email grouping POP. Second, it is an NNTP proxy that filters spam email efficiently. Third, it codifies good emails automatically. Finally, the downside of this application is that it gets heavier on memory and CPU when you train many emails.

Click here to get a full preview of the software.

SpamRIP

This software is an explicit spam block for any POP account. It also works as a separate program. It lets you inspect and erase unwanted emails before they reach default inbox. However, this application is not compatible with IMAP accounts. 

Check out SpamRIP yourself here.

Other great examples of spam blocksoftwares include:  G-Lock SpamCombat, MailWasher free, SpamWeasel, Spamfence, and Spamihilator.

Install Time Monitors

You can use the PC time monitors to regulate the amount of time your kid’s access to a PC. The following tools can be installed to monitor your kid’s activities online.

Mobicip

This tool is compatible with iOS, Windows, and Android. Using this software, you will be able to filter search settings, block content, monitor activity and view app use. The free version of this app is available on Android and iOS. The Windows version is available at $39.99 per year.

You can get more info or try the app here.  

Watchover

This tool is exclusively on iOS. Definitely worth taking a look at. What you need to do is to download Watchover ‘s configuration on your PC. From here on, it will record all activities taking place on the device. Besides, it will take screenshots and store them for 48 hours. Furthermore, it assembles all your kid’s data in an outline and displays the sites they accessed.

And all that easily accessible from your phone for a very reasonable price ($2,99).  Find out more. 

Install Filtering or Blocking Software

This tool scrutinizes all incoming emails. Then, it pulls apart legit emails from spam emails. Above all, Spam block software discerns and turns up spam automatically. As a result, it prevents them from reaching your kid’s inbox.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware

To many computer enthusiasts, this is the best malware software they have trusted.  Protect your kids from cyber criminals reaching out to them and malware using this tool.

It also comes with the following benefits:

• Progressive malware detection and removal
• Install on already affected systems
• Scheduled scanning and fast scans
• Supports more than 35 languages and more

Click here to install this tool.

Keystroke Loggers

A very effective technique to protect your kids from cyber crime. This tool will help you keep a record of communication between your kids and others. This makes it easy for you to follow what they have been up to. You will also be able to spot if they have shared their email addresses with spammers for example.

There are several Keystroke Loggers you can install and edge email spam. Examples of them include:

DanuSoft Free Keylogger

Danusoft software is a free tool you can use to apprehend keystrokes. Also, it’s simple and easy to use. You can hide or unhide this program by typing a chosen keyword. Furthermore, you can configure it to run as stealth automatically during the system startup.  This configuration is done from the Startup settings tab.

Get more details here.

REFOG Free Keylogger

REFOG caters for both businesses, home corporate use. This program has a free and paid version. The free version only monitors keystrokes, visited sites, computer activities,  programs, and clipboard.

However, the basic (free) version has most features disabled.  You can download the free version here.

Filtered ISPs

ISPs is a so-called content control software, to manage the content a reader is allowed to access. For this reason, you can use this software to regulate your kids against distasteful online websites. Also, you can protect them fro signing up to inappropriate and unsolicited emails. In summary, using filtered ISPs, helps you decide and control the content that is available to your kids. 

The following are great examples of filtered ISPs you can use and protect you kids:

Internet Proxy

Filters are sometimes offered by some internet providers. If your internet provider doesn’t provide them, you can sign up for proxy internet service. This service will filter the emails before it gets delivered to the inbox. You don’t need to install proxy because it’s online.  All you need to do is turn on the service with your ISP and emails and content will get filtered.

Apart from Internet proxy, you can also use VPN (Virtual Private Network) and DNS.

Kid Friendly Portals

These sites allow kids to access content meant for kids only. Moreover, it prevents them from inappropriate content. So, your kids are safe from any kind of spam. 

The following sites are great examples.:

Funbrain

This is an entertainment site. Still, this site enhances learning through interactive games like Math Baseball etc. It also offer a range of comics and Web books like Amelia Write Again. 

Funbrain gives parents the opportunity to break content depending on their kid’s age. In conclusion, your kid’s will not access inappropriate content and emails.

Click here to get to Funbrain’s page.

National Geographic Kids, Pottermore, Highlights Kids, Funology, and Whyville are other kids friendly sites.

Create Email Names that are hard to Crack

The majority of spammers use computer programs to guess email addresses. So, if your kid’s email address doesn’t contain numbers and underscores i.e., they are vulnerable to any kind of spamming. Research shows that email address containing numbers, letters, and underscores are had to crack. Mak sure, your kids use them when creating their own email address.

Read Emails in Plain Texts

Spammers have used this technique to steal active email addresses. An email spam written in HTML contains programs that re-direct your kid’s web browser to the advertising page. HTML are codes used to create web pages. So, images in the emails are designed to send messages to the spammers. From here on, spammers use the images to spot active email addresses.

So, to prevent your kids from this kind of spam, set the computer to read emails in plain text. Go to the programs main menu, then, select preferences and choose to read emails in plain text.

Help your kids learn how to be safe online. Take appropriate measures.

How do you keep your kids safe online? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post How to Protect your Kids from Unwanted Email Spam appeared first on Mailbird.

Email doesn’t suck 

Email is dead, right? Wrong! Since it’s invention and implementation in 1972, email has been the new kid on the block. Up to today, we use it for many different occasions.

We use it to send the link to that family vacation photo album to our great-aunt Debbie. We email updates to our boss Jack on our latest project tasks, and we even send virtual inbox reminders and To-Do’s to ourselves. Contrary to popular belief, email is far from dead. In fact, it’s become an even more integral part of our day to day operations.

Need more proof? Here are a few reasons why we are still firm believers in the power of email, and why you should hop on that bandwagon.

1. Emails Are Better For Storage And Logs

If you are working with tons of people as a freelancer or business owner, you know how important it is to keep track of your communications with each individual client. Chat apps like Slack and Skype have become popular for quick, instant communication. They are not quite as great as email for keeping track of all of your chat logs. Sure, you can download chat logs from the apps, but keeping track of attachments and individual conversations is much easier in email threads.

2. Managing Multiple Email Accounts Is Easy

If you are anything like most millennials out there, you probably have at least 3 email accounts. According to Pew Research, over 92% of online adults regularly use email, and 61% of those users check their email daily. Maybe you need a dedicated account for your business. A personal account to communicate with family and friends and some kind of spam account. Sure, you might be able to create multiple channels and conversations on apps like Slack and Skype. With a dedicated email client like Mailbird (Windows) or Airmail (Mac), you’ll be able to easily see all of your inboxes in one convenient place.

That means that you can create as many individual email accounts as you need and you’ll be able to keep track of all of them intelligently, and efficiently. Email clients like Mailbird were built to handle multiple email accounts and can be far more diverse and inclusive than any chat app.

In fact, with Mailbird, you can even activate chat apps like Slack in your sidebar. Making sure you’ll never miss an email or instant message ever again.

Mailbird with Slack integration

3. You Still Need Email, Plain and Simple

Here’s the thing – if you want to sign your business up for an exclusive seminar or be a part of that Starbucks loyalty program. Or maybe if you want to create a website for your services, you need email. Signing up for all of these things, you might be able to skip the tedious process and just click to sign up via Facebook. But, at the end of the day, your Facebook account requires an email address.

Even apps that claim to be the next “email killer”, usually require an email to sign up. The reality is, email is far from dead because as of right now, we still (desperately) need it. In fact, the Radicati Group predicts that the total number of active email accounts will increase to over 4.3 billion.

So, let’s not focus on how to get rid of it but on how to best embrace it and on how to manage it most effectively.

4. Email Was Made For Marketing

If you’ve been keeping up with marketing trends over the last few years, you’ll know that two new major methods of marketing have become very popular – Digital Marketing, and the Inbound Methodology.

Digital marketing is all about taking a more digital, environmentally friendly approach to standard paper flyers/snail mailed surveys marketing tactics. Inbound is a new method within the digital marketing sector. It encourages ways to bring customers to us instead of using the traditional door-to-door method of going to them.

Throw these new trends, the one that has stuck around for years and years is email marketing. Remember our post “Email Marketing & Millennials: Do We Think Email Sucks?“? We showed you that, despite all these new and inventive messaging apps, Millennials love their email. “Millennials, like myself, love our email. We are just as addicted to it as our social media, so much so that we are the highest demographic who thinks we will still be kicking it with our inboxes in 10-years time .”

But we do use email to communicate in a different way compared to previous generations. With the sheer volume of social media messages going out every second of the day across an increasing amount of platforms, it can be hard for the average millennial to keep up with your brand.

This is why when it comes to consumer-to-brand communication, social media is for stalking our ex-boyfriends and email is for making sure we don’t miss out on that 50% sale.”

Even if you yourself aren’t always enticed by email marketing (Millennial or Non-Millennial), you have to admit that the overall influence and reach of email marketing is vast and crucial to successful advertising. And while social media marketing can prove fruitful, email is 40 times more effective when it comes to acquiring new customers than social media. 

We’ll Say It Again – We Love Email!

At the end of the day, email still reigns King over all other forms of quick, virtual communication. We don’t deny the power of using instant messaging apps. Truth is that they alone won’t be enough to serve all of your purposes – personal or business – like email can. It’s just far more versatile and inclusive than any other option, especially when you’re tackling your busy inbox with an email client that was made to get things done, like Mailbird.;-)

Why do you love or hate email? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post We Love Email (And So Should You!) appeared first on Mailbird.

What would the world be like without email? With billions of emails sent every day around the globe, it’s one of the modern world’s most essential forms of communication. It has evolved substantially from its humble origins into a complex network of servers and services. Today, email is also often at the forefront of computer security concerns. It’s the easiest way to reach computer users, after all — and with so many people using it, it’s often a target for hackers and scammers.

As a company who works on building upon the best communication technology has ever provided, email, we want to make sure that people like you and everyone else who ever sends and receives emails are protected and safe.

Do you know the facts about how to avoid these cyber security threats? Unfortunately, there’s often no shortage of misconceptions about how to use email safely. Let’s examine five of the most common myths surrounding email, privacy, and its security, plus the real facts that lie behind them. 

Myth #1: A strong password is all the email security I need to protect my account

We hear a lot about password security and how best to create login details that are less vulnerable to guessing or engineered attacks. So, once you’ve come up with a very complicated password, that’s it — you’re safe, right? Not exactly. Someone could obtain your password and use it without your consent. A key logger or other types of malware could try to capture your password. In other cases, hackers could steal your password as part of a corporate hack, like the breaches repeatedly suffered by Yahoo.

What can you do if a password isn’t enough? The good news is that most email services now offer “two-factor authentication.” When you wish to log in from a new device, you must supply a code sent to your mobile phone in addition to your password. This provides a much more robust level of security and alerts you to any unauthorized login attempts.

Many of you have more than one account and are hence using an email client for managing all your email communications. No matter what email client you choose, make sure to use an app specific password and turn on 2 step authentication (if provided). Take the time to set it up, it’s worth it.

Should you need any assistance with that or have questions concerning the 2 step authentication setup, reach out to the customer support from your email client provider. Ask them any questions about your worries and uncertainities. They will be able to help you get it set up right away. If you use Mailbird, our customer support team is available 24h via email.

Myth #2: It’s easy to spot and avoid phishing scam emails

Two-factor authentication, which is different from 2 step authentication, is a valuable cyber security tool to help protect you from phishing efforts as well. On the surface, phishing is simple enough; send an email to a user that looks official, but isn’t, to induce them to share sensitive data. It’s true that many phishing attacks aren’t very sophisticated. Poor spelling and obviously illegitimate email addresses often give away the ruse. However, not all phishing attacks are easy to spot — and some of them can be extremely effective.

The reality is that some phishing scams aren’t simply an attempt to get you to input a password. An email could appear legitimate, but clicking on a link contained in it, might send you to a site full of malware. These efforts aren’t always easy to notice on the surface.

Myth #3: Emails from “Safe Senders” are always trustworthy

Filters keep the most annoying spam email out of our sight, but sometimes they can catch legitimate emails, too. Whether one configures a “safe senders” list or builds a whitelist filter in Gmail, we have options for ensuring relevant emails from friends and colleagues don’t. You know that person or trust the organization in question, so it’s OK to whitelist them. As a result, you never have to worry about the mail you receive from them. That’s the myth — the reality is that these senders deserve just as much scrutiny as any other.

An attacker could compromise any account, even those you’ve whitelisted. Phishing efforts, malicious attachments, and more could then spread to your inbox from their account. Always exercise good judgment and caution when dealing with links and attachments in emails.

Many email clients provide native spam filtering and other options to keep malware out of your main Inbox. If that is not the case, we at Mailbird always suggest to set up the spam filters in your webmail account. This might take a few minutes, especially if you have multiple accounts to manage, but this is time very well spent to keeping your emails safe and under control. Those set filters will be adapted to your accounts in Mailbird and keep them out of your main Inbox.

Myth #4: Spam filters will always stop scams, malware, and more

Speaking of spam filters and how heavily we rely on them, there are often misconceptions about how much they protect users. Spam email is largely just annoying, but some of it serves as a vehicle for malware and viruses. Like phishing efforts, though, one can’t expect automatic filters to catch everything that could pose a threat to your email security. A compromised account you trust is just one way for something to slip past a filter. Because filters aren’t perfect, there’s always the chance that something might make it into your Inbox. Taking a critical eye towards emails that land on your screen from senders you don’t recognize is the best practice.

Therefore we always suggest that Mailbird users should disable “Auto-select next email after archiving”. This will prevent emails to open automatically and will give the user the opportunity to evaluate the trustworthiness of an email.

Disable Auto-Select in Mailbird settings

Myth #5: My emails are inherently secure and private

The thinking goes like this: if no one can access your account, no one can read your emails. Unfortunately, that’s not true. While it’s hard to do so, an attacker could execute a “man in the middle” attack to intercept and read your emails. Of course, if the recipient’s account suffers a breach, your emails could suffer from exposure as well.

Without an encryption solution in place, emails can remain vulnerable to third-party access. Using a method that encrypts your messages, as well as the connection they’re sent on, can help mitigate the risk. Encrypting messages is the only way to truly know that their contents will remain private. Without the proper key to unlock them, the messages will be in an unreadable state to anyone who intercepts them.

While PGP encryption is great, you need to remember it will only work if the recipient is using an email client that also provides it. Make sure you check beforehand and ask questions about any security concerns you may have to the available customer support team. We have answered the most common questions in our blog post “Mailbird takes your privacy very seriously”.

Make an effort to keep your email safe

Take a closer look at the way you use email — have you fallen prey to some of these common cyber security myths? As such an essential part of modern life, knowing safe and secure ways to use email services is crucial. Threats to users continue to evolve all the time. While providers like Google and Microsoft work to build better email products, it’s still good to take a proactive attitude towards one’s own email security. Whether it’s as simple as enabling two-factor authentication or taking steps to encrypt your messages, we can all benefit from better email security practices.

Our CEO Andrea didn’t just watch the movie Snowden or anything, that inspired this latest post If you are a person who is highly concerned about online security, don’t watch that movie. Scary stuff. Regardless, at Mailbird we are here for you to keep you informed and are available to answer any questions you may have.

How do you make sure your emails are safe? Or do you even find yourself worrying about it? Let us know in the comment section below.

The post Five Common Myths About Email Security appeared first on Mailbird.