10 Ways to Use Outlook 365 in Your Business

If you’ve never used Outlook 365, the interface can be intimidating, but it’s easier to use than
you think! In fact, it’s an essential tool for any business owner, and there
are several ways you can use it in your business, from your contacts list to an email marketing campaign. If you’re unsure how to begin using Outlook 365 in
your business, here are 10 tips to get you started!

1) Share information with your
team

Outlook is one of the most popular
email clients and calendar apps, so it can be a great way to stay organized.
You can use it for tasks, projects, contacts, and even scheduling meetings.
Here are some ways you can use Outlook 365:

1. Create tasks from emails or
meetings by assigning them a due date 

2. Keep track of your project’s progress
by giving each task an assigned owner 

3. Sync your contact list with all your
devices so you always have access to that information 

4. Share calendars with
other people on your team and see their availability in real-time 

5. Use the
calendar app for scheduling meetings. You can also schedule reminders for
people who might forget about the meeting. All they need to do is accept the
invitation, and they will get a notification 15 minutes before the start time.
Once they arrive at the meeting, they can ask for updates since
last week’s call. These features will help you collaborate more efficiently
with your colleagues and ensure nothing falls through the cracks!

2) Automate tasks and
workflows

Tasks and workflows can be
automated to save time, money, and effort. Examples include:

1. Setting up meeting reminders
for multiple people who need to be involved. · Scheduling recurring tasks like
monthly reports or quarterly reviews. 

2. Creating templates for standard email
responses. 

3. Automatically format emails when a new customer is added or
when an order is placed. 

4. Forwarding important messages into a shared folder
so they’re always available, even if the sender deletes them from their inbox.

 Schedule follow-ups: You can schedule emails to be sent at a certain date and
time or regularly. Share calendars with coworkers and clients, which
helps prevent overlapping meetings, increase transparency about scheduling
decisions and enables others to see your availability without needing you to
check with them first. Create newsletters by sending out bulk email messages
through Outlook instead of individually composing each one by hand.

3) Make communication easy

1. Create a calendar and invite
your employees to share their availability. This way, you always know who’s
available, when, and what they’re working on.

2. Add everyone’s email address
to quickly send them messages.

3. Set up an auto-reply for
yourself when you’re travelling or unavailable so your team knows who to contact
instead of trying to get a hold of you during the day (though it doesn’t hurt
for them to know how reachable you are).

4. Quickly send emails by
replying or forwarding, saving time by not having to type out the same
message again for each person on your list or group of messages that need
similar replies or responses. 

5. Send reminders to follow up with people: You
can create tasks with due dates and assign them directly from the message
window without entering them into another app like Excel or Google Docs. 

6.
Sort by conversation so you don’t have to scroll through all your messages;
this is especially helpful if you have many unread items at once because
you won’t miss anything important! 

7. Organize conversations into folders like
HR or Marketing. 

8. Instantly search for specific keywords without having to
scroll through individual messages first! 

9. Schedule meetings within the
app: Drag your invitation to someone else’s name, choose a date and time, and then click Schedule Meeting.

4) Create project templates
for efficiency

Outlook 365 can be used for more
than just email. The following is a list of 10 ways that you can utilize the
software to make your business run more efficiently: 

1. Create project
templates so that all team members know what needs to be completed.

2.
Create a shared calendar for the entire team. 

3. Share important files with
other team members. 

4. Track tasks and deadlines. 

5. Keep up with customer correspondence. 

6. Share documents, presentations, and drawings. 

7. Send large attachments. 

8. Store
receipts. 

9. Collaborate on projects, 

10. Maintain updated contact lists. One of
the biggest benefits of using Microsoft Outlook 365 is that it can
keep contacts’ details up-to-date.

 If someone moves, changes jobs, or gets
married (or anything else!), this information will automatically sync with the
program, so you’ll always have their latest information. Set reminders:
You might not remember everything at work, but luckily there’s an easy way to
ensure you never miss an important date again! By setting a reminder on a
specific date or time, any task will appear in your inbox without fail – no
excuses!

5) Organize mailboxes by
person or topic

Create a different inbox for each
person or topic. You can create an ‘Admin’ inbox for all emails from clients,
partners, and vendors that you need to respond to immediately. They’re also
great for short-term or short-term projects or have a specific person assigned
to them. 

For example, if a project comes up with the name of ‘Project
X’, create an inbox called ‘Project X’. This will help you stay organized and
help eliminate unnecessary emails piling up in your main inbox. As soon as you
reply to an email, drag it to the corresponding inbox so it won’t get
lost. If you don’t use these categories now, start using them! It’ll be one
less thing on your plate when things get busy and pile up.

6) Organize schedules into
tasks/meetings

We first use Outlook by creating a schedule and assigning tasks or meetings to each time
slot. 

The second way we use Outlook is by setting up categories and
subcategories for our contacts, so when someone emails us, they automatically
get added to the correct category. 

The third way we use Outlook is by
using the calendar function, where you can input events which are reminders of
what needs to be done on certain days or when something is happening. 

Fourthly, we sync our phones with Outlook to sync with the office calendar
and notify us of upcoming appointments. 

Fifthly, we have set up a
notification system where if someone sends an email to the company address,
everyone gets notified so they know who sent them an email and
why. 

Sixthly, we record everything discussed at the end of any meeting, so no one forgets anything important. 

Seventhly, Outlook has
this great feature called Quick Parts which allows you to insert pre-written text
templates anywhere throughout your document, saving time having to type
everything out again.

7) Set up office hours

Office hours are a great way to
let your customers know you’re available. You can set up office hours for
the entire team or individual people so customers always know who’s on the
clock and when they can expect help. Office hours also provide a consistent
customer experience for those customers who prefer phone support rather than
live chat or email.

 Make it easier to find new contacts: We all have friends
and colleagues we only talk to occasionally, but it can be hard to find them in
our address book if we don’t use them often. With outlook 365, it’s easy to tag
these people as ‘friends,’ so you’ll never miss another call from someone you
love!

8) Track emails with shared
calendars

Do you need a shared calendar for
your business? If so, Outlook 365 is a great choice. With a shared calendar, you and your coworkers can stay up-to-date on deadlines and meetings. Plus,
you’ll always know when someone else has an event or meeting scheduled. And if
you’re using email clients like Apple Mail or Gmail with Microsoft Exchange
integration, the information will sync automatically with Outlook 365! 

Receive
alerts about upcoming appointments: 

You don’t want to forget important events.
Luckily, the new Activity Center of Office 365 allows users to track upcoming
tasks and events from emails, calendars, social media sites like Facebook,
Instagram, SharePoint Online sites, Yammer feeds, and other
activities across different Microsoft apps.

9) Maintain a central address
book

Outlook lets you manage your contacts and stay in touch with colleagues, friends, and family.
Here are 10 ways you can use it in your business:

1. Keep track of important
meetings with the calendar.

2. Send out mass emails or
announcements with our email marketing.

3. Track your tasks by assigning
them a due date and sending reminders when needed.

4. Stay on top of current projects
by tracking all related files, documents, and emails together. 

5. Know when
someone has read an email by adding a signature that notifies them, they have
read the message.

6. Save time while travelling with
built-in offline support so you can access your messages without worrying about
whether or not there is Wi-Fi.

7. Create templates for common
messages like meeting requests or thank yous so you don’t have to write them
every time.

10) Backup your data

The first thing you should do
when you sign up for Microsoft Office 365 is back up your data. I like to use
an external hard drive and select online backup. You can also back up your data
on a removable storage device, such as a USB flash drive or CD/DVD. You’ll need
a blank disc for the CD/DVD, which will take quite some time if you use a
USB flash drive. After that, you can do many other things with Office 365!

1) Share documents – Send any
document from your desktop to someone else’s by sending them an email
invitation, and they can view it online or download the file. 

2) Edit
documents – With Word Online, you have full functionality. It even has features
like track changes and comments. 

3) Schedule meetings – Set up meetings with
coworkers or clients by inviting them to one-on-one chats or group video calls,
share calendars, and schedule events (time slots). 

4) Email marketing – Create
an account with Campaign Monitor to send bulk emails at scheduled
intervals to advertise deals and promotions to your customers.