Email is still the best channel in the context of online marketing. Speaking of email, Gmail is the first name to come in mind. Bloggers and small business owners use Gmail on their daily basis.We use Gmail to accept orders, send offers, or just to send a congratulate email to keep in touch with consumers or business partners.

The default features offered by Gmail are actually plenty enough. But still, in the context of online marketing what Gmail offers still not enough. Online marketers need more features to have their job even easier. Thankfully, Gmail has an open ecosystem so third parties can develop plugins to enrich the user experience in using Gmail.

When it comes to email marketing, features like delivery tracking and signature are probably most  crucial. Too bad, Gmail doesn’t have those features. Actually, you can create an email signature in Gmail. However, it requires more effort to create a decent email signature in Gmail. There are plenty of third party tools out there to help you create a better email signature effortlessly.

By the way, if you are an online marketer and use Gmail on your daily basis, the following plugins might can help to get the most out of your email marketing.

1. FollowUp.cc

As an online marketer, there must be a bunch of emails you have to deal with in a week or month. Sometimes, it’s not about how many emails you have, but rather how you make the follow up over the emails you have. If you often use Gmail to send the offers regarding your service/product, then making the follow up over the emails you sent is crucial enough, especially if your recipient give a slow respond. FollowUp.cc is a Chrome extension that turns your email composer to be something different. If you install this extension on your Chrome you will see new options on your Gmail composer (as you can see on the screenshot above). This extension makes it easy for to set a follow-up date of certain email.

In addition, there is also a feature to snooze low priority emails so that you can focus on more important emails. FollowUp.CC itself is a premium tool. However, you have a chance to try it for free during the trial period.

2. Boomerang

By the time this article is written, Gmail hasn’t had a feature to allow you schedule the message you write. The only way to do so is by relying on tools developed by third parties. I am not sure if all online marketers think that scheduling is an important feature. But in case you need to schedule your Gmail email, Boomerang is one of the tools you can make use of. It is also available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge. The way Boomerang works is pretty similar to FollowUp.cc. It provides a new option on Gmail composer.

After installing this extension on your browser, you will see a new button right below the Send button of the composer. We have demonstrated how to use Boomerang to schedule Gmail email. Boomerang itself is a freemium plugin. You can use it for free, but will only be able to schedule 10 emails per month. In addition to its core function as an email scheduler, Boomerang also offers other features such as response tracking, read receipts, click tracking and so on.

3. Yesware

Yesware is also a great Gmail plugin you can give a try. It is also available as a browser extension (Firefox and Chrome). The major thing offered by this plugin is to let you know what happen with the messages you sent. Do your recipients read them? Or are your emails just sit on your recipient inboxes without even get touched?

Yesware will give you the answer of those questions. In other words, Yesware is like an email tracker. In addition, you can also use this plugin to create and save email templates for later use. Yesware itself is a premium plugin. If offers a free trial to allow you to figure out if you really need the functionalities offered by Yesware.

4. Streak

Maintaining a communication with both business partners and consumers are crucial for all businesses. CRM is the tool you can use on this case. Streak is a CRM software that is built specifically for Gmail. It is available as a browser extension and turns your Gmail dashboard into a CRM once you install it on your browser. With Streak, you can track leads and sales, edit contact info on the fly and set reminders.

Streak can also be used for a collaboration. Streak itself is a freemium tool. It offers personal package which you can use for free. This package comes with basic CRM features. Streak comes with a bunch of integrations. However, you will be asked to upgrade your account to unlock more advanced features.

5. WiseStamp

You can create an email signature in Gmail by going to the Settings page. However, as I said earlier above, creating an email signature in Gmail can take time and it’s not easy to create a fancy signature in Gmail. WiseStamp is browser extension that helps your job in adding a decent email signature become even easier. You can create fancy email signature using the tool.

WiseStamp is a well-known email signature software. Once you have installed it on your browser, you will see a “@” symbol on the Gmail composer. You can add several information on your signature like social media accounts, website, phone number and so on. Visit this page to learn more about WiseStamp.

6. Assistant.to

Online marketing is a complex job. It sometimes also involve offline activities like meeting. Assistant.to is a Gmail marketing plugin that helps you easily set a meeting with your business partner. It is also available as a browser extension. Once you have Assistant.to installed on your browser, you will see an Assistant.to logo on the Gmail composer. Clicking on it, a meeting schedule option will appear where you can select a location and time. Somewhere else, your recipient can confirm, deny, or make changes to the meeting you proposed. Assistant.to can be used for free.

7. Mailtrack

Mailtrack is a plugin that allows you to track the emails you sent. Whether they’ve been open or read. The way this plugin works is quite simple. Once you have Mailtack installed on your browser, you will see two checklist icons. Two green checklists indicate that your email has been open. A green checklist and a grey checklist indicate that your email has been sent, but not open yet. When you hover your mouse over the checklist icons you will know when was your email been open and read. If you use WhatsApp, the way Mailtrack works is pretty similar to WhatsApp’s report feature.

8. Rapportive

Many online marketers use LinkedIn to make a professional relationship with another marketers, professionals or anyone. It often happens that marketers will see the LinkedIn profile of certain person they want to contact to make a further communication with. They usually use LinkedIn to figure out where is the person they want to contact work, job position and so on. Rapportive makes it easy for you to dig those information. It brings LinkedIn profiles to your Gmail account. You can see the example on the screenshot above. Rapportive is now belong to LinkedIn. The professional network company bought Rapportive in 2012.