All of my email accounts are either Gmail or Google Apps. I’m firmly in the Google camp. I don’t even use an email client on the desktop, I happily use [MailPlane][mail] ([Appstore][mailapp]). You can read [my review of Mailplane][mailrev] if you’re really interested in why I use it.
Today I want to point you at an add-on for Gmail called [Boomerang][boom]. Quite often I get emails from potential clients about their potential project. Obviously I want to follow up on the project so I reply and put the email in [Omnifocus][of] ([AppStore][ofapp]) so that in a few days it reminds me to follow up. There are two problems with this though.
1. What if they reply and I don’t need to follow up. Sure OmniFocus has a link to the email in MailPlane but that still means I have to check it then remove the task.
2. What if I am on my iPad. That MailPlane link now means nothing so I have to track down the email via search in Mail.
Boomerang solves both of these issues. It allows you to select an interval to be reminded about an email then takes it a step further by allowing you to specify only if you haven’t heard back from the person. That solves issue 1.
Issue 2 is solved just because of how Boomerang works. I actually labels your email and archives it. When it’s time to be reminded, it literally puts it back in to your inbox. That means you can now deal with it from any device.
Those two things were enough of a reason for me to stick with Boomerang, then I got a confirmation email for a hotel booking and was really impressed.
See that, Boomerang detected the date of the booking and is all set to remind me about it before that date. One more little bit of awesome in a service I was already keeping around.
Boomerang also allows you to schedule emails to be sent later. I tell clients that I work 8 – 4 but in reality, like anyone running a business, I do end up answering emails and doing other stuff outside of those times. With Boomerang I can schedule the email response to go out in the morning, during business hours instead of saving the draft and manually sending it the next day.
### Business Model
Now you know I [don’t like relying on services without a business model][nomodel] and all of the above is available for free, but you are limited to 10 messages a month. For $4.99 a month you get unlimited messages and add notes to the mix. Notes allows you to add context to the email coming back to your inbox. I get at least 5 potential client emails a day and some of the details overlap. Taking a few additional notes helps clear up exactly why you wanted to have the email back.
It should also be noted that the $4.99 pricing does not include support for Google Apps. At $10.99 a month you add support for Google Apps accounts, Boomerang mobile, and recurring messages.
### Mobile Interface
Unfortunately the mobile interface is terrible. Yes you can use Boomerang through it, but why on earth would you want to? You could also walk across hot rocks. The Google Apps (or even iOS Mail.app) are simply leaps and bounds better for actually using email on a mobile device. I suppose if you’re still using a Windows Mobile (not Windows Phone 7) device Boomerang might be a step up, maybe.
After the trial I’m sold on Boomerang so I’m buying in at $10.99 for my business email. I’d rather pay $4.99 and drop the mobile interface but then I don’t get support for my Google Apps domain so I’m stuck paying a higher price. If you like it too I’d love it if you’d use this [referral link][reflink]. Gets us both a free month. Or just use this [link][boom] which is a plain jane link to the site.
[mailrev]: https://curtismchale.ca/2011/05/10/finding-the-right-mail-client-mailplane/ “Finding the Right Email Client – MailPlane”
[boom]: http://www.boomeranggmail.com/ “Boomerang for Gmail – Send and email later”
[nomodel]: https://curtismchale.ca/2012/04/16/stay-away-from-services-with-no-business-model/ “Stay Away from Services with No Business Model”
[mail]: http://mailplaneapp.com/ “MailPlane for OSX”
[mailapp]: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=ov53b8ogfCc&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fmailplane%252Fid402741303%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30 “MailPlane – AppStore”
[of]: http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/ “OmniFocus”
[ofapp]: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=ov53b8ogfCc&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fomnifocus%252Fid402835630%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30 “OmniFocus – AppStore”
[reflink]: http://www.boomeranggmail.com/referral_download.html?ref=4sebn “Boomerang referral link”