Overview
The built-in email tools make it easy to stay in touch with your leads. Whether you're following up with a single contact, setting up a message to go out later, or reaching a whole group of leads at once, you can do it without switching to a separate email client. Every email you send is also saved as a note on the lead, so your full communication history is always in one place.
This article walks you through each of these options. It also covers two steps that help your emails get delivered: verifying your own sender address, which you'll need to do before sending your first email, and validating your recipients' addresses before you send.
You'll also learn how to track email opens, link clicks, and website visits so your sales team can follow up with leads at the right moment.
Prerequisites
To send and receive emails directly within Merchant Central, you must first sync your personal email account with the CRM.
More Info: Gmail & Outlook Sync Email Integration Guide
Sending an Email
To send an email, click the Quick Email icon in any email field.
The email window opens.
Email Window Fields
- Contact Email: Automatically filled in with the recipient's email address. You are the sender.
- Sender Email: If you have more than one email address set up in the CRM, select the address you want to send from.
- Template: Select a different email template if needed. When you select a template, the subject line, preview text, and email body update automatically to match it. For more information, see Adding/Editing Email Templates.
Preview Text
The Preview Text (also called the email preheader) is a short summary that appears after the subject line in the recipient's inbox, before they open the email.
As you enter the subject and preview text, a live preview shows exactly what the recipient will see in their inbox.
- Preview text is limited to 150 characters.
- If you leave the preview text blank, the recipient's inbox shows the first part of the email body instead.
- A custom, targeted preview text can help improve email open rates.
Editing the Email
To edit the email, click Edit. The email opens in edit mode.
If you have a headset, you can dictate your email instead of typing it. For more information, see Using Speech Recognition.
When you finish editing, click Done to save your changes.
Sending the Email
Click Send Email. A confirmation message appears when the email is sent successfully. A new note is then added to the lead's Notes tab.
To view the sent email, click the envelope icon on the note.
Tracking Site Visitors
Your CRM allows you to track visitor activity on your websites and display that information directly on the lead in real time. Visitor activity is also saved in the lead's notes.
Knowing when prospective leads open emails and visit your website helps your sales representatives follow up with a call, email, or SMS at the right moment.
Your site administrator must enable visitor tracking by adding a tracking code to your website. For more information, see Visitor Tracking Sites.
Tracking a Lead
If your administrator has enabled visitor tracking, a Track Visitors checkbox appears when you compose an email to a lead. This checkbox is selected by default.
When you send the email, the lead's website activity is automatically tracked and displayed on the lead.
If you don't want to track a specific lead, clear the Track Visitors checkbox before sending the email.
If your administrator has enabled the email open alert option on the email template, you will also receive a notification when the lead opens your email.
The default visitor tracking setting and email open alert option are managed in Email Templates.
Email Open Alerts
When a lead opens an email, all users assigned to that lead receive a notification in the top-right corner of the CRM. The notification also features a five-minute countdown timer.
Click the lead's name in the notification to open their lead record.
To call the lead using the Dialer, click the green phone icon in the notification.
The email open event also appears in the lead's notes.
Tracking Clicks and Page Views
When a lead clicks a tracked link in an email, all users assigned to that lead receive a notification in the top-right corner.
The notification continues to display the lead's activity, including when they click another tracked link or view another page on your website.
You can take several actions directly from the notification:
- View a page: Click the page link to see which website page the lead is viewing.
- Open the lead: Click the lead's name at the top of the notification.
- Call the lead: Click Call to open the CRM Dialer.
- Take another action: Click More to add a task, add a lead note, send an email, or send an SMS.
The lead's visitor activity is also saved in the lead's notes.
To display only visitor tracking notes, select the Visitor Tracking note filter on the lead and clear the other note filters.
For more information, see Filtering Notes.
Where the Quick Email Icon Appears
- Lead fields: The Quick Email icon appears in lead fields that are configured as Quick Email fields in the field settings. For more information, see Managing Lead Fields and Tabs.
- Merchant Details page: If the lead is linked to a merchant account, the Quick Email icon may also appear in email fields on the Profile tab of the Merchant Details page. Emails sent from this page are also logged as notes on the lead's Notes tab.
Verifying Your Sender Email Address
New CRM users must verify their email address before they can send emails.
If you try to send an email before verifying your address, a warning icon appears next to the Sender Email field in the email window. Click the icon to start the verification.
A verification email with an activation link is sent to your email address.
The warning icon changes to show that verification is in progress.
After you click the activation link and verify your address, the warning icon disappears and you can send emails from the CRM.
Validating Email Addresses
You can validate recipient email addresses before sending messages. Validating addresses helps improve your email delivery rates.
You can validate emails from:
- A lead email field
- The Quick Email pop-up
- The Lead Importer
Validate an Email From a Lead Email Field
Enter an email address in the lead email field, then click the Validate Email button next to the field.
The result appears as a message in the top-right corner, and an icon appears next to the email address.
- If the email is valid, an Email is valid confirmation message appears. A green icon also appears next to the email address.
- If the email is invalid or identified as a potential spam trap, an appropriate message appears. Also a red icon appears next to the email address.
- If the email address can't be validated using any of the available validation methods, a message appears to advise that address can't be validated without sending out the email.
- If the email validation server is temporarily unavailable, a Service Unavailable message appears.
Here are a few examples of the validation messages.
Validate Emails From the Quick Email Pop-up
In the Quick Email pop-up, click the Validate button.
Each email address you entered is validated, and the results appear below the Contact Email box. To see an explanation of a result, hover over the question mark next to that email address.
Validate Emails in the Lead Importer
Email addresses can be validated automatically when you import leads into the CRM from a CSV file. For more information on importing leads, see Lead Importer.
- Upload your CSV file and select the import defaults.
- Map the CSV columns to the corresponding lead fields.
- Click the gear icon on your email field, and select Validate Email.
- Choose whether to move or delete invalid emails.
- Save your changes and complete the import process.
Every email address in the CSV file will now be validated.
If you chose the Move Invalid Emails option, the invalid email address will be moved to a different email field that you selected in the validation settings.
If you chose to Delete Invalid Emails, the invalid email addresses will not imported into the CRM.
When the import is complete, the import report shows the number of invalid emails.
To see the invalid emails, click the number next to the red email icon. A report opens with details on each email that failed validation.
Managing Email Validation
To manage email validation, go to Manage → Email & SMS → Manage Email Validation. The Email Validation page shows how many emails your team has validated, your remaining validation credits, and an option to validate an individual email address.
Click View All Results to open the Email Validation Metrics report. You can filter the report and export it to Excel or CSV. Click Manage Plans to open the Billing page, where you can review and select an Email Validation plan.
Scheduling an Email
You can write an email in advance and schedule it to be sent automatically at a later date and time.
How to Schedule an Email
1. Start a new email. On the lead form, click the Quick Email button next to the contact you want to email.
2. Compose your message. In the email editor, write your message, then click Schedule Email.
3. Set the date and time. In the pop-up, choose when the email should be sent, then click Schedule.
4. Track the scheduled email. A note appears on the lead page with the details of the scheduled email.
After the email is sent, a second note appears confirming the send, along with key details. Use the icons in the top-right corner of this note to view, reply to, forward, or delete the email.
How to Reschedule or Cancel a Scheduled Email
To reschedule or cancel a scheduled email, click the schedule icon on the email note.
In the pop-up, choose to reschedule or cancel the email.
The other two icons on the note let you edit the email text or delete the note. Deleting the note automatically cancels the scheduled email.
Sending Mass Emails
You can send a mass email to selected leads from the My Leads page or the Calendar page.
Mass Email Limits
- 2,000 email messages per day
- 10,000 email recipients per day
- 500 email messages/recipients per send
- 500 email messages per user per day
Required Permission
To send mass emails, your user class must have the Send Mass Email permission enabled.
Send a Mass Email From the My Leads Page
On the My Leads page, select your leads, then click Actions > Send Mass Email.
The mass email window opens. Select a predefined email template or write a new email from scratch.
When you're done, click View Recipients to review the recipient list and make any final adjustments before sending.
Reviewing Email Recipients
The Email Recipients pop-up groups recipients into three categories:
- Valid: Recipients with a valid email address.
- Invalid: Recipients with no email address set, or an invalid email address.
- Excluded: Recipients you removed from the mailing list in the Email Recipients pop-up.
Click the Delete icon next to a recipient to remove them from the mailing list, or click the Eye icon to see a live preview of the email for that recipient.
When you finish editing the mailing list, click Apply to save your changes, then send the mass email.
Note: Mass emails are sent to both valid and invalid recipients. Only excluded recipients are skipped.
After the emails are sent, a confirmation message appears in the top-right corner.
Send a Mass Email From the Calendar Page
On the Calendar page, switch to List View using the three-dots button in the top-right corner.
Select your leads, click Mass Actions, and choose the mass email option. Then follow the same steps described in Send a Mass Email From the My Leads Page.
Receiving & Replying to Emails
Incoming emails appear as popup notifications, allowing you to view and reply to messages directly from the notification.
All incoming emails are also automatically saved to the corresponding lead's notes. From there, you can use the shortcuts on each note to view, reply to, or forward emails.