If you use Gmail, you should be using Streak
I’ve talked to a surprising number of people who have never used or even heard of Streak, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on why it’s awesome.
Having Streak is sort of like having Gmail on steroids. It’s actually taken me about a year to start using it properly, but I’m saving so much time now that I am.
So, without further ado, and in no particular order:
1. Read receipts
This one is slightly creepy, but really useful. By sneakily adding a 1px by 1px image to your emails, Streak can let you know when they’ve been read by the recipient. Useful for deducing whether someone’s ignoring you or whether they’ve just not opened your email yet.
I claim no responsibility for the crushing disappointment you’ll experience the first time Streak tells you somebody’s ignoring you…
2. Snippets
Ever found yourself sending the same email again and again? Streak’s snippets are basically templates you can drop into your Gmail compose window with just two clicks.
Or, even better, you can set up shortcuts! Watch this:
You can also use these snippets in conjunction with Streak’s Mail Merge feature, though I’d advise sending no more than 500 emails in a single day if you don’t want your account to be suspended. I learned that lesson so you don’t have to.
3. Pipelines
This is, without a doubt, Streak’s killer feature. I’ve used this in various scenarios, from customer support to fundraising to hiring, but it’s easiest to explain in the context of sales.
When selling, you take your prospects through a funnel. They begin as leads, you make that first cold email or phonecall, and after a demo and some negotiation, they hopefully become a customer!
Tracking all of your prospects at once is a hassle, though. Thankfully, Streak makes this really easy WITHIN GMAIL.
I’ve been talking to a lot of wedding planners recently (110, to be precise) about how Encore could save them time, and this is the pipeline I’ve been using. Each row is a “box” which can be associated to an email thread.
Boxes can have notes, files and more attached to them. You also add tasks which automatically appear in your Google calendar. Here’s what one of my boxes looks like:
If someone else is working with me on this sales funnel, we can share this pipeline and assign various boxes to various people. Everything syncs really seamlessly, and it’s something we’ve found really useful when dealing with inbound customer support, which we spread evenly between all members of the Encore team.
So, those are the three things I really love about Streak. You can install it at streak.com, and I’d love to hear how you get on!
I can be reached @thejamesmcaulay or by email.
Oh, and if you’re booking musicians for an event any time soon, come on over to encoremusicians.com where we’ll find you them in a matter of minutes.
Over and out.
