So you’ve got your lead tracking software squared away. You’re ready to buy, sell, arbitrage, and make some real money. But you’re not using your system to its full potential if you’re running it naked. Here’s a couple of free pieces of software to make sure your lead tracking software is running as best it can:
Rapportive is one of the most useful plug-ins you can get if you spend a lot of time e-mailing - especially cold e-mails. Rapportive checks LinkedIn’s user database for any users matching the e-mail address of your correspondent and displays their profile information directly in Gmail. It also does the same with Twitter accounts. No more fumbling through tabs trying to track down someone’s information; everything you need is just a click away.
Coolest feature: Rapportive shows any common connections you may have with your correspondent. The more you network, the more work this plug-in does for you!
Another awesome e-mail tool is Boomerang, a program that allows you to schedule when you send and receive messages. This tool is invaluable when trying to keep in touch with early birds, night owls, or international clients so that your messages don’t get lost in their first-of-the-morning e-mail pass. You can also use it to boomerang e-mails back to you at certain times of day to remind yourself to take care of tasks at the right time. Boomerang's free version allows 10 e-mails to be scheduled or boomeranged per month.
Coolest feature: In order to make sure you're responding to e-mails in a timely fashion, you can schedule reminders to e-mails that you haven't responded to.
Similar to Boomerang above, BananaTag is a scheduling and tracking system for e-mails. While BananaTag is less focused on the scheduling aspect, it makes up for it with its advanced tracking software, which gives you information like what time the e-mail was opened, what links were clicked, and more. BananaTag's free version allows 5 scheduled or tracked e-mails per day.
Coolest feature: BananaTag comes with an easy to use option that syncs e-mails to your CRM.
Quora is an interesting mix between social media and Yahoo! Answers. Anyone can ask a question on Quora, and users make profiles outlining their points of experience to answer questions. Similar to sites like Reddit, users can then give or subtract points to answers that correctly answer the question. Luckily, some questions ask about the best lead generation software, the best way to make money quickly, or any other queries that have to do with business, and that’s where companies that handle leads can shine. Even if you can’t promote your business directly, you can give it credibility with correct answers, and build up your name recognition.
Coolest feature: Voting for your favorite answers actually has an effect on the credibility of good contributors.