Gmail has long been the email platform of choice for the self-employed – but increasingly, freelancers are looking for communication tools that help to organize their time and boost their productivity, too.
Here are the seven main reasons why freelancers choose Fleep over Gmail…
1. You can organize conversations by client
A major frustration for freelancers is keeping on top of different projects for different clients. It can be hard to focus on one thing when updates about other projects pop up in between!
Gmail does allow users to manually organize their contacts and conversations – but not only is this time consuming, it’s prone to bugs that can undo weeks of work.
Fleep, on the other hand, is set up around a “conversation” structure that automatically pulls together all incoming messages and emails from a particular contact.
What’s more, you can use a drop-down system to give conversations an instant, specific label to help you stay organised.
2. Everything’s in one place
Freelancers have to be communication ninjas, able to tap into different clients’ systems of choice.
Fleep allows you to link up to other email addresses, Gmail-style, but you can also use webhooks to pull in selected updates from GitHub, Bitbucket, JIRA and others.
Plus, very soon you’ll be able to access files in Dropbox and Google Drive, making it even easier to keep track of shared projects and documents.
3. It’s easy to add new team members
The trouble with conventional email systems such as Gmail is that every time you brief a new addition to the team, you have to forward all the old email threads for them to trawl through.
If team members reply over the top of each other, rather than to the last email in the chain, this can wreak havoc!
Fleep turns email into a “chat” setup, so that all messages in a conversation are stored together, in order, rather than branching off in their own direction. When you add someone to the conversation, they just scroll back through to check what they’ve missed.
4. You can make calls right from the app
One of the things that makes Fleep so attractive to dispersed teams is that it lets them make phone and video calls directly through the app using its /call integration.
Even better, this can be used as a conference call system for group conversations, with members just clicking “join” to drop in when they’re ready.
5. You can find things quickly
We’ve all suffered the tearing-out-you-hair frustration of searching through hundreds of emails, trying to find the one with the right attachment. For freelancers working offsite, this can be a nightmare.
Fleep tackles this with the “file drawer” feature, which shows all the files that have been sent at any point during the conversation on a handy side tab.
6. It supercharges productivity
Time is money, and even more so when you’re a freelancer and don’t get paid for any time you waste at work!
Checking endless, unwanted emails are a major productivity killer. While email systems such as Gmail have tools to cut down spam and categorize mail, they can only go so far.
With Fleep, freelancers have their conversations organised automatically – and they can hit the “snooze” or “mute” button any that they don’t want to be sidetracked by right now.
What’s more, if project chats do start going off piste (hey, it happens), there’s a “pinbar” next to each thread to highlight just most essential updates, tasks and notes.
7. It does all the things Gmail does – and more
Fleep offers full Gmail integration, so you can pick up your messages and reply from inside the Fleep app, either with your Gmail address or with your Fleep ID.
This means that freelancers using Gmail don’t have to make the full switch until they’re totally confident they can do all the things Gmail does inside the Fleep system – and have tapped into the amazing features that Gmail doesn’t offer!
Got a question about a specific feature, or want to make sure that Fleep has the right tools for you?
Take a look at our features page or get in touch with us directly – we’d love to hear from you!
