Hot Links

Many sales professionals have asked if there is a way to send a hot link to their company web site within an ACT! e-mail. Some would like to make this part of the signature text of each e-mail they send. Driving customers to your web site is a great marketing opportunity, especially if the viewer can gain some new knowledge each time they visit.

Adding a URL address hot link, or other HTML code, to an ACT! Internet e-mail is available only to ACT! users who have updated to ACT! 2000 version build 5.0.2.353 or later. If you are not sure of your "build," click the "Help" menu and then click "About ACT!" If you are an ACT! 2000 user and your "build" is not 5.0.2.353 or later, you may download the latest update by using the "ACT! Update" button on your toolbar and following the instructions.

To include a link, or other HTML, in your ACT! Internet e-mail it must be hard coded. HARD CODING...UGH! Don't press the panic button just yet! The coding is easy for a link to a web page. It takes the form of http://www.pnadvisors.com as an example. Now, just by typing the URL address of your company web site (or any other URL address that might be of interest to your recipient) into the body of your e-mail message, your recipient will be able to click on the address text and link to the web page.

To have a link to your web site appear automatically in every e-mail you send, as well as any other signature information you desire, pull down the "Edit" menu and click "Preferences." Under the "E-mail" tab and the heading "New message settings" is a data field for "Signature text:" Enter your information here (not forgetting the hard coding of the URL address), apply the changes by clicking "OK", and they will be displayed at the conclusion of every e-mail you send from ACT!

For the techie sales types out there, before you get too carried away with the possibilities of HTML enabled e-mail, here are a few restrictions of its potential. When creating your e-mail you will only see the HTML code, not the formatted message. The ability of the recipient to see your efforts, as with any HTML, is dependent on their e-mail reader. Your HTML will be stripped out of any Forwards or Replies. You will not be able include any pictures of any kind to a message created in ACT! And you cannot send HTML coded e-mails through the Mail Merge function.