Salesforce Email Integrations Hero

Find the best Salesforce email integration for your business

17 min read

Businesses recognize Salesforce as a comprehensive CRM that centralizes customer interactions across key functions like sales, customer service, and marketing. And without a system like Salesforce, organizations often grapple with disjointed systems that drain time and resources.

Although Salesforce strives to be the ‘single source of truth’ for all customer interactions, critical information can still slip through the cracks. For instance, sales reps spend up to a third of their day sending dozens of emails, meaning most of what you know — and don’t know — about your customers remains hidden within individuals’ email inboxes. However, by integrating email with Salesforce, you can capture and leverage every interaction to inform business strategies, ensuring no crucial customer detail is overlooked.

TL;DR

  • Salesforce email integration: Integrating email platforms like Gmail or Outlook with Salesforce enhances customer relationships by enabling seamless data exchange and email management within Salesforce.
  • Key capabilities: Centralizing communication within Salesforce boosts productivity, improves lead tracking, increases email personalization, and enhances email campaign management.
  • Integration steps: Follow our step-by-step guide to efficiently integrate an email solution into Salesforce and ensure a smooth setup process.
  • Ready-made vs. custom integrations: Compare ready-made solutions like Salesforce Inbox and Einstein Activity Capture with custom-developed integrations to determine the best fit for your business needs.
  • Choosing the best Salesforce email integration software: Learn how to select the right email integration software for Salesforce, considering factors such as ease of use, functionality, and cost.
  • Why Nylas: Nylas offers a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution at $7.99 per user per month, featuring advanced capabilities and a quick setup process. For more details, access our setup guide on the Nylas documentation portal.

What is a Salesforce email integration?

Before we discuss Salesforce integrations, let’s briefly cover email integration. Email integration is the process of connecting an email service to other software applications, such as CRMs. It allows companies to streamline communication between users, prospects, and customers to improve efficiency and productivity.

Salesforce email integrations enable organizations to connect users’ email platforms within Salesforce, streamlining communication across various services such as Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. And without these integrations, manually syncing email interactions with customer data within Salesforce can be a cumbersome process that consumes valuable resources and time.

See an example of this in action with the Nylas-Salesforce package:

Why you need Salesforce email integration: Key capabilities

Salesforce email integrations bring capabilities that benefit both businesses and your developers. These integrations provide developers a streamlined framework for incorporating email functionality into the CRM system. With an easy-to-use integration tool, development teams can concentrate on building mission-critical features that enhance user adoption and engagement rather than managing backend integration complexities. 

Capabilities of a Salesforce email integration include: 

  • Centralized email management: Centralizes all email interactions within the CRM, simplifying how communications are organized and accessed across the company.
  • Automatic email logging: Ensures every email sent and received is automatically captured and stored within the CRM, providing a complete and up-to-date record of all communications.
  • Seamless data integration: Synchronizes email interactions with customer data, sales opportunities, and support cases, improving the CRM system’s utility and effectiveness.

These are just a few capabilities you can expect from integrating email within Salesforce. Some solutions also offer advanced analytics to track engagement metrics, automatic categorization of emails based on content and sender, and the ability to trigger workflows directly from email actions. Additionally, the best integrations provide real-time synchronization features, ensuring that every piece of correspondence is immediately available across all platforms, enhancing the agility and responsiveness of your teams.

Benefits of Salesforce email integration

By leveraging the capabilities provided by Salesforce email integration, your organization can achieve significant operational improvements and strategic advantages:

  • Boosted team collaboration: Imagine your team members seamlessly viewing and sharing the same customer email information. Salesforce email integrations make this possible, enhancing cooperation across all departments — from sales to support. What’s more? This unified approach leads to faster, more consistent responses to customer inquiries, improving overall service quality.
  • Enhanced decision-making: More data equals smarter decisions. With Salesforce email integrations, you gain a holistic view of customer interactions, paving the way for precise forecasting, spot-on marketing, and sales strategies finely tuned to customer needs. These insights can drive up your conversion rates and bolster customer loyalty.
  • Streamlined compliance and security: Salesforce email integrations simplify the security and compliance of customer data. The system securely stores all emails within the CRM, applying stringent access controls and maintaining clear audit trails. These features ensure adherence to compliance mandates like GDPR and minimize the risk of breaches, keeping your customer data secure.

How to integrate an email solution into Salesforce

We know that integrating an email solution into Salesforce can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization’s communication and data management practices. But how do you do it? 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to integrate an email system with Salesforce:

Step 1: Choose the best email integration solution

The first step is to select an email integration solution that aligns with your business needs (see our recommendations below). Several options are available in the market, each offering different features such as real-time synchronization, advanced analytics, and automatic email categorization. Evaluate these solutions based on their compatibility with your current systems, ease of use, and specific features that meet your business requirements.

Step 2: Engage a Salesforce developer

Once you have chosen the right email integration solution, the next step is to engage a Salesforce developer. Integrating email with Salesforce typically requires technical expertise to ensure the integration is set up correctly and functions optimally. A Salesforce developer will handle the technical aspects, such as setting up API connections, configuring email templates, and customizing the CRM to accommodate the new email functionalities.

Step 3: Set up and configure the integration

With the assistance of your Salesforce developer, set up the email integration within your Salesforce environment. This process involves configuring the email service to sync with Salesforce, setting up email templates, and defining rules for logging and managing emails within the CRM. Make sure to test all configurations to ensure they function as expected.

Step 4: Train your team

After setting up the integration, you must train your team to use the new system effectively. Provide training sessions to demonstrate how to access and manage emails within Salesforce and utilize new features and best practices for maintaining data integrity and security. 

Step 5: Monitor and optimize

Finally, continuously monitor the email integration’s performance and gather user feedback. Use this feedback to make adjustments and optimize the integration. Regular monitoring helps identify issues early and allows you to fine-tune the system to better meet your organization’s needs.

Top Salesforce email integrations for seamless communication

Selecting the right Salesforce email integration for your organization involves understanding the types of integrations available — from within the Salesforce ecosystem or external sources — and aligning them with your business needs. Let’s explore the distinctions between ready-made integrations and custom-developed solutions and outline critical considerations for choosing.

Choosing the best Outlook and Gmail Salesforce integrations

When integrating Salesforce with Outlook and Gmail, it’s essential to choose a solution that ensures seamless communication and boosts productivity. Look for an integration that offers real-time synchronization, intuitive user interfaces, and robust security features to protect sensitive data. Key considerations include ease of use, compatibility with both email platforms, and advanced features like calendar synchronization, email categorization, and workflow triggers. These aspects will streamline communication, reduce manual data entry, and enhance the overall efficiency of your CRM system.

Additionally, prioritize solutions that provide customization options and robust reporting capabilities. These allow you to tailor the integration to your specific business processes and gain valuable insights from your email interactions. By carefully evaluating these factors, you can select the right Salesforce email integration for Outlook and Gmail that aligns with your organization’s needs and enhances your customer relationship management efforts.

Ready-made solutions vs. custom-developed integrations

Ready-made solutions: These are pre-configured integrations that allow for quick implementation with minimal setup required. They can be found on Salesforce’s AppExchange or offered by third-party providers. These solutions typically feature user-friendly interfaces and standard functionalities designed to meet expected business requirements for email integration. They are ideal for businesses and developers looking for quick deployment and straightforward functionality without the need for extensive customization.

You can also consider products from specialized third-party sales platforms as ready-made solutions (e.g., Salesloft, Outreach, etc.). While these tools offer robust features for sales engagement and can integrate with Salesforce, they come with higher costs and generally lack customization options. Additionally, they often don’t capture comprehensive customer context, limiting their utility to the specific teams that use them rather than providing a unified view across the entire organization.

Custom-developed integrations: For businesses with specific needs that go beyond what ready-made solutions offer, developing a custom solution using Salesforce’s APIs may be beneficial. This approach allows developers to tailor the integration to fit specific business processes or advanced data management needs. It requires more technical resources and development time but may fit your existing Salesforce ecosystem well.

How to choose the best email integration software for Salesforce

When choosing a Salesforce email integration, consider how each option aligns with your business needs and the potential to boost productivity and efficiency in managing customer relationships. Whether you opt for solutions within the Salesforce ecosystem or explore third-party options, the ideal choice should match your operational needs and strategic objectives. 

As you evaluate our top picks for Salesforce email integration software, here are some considerations to keep in mind: 

  • Ease of use: Look for solutions that allow easy tracking of email interactions, scheduling, and automation without a steep learning curve.
  • Integration capabilities: The email integration must work seamlessly with your existing Salesforce setup and other critical business tools. This compatibility is essential for maintaining smooth workflows and data consistency across platforms.
  • Complete visibility: Assess whether the solution provides a comprehensive view of email conversations across your entire revenue organization or only captures siloed communication from one team.
  • Customization: Depending on your specific business processes, you can significantly benefit from the ability to customize how Salesforce handles, tracks, and logs emails. Choose solutions that provide flexible configuration options to suit your unique operational needs.
  • Security and compliance: Given that email communications can contain sensitive information, choose an integration that provides robust security measures. This includes email data encryption, secure data storage, and compliance with relevant privacy and security regulations.

1. Nylas Email for Salesforce 

How Nylas Email for Salesforce works:

Nylas Email for Salesforce is a powerful third-party integration designed to capture all customer-facing email interactions directly within Salesforce. This unmanaged package allows Salesforce administrators to deploy a unified view of email conversations between your company and your customers across accounts and contacts without requiring any behavior changes from end-users. It’s perfect for revenue teams looking to align on the best next steps and manage customer engagements more effectively.

Key features of Nylas:
  • Unified email management: Nylas enables a comprehensive view of email activities, allowing users to view, filter, and search email threads by subject line or recipient directly within Salesforce.
  • Email integration applications: Nylas connects directly with your users’ email service providers, including Salesforce Outlook integration, Gmail integration, IMAP integration, and all others.
  • Automatic email syncing: Syncs email from all customer-facing teams, including those not using Salesforce, ensuring complete visibility into communications.
  • Custom object integration: Users can choose to sync email as tasks or inside Nylas Email custom objects, aligning with organizational best practices.
  • Advanced reporting: Unlike basic Salesforce email solutions, Nylas allows for standard reporting on email data and provides the flexibility to retain information as needed.
  • Bulk authentication: Facilitates bulk email account authentication, simplifying the process for administrators and ensuring comprehensive email coverage.
  • Security and compliance: Adheres to top security standards, including GDPR, ensuring that data is handled securely.
Pros of Nylas:

Provides a complete, real-time view of email interactions within Salesforce, enhances transparency, supports custom reporting, and reduces the need for manual email tracking. This integration is ideal for businesses that rely heavily on email for customer engagement and want to enhance their go-to-market strategies and operational transparency within Salesforce.

Salesforce integration limitations:

Requires initial setup and orientation to fully leverage its capabilities, particularly for organizations new to Salesforce unmanaged packages.

Pricing:

Nylas Email for Salesforce offers competitive pricing with significant value:

  • Standard: At $7.99 per user per month, this package provides essential features for comprehensive email integration and is suitable for small—to medium-sized businesses.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing is available for larger organizations or those needing advanced features and support. This tier is ideal for businesses seeking deeper integration and customization.
  • Free trial: Try it free for the first 30 days to experience the benefits of integrated email management within Salesforce.

2. Salesforce’s Einstein Activity Capture (EAC)

Salesforce email integration_Activity-Capture

How EAC works:

EAC is a feature within Salesforce that is designed to automate the logging of emails and events directly into Salesforce. By synchronizing data across connected calendars and email systems such as Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, EAC helps keep Salesforce records up to date without manual data entry, streamlining customer interaction views for sales and marketing teams.

Key features of EAC:  
  • Automatic data capture: Automatically logs emails and calendar events, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring up-to-date information across Salesforce records. 
  • AI insights: Utilizes Salesforce’s AI capabilities to provide insights from the captured data, aiding teams in making informed decisions.
  • Custom configuration: Allows users to customize data capture settings according to their organizational needs.
Pros:
  • Initial pricing: Free for up to 100 users within Salesforce’s initial pricing tiers. However, accessing advanced features like Einstein requires higher tiers, which can significantly increase costs.
  • Enhanced productivity: Reduces manual tasks by automating email and event data capture and synchronization.
Salesforce integration limitations:
  • Data accessibility: EAC captures data in a “parallel object,” not directly within standard Salesforce objects like opportunities or accounts. This requires users to switch contexts to view email data.
  • Limited reporting capabilities: Users cannot run standard Salesforce reports on data captured by EAC, potentially limiting insight extraction and analysis.
  • Exclusion of non-SFDC users: EAC does not sync email data from users who do not use Salesforce, leading to data capture gaps from non-Salesforce users, including customer support, implementation, and solution engineering teams, for example.
  • Data storage and privacy: Emails are stored on a separate server (AWS) and not directly within Salesforce’s infrastructure, raising potential concerns about data security and governance. Additionally, AWS only retains email data for up to six months, which may not meet the needs of organizations requiring longer data retention for compliance or historical analysis.
Pricing:

EAC is included in Salesforce’s pricing tiers and is free for up to 100 users. 

3. Salesforce Inbox 

How Salesforce Inbox works:

Salesforce Inbox is an integrated email management solution that allows sales representatives to interact with Salesforce data directly within Outlook, Gmail, or the Salesforce Inbox mobile app. As part of Salesforce’s Einstein product suite, this add-on enhances email communication by automating tasks, scheduling meetings, and tracking conversations from one interface.

Key features of Salesforce Inbox:
  • Integrated email management: Salesforce Inbox integrates with your email client to bring Salesforce capabilities into your email environment. 
  • Inbox automation and scheduler: Automates repetitive email tasks and includes a scheduler to efficiently manage meetings directly from your inbox.
  • Mobile app: Provides a mobile app for managing emails and Salesforce activities on the go, ensuring productivity outside the office.
Pros: 
  • Enhanced productivity: Salesforce Inbox is an add-on to the Salesforce subscription that provides a comprehensive solution for email management. It includes sending and receiving emails, inbox automation, and a built-in scheduler.
  • Unified interface: Offers a single interface for email communication, simplifying the user experience and reducing the need to switch between multiple tools.
Salesforce integration limitations:
  • Cost: Salesforce Inbox is an expensive option, representing an additional cost over the standard Salesforce subscription. 
  • Dependence on Salesforce app: Requires representatives to change their process to manage their email within the Salesforce app, which might lead to a learning curve and adjustment in their workflow, particularly for those accustomed to traditional email clients.
Pricing:
  • Standard Salesforce Inbox: $25 USD per user per month.
  • Salesforce Inbox with Sales Cloud Einstein: $50 USD per user per month, which includes advanced AI capabilities from Einstein for smarter email management.

4. Match My Email 

How Match My Email works:

Match My Email is a third-party solution that automatically synchronizes emails and calendars with Salesforce. It integrates directly into Salesforce, storing all synchronized email and calendar data within Salesforce records. This approach differs from solutions like Einstein Activity Capture, as it allows for the use of Salesforce’s native reporting tools on email data.

Key features of Match My Email:
  • Automated syncing: Automatically matches and syncs emails and calendar events to the appropriate Salesforce records.
  • Support for multiple email platforms: Compatible with Gmail, Outlook, and other IMAP email services.
  • Data retention: Stores all email data permanently within Salesforce, facilitating full historical record-keeping.
Pros: 
  • Integration with Salesforce reports: Allows users to run standard Salesforce reports using email and calendar data.
  • Security compliance: SOC 2 certified, ensuring robust data protection.
Salesforce integration limitations:
  • Scalability: While practical for small to medium businesses, there may be concerns about its scalability for very large organizations.
  • Sync restrictions: Does not support synchronization of data from non-Salesforce users, which could be a limitation in collaborative environments that involve external parties.
Pricing: 
  • 1-10 seats: $22.95 per user/month
  • 11-25 seats: $17.95 per user/month
  • 26-50 seats: $14.95 per user/month
  • 51-100 seats: $11.95 per user/month
  • 100+ seats: Pricing available upon request

Other free Salesforce email features 

Salesforce also provides several native email functionalities included with the Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience at no additional cost. These features are particularly beneficial for organizations that need basic email capabilities integrated with their CRM system.

How it works: While Salesforce’s out-of-the-box email features offer basic functionalities at no additional cost, they come with limitations that may not suit all business needs, especially for those requiring more robust email management tools. Organizations needing advanced features like email threading, extensive template customization, or integration with multiple email clients might find these solutions lacking. 

Key features:

  • Send through Gmail/Office 365: Allows users to send emails directly from Salesforce using their Gmail or Office 365 accounts.
  • Send through Salesforce servers: Offers the ability to send emails through Salesforce servers if Gmail or Office 365 are not used.
  • Email Relay: Enables Salesforce to route outgoing emails through your company’s email server.
  • Email to Salesforce: This feature allows users to manually log incoming emails to Salesforce by BCCing a unique Salesforce email address.

Pros: These features are free and included with the Salesforce platform, making them accessible without extra investment. They fulfill basic use cases for sending emails and syncing email data directly within Salesforce, which can be sufficient for many businesses’ needs.

Salesforce integration limitations:

  • The integration can only connect with either Gmail or Office 365, not both simultaneously.
  • Limited functionality in terms of email templates and advanced features.
  • Requires manual logging for incoming emails, as users must BCC a Salesforce-specific email address.
  • Relies on the Gmail/Microsoft email client extension for functionality.
  • Does not support viewing email replies as threaded conversations within Salesforce; emails are logged as tasks instead.

Pricing: These email features are free with any Salesforce Classic or Lightning Experience subscription.

Elevate your Salesforce experience with Nylas email integration

Many Salesforce email integrations, including Salesforce’s own, often sync limited data to separate servers. This can lead to a disjointed experience, complicate sales processes, and limit essential reporting capabilities.

Nylas Email for Salesforce stands out by directly embedding a unified view of all customer email interactions within Salesforce. This seamless integration simplifies workflows and enriches the relevant Salesforce data available to sales teams. With Nylas, every email, including those from non-Salesforce users, is accessible in a threaded, easy-to-navigate interface right inside Salesforce.

By choosing Nylas, your team gets the full context they need for effective customer engagements, all within their usual CRM environment. Schedule a demo today to streamline your email management and enhance your customer insights in Salesforce — making every interaction more productive and insightful.

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