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Email Feature User Guide

Explore the various email functionalities offered by Vtiger CRM.

Megha KR

21 Oct, 2024 - Updated 1 month ago

Feature Availability in Vtiger CRM: One Pilot | One Growth | One Professional | One Enterprise | One AI

Introduction

In Vtiger CRM you can:

Send emails from List and Summary Views of a record.
Attach files, documents, etc., with your emails.
Save a record of your emails in your contact records.
Integrate email service providers such as Google, Outlook, etc.
Use the Inbox feature to receive from different email service providers and respond to emails.
Create Individual and Group Inboxes.

Key Features

Following are the key features in Vtiger Emails. Let us learn about them in detail.

Inbox

The Inbox allows you to manage all your emails from the CRM. You can:

Create inboxes to send and receive emails directly from the CRM.
Integrate email service providers seamlessly with Vtiger for centralized management.
Efficiently handle multiple email accounts with two-way sync capabilities.
Streamline operations by focusing on active emails and promptly notifying assignees.
Access CRM records directly with a simple click for all necessary information

Types of Inbox

Vtiger offers two types of inboxes:

My Mailbox: A private inbox where you send and receive emails.
Group Mailbox: A mailbox for your team where you can collaborate with your team members, assign tasks, use comments to mention other members on an email.

Email Template

An email template in Vtiger CRM is a predesigned email you can use to send an email. Vtiger offers more than 100 ready to use templates pre-loaded in the CRM., You can:

Use or customize existing templates to your requirement.
Import a ready HTML code or create an email template from scratch.

To learn about Email Templates in Vtiger, click here.

Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are a sequence of marketing emails. They are designed to market a business or a product and contain promotional offers and valuable content for the subscribers. Vtiger CRM allows you to create two types of email campaigns:

Regular: Regular email campaigns are promotional emails sent to your contacts. You can send them immediately or at a scheduled time.
Autoresponder: Autoresponder email campaigns are emails you send in response to the contacts’ reaction to your previous email campaign.

To learn about Email Campaigns In Vtiger, click here.

Email Sequences

Email Sequences is an outbound sales campaign tool that enables you to send a predefined sequence of emails to your prospects. In Vtiger CRM, you can:

Send a predefined sequence of emails to a prospect.
Trigger emails to be sent automatically based on the previous email interactions with a prospect.
Send follow-up emails are triggered in an automated sequence based on the rules you create.
Nurture contacts using these emails by sending relevant content and promoting or introducing new products and services.

To learn more about Email Sequences, click here.

Actions in the Email Feature

Direct Emails
- You can send emails from the List and Summary Views of different CRM modules, where the Email icon is visible. The Email icon is visible:
  - When you have saved the email of a Contact in their Contact record.
  - Where a Contact is linked to other modules like Deals, Invoices, etc.
Compose: You can draft and send emails directly from within the CRM platform.
Reassign email: You can assign emails to another user by using the option displayed beside the email subject.
Open contact record: This option is visible beside the reassign email option only if you have the sender’s details saved as a contact. You can use it to open the contact record.
Edit Reminder: You can create a reminder to reply to or follow up with an email by clicking the Edit Reminder option. Emails with a reminder appear on top of the email lists in a folder.
Mark as Done: After an email conversion ends, you can mark it as done using the Mark As Done option. Emails marked as Done are moved to the Done folder.
Mark as Read: You can use the Mark as Read option to mark an email as Read.
Make Private: Mark a conversation as Private by using the Make Private option displayed under the ellipsis. Private conversations are only viewable for users of the mailbox. You can identify private conversations with a Lock icon when you hover over them.
Delete: This option deletes a conversation. Deleted conversations are sent to Trash.
Create or link record: This option helps you use the details in the email; you can create a record in the CRM or link the email to a record in the CRM.
Email Preferences
- You can select email preferences such as default email addresses, multiple recipients, etc., in the List View of the Contacts or the Leads module. You can:
  - Choose the default email address to send your email from.
  - Select whether to include all recipients in an email or send separate emails to each recipient.

Auto-forwarding Emails to Vtiger
- You can avoid logging in to multiple email accounts and forward all your emails to Vtiger CRM using the Auto-forwarding feature. With auto-forwarding, you can:
  - Eliminate the need to switch between multiple email IDs to keep track of emails.
  - Integrate multiple email clients or service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
  - Use the Mailroom to receive emails from different email clients.
  - Auto-forward your emails to Vtiger.

Note: In Vtiger, only admins can:

Set up Mailroom automation to receive emails.
Create Mailroom rules to add new records and make the emails land in specific mailboxes. For example, create cases from the received email.

Auto-forwarding Emails from Microsoft Office 365 to Vtiger CRM

You can add CRM users, company employees, customers, or external groups (partners, clients, contractors, and stakeholders) to a Distribution List or group.

When you integrate your Office 365 account with Vtiger CRM, you can forward emails from your Distribution list email ID to Vtiger Inbox.

To learn more about auto-forwarding emails to Vtiger, click here.

Mailroom
- Vtiger Mailroom feature lets you receive emails from email service providers such as Outlook, Gmail, etc. Using the Mailroom, you can:
- Receive and view emails from multiple email service providers.
- Automate actions on your incoming emails like creating a Case, Contact, Lead, etc.

IMAP Providers
- IMAP providers are email service providers that support the Internet Message Access Protocol.
Note: IMAP email client’s folders are not shown in the CRM.

To learn more about IMAP providers in Vtiger CRM, click here.

Calculus AI as Email Assistant
- Calculus AI is the Artificial Intelligence feature in Vtiger. Calculus AI in Vtiger:
  - Analyze the tone of your email content and reveal customer satisfaction, and issues.
  - Analyzes email content for quality - errors, grammar, etc.
  - Aids in response prioritization.
  - Suggests email templates, documents, snippets, or alerts to managers.
  - Enhances the user's email experience by providing valuable and engaging content.

To learn more about Calculus AI in Vtiger CRM, click here.

Limitations

Gmail & Office 365 do not allow FROM addresses to be overridden.
With Gmail, Office 365, Outlook, and Hotmail mail servers, all emails will be sent using the SMTP user name chosen.
If your SMTP server allows FROM email address overriding, you can use any FROM email address in your domain while sending the email.
Note: Only users with admin permission can configure the Email Settings.

Benefits of Using Emails in CRM

The benefits of using the Email feature in CRM are:

Centralize the management of emails in the CRM to save time.
Keep complete email history.
Personalize interactions.
Share and collaborate on emails for consistent team communication.
Use analytics to improve emails and optimize performance.
Automate emails to save effort and avoid missed leads.

Let us now learn about the different email automation process.

Key Terminology

Field Name	Description
Auto-forwarding Emails	A feature that automatically redirects incoming emails from one email address to another.
Calculus AI	Calculus AI uses artificial intelligence to recommend content based on the emotion and keywords in the email.
Opt-in Email Delivery	A crucial mechanism for ensuring that email communications are sent only to recipients who have explicitly expressed their desire to receive them.
Ad-hoc Emails	Ad-hoc emails are one-time, unscheduled emails sent to address specific needs or circumstances rather than as part of a planned, regular email campaign.

Sending Emails in Vtiger CRM

You can send an email in the modules wherever the email icon is available. To send an email, Contact's email id should be available in the Contact record.

Prerequisites for Sending Emails

Before you can send or receive emails in Vtiger you need to:

Configure an SMTP email server for sending all ad-hoc emails and workflow emails
- Outgoing Email Settings
- Email tracking
- Email Footer
- Reply to address for Case replies, Internal Ticket emails, and Ad-hoc emails
- From Name and Reply-to addresses for System Notifications to Users and to Customers
- Required Opt-In for email delivery for emails sent using Email Campaigns and Workflows
Authenticate emails with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and SenderID for Email Campaigns. To learn more about email authentication, click here.
Adding a CNAME record
- Adding CNAME records increases the deliverability of your email campaigns and other email's sent from Vtiger's servers. To learn more about CNAME record, click here.

Configuring the above ensures email delivery.

Composing an Email

In the Compose Email window, you can write your email, send attachments, upload images, etc. You can send emails from multiple module screens in the CRM. We are going to consider the Contacts module to show you the steps.

Follow these steps to compose and send an email:

Log in to the CRM.
Go to Essentials.
Click Contacts. The List View opens.
Hover over a contact record. The Email icon is displayed.
Click the Email icon. The Compose Email window opens.
Enter or select the following information:
1. To - Select To address, CC, BCC, From, and Reply-to address.
2. Subject - Add the subject
  1. Email Template - Select an email template, if required.
  2. Email Sequence - Select email sequence if you are creating an email sequence for a campaign.
3. Calculus AI - Use Calculus AI to generate email body.
4. Insert Links - Insert links such as Appointment link, Survey link, Landing Page link, or Dealroom link.
From the Insert Links you can:
1. Schedule Conference, Insert Document links from the CRM or Upload a Document.
2. Merge Print Template from a module. For example, insert Quote.
3. Attach Files - You can also attach files from the CRM or your system.
4. Include Signature - You can set up email signatures by going to My Preferences. By enabling or disabling the checkbox for Include Signature in Compose Email window, you can add or remove your signature from the email.
5. Remind me to follow up in - The Vtiger email gives you a reminder to follow up the emails that have been sent.
6. Save as Draft - Mails that are composed but not sent are present in the Drafts folder.
7. Click Send.

Note:

You can add multiple email IDs (up to 10) in the To address field to the emails you send from Quotes or other modules to your Contacts or Leads.
Merge tags related to personal identity, such as contact name, email ID, and phone number, will be picked up from the first contact whose email ID you add.

Using Workflows to Send Emails

Workflows allow you to automate the process of sending emails. The CRM sends an email to the recipient every time the workflow is triggered. For instance, you can send automated thank-you emails to the leads generated through your website.

Follow these steps to set up the Send Mail action:

Log in to the CRM.
Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the screen.
Click the Settings button.
Look for the Automation section.
Select Workflows.
Click the +New Workflow button.
Select the Standard option.
Select the Target Module as Leads.
Enter workflow name, status, etc.
Select this Workflow Trigger - Lead creation.
From: This is the sender’s email address. You have the following options to choose:
1. Enter a From address - Lets you enter an email address manually.
2. Helpdesk support email ID - Use the email address set up under Settings > Configuration > Email Settings as Helpdesk Email.
3. Assigned To: (Users) Primary Email - Use the email address of the user to whom the lead is assigned.
4. Last Modified By: (Users) Primary Email - Use the email address of the user who last modified the lead record (check the Last Modified By field in the lead record).
5. Created By: (Users) Primary Email - Use the email address of the user who created the lead record (check the Created By field in the lead record.
Reply To: This is the email address that can be replied to by the leads. You have the following options to choose from:
1. Helpdesk support email ID - Use the email address set up under Settings > Configuration > Email Settings as Helpdesk Email.
2. Assigned To: (Users) Primary Email - Use the email address of the user to whom the lead is assigned.
3. Enter a From address - Lets you enter an email address manually.
4. Last Modified By: (Users) Primary Email - Use the email address of the user who last modified the lead record (check the Last Modified By field in the lead record).
5. Assigned To : (Users) Reports To - This is the email address of the user whom the case assignee reports to.
To: This must contain the lead’s email address.
Subject: This is the subject of the email. You can embed fields from the Leads module in the subject by choosing them from the drop-down on the right side.

Note: Only an admin can set up the workflow trigger and configure the email action.

Setting Up the Inbox

In Vtiger CRM, you can set up:

My Mailbox - to configure your inbox as an individual user and to receive emails to your inbox.
Group Mailboxes - to configure a shared mailbox for your team and receive group emails.

You can set up your mailbox in two ways:

Auto-forwarding (or one-way sync): Auto-forwarding or one-way sync brings emails from your email client into Vtiger CRM. Emails that are forwarded from your email client come into Vtiger CRM through Mailroom.
Two-way sync: Two-way sync enables the movement of emails between your email client and Vtiger CRM.
- By enabling two-way sync, you can bring emails from your email client into your mailbox and emails from your mailbox into your email client.
This makes accessing your emails easy for you.

Setting up My Mailbox with the Auto-forwarding (one-way sync) option

Follow these steps to set up your Inbox:

Log in to your CRM account.
Click the Main Menu.
Go to Sales.
Select Inbox.
Select the Configuration icon in the top right corner. The Mailbox Settings window opens.
Select one of these options:
1. My Mailbox - to configure your inbox as an individual user and to receive emails to your inbox.
2. Group Mailboxes - to configure a shared mailbox for your team and receive group emails.

Setting up My Mailbox with auto-forwarding or one-way sync

Follow these steps to set up auto-forwarding in Vtiger CRM:

Log in to your CRM account.
Click the Main Menu.
Go to Sales.
Select Inbox.
Select the Configuration icon in the top right corner. A Mailbox Settings Dialog box opens.
Click My Mailbox.
Click +Add My Mailbox. The My Mailbox Setup window opens.
Choose the Forward incoming emails and CC Vtiger address on the outgoing emails option and click Go >. An Adding My Mailbox dialog box appears.
Select or enter the following details in the Adding My Mailbox window:
1. Address: Enter your email address.
2. Add BCC address for replies: Enter your BCC email address (optional).
Click Save.

Setting Up Inbox with two-way Sync

Follow these steps to set up a Inbox with two-way Sync:

Log in to your CRM account.
Click the Main Menu.
Go to Sales.
Select Inbox.
Select the Configuration icon in the top right corner. The Mailbox Settings window opens.
Select My Mailbox.
Select +Add to My Mailbox.
Choose 2-way sync and click Go >. The 2-way Sync Setup window opens.
Enter your email address in the Please Enter Your Email Address field.
Click Proceed.
Choose your email address and sign in to your email client. The My Mailbox Setup window opens.
Enter or select your Inbox settings:
1. Folders: The folders you want to see in your inbox.
2. Choose time period: The period from which you want to sync emails.
3. Sync emails from: Select the time period to sync emails from the given dropdown list.
4. Note: The information you enter in this step depends on the email client you are using.
Click Save.

Setting Up Group Mailboxes

A Group mailbox can be used as a single point of email contact for a team or group of users, just as a shared mailbox can be. As a team member, you can send-as or send-on-behalf of a Group mailbox, just as they would a shared mailbox.
You can have a default name for your Group Mailbox. You can allow users to set a default From name when creating and editing a Group Mailbox and allow the from name to be overwritten from the mail composer window for ad-hoc emails.

Follow these steps to set up a Group Mailbox:

Log in to your CRM account.
Click the Main Menu.
Go to Sales.
Select Inbox.
Select the Settings icon on the top right corner. The Mailbox Settings window opens.
Select Group Mailbox.
Select +Add Group Mailbox.
Enter or select the following information in the Adding New Group Mailbox window:
1. Address - The email ID of the group.
2. You can enable the Mark incoming emails as private by default checkbox to ensure that private emails to group members are visible only to the receivers.
3. Mailbox name - The group name.
4. Who should have access to this group mailbox? - The users or teams that have access to the mailbox
5. Does this account have a password? - Select the second option, as Group Inboxes do not have passwords.
  1. Yes (Individual accounts have passwords)
  2. No (Group accounts and aliases do not have a password)
  3. Add BCC address for replies - Add a BCC address.
Click Save.

Note:

Group Mailboxes do not have a two-way sync option.
An Admin user and the CRM account owner can access and alter group mailbox settings even if they are not a member of the group.

Now that you have learned about the various Inbox capabilities, you can start receiving emails. You can also send emails to others from your Inbox using the Compose button.

Email Settings

Let’s look into some of the settings that can be done to enhance the outgoing email activities.

Email Outgoing

The CRM displays information and the reason why an outgoing email fails. It also tells you what needs to be done to fix the issue.

Email Tracking

Manage your Leads and Contacts by eventually tracking their one-to-one email interactions by enabling the Email Tracking check box.

Note: Emails sent from Email Campaigns are always tracked by default and do not depend on these settings.

Reply - To Address
- Configure your Reply-To emails for Cases and Ad-hoc emails. Choose any one of the three options mentioned below for a Reply-To email:
  - User’s Primary Email address - The primary email configured in My Preferences.
  - User’s Primary Group Email - The email address of the primary group configured in My Preferences.
  - Outgoing email address - The email address configured in Mail Server Settings (SMTP).
  - Helpdesk Email/Other - Enter the Reply-To email ID and the name to which the customer will send a reply.
Email Verification
- Email verification is a service that helps you clean up your email list by validating email addresses to improve deliverability.
- In Vtiger, prevent email spoofing and avoid emails landing in the spam folder by verifying all the email addresses added to your instance.
- Verify email addresses added in a username, user’s primary email, and from and reply-to email fields of Email settings.
- An email address used in multiple areas needs one-time verification from any area.
- Admins can send a verification link to the email addresses added in and reply to fields by clicking on the alert icon.

If you own the email address, open the verification email and click the Yes, I own [email protected] button.

Internal Ticket Emails

Internal Tickets replies from your users will be sent to the address specified in this section, which applies only to emails sent from the Summary view of the Internal Tickets module.

Replies by users on Cases and Internal Tickets are cc’d to the email addresses specified in the Email Settings.

Ad-hoc Emails

Customers' replies for ad hoc emails will be sent to the specified address.

Note:
- By default, the outgoing server is configured with Vtiger CRM settings. You can manage to send out emails with these settings. However, we recommend you configure the Outgoing Server with your SMTP settings.
- If you prefer to retain the Vtiger server as the Outgoing Server, we urge you to configure your domain’s SPF record to include the Vtiger server as a valid sender for your domain.
- You can click “Reset to Default” in the edit view to populate the default set of values provided by Vtiger CRM.
- If you have changed your password (For example, Gmail password), please update the password in the Outgoing Server.

Font

Set up a company-wide font family and font size for all the emails you send from Vtiger.

Email Feedback Loop

An email feedback loop (FBL) is a mechanism provided by email service providers (ESPs) and mailbox providers (MBPs) that enables email senders to receive feedback on email delivery issues, recipient complaints, and spam reports directly from recipients.
Email feedback loops help email senders identify and address email delivery problems, improve email sending practices, and maintain a positive sender reputation and deliverability.

How Email Feedback Loops Work:

Recipient Complaints: When a recipient marks an email message as spam or junk in their email client or service, the email provider records the complaint and sends a feedback report to the email sender through the feedback loop.
Feedback Report: The feedback report contains details about the recipient's complaint, including the recipient's email address, the reported email message, and other relevant information.
Email Sender Action: Upon receiving the feedback report, the email sender can take appropriate actions, such as removing the recipient from the mailing list, investigating the email delivery issue, improving email content and sending practices, and addressing potential spam or abuse complaints.

Benefits of Email Feedback Loops:

Delivery Problem Identification: Email feedback loops help email senders identify and resolve email delivery issues, such as high bounce rates, spam complaints, and other delivery problems that may affect email deliverability.
Recipient Engagement: By monitoring recipient feedback and complaints, email senders can better understand recipient preferences, behaviors, and concerns, and improve email content, frequency, and relevance to enhance recipient engagement and satisfaction.
Sender Reputation Management: Proactively managing and addressing recipient complaints and feedback through email feedback loops helps email senders maintain a positive sender reputation, improve email deliverability, and establish trust and credibility with recipients and email providers.
Compliance with Email Regulations: Implementing email feedback loops and addressing recipient complaints and concerns demonstrates responsible email sending practices, compliance with email regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, and a commitment to maintaining a secure and trustworthy email environment.

Considerations for Using Email Feedback Loops:

Provider Participation: Email feedback loops are typically offered by major email providers, ISPs, and mailbox providers, and email senders need to register and establish a relationship with the respective providers to access feedback loop services.
Feedback Loop Registration: Email senders need to register and comply with the terms, requirements, and guidelines of each feedback loop provider to access and use feedback loop services effectively.
Action and Response: Addressing recipient complaints and feedback promptly, investigating and resolving email delivery issues, and implementing best practices and guidelines help email senders maintain a positive sender reputation, enhance email deliverability, and foster a secure and reliable email communication environment.

An email feedback loop is a valuable tool and service provided by email providers and mailbox providers that enables email senders to receive feedback on recipient complaints and spam reports, identify and address email delivery issues, and maintain a positive sender reputation and deliverability in email communication.

Ensuring Email Deliverability

Below are a few options to improve your email deliverability.

Use double opt-in lists: The difference between double and single opt-in is that with double opt-in (also called confirmed opt-in), people get a confirmation email after entering and submitting your form with their email address
Send emails at the right frequency: A good benchmarking is one email per week. You can try scaling up to twice weekly, as long as you have great content. You can even drop back to once a month
Authenticate your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: Email authentication protocols such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) help Internet Service Providers ensure that the email is from the company claiming to have sent it. Vtiger CRM supports SPF and DKIM authentication. To learn more, click here.
Personalize your email content: Personalize your emails using Vtiger CRM’s email templates. To know more, click here.

References

Check out the following links for additional information:

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