In this guide, we cover the steps to set up Salesforce’s Outlook Integration and important concepts to keep in mind when choosing an Outlook integration for Salesforce. Salesforce’s Outlook integration is a free solution for manually logging emails, contacts, and calendar events between Outlook and Salesforce. This tool can help teams maintain accurate records in Salesforce, but has limitations such as manual data entry required by your team and no automation features.
For businesses looking for an automated and customizable email integration solution, Match My Email is a powerful alternative. MME automatically logs emails to the appropriate Salesforce records for you. It also offers permanent data storage and the ability to use email data with Salesforce tools like reports, Flows, and new AI tools. In the guide below, we offer a comprehensive guide to think through the many factors to take into consideration when choosing the right Outlook integration solution for your business.
At its core, Salesforce is a CRM focused on keeping clean and comprehensive records of customer relationships (Read more about it here: What Actually is Salesforce?).
Clean activity data for businesses is invaluable.
If your business is like most businesses, email conversations and calendar events are central to your relationships with customers. Having clean data on this activity between customers and your sales team is invaluable. This is why an Outlook integration that lets you bring email and calendar data into Salesforce could offer tremendous return on investment.
Accurate customer data at your sales reps’ fingertips.
When done right, having email and calendar activity logged in Salesforce records allows your sales reps to have up-to-date customer data at their fingertips at all times. Sales managers can also gain valuable insights that can drive revenue.
The common problem of manual logging and dirty activity data
The Outlook integration for Salesforce requires manual email and event logging by your team and does not include automated logging features. The issue is that Sales teams can struggle to stay on top of manual logging which can lead to incomplete and incorrect customer records. Not to mention it can waste valuable time of the Sales team.
In the section below, we go through all the steps to set up Outlook for Salesforce.
If you want to learn about the benefits of a more automated and intelligent Outlook integration, skip to the next section.
How to set up Outlook in Salesforce
Turn on Outlook Integration and Sync
- Click the gear icon on the top right of the page, then click Setup to launch the setup page.
- Enter “Outlook” in the Quick Find box and select Outlook Integration and Sync.
- Turn on Outlook Integration.
- Enable Customize Content with App Builder.
- In the Email Application Pane section, create a pane and use Lightning App Builder to add components to the pane and assign the pane to users. You get loads of flexibility in customizing how Salesforce content appears in Outlook. Learn how to use Lightning App Builder to make your reps even more productive.
Install the Salesforce add-in to Outlook
Once the Outlook Integration and Sync feature is turned on in Salesforce you can get your reps the Salesforce add-in for Outlook.
- Salesforce recommends IT teams deploy the Salesforce add-in for their teams instead of each rep installing it individually.
- If you are deploying the Salesforce add-in for your whole team, follow these steps from Microsoft: Deploy add-ins in the Microsoft 365 admin center
- For steps on how to install the Salesforce add-in, follow these steps: Use add-ins in Outlook
A more automated and intelligent solution than Outlook for Salesforce
Match My Email’s Outlook integration solution is built to ensure sales teams have clean activity data. Match My Email saves sales teams time from manual email logging and allows them to focus on driving revenue. Below, are four key benefits Match My Email offers compared to Outlook for Salesforce:
- Outlook emails and events are automatically and intelligently logged.
- Your data is stored permanently and natively in your Salesforce Org.
- Use Outlook email and event data with Salesforce tools like reports, flows and AI tools.
- Not needing to onboard your employees on to another work tool
The importance of automated email logging
Email logging for Salesforce is the way email messages get associated with Salesforce records. One email message may have a user (sales rep), multiple leads, multiple contacts and an account associated with it. The old fashioned way to do email logging is to have sales reps manually log their emails and associate them with each Salesforce record.
Avoid wasting rep’s time. Avoid human error.
There are two issues with manual email logging. It is a poor use of your sales rep’s valuable time and introduces lots of human error in the data. Sometimes, manual email logging can be done so poorly that large amounts of Salesforce data can be useless.
Use intelligent and automated email syncing instead.
The alternative way to do email logging is with an automated syncing algorithm. All sales reps need to do is make sure a Contact exists in Salesforce for emails and events to the be added to the right records in Salesforce.
Don’t let sales reps leave leads in their inbox.
Match My Email also offers custom matching to allow your organization to fine-tune matching in your organization. And what if sales reps are emailing with leads and contacts not yet in Salesforce? MME created the Email Sync Assistant to help your reps create records quickly.
Outlook data storage in Salesforce
Data storage is another important topic for Outlook integration. It is important to know how long your business needs to store email and event data and where the data is stored.
Make sure valuable Outlook data isn’t deleted due to storage limits.
The way to figure this out is to do research and see how long sales cycles and customer relationships can be at your business. Your business may need to store data for longer periods of time for regulatory reasons. It is a good idea to look into that as well.
Some Outlook integration solutions like Einstein Activity Capture standard only store emails for 6 months. Be sure to not overlook the length of data storage when assessing vendors. Match My Email, offers permanent data storage that you control.
Understand if the Outlook data will be stored inside of or outside of Salesforce.
You may not expect it but Salesforce’s native Einstein Activity Capture tool stores data on a separate server hosted by AWS. This makes using email data with the rest of Salesforce’s functionality like reporting, flows, AI tools like prompt builder and powerful tools like Data Cloud difficult or not possible today.
Alternatively, MME favors and recommends storing data within Salesforce with the rest of your data. MME built its Outlook integration to store email and calendar data within your Salesforce because then you have complete control of it and it allows you to unlock more value from existing Salesforce tools.
Use Outlook data in Salesforce reports, flows and new AI tools.
The whole point of integrating Outlook with Salesforce is to be able to use Outlook data in Salesforce! When assessing your organization’s needs, think through what you want to use Outlook data for within Salesforce.
Store outlook data in Salesforce to use with reports, flows and AI tools.
Does your team use lots of standard reports? Do your teams use lots of flows? Perhaps your team is leaning into AI and want to use email data for AI-related use cases.
Because MME stores Outlook data in Salesforce, Outlook data can be used in standard reports, flows, Salesforce AI tools like prompt builder, and powerful data tools like Data Cloud. When vetting vendors, make sure their solution will let you and your team do the things you want to be able to do in Salesforce.
Avoid adding an unnecessary work tool to your business.
It is also important to consider if an Outlook integration solution will require your team to set up a new work tool for your business. Factor in the time and cost of onboarding employees onto that tool if so. Lots of integration solutions on the market will require you to onboard employees onto another work tool.
Too many work tools can hurt productivity.
Every new work tool IT teams implement makes getting work done more complex. As businesses scale, it is not uncommon for there to be employees working across dozens of work tools. This can end up hurting productivity instead of helping it.
This is why MME built its tool within Salesforce. It allows MME customers to better leverage the vast Salesforce functionality available. It also save teams from having to learn, think about, and manage another work tool.
Next Steps
Looking for a powerful alternative to Salesforce’s Outlook integration? Click here to start a free trial with Match My Email today: Start your 14-day free trial
FAQ
Can Outlook integrate with Salesforce?
Yes, Outlook can integrate with Salesforce with Salesforce’s Outlook Integration & Sync tool. This integration allows users to sync emails, calendar events, contacts, and tasks between Outlook and Salesforce. With Salesforce’s Add-in for Outlook, users can easily log emails, track customer interactions, and view relevant Salesforce records directly from their Outlook inbox. These free integration tools from Salesforce have limitations and requires manual work by Salesforce teams that use it.
What is the difference between Salesforce Outlook Integration & Sync, the Salesforce Add-in for Outlook, and Salesforce for Outlook.
Salesforce offers a number of similarly-named tools for integrating Outlook and Salesforce. Salesforce Outlook Integration & Sync is a free integration tool that allows your team to manually sync emails, events and contacts from Outlook to Salesforce. the Salesforce Add-in for Outlook is a sidebar Salesforce reps can use within Outlook. Salesforce for Outlook is a different legacy tool that will be getting retired in 2027.
What are the benefits of an Outlook integration with Salesforce?
An Outlook integration with Salesforce can ensure your business has clean activity data of your’s sales team’s interactions with customers. With clean and accurate email and calendar data on each lead and contact, sales reps have valuable customer context at their finger tips. the best way to ensure an Outlook integration with Salesforce results in clean activity data is using a tool with automated email and calendar sync like Match My Email.
What are common issues for Outlook integrations with Salesforce?
The most common issues customers face with Outlook integrations with Salesforce in the market are manual data entry, human error, Outlook data duplication, temporary data storage, data storage outside of Salesforce, and inability to use Outlook data with features like reports and flows. All of these issues are good to look out for when assessing integration tools. Match My Email is proud to offer a solution that ensures Salesforce customers avoid these issues and the negative impacts they can have on their business.
Is Salesforce Outlook integration being discontinued?
No, Salesforce Outlook integration is not being discontinued, but it has undergone significant updates and changes in recent years. The older Salesforce for Outlook integration is being retired, Salesforce for Outlook. Many Salesforce users who rely on Salesforce for Outlook use this opportunity to reassess their integration needs and consider Salesforce Lightning for Outlook as well as third-party solutions like Match My Email.
Can Salesforce automatically log emails from Outlook?
Yes, you can automatically log emails with Salesforce from Outlook using Einstein Activity Capture or third-party apps like Match My Email. Both options synchronize the logging of Outlook emails and events to the appropriate Salesforce records such as contacts, leads, and accounts. Salesforce customers seek alternatives to Einstein Activity Capture for a few key reason such as temporary data storage, data storage not in Salesforce, and the inability or difficulty using Outlook data with Salesforce tools like reports and flows. These are some key reasons customers choose Match My Email as an Einstein Activity Capture alternative.
