Sure. One of the main reasons many people upgrade to ACT! 6 is for this very reason. People want to take advantage of ACT’s new ability to create and send emails that look like web pages. With ACT! 6, you can now create email templates (they’re called graphical HTML templates) that include your company logo, a link to your website, and other graphical elements.

Here’s how:

1. In ACT!, choose File | New. Double click Graphical (HTML) email template. 

2. The ACT! Word processor opens with a list containing Mail Merge fields displayed. We suggest that you drag the Mail Merge Fields dialog box out of the way (to the right side of the screen).  

3. The first thing you probably want in your new email template is your company logo.  Minimize the ACT! Word Processor, and open Internet Explorer.

4. Navigate to your company website, right mouse click on your logo, and choose Copy.   

5. Maximize the ACT! Word processor. Left mouse click in the area where you would like your logo to appear.  Right mouse click and choose paste.

6. To customize the template with information from ACT!, from the menu, click Insert and choose Mail Merge Fields. Scroll down the list of ACT! fields and double click on the First Name field.  

7. Press the Enter key to insert a blank line, and then type the following: Thank you for your interest in our company. Click here to visit our website. Select “Click here to visit our website”, choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu, and type the website address (URL) for your website. 

8. Naturally, you’ll want to add your own wording to make your email template more personal, but this should get you off to a good start.

9. Click File and select Save As. Make certain the file is being saved in the Template sub-folder of ACT, give your new template a meaningful name, and click Save. Close the ACT! Word processor.

To send an email based on your new template:

1. Lookup the contact record for the intended recipient. 

2. From the menu, click Write | Mail Merge | Current contact | Email. 

3. Browse to your new email template, type a subject, add any attachments, and click Finish.

This E-mail Template Tip was submitted by Ken Mahler, ACT! Certified Consultant with ProActive CRM Solutions in Ohio.

Sales Management Reports in ACT!

ACT! has a series of great sales management reports, each of which may be customized to suit the needs of the particular sales organization. We think one of the most useful reports is the History Summary Classic report, which can be used to track a salesperson's activity during a specific time frame.  To get the best results when running this report, follow these steps: Create a lookup of the contact records you are interested in reporting out.  (This can be done through a Field lookup, a  Task List lookup, or a Contact Activity lookup.) From ACT!'s menu, choose Report | History Summary Classic. The Run Report dialog box will pop up:  First, click the General tab and make sure you are running the report for the Current Lookup , with the output set to Preview. Then, click the Activities/Histories tab and the date range for your report. You can click the down arrow in the Date Range field to select a standard range (last week, last month, etc.) or you can click the Custom range button and click and drag on the resulting mini-calendar pop up to select a custom date range. Finally, select the User (sales person) you are interested in running this report for. Click OK.   The History Summary Classic report will appear in a preview window.  Guess our salesman, Chris, played a lot of golf in July because this company sticks to the credo:  If it's not in ACT!, it didn't happen! There are many other activity counts that can be added to this report (number of emails sent, faxes sent, contacts deleted, etc.) This Sales Management Report Tip was submitted by Liz Hendon, ACT! Certified Consultant with MarkeTech Services in Maryland.