Organization is key for any business. At BuzzShift, our Account Managers help us stay on track by communicating with clients, pushing projects forward, and managing deadlines. You might ask, who keeps our Account Management team on task? There are hundreds of tools available to help teams stay organized – our team uses Microsoft Outlook. Our AMs utilize a few different tools including Asana and Dropbox, but some of our favorites are found in Outlook. In this blog, we’ll walk through the most helpful tools Outlook Email and Calendar provides that our account managers use daily
Favorite Features of Microsoft Outlook Email
Email is just email, isn’t it? If you don’t utilize any of the awesome features Outlook provides, you may think so. On the other hand, our Account Managers understand how to make the most of their inboxes. Here are a couple of tools they use to make their inbox work harder for them.
Folders
There is no better feeling than inbox zero, and our Account Managers reach that euphoric feeling daily thanks to Outlook’s Folder functionality. This feature allows us to categorize emails by client, status, or project. Once an email has been taken care of, it is filed away into the corresponding folder. This leaves the main inbox tidy while also keeping an organized record of all received mail. Keeping emails organized in folders also makes it fast and easy to find old correspondence to refer to when needed.
To-Do List
While this might seem self-explanatory, Outlook offers two key features that make the To-Do list worth your time.
- Tasks: Think of this feature as your digital notepad. Our Account Managers utilize the Tasks section to create itemized lists that make tackling large-scale projects a piece of cake. You can also add a due date, set a reminder, or create a recurring task.
- Suggested Tasks: Outlook will use AI to comb through your emails and messages and create suggested or potential tasks for you on the To-Do list home page. These suggestions are based on keywords and dates you may have virtually communicated. For example, if you let your client know that they will receive a follow-up email by Friday, the To-Do list will suggest tasks based on that email.
Favorite Features of Microsoft Outlook Calendar
How many ways could you possibly use a calendar? If you’re asking an Account Manager (which by reading this blog you are), we have a few ways we like to personalize and optimize our calendars. Here are a few useful tips and tricks!
Color-Coded Calendars
The calendar is an AM’s best friend. When managing multiple clients with separate deliverables, in addition to internal meetings and deliverables, there is no better way to stay on track than to utilize a color-coded calendar system. Some of our Account Managers color-code each meeting or calendar block based on the client, status, or project.
Calendar: Board View
Only available on the web browser version, the board view option within the Calendar is a great way to have eyes on everything at once. You can customize your board to include the widgets you want like your calendar, to-do list, a notepad, high-touch files, and more. It eliminates the need for countless separate browser tabs and frees up our Account Managers’ minds to focus more time on our clients.
My Calendars
One of our favorite hacks is creating an additional calendar we call a “Task Calendar”. We use the main calendar to schedule and track meetings and the Task to schedule out and block time for personal tasks we need to complete. The main calendar is shared publicly with our teammates, to make it easy to see availability and schedule syncs. The task calendar is kept private and separate, so the scheduled tasks do not block time on the main calendar in case a meeting needs to be scheduled at that time and the tasks can be easily moved around.
These are just a few of our favorite features and functions of Outlook we use to make our lives easier. Outlook also provides an easy way to integrate other apps and plugins with your outlook, like HubSpot and Zoom. We love working with tools that keep us organized and on track so our team can spend less time trying to find what they are looking for, and more time working on client deliverables. If you want to work with a team that has their shift together, let’s chat!
About BuzzShift
BuzzShift is a digital growth strategy agency with a focus on mid-market, scaling, purpose-driven DTC Brands. By combining the ideologies of branding, performance marketing, and retention agency, we are able to create memorable experiences with measurable results, and build long-term success for our clients with scalable, sustainable growth. Learn more about BuzzShift.
