ToutApp for Outlook introduces Advanced Email and Presentation Tracking
Today, we're announcing Version 2.0 of ToutApp for Outlook. With it, you get a rock solid battled-tested plugin that adds Tout email tracking, templates and our newly introduced presentation tracking to Outlook versions spanning from 2007 to 2013.
Watch the Video Overview
How is it battle tested?
Since releasing our Outlook plugin last year, we've been hard at work working with customers across major enterprises spanning Outlook versions 2007 to 2013 and Windows versions XP, 7 and even Windows 8.
Tout already offers you the most advanced email and templating in the sales communications space, and today we're happy to announce support for presentation tracking right from inside of Outlook.
Why Tout for Outlook?
For those of you unfamiliar with Tout or email tracking in general, Tout's sales communications platform plugs into Outlook, Gmail, and your CRM to help solve these key problems in your day-to-day sales process:
- Not knowing what happens to your important sales emails after hitting "Send."
- Constantly jumping back and forth from your Outlook into your CRM having to manually upadate your sales communications.
- Having to constantly re-attach files, or re-write the same emails over, and over, and over.
Key Features
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Email and presentation tracking with real-time feed: You know when your email is opened, links are clicked, presentations are viewed down to the page and even when someone replies. See who is engaging with your emails as it happens right from Outlook so you can manage your time and follow up effectively.
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Customizable templates. Write emails faster with saved templates. You can also draft an email up on the fly and save it as a template. Bonus - add a trackable attachment just as you're about to send the email.
- Auto-update your CRM. Forgot to update your CRM? No need to include a BCC or hop into your contact record. Tout auto updates your CRM once you send your email.
To get started with ToutApp for Outlook, you can download the latest version here.
If you don't have a ToutApp account yet, start here.
ToutApp selected as a contestant for CRM Idol Competition
We’ve been on the edge of our seats waiting to announce this...
ToutApp is a contestant in this year’s CRM Idol competition!
We’re so honored to have been selected as a contestant and to be included along with the likes of products we respect including Nimble, PipeDrive and select others.
Because we consider ourselves to be at the intersection of CRM and email, being selected as a nominee for CRM Idol marks a huge stride for us over here at ToutApp.
Over the past 2 years, and at nearly 30,000 users, we’ve taken a very principled approach into understanding and solving the pain points salespeople have to deal as they switch back and forth between their CRM, email clients and mobile phones. We’re super excited to show the CRM Idol judges how our product is leading the evolution of CRM and email.
We’ll be blogging along the way so you can share in the excitement, talk about our preparations, and hopefully even announce a unique integration with another contestant. Wish us luck!
Learn more about CRM Idol:
How to Get More Responses From Your Sales Calls
This blog post outlines how you can use Tout (video tour here) to track and follow up on your sales emails. Want to up your sales email game? Read our book on How to Write Kickass Sales Emails.
We loved this blog post from user WC Bracken, so we've reposted it here for our users to check out. Read on to learn more about how he uses Tout as part of his daily workflow:
I am somewhat of a data nerd when it comes to tracking my sales efforts over time. While much has been said recently about tracking outcomes verse actions in the sales process, I still believe in monitoring my own actions to see where I might be succeeding and where I might be falling down.
Recently, I have been using a new tool to help manage and track my emails called Tout. Tout allows you to create templated emails and track results. This is great for those common emails you send multiple times a day. So far, the best use case for me has been in sending follow-up emails to left voice mails. So, let me detail my process and show you my results.
Creating a Follow-up Email
Let’s say you have identified a new prospect and are ready for the full court press. No matter how long you have been in sales, you know there is an argument between the leave a voice mail camp and the never leave a voice mail camp. I personally fall into the leave a voice mail camp, but with a caveat. The reason I leave voice mails is because I have had plenty of call backs from those voice mails. Pretty simple equation in my head.
But, the caveat to leaving voice mails is that I try to make it easy on my prospect to respond to me by sending a follow-up email as well. Over time, I have found that a simple follow-up email performs considerably better than leaving a voice mail without the email or no voice mail at all. Also, I have found that it is critical to send a simple email – long and detailed email follow-ups are almost never read or responded.
What do I mean by a “simple” email? I mean direct, to the point, and showing that I have value to add. Here is an example template I use for news that a company is opening a new office in my area:
Subject: Following-up on my recent call
Joe,
I wanted to quickly follow-up on the voice mail I just left you (I know responding to email can sometimes be easier). I saw that your company is opening a new office in _____ and wanted to share with you some of the successes we have had working with companies like yours to address large scale hiring ramps while controlling costs. By the way – did you know ___ County has tax incentives available for companies that provide training for entry level positions?
Would you be available for a brief introductory call on Thursday?
Thanks,
Chris
In this example, the email is short (3 sentences – although it could be shorter), timely (recent news announcement), shows value (communicates our expertise by mentioning the little known tax incentives in the area), and asks for a specific follow-up time (Thursday). Combined with leaving a voice mail, this is an effective way to show that I am on top of my prospect’s recent news and that I have some information of potential value. Also, by sending the follow-up email, I am showing respect for my prospects time (as email is in fact sometimes easier).
Sending Follow-up Emails via Tout
The key to this process is making it as seamless and easy to do as possible so that you (or your sales reps) will actually do it! This is where Tout comes in to play. Tout is a web app that allows you to create templates, send emails and track results. It ties into Salesforce, Highrise and other CRMs, allowing you to keep all of your information in one place as well. Here is the Tout intro video:
The first step is creating an email template. To create a template, you log into to Tout and click the green plus button and name the template. Click on Content and Edit to write your template.
Remember to keep it direct and to show value. You can also attach a document (such as a sell sheet or brochure), but I have had less success with attachments. The great thing about the Tout templates is they retain the “handwritten” look. No stylized email templates here…just plain, easy to read text. Once you are ready, save the template and off you go!
As I said earlier, Tout ties into several CRMs or Gmail or Google Apps, making it easy to select a template and send. This really speeds up the process if you are working prospects out of Salesforce for instance. Upon leaving a voice mail for a prospect, you simply select the follow-up email either out of Gmail, through your CRM, or on the Tout site itself. Either way, that’s it, you are moving on to the next one!
Tracking Email Results
You will hopefully begin to see responses on your emails almost immediately, but it is critical to have 
more than just anecdotal evidence and Tout has you covered here as well. You can track the number of times your emails have been viewed or click throughs (if you included a link to your web site for instance) in the web app or in your CRM. This is great for testing two competing emails against each other as well (i.e. one shorter than the other or different subject lines).
Since implementing Tout, my follow-up email view rate is about 40% with about 12% responding. Simply put, sending email follow-ups to my voice mails blows away my callback rate on voicemails alone (about 2-4%). Obviously, this is dependent on what you are selling and who you are marketing to as well.
Conclusion
My experience strongly suggests that using a combination of voice mails and emails leads to a better response rate than calls, voice mails or emails alone. I also found that using a tool designed to make it easier to send the follow-up emails created discipline in my process and allowed me to track results.
Have you tried a similar process? What are your results with voice mails and emails?