Which is better to handle your incoming e-mails: IMAP, POP3, Exchange or Webmail?
Well, it depends a bit on how you want to read them, and how many will be reading incoming e-mails to the account:
1 person - 1 device:
If you're just one person who will read e-mail to a particular account on only one device, e.g. your PC, then I would suggest POP3 since it means you're going to download all messages from the e-mail server and store them locally. This frees up storage on your server, and you will always be able to read them, also when you're off-line. Don't forget to backup your computer though!
1 person - 2 or more devices:
If you want to read the e-mails on both a PC and your smartphone, e.g. I would assume you will primarily read them on your PC: Then I suggest you have it POP3 to your PC to store them there, but use the advanced setting of your PC available e.g. in Outlook to store them on the server for an additional 14 days. Then you can use IMAP on your smart phone in order to be able to read the e-mails on-the-go, and still have them available on the PC at a later stage.
2 or more persons:
Both (or all) can use IMAP if all are equally responsibel for handling the incoming e-mail, but it's not a good idea if both would use POP3 since some e-mails will then be stored on one, and some on the other's machine. It's likely a good idea for one to use IMAP and one use POP3 if one of the recipients is the one primarily in charge of handling the e-mails though. The difference between POP3 and IMAP is:
1) POP3: to download the e-mails to your computer and store them there and delete them from the server (e.g. after 14 days so users using IMAP will have a chance to see them). It's good for the primary user.
2) IMAP: if you wish to leave all messages on the server. It's good for the one who only want to occassionally check the e-mails.
What does the choice of SSL mean, and if/when should I use it for my e-mail setting?
SSL means that the e-mails will be encrypted on the way to your machine. It may take a little longer, but is generally recommended to use.
Example of POP3 setting using SSL under Advanced e-mail settings in Outlook
A bunch of extras included with the emails from Otto®:
Otto® Marketing Automation & Management Solution will also give you:
- Lead Capturing
- Lead Nurturing
- Lead Scoring
- IP tracking
- Newsletter send-out
- One-to-one e-mail like if from Outlook send-out to 100s, 1 000s or 10 000s.
- Market planning
- Lead & Contact Management (which can be used as a stand-alone CRM or integrateable with CRM-systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, SAP, Oracle, Lundalogik and others)
