Mail Sync is a powerful tool that allows you to connect your inbox to SharpSpring. Once enabled, any email you send through that inbox—and any Smart Mail that you send out of SharpSpring—will be recorded. This way, you can keep track of you and your team's emails with your leads. This article will provide details and information on how to sync your mailbox.
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How SMTP Works
When sending Smart Mail, SMTP is the half of the process that sends outgoing emails to a mail server. POP and IMAP are the other half of the process that retrieves email from a mail server.
For SMTP, the mail server will do the following:
- Determine if an email sender has the authority or right to send outgoing mail
- Send the requested outgoing email, if possible
- Return undeliverable mail to the sender
SMTP mail servers break email addresses down into two parts: the recipient ID and the domain name. In an email address, the recipient ID is the identifying alias name that comes before the @ symbol. The domain name is the domain of the email provider, and it comes after the @ symbol.
Consider the following email address: emailuser2000@awesomemail.com. In this email address, emailuser2000 is the recipient ID, and awesomemail.com is the domain name.
When sending Smart Mail, a SMTP mail server will attempt to locate the target mail server that shares the domain name of the email (the email that you have synced).
For example, if you are sending an email to emailuser2000@awesomemail.com, then the SMTP server will locate the awesomemail.com mail server and send the email there. In order to do this in SharpSpring, you will first have to set up Mail Sync.
SMTP Limitations
While the process of sending via SMTP is largely the same across different email providers, the amount of email that can be sent—as well as other available features—can vary substantially. These limitations mainly take the form of a quota for sending limits in one way or another. These limits may include:
- The maximum number of recipients that can be set to receive an email
- An email's overall file size
- How many emails can be sent at a daily or hourly rate
Once these quotas are exceeded, you will be unable to send emails until that quota resets. It is important to understand that these limitations are safeguards and are meant to limit the numbers of email sent through SMTP servers. These safeguards are in place to protect your email sender reputation. As always, sending too many emails can make you appear as though you are sending spam emails or otherwise abusing your sending privileges.
The major email providers each have different SMTP limitations for sending emails. Be aware that these limitations are constantly changing and that the following information may be outdated. For more information, refer to your email provider's SMTP policy.
| AOL | Gmail | Hotmail | ||
| 100 recipient maximum (per email) |
100 emails (daily maximum) |
100 emails (daily maximum) |
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| 500 recipient maximum (per connection) |
500 recipient maximum (per connection) |
100 recipient maximum (per connection) |
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| 16MB size limit (per email) |
10MB size limit (per email) |
25MB size limit (per email) |
| Office365 | Outlook | Yahoo! | ||
| 10,000 recipient maximum (daily rate limit) |
300 emails (daily maximum) |
500 emails (daily maximum) |
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| 500 recipient maximum (per connection) |
100 recipient maximum (per email) |
100 recipient maximum (per email) |
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| 25MB–150MB size limit (per email, varies by license) |
50MB size limit (per email) |
25MB size limit (per email) |
Understanding Mail Sync
When Mail Sync is enabled, the feature looks through the enabled client's inbox/outbox and finds matches for the email addresses currently in SharpSpring. All conversations will be pulled in at the time of setup.
If a lead exists in SharpSpring, and the sync is enabled, historical emails between you and that lead will be pulled as long as there are emails to that lead in your email's Sent folder. If you enable the sync and then add a lead, no historical emails between you and that lead will be pulled. In that case, only all emails moving forward will show up in the Life of the Lead.
Once a user has a synced mailbox, any Smart Mail will be sent through their synced mailbox. This allows for better email delivery and personal, one-to-one communication. For example, if you are sending Smart Mail, and your synced email is emailuser2000@gmail.com, then the recipient will receive the email from your synced account—Gmail, in this case—and not a SharpSpring domain.
Setting Up Preset Mail Sync
To set up Mail Sync and tracking for preset providers, do the following:
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Important: If the account password is changed outside of SharpSpring, it will need to be changed within SharpSpring as well.
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Important: SharpSpring Free CRM users are limited to 100 daily synced emails per user.
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User Menu > Settings in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
Once you save your account settings, SharpSpring will immediately start to sync your mailbox. Depending on the number of emails in it, this could take some time.
Once syncing has been set up, your Smart Mails will be sent from your connected domain and not from SharpSpring. For example, if your Mail Sync is set up for Gmail, Smart Mails sent from SharpSpring will actually come from your Gmail email address.
Setting Up Custom Mail Sync
SharpSpring also allows you to monitor IMAP-enabled accounts and will require information for both IMAP and SMTP sending accounts.
Setting IMAP SyncingTo set up and configure custom IMAP parameters for Mail Sync, do the following:
Setting SMTP SyncingTo set up and configure custom SMTP parameters for Mail Sync, do the following:
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Important: If the account password is changed outside of SharpSpring, it will need to be changed within SharpSpring as well.
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Important: When using a custom IMAP account, make sure the account is enabled for IMAP to be compatible for syncing. Additionally, confirm that your email information is accurate. Failure to do so may result in the inability to integrate your account.
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Important: Due to how GoDaddy configures their IMAP services, GoDaddy users may have inconsistent Mail Sync results when using the SecureServer.net hostname.
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Note: For information on your provider's SMTP hostname and port parameters, contact your administrator.
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Once syncing has been set up, your emails will be sent from domains other than the SharpSpring domain.
For more information on setting up Mail Sync with providers that are not preset in SharpSpring, refer to Enabling and Configuring Mail Sync for Custom Providers.
Disabling Mail Sync
When disabling Mail Sync, you can choose to either keep or remove all previous communication. This means that, if you so choose, you can remove all prior Mail Sync entries from relevant Life of the Lead entries, as well as relevant opportunities. To disable Mail Sync, do the following:
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Once your email sync has been removed, you will need to enter new sync information in order for SMTP and other sync features to be enabled.
In addition, once you disable syncing, administrators will see the Your Mail Sync is not configured link eventually appear again in the top toolbar. Use the Mail Sync tool to re-sync as necessary.
Validating Mail Sync Status
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There are many moving parts with Mail Sync, so the process might not connect or may otherwise result in error. However, you can tell if Mail Sync was successful with just a glance. |
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User Menu > Settings > Mail Sync in SharpSpring's top toolbar to access the log of all recent errors.
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Connection |
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Unable to connect for two days due to errors. No longer trying to sync. Billing will not be enabled for the duration of this issue. |
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Error |
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An error occurred when attempting to sync the user account's email. Errors include, but are not limited to, using an invalid email address or certain email connectivity issues. |
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Pending |
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This user account is waiting for a raise in the company's mailbox sync limit, or waiting for someone else to disconnect from the company mailbox so that they are below the sync limit. |
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Enabled |
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Mail Sync was successfully enabled for this user account. |
For more information on troubleshooting Mail Sync errors, refer to Troubleshooting IMAP Sync Errors.
Adjusting User Mailbox Limits
The number of allotted IMAP mailboxes for users that are set to your account are displayed in the Services and Limits menu. You will be charged an additional fee for each additional user mailbox beyond your allotted IMAP mailboxes.
Administrators can adjust how many user mailboxes they would like to allow syncing for in their account. To set user mailbox limits, do the following:
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Agencies can limit the number of client synced user mailboxes. For more information, refer to Managing Client Configuration Settings.
Blacklisting Lead Histories
If you do not want specific contacts or companies to show their lead history, do the following:
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By default, your own company's email domain is already blacklisted. Though SharpSpring does not recommend disabling this setting, you can do so if necessary. This setting is located in your Company Profile.
SharpSpring IP Addresses
Mail Sync in SharpSpring allows for you to view and track all personal email conversations with your leads. If you are syncing with an IMAP-enabled email client, you may need access to the IPs that SharpSpring uses for the Mail Sync in order to connect with certain email servers. These are static IPs dedicated explicitly for IMAP syncing, and they will not change.
Below is a listing of the IMAP sync IP addresses SharpSpring uses:
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Escalating Sales
Tracking email conversations in SharpSpring helps to escalate sales. Consider the following:
| Potential Benefit | Benefit Consideration | |||
| Reminders |
Syncing and tracking provides a reminder of the specific service or product interest of the lead. Sales representatives can quickly navigate to a lead record and view the email correspondence directly from the lead, allowing sales to come into the conversation ready to speak to the specific interests of the lead. |
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| Conflict Prevention |
Prevent conflict among lead ownership across sales to see who initially owned the conversation with a lead. |
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| Communication Retention |
Accelerate the sales process by retaining important communication between leads in an easily accessible area of SharpSpring. |
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| Scenario Mitigation |
Mitigate he said/she said scenarios. By capturing all email communication with a sales team and leads, you can refer back to what was specifically stated within an email to reduce confusion on what dialogue may have occurred. |
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| Re-engagement |
Pick conversations right back where they left off. Not all leads are immediately ready to buy, but by retaining communication history when a lead returns, a sale team can find the last discussion point, and pick back up on the momentum of the conversation. |
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| Knowledge Continuation |
Reduce loss of tribal knowledge. If salespeople transition their leads, the new representative does not need to do everything over again to uncover the specific interests of the lead, as all previous communication has been stored. |
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| Chronological Progression |
Review a chronological listing of all communication between sales working the deal and the leads responding in specific opportunities. |
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| Sales Trends |
Use the Activity Report to see a trend of how many personal emails help drive sales based on pipeline stage. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does SMTP prevent spam mail or phishing?
A: By itself, no. However, while in no way foolproof, mail servers utilize safeguards to help deal with potentially problematic email. These safeguards include, but are not limited to:
- Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC)
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
Q: What does SMTP mean for Smart Mail?
A: After you have set up Mail Sync, Smart Mail will be sent through your synced inbox.
Q: If I am an Administrator, can I set up Mail Sync for other users or my entire team?
A: No. Each user has to log in and go through these steps. This is because Mail Sync ties their own email address to the user email address they used to log in. As such, each user has to be logged in to set up their own Mail Sync.
Q: How far back does Mail Sync pull information?
A: Mail Sync performs a single historical sync that looks at the leads in SharpSpring before looking at your inbox. If you have an email from ten years ago still in your inbox, it should pull that email in. In the same manner, if you add a lead to SharpSpring after the fact, the historical email content will not be pulled. The only way to trigger another historical search is to disconnect and then reconnect MailSync. Be aware that the Life of the Lead only displays the 300 most recent events, which means that, even if Mail Sync pulls in historical content, that content may not be shown on a lead's record.