Whew! It’s been a week! Hopefully you’ve had a very productive week, also.

I thought I’d share with you a very helpful tool that I just discovered: Signals by Hubspot.

I recently signed up for this service (the free version) and find that it may have potential for those who are in sales and marketing.

I think such tools are especially helpful for micro-businesses, freelancers and startups.

Signals is basically an alert system. It lets you know when a recipient has opened your email, how many times they opened it, and if they clicked on any links within the email.

What I like about this app is that your recipient doesn’t receive a notification, asking for a receipt stamp to acknowledge they opened the email. Many people find such pop-up windows distracting and annoying.

With Signals, you’ll get the information you need but your recipient won’t be bothered.

This allows you to know when someone is thinking of you. I would suggest to follow up with the person within an hour, but don’t say, “Hi, there! I noticed you opened up my email!”

You’ll come across as creepy. Instead, calling your prospect and saying, “I was following up on the email I sent…” is a perfectly reasonable statement.

The app also lets you know how many times someone opened your email or clicked on a link. This can be very helpful to gauge their interest in your message.

The app integrates with Salesforce’s email templates. There is a free version of the app that allows you to receive up to 200 notifications per month and then the paid subscription for unlimited notifications and more for $10 per month.

For more information, visit Signal’s website.