Integrating business applications drives adoption and efficiency. Email is one of the most critical applications that organizations use, and is where people spend most of their time. Therefore, it is engrained in most of our processes. Through email integration you can make sure you are tracking constituent journeys and points of communication. Different types of email integration are available to Salesforce users based on their needs. In this post, we will discuss three email integration options: Email to Salesforce, integrating Gmail or Outlook, and Salesforce Inbox.

Email to Salesforce

Email to Salesforce is a simple way to get your email communications recorded in the system. It requires minimal configuration, can be used with any external email application, and can match up to 50 recipient addresses per email. However, it does require a manual process each time you send an email.

Once your Salesforce Administrator activates Email to Salesforce, you will be provided with a system-generated email address. To have the email added to a record on the system, you need to add the generated address into the BCC field of every message you want recorded. Depending on your configuration there are a few ways that this can manifest on the platform:

• If the recipient’s address matches that of a contact or lead in Salesforce it will save to the Activity History related list on the appropriate record.
• If you set up your configuration to include opportunities, the email will also show on opportunities related to the contact.
• If the recipient’s address cannot be matched, the email will be listed under My Unresolved Items.

Email to Salesforce is a simple way to keep track of your emails, but by nature it can lead to incomplete data. It relies on an ongoing manual process where users must input the email address into the BCC field of each email they want tracked. Human error is a big deterrent to this process, and should be a serious consideration when deciding how to best integrate email with Salesforce.

Integrating Gmail or Outlook

On a daily basis your staff is spending a significant amount of time on their email application as well as Salesforce. Having the two work together can expedite their processes and create a central source for viewing activity on a specific record. Gmail and Outlook can both be integrated with Salesforce. Depending on which application you use the functionalities can vary, but the following features are available across both:

• Relate emails and events to Salesforce records
• Create Salesforce contacts, leads and other records
• Use Lightning and HTML email templates
• Report on activities
• Einstein Activity Capture for automatic email and event logging
• Lead scoring
• Opportunity scoring
• Opportunity insights
• Account insights
• Email tracking

Integration provides the ability to link the two tools that your staff use most often. It removes the manual process of recording email communications into Salesforce. This way, the data points are recorded consistently so that entire teams can track the progress of a constituent relationship. Learn more on the Gmail Integration and Outlook Integration Trailheads.

Salesforce Inbox

Salesforce Inbox is the most advanced option for email integration. It is a one-stop-shop where every email and calendar events gets recorded within Salesforce. Features include:

• When an email is being drafted, Inbox brings forward relevant data that provides context to users as they create their communication.
• Einstein Activity Capture syncs emails and calendars to Salesforce and associates them with the relevant records.
• Email tracking allows you to see when emails are read.

This tool can be combined with Gmail and Outlook integration for additional features including relating emails and events to records created from custom objects, scheduling emails, knowing when recipients open emails or click links, and creating text shortcuts. Watch the Salesforce Inbox demo for more information.

Summary + Conclusion

These are three options for integrating your organization’s email with Salesforce. Email to Salesforce, Gmail or Outlook integration, and Salesforce Inbox all require varying levels of integration, automation, and commitment. Read more on Which Email Integration Product is Right for My Company.