Texting an eMail. Can you even do that?

Do you ever get text messages that seem to go on forever? Sometimes it’s one long scrolling message, other times it comes in a blast of 6 different texts, blowing up your screen and bombarding your phone with DINGs or a staccato tremor in your pocket while you’re in the middle of an important meeting. Your immediate thought might be something like, “Why didn’t they just send an email?”

On the flip side, you have a vital message that your recipient needs to see right away. Email might take too long, so this message ideally would be sent as a text. However, once you’ve gotten everything you want to say together, the message is rather long, and you still want to include that important attachment or a video. 

What do you do when your content is more email-appropriate, but you need that fast text message response time? You have three options:

1. Be “that guy” – send them a massive text message.
2. Send your email. Then send a separate, largely uninformative, step-adding “check your email” text.
3. Use Outstand to "text your email".

The Outstand Solution

Every email you send through Outstand has a trackable web link associated with it. One link, one text, one ding. All the content you want a contact to see, right in the palm of their hand.

This textable link can be found inside your Tracker by clicking the message, clicking Recipients, then clicking the Link icon right next to the recipient’s name. Watch the instructions below (or watch our training video):

If you’re on your computer:

Macs: Once you’ve copied this link, open up iMessage, find your recipient and type a short text message (i.e. I just emailed this to you, let me know what you think! -or- Here’s the email I promised, awaiting your reply.) After you’ve written your text, paste the Outstand message link into the text, and hit Send!

PCs: Unfortunately, PCs don’t have a built-in text message tool. However, there are many texting tools that you can download and use for free (check out MySMS). Once you have your program installed and synced with your phone, find your recipient and type a short text message (i.e. I just emailed this to you, let me know what you think! -or- Here’s the email I promised, awaiting your reply.) After you’ve written your text, paste the Outstand message link into the text, and hit Send!

If you’re on your smartphone:

This is the easiest way to send a text (Especially if you have an iPhone)! Log in to your Outstand account on your phone, and copy the link to your message. Then open up your texting program on your smartphone. Find your recipient and type a short message (i.e., I just emailed this to you, let me know what you think! -or- Here’s the email I promised, awaiting your reply.) After you’ve written your text, paste the Outstand message link into the text message, and hit Send! 

The best part is that the text message is just as trackable as the email version, meaning Tracker will report an open when they click the link to view your message, and link-click notification if they click on a link inside your message (to view your video, go to your website, etc.)

Tips on when to use this technique

• If you notice an email has been ‘unopened’ for a day or two (or an hour or two, depending on the importance) and you want to make sure it is seen.
• If you want to make a high-tech first impression to stand out. Right after a meeting, send a Nice To Meet You or Thanks For The Meeting email, then send the message link and a short note as a text. This will also ensure they have all of your contact information for later on (because we all lose business cards).

Happy texting!

(Originally posted on the Outstand Blog)