Evernote as CRM
Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 5:24PM Don't you love when you put on a jacket you haven't worn in months and find a $20 bill in the pocket? It's like winning the lottery, without the inconvenience of having to live in a mobile home or make due with fewer than 32 teeth.
I love it out of all proportion.
I feel like I hit the software lottery this week. Several months ago, I downloaded Evernote. Evernote is a free, web 2.0 note taking software application that allows you to store data in many different formats organized into notebooks.
There are a lot of cool things about it, but one of my favorites is its ability to sync information between a PC, a Mac and the cloud. The trouble is that I couldn't come up with anything that I really wanted to do with it. For some reason, the notebook metaphor didn't really speak to me and I couldn't wrap my head around a use for Evernote that I wasn't already doing in some other way. And of course, the phrase, "if ain't broke, don't fix it" ran through my head.
At lunch the other day with a lawyer friend of mine (also an Evernote user) we started spitballing about different ways to use the application, and I finally happened across one that works for me: I've decided to press Evernote into service as a CRM application, to keep track of contacts that I make networking and marketing my practice management assistance program.
Although it is early going using Evernote in this capacity, I am pretty pumped about it so far. I can input data in a bunch of different ways, tag each "note" in countless ways and search and sort the data very easily. I don't bother actually keeping the contact info in there as I'm more or less locked into using Outlook and a Blackberry for that, but I use Evernote to keep all the emails, notes, and PDF documents I need about each contact.
I create one "summary" note for each contact so I can easily find the most recent activity, and then each additional item is a note, tagged by contact. I find it to be just the right amount of CRM for me -- it would not do for someone used a heavy duty CRM for tracking leads, etc, but in my experience, most lawyers don't know what CRM is, let alone have a powerhouse program for it that they are wedded to.
If you don't have a CRM program you love yet and you would like a free, simple way to keep up with your marketing and business development efforts, take a look at Evernote. Best of all, it won't cost you one cent from that $20 bill you found in your jacket.
CRM, SaaS, Software in Technology 
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (9)
Another online note-taking application you might wanna try out is Springnote (http://springnote.com/en). It's a little bit different from Evernote; Springnote puts more focus on collaboration with others. You get to share pages with your colleagues, while creating as many note pages as you want. It also comes with 2GB of free file storage. After all, it's a great tool when you do lots of research.
If you really liked Evernote, Springnote is also worth a look.
Another online note-taking application you might wanna try out is http://springnote.com/en" rel="nofollow">Springnote. It’s a little bit different from OneNote; Springnote puts more focus on collaboration with others. You get to share pages with your colleagues, while creating as many note pages as you want. It also comes with 2GB of free file storage. After all, it’s a great tool when you do lots of research.
If you really liked OneNote, Springnote is also worth a look.
Hi - I searched on Evernote and CRM and came across your post.
Good thoughts - thanks very much.
I've posted a question about this idea on the Evernote forum at http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=7518
I'll be interested to see how ideas develop. I'm sure that there is a lot that can develop from this idea.
Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at blackhatbootcamp.com/listofwordpressblogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.
Great idea. I'm a Virtual Assistant so this would work well for me and other solopreneur clients.
FYI came here through Evernote's tweet.
[url=http://ticketvoid.com][img]http://verifiedfile.com/images/TicketVoid.jpg[/img][/url]
Tickets can be expensive. Citations relative to drinking & driving can potentially cause your license to be suspended.
[b]TicketVoid.com[/b] is a web service that can help you find a qualified lawyer for [b]Driving Under the Influence (DUI)[/b], Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), speeding tickets, careless driving, license plate violations and other serious traffic violations. Ticket Void expedites your legal search for experienced and reliable DUI and [url=http://ticketvoid.com][b]traffic ticket lawyers[/b][/url].
Simply visit the site, insert the circumstances of the ticket, and we will find you a local attorney for free located in your area.
Our in house legal team can answer your questions. Please call, email or visit our website !
[url=http://ticketvoid.com][b]DUI Traffic Ticket[/b][/url]
Steven Hill, Esq.
+1-888-327-9113
steven.hill@ticketvoid.com
[url=http://ticketvoid.com][img]http://verifiedfile.com/images/TicketVoid.jpg[/img][/url]
Tickets can be expensive. Citations relative to drinking & driving can potentially cause your license to be suspended.
[b]TicketVoid.com[/b] is a web service that can help you find a qualified lawyer for [b]Driving Under the Influence (DUI)[/b], Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), speeding tickets, careless driving, license plate violations and other serious traffic violations. Ticket Void expedites your legal search for experienced and reliable DUI and [url=http://ticketvoid.com][b]traffic ticket lawyers[/b][/url].
Simply visit the site, insert the circumstances of the ticket, and we will find you a local attorney for free located in your area.
Our in house legal team can answer your questions.
[url=http://ticketvoid.com][b]DUI Traffic Ticket[/b][/url]
I was considering the same approach, leveraging the iPhone Evernote app. Doesn't really seem like it will be the right solution after all. I also considered Salesforce.com but the iphone app doesn't support individual business users.
I also was thinking about using evernote as a crm. But if it can't be set up to store the fields separately for the contact info it's probably note going to work that great. I do feel that any CRM should have well structured contacts at it's core. I've started using vTiger CRM not sure if there's an iPhone app. Anyone?