Still not sure whether you\u2019re ready to move on from email? Don\u2019t worry. We get it! To help you see where we\u2019re coming from, let\u2019s quickly look at why email is ill-equipped to meet your modern business communication needs.<\/p>\n
Then, we\u2019ll share eight of the best email alternatives and communication tools to streamline your team and business communications<\/a>. \ud83d\ude4c<\/p>\n Email is where collaboration goes to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n No, seriously, we\u2019re not exaggerating; 70% of employees<\/a> think email is a huge productivity drain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Because, unlike other <\/strong>hybrid workplace solutions<\/a>, email lacks the features and flexibility that promote effective collaboration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at the three main issues with email. \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n Feedback guides our continuous, agile improvement. The quicker and more regularly you receive feedback, the sooner you can use it to make informed changes.<\/p>\n The thing about email, though, is that it\u2019s notoriously slow and unreliable.<\/p>\n Imagine you\u2019ve emailed a document to ten people for review. Now, how long will you have to wait for them to reply?\u00a0<\/p>\n A few hours? A day? A week or two? In fact, how do you know they\u2019ve even seen your email at all? (Cue the passive-aggressive follow-up email.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Without the ability to facilitate a real-time feedback loop, email leaves development and growth inching along at a snail\u2019s pace. <\/p>\n Email is an information cul-de-sac. <\/p>\n After a couple of back-and-forth messages, locating specific information in an email thread starts to get difficult\u2014and that\u2019s just when it\u2019s a one-on-one conversation. Add a few other people into the mix, and finding specific information in a thread is like trying to find a grain of salt in a sandbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, 73% of employees<\/a> say that they spend too much time trying to locate emails. 56% find the whole hunting-for-documents-in-their-inbox task extremely frustrating.<\/p>\n If you want to create a masterpiece, you need to be able to have agile collaborative conversations. Ideas should ebb and flow; plans should develop intricacy; elements should get scrapped and improved upon as your project takes shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n Email doesn\u2019t just make agile conversations difficult.<\/p>\n None of your conversations are happening in real-time. Large email threads get confusing and hard to navigate. Employees are left out of the loop with new developments, leading to knowledge silos and wasted productivity. All of these issues have the power to damage your internal workflow and the quality of your projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n All is not lost\u2014there are plenty of email alternatives that you can utilize for your business communications. <\/p>\n First, let\u2019s look at project management software.\u00a0<\/p>\n A huge chunk of your business communications revolve around project management software<\/a>, right? But have you ever tried managing a project over Gmail or Outlook?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s tedious. It\u2019s confusing. There\u2019s no central storage system for file sharing, no real-time feedback loop, or project visibility. And it\u2019s all because email platforms just aren\u2019t built for project management.\u00a0<\/p>\n The solution?<\/em> Project management software.\u00a0<\/p>\n The solution for email enthusiasts? <\/em>Email project management in ClickUp<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n If it\u2019s painless project management you\u2019re after, then ClickUp delivers.\u00a0But what exactly makes ClickUp a five-star project management tool?<\/p>\n Well, project management software like ClickUp<\/a> is designed to streamline your project management process and helps individuals and teams of all sizes boost productivity by bringing all their work into one place. <\/p>\n Flexible and advanced features let you easily assign and keep track of tasks, effectively manage multiple to-do\u2019s, set up custom automation, communicate in real-time with team members, and much more\u2014all in one centralized platform.<\/p>\n ClickUp also prevents your business communications from tangling into a spider\u2019s web of chaos. It centralizes communications and provides you with end-to-end visibility of every single conversation (complete with secure email service, of course).<\/p>\n With the Email ClickApp<\/a>, Outlook, IMAP, Office 365, and Gmail users can connect their email accounts to ClickUp to send and receive emails directly from a ClickUp task, making it easier to streamline communications, keep track of conversations, and save time<\/a> from jumping to a different tab to manage emails. \ud83d\udce7\u00a0<\/p>\n Not only can you send and receive emails directly from tasks, but you can:<\/p>\n ClickUp offers a feature-rich free version that lets you try the project and email management tool<\/a> for free. Download the app and integrate it with your most-used email providers like Outlook <\/a>and Gmail<\/a> to streamline your team and client communications<\/a> today. \u26a1\ufe0f<\/p>\n <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Do you have a business VoIP phone system?<\/p>\n Businesses need VoIP for fast, reliable phone communications. VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol, and it\u2019s basically what allows you to make calls over an internet connection rather than a physical landline.<\/p>\n VoIP voice calls are an essential email alternative because let\u2019s face it, some conversations really aren\u2019t suited to email.\u00a0<\/p>\n Voice calls save you time, are more personable, and provide you with increased mobility and productivity. You don\u2019t need your hands to make a VoIP call through a headset, meaning that you can take calls while you work on a design, sort through files, make a coffee, whatever!\u00a0<\/p>\n Dialpad<\/strong> isn\u2019t your average VoIP phone system. It\u2019s a cloud contact center<\/a> solution that uses VoIP, native artificial intelligence, and a load of other technologies to provide fully-unified voice, email, SMS, social media, and instant messaging. <\/p>\n These experiences can take place across multiple devices, regardless of your physical location. When it comes to voice calls, Dialpad is built with powerful, communication-enhancing features such as:<\/p>\n And remember, it\u2019s an all-in-one platform that\u2019s designed to streamline communications. So, if you were trying to communicate a complex idea over email and it wasn\u2019t going anywhere, you could simply call your colleague, stakeholder, or customer at the click of a button, right inside the same platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n Data silos and awkward app-switching be gone!<\/p>\n Bonus: Email drip campaign templates to automate email workflows<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Collaborative conversations over email tend to descend into chaos. You end up with messy email threads, knowledge silos across the board, and ten different versions of your shared document.<\/p>\n Business collaboration tools provide businesses with the ability to connect and collaborate from anywhere on one dedicated platform without clutter, silos, or any tedious back-and-forth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google Workplace<\/a> is a collection of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools, including:<\/p>\n More specifically for team communication, Google Workspace offers the following tools<\/a> as an email alternative:<\/p>\n Imagine having your own private business network, accessible to nobody but your company\u2019s employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s what an intranet is. It\u2019s a common solution for facilitating enterprise transformation<\/a> as it provides large businesses with a secure, shared, and customizable workspace to communicate and collaborate within. But it\u2019s not exclusive to enterprises\u2014small businesses can benefit from an intranet, too.<\/p>\n Intranets let you create an internal knowledge base<\/a> to eliminate information silos for new hires. You can also create private channels dedicated to specific team members.<\/p>\n ClickUp <\/strong>delivers your intranet essentials: a centralized online portal, an internal communication hub<\/a>, maximum-visibility project management, and cross-functional collaboration.<\/p>\n Here are some advanced features that you get with ClickUp:<\/p>\n\n
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3 Reasons Why You Need an Email Alternative<\/h2>\n
1. Email isn\u2019t appropriate for a real-time feedback loop \ud83d\udd01<\/h3>\n
2. Emails can easily be lost in threads \ud83d\udce8<\/h3>\n
3. Email isn\u2019t agile \ud83d\udc0c<\/h3>\n
8 Email Alternatives for Business Communication<\/h2>\n
1. Project management software<\/h3>\n
Best Tool: ClickUp\u2019s Email Project Management Software<\/h4>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Email-in-ClickUp-gif.gif\")
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/email-in-clickup-1400x927.png\")
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2. VoIP<\/h3>\n
Best tool: Dialpad\u00a0<\/h4>\n
![\"Make](\"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Dialpad-1400x992.jpeg\")
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3. Collaborative platforms<\/h3>\n
Best tool: Google Workspace<\/h4>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Google-Workspace.jpeg\")
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4. Intranet\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Best tool: ClickUp<\/h4>\n
![\"ClickUp](\"https:\/\/clickup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Docs_Chat-view_List-view_Homepage-4-1400x1055.png\")
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