Email in SmartSimple supports a range of communication methods, including bulk messages to targeted recipients, automated notifications triggered by configured workflows, and individual ad hoc messages. Administrators can tailor email content and delivery, including the address messages are sent from. SmartSimple sends email as configured, but delivery depends on limitations and recommended practices that help messages reach recipients. These practices reflect evolving industry standards for email authentication and deliverability, and they can change over time.
Who: Global administrators
When to Use Email
Use email in SmartSimple when:
- The same message needs to reach many recipients at once.
- The system should send notifications automatically based on workflow conditions.
- A user needs to send an individual message to a contact from within a record.
Bulk Email
Email Broadcast
The Email Broadcast feature sends bulk email to users. Administrators define the recipient list using the same search criteria available in the People list view, selecting users by role, field value, company category, or a field value on the parent company of the user.
Group Email
Group Email sends email from a list view of records to the users associated with those records. It is available from any UTA/module list view or Organization list view. Group Email directs messages to users linked by a specific role to a set of records, filtered by any criteria available in the list view, such as type, status, or field value. The message can reference the record, so information from the record appears in the email. For example, a reminder can be sent to the owners of UTA/module records in draft status, prompting them to submit.
Group Email can also be configured to send once per contact instead of once per record, so a contact included on multiple records receives only one email.
Automated Email
Workflow Acknowledgement Tasks
Workflows can include Acknowledgement tasks, which send automated email notifications, such as reminder or follow-up emails, based on the same conditions that trigger a workflow. Acknowledgement tasks can send notifications to any users associated with the triggering record. These notifications can include information drawn from the record.
Other Types of Automated Emails
Other Automated Emails include:
- Registration Emails
- Forgot Password Emails
- Password Change Confirmation Emails
- Invitation Emails
Ad Hoc Email
Message Center
Users can send an individual email to another user by clicking the recipient's email address on their user profile. This opens the Message Center, where the user composes the message and sends it through SmartSimple.
Email Templates
Administrators can configure templates for end users to ensure consistent branding and standard text. A user selects a template while composing an email, and the template populates the email content. Templates can be scoped to specific contexts and roles, and a user can have an email signature that appends automatically to each message they create.
Save Email to the System
Activity Records
Emails can be saved to SmartSimple as activity records. Configuring an activity type to represent email lets the system store sent and received messages against the relevant record.
Email Anything
The Email Anything feature generates a unique email address for an individual record. Emails sent to that address is processed by SmartSimple and linked to the record as a Level 2, Level 3, Organization, or Contact, so all email related to a record can be tracked as activities. Email Anything supports Level 1 correspondence, Level 2 correspondence, and other correspondence in the system.
Email Domain and Deliverability
Sending from a corporate domain using an SMTP relay is recommended instead of sending from the SmartSimple domain. An SMTP relay routes email through the corporate mail exchange system, which supports authenticated delivery and reduces the chance that messages are classified as spam. Sending from a corporate domain without an SMTP relay is not recommended, because it significantly increases that risk.
Security Implications
- The Email Options and Security settings control which roles can send email, restrict recipients, and set alerts for failed messages.
- The failed email alert notifies designated recipients when messages fail to send.
- An SMTP relay is the most reliable method for sending from a corporate domain.
Resources
For more information about email, see: