Email-to-Lead

Email-to-Lead

• is a feature in Salesforce Sales Cloud that allows you to automatically create a lead record from an email. When an email is sent to a specified email address, Salesforce processes the content of the email and extracts key information (such as the sender’s name, email address, and company details) to create a lead record in your Salesforce instance. This feature is especially useful for businesses that receive inquiries via email and want to streamline the process of capturing potential leads directly into their CRM system.

How It Works:

• • • Inbound Email Service: Salesforce uses an Inbound Email Service to receive and process emails sent to a designated email address.
    • Email Parsing: The email is parsed, and Salesforce extracts relevant information (like the sender’s name, company, and message content) to populate the lead fields.
    • Lead Creation: Salesforce automatically creates a new lead record with the parsed information.
    • Assignment Rules: The new lead can be automatically assigned to a specific user or queue based on predefined lead assignment rules.
    • Custom Mapping: You can define custom mappings for email fields to lead fields, allowing you to capture additional information.

Steps to Create Email-to-Lead in Salesforce

To set up Email-to-Lead, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create an Email Service

• • 1. 1. Navigate to Setup:
          • Go to Salesforce Setup by clicking on the gear icon in the upper-right corner.
       2. Search for Email Services:
          • In the Quick Find box, type “Email Services” and select it from the search results.
       3. Create New Email Service:
          • Click “New Email Service.”
          • Enter a name for the service (e.g., “EmailToLead”).
          • Set the Apex Class that handles the email. (You may need to create a custom Apex class if a standard one does not exist.)
       4. Set Service Parameters:
          • • Set “Accept Attachments” to true if you want to process attachments.

          

          • Specify any other parameters as needed.
       5. Save and Create Email Address:
          • • Save the service, then create a new email address associated with this service.
            • Salesforce generates an email address for you (e.g., ⦁ lead_creation_service@f-⦁ q548yj5hoq4faf8ip4nqx4kl0afcpagu83ulnb461vgcd46j9.ir-1kbp52ao.ap67.apex.salesforce.com

          

Step 2: Create an Apex Class for Email Processing (Optional)

If you need custom processing, you might need to create an Apex class. Here’s an example:

global class EmailToLead implements Messaging.InboundEmailHandler {
    global Messaging.InboundEmailResult handleInboundEmail(Messaging.InboundEmail email, Messaging.InboundEnvelope envelope) {
        Messaging.InboundEmailResult result = new Messaging.InboundEmailResult();
        
        // Extract data from the email
        String emailBody = email.plainTextBody;
        String subject = email.subject;
        String senderEmail = envelope.fromAddress;
        String senderName = email.fromName;
        
        // Create a new lead record
        Lead newLead = new Lead();
        newLead.LastName = senderName;
        newLead.Email = senderEmail;
        newLead.Company = 'Unknown Company'; // Set a default or extract from email if possible
        newLead.Description = emailBody;
        insert newLead;
        
        result.success = true;
        return result;
    }
}

1. Send a Test Email
   • • Open your email client (e.g., Gmail, Outlook).
     • Compose a new email.
     • In the “To” field, enter the email address generated by Salesforce for your Email Service (e.g., lead_creation_service@f-q548yj5hoq4faf8ip4nqx4kl0afcpagu93ulnb461vgcd46j9.ir-1kbp72ao.ap47.apex.salesforce.com). Add a subject and body text to the email, as this information will be used to populate the lead fields in Salesforce.

   Example:

   • • Subject: New Business Opportunity
     • Body: We are interested in your services. Please contact us at (123) 456-7890.
     • From Address: Make sure the “From” address is valid and can be processed by Salesforce (this is often your email address).
2. Monitor Email Service Logs (Optional)
   • Navigate to Setup.
   • In the Quick Find box, type “Email Logs” and select Email Logs.
   • Generate a log to ensure that Salesforce received and processed the email. This can help troubleshoot issues if the lead isn’t created as expected.
3. Check Lead Creation in Salesforce
   • Go to Salesforce and navigate to the Leads tab.
   • Look for a new lead record created from your test email.
   • Verify that the lead’s fields (e.g., Email, Description, Last Name, Company) have been populated with the correct data from the email.