Setting Up Our Rules and Filters.

When an email arrives into these folders after being processed by the rules the folder will be highlighted or “BOLD” and have the number of unread emails to the right of it.

Outlook express gives us two ways to accomplish this. The first way is found under the Tools menu at the top of outlook express.

When we click on this we want the menu as shown below, mouse over and click on Mail.

We will end up with a new window like so;

From here we can now define a rule by clicking on the new button to create our new rule.

 

For this example, we setup a rule for our lead capture page. Generally the emails we get will come from different people, so hopefully our subject line in the email has consistent unique text to identify it.

We would do this by clicking in the block where subject line contains specific words.

 

Next we need to place the specific wording into the area “Where the subject line contains specific words by clicking on the link provided.

We will end up with this new window, where we will need the specific phrase that is in the subject line of your email from your lead capture form.

 

Click the Add button.

 

You should end up with something that looks like this.

 

Click ok and we end up back here.

Wait we are not finished yet next we have to instruct the program where to place the emails and other options since this is a lead capture email.

As we said we have to instruct it where to place the emails. We do this by clicking on the Move to specified folder option.

 

We next click on the blue link Move to the specific folder. Select the folder that we want this email moved to. In our case it is our folder called Collateral Marketing Requests.

 

Click ok to apply this setting.

We are not done yet and this will become more important the larger you business grows. One of the programs I recommend is a contact management program. The program ACT is used by professional sales organizations, and you are a professional right.

The next step will be to also copy this email to another folder. We do this by clicking on the Copy it to the specified folder option.

 

When we click on the blue link “and Copy to the specified folder. We need to have a folder for this. I set one up and just call it lead capture or any other name you choose.

The reason behind this folder is that when I integrate ACT into my business there is 3rd party software that you can buy to import these lead capture requests into your ACT contact manager for you.

While this may not seem important right now, as your skills develop in generating your own leads how much of your time do you want to spend copying and pasting this information in?

The whole purpose of tools and systems is to make us much more efficient right.

We would next end up here where we would select the folder that we also want these emails copied too.

 

Click ok to apply!

Our New Mail Rule should look like this now. Yours of course will vary depending on the folder names and subject lines you want.

Don’t forget to name this rule in Step 4 then click ok!

This is what your final rule should look like;

If you have emails already in your inbox from your capture form, you can click on the Apply Now… button and run this rule on the messages already in your inbox.

The second method of applying rules is the best if you are receiving emails from specific people or newsletters. Generally the email addresses will be the same each time.

Step one create a folder for them, click on one of their emails. In the top menu on outlook select the Message drop down menu. Click on the create message from rule.

You will end up at the screen below but with a few differences. One the email address will already be entered from the person that sent you the email.

 

The rest of the steps, we have already covered, like moving it to the specified folder and naming the rule.

Implementing this will help you get better organized. With better organization comes better efficiency. With this we can spend our time where it is most productive, in front of our potential customers or prospects.

Now we are ready to look at ACT the Contact Management Program for Marketers