This tool is used for tracking external email communications between your staff and constituents in your database. These are email conversations with constituents that take place in an email program outside of Neon CRM, such as your organization's Outlook or Gmail applications. Neon CRM provides two unique email addresses for this purpose:
- External Email BCC Address - for adding to the BCC email field when you send an external email
- External Email Forwarding Address - for forwarding an external email you've received from a constituent
You can use these addresses to create a record of external email communications on the appropriate account in Neon CRM, if an account with the recipient's email address already exists in your database.
Learn how to use your bcc email and external email forwarding addresses in this step-by-step guide.
Recommended Reading Before You Start
Content
Use the External Email BCC Email Address
Use External Email Forwarding Address
Instructions
Use the External Email BCC Address
If you would like to create a record in Neon CRM of an external email that you send to a constituent, use the External Email BCC Address.
1. To locate this email address, navigate to the Settings cog and select Global Settings
2. Under Communications, select External Email Tracking.
3. Both types of external addresses are located here. We recommend that you use the page icon to quickly copy the BCC Address so that you can use it to create a new contact in your email program. Alternatively, you may copy and paste the full address string each time you need it, but adding a contact for the BCC email address will save you a step.
4. Open your external email program (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) to compose a new message. Add the Neon BCC email contact that you created (or copied) to the message and send. If the recipient's email address exists in the CRM, the email will be recorded in the account associated with that address.
5. Return to the CRM and use the search bar to search for the constituent’s account. Select Sent Emails and then External Emails to view the email.
The External Email BCC address will add a text-only copy of the email to the constituent's account (attachments will not be included). The constituent will see the email was sent from the external email address as usual.
Use the External Email Forwarding Address
If you would like to create a record in Neon CRM of an external email that you have already received from a constituent, you may use the External Email Forwarding Address to accomplish this.
1. As outlined in the External Email BCC Address section above, navigate to Global Settings -> External Email Tracking and use the page icon to copy the External Email Forwarding Address so that you can use it to create a new contact in your email program. Alternatively, you may copy and paste the full address string.
2. Open the email you received, select the forward option, and add the Neon Forwarding email contact that you created (or copied) to the message. If the 'from' email address exists in the CRM, the email will be recorded in the account associated with that address.
Note: This feature was designed to identify the target Neon CRM account by looking at the "From" email address in the forwarded email. To do that, the forwarded message must follow the format in the image below ('From' email address in the first line of the header). Emails sent from Outlook may not automatically use the required format, so you may need to manually edit the header in an Outlook email to ensure that the correct 'from' address is present in the first line.
3. Return to the CRM and use the search bar to search for the constituent’s account. Select Sent Emails and then External Emails to view the email.
The External Email Forwarding Address will add a text-only copy of the email to the constituent's account (attachments will not be included).
Please Note: Adding the External Email tracking addresses as contacts in your email program is a function completed by individual users in your organization. It is not a task that can be completed by Neon One staff.
Pro Tip!
To make these steps easier, add these email addresses to your contacts on your email. This way you will not have to find these email addresses in the CRM every time you use them.