Create and send an email message

Article
11/24/2023

When your organization turns on email engagement, more choices are available, such as follow or unfollow, when you compose an email.

License and role requirements

Requirement type	You must have
License	Dynamics 365 Sales Premium or Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
Security roles	Any primary sales role, such as salesperson or sales manager

Create a message

The features of email engagement apply to every email that you send through Dynamics 365 Sales. When you send an email, it automatically adds an email activity to the record, and that record is set as the message's Regarding value. Also, the email engagement feature collects key performance indicators (KPIs) and determines where the email is displayed based on the recipients (To, From, and Copy-to addresses).

Note

Emails can't be tracked if a recipient chooses to block. More information: blocks followed messages.
Email engagement isn't supported when you send bulk email.

The following legend explains the different options that are available:

Attachment: A list of files attached to your email along with controls for adding, removing, and modifying the attachments.
Follow/Don't Follow: Turn on following to track your customer's engagement with the message or turn it off to stop tracking. Other controls and links appear as needed, such as when a recipient doesn't allow following.
Send Later: Set the delivery time for your message if you don't want to send it right away. Recommended delivery times may appear here, depending on the recipient's time zone.
Set a Reminder: Set a reminder to follow up at a specific time. For example, you might want to get an alert if the message remains unopened for three days.
Insert Template: Insert standard text that you can revise as needed. Your organization can have multiple templates depending on the business requirements, such as a meeting follow-up or an introduction. Email engagement suggests a template based on previous performance.

To create and send an email:

Open the record you want to add the activity to (typically a contact, opportunity, lead, or account).
In the Timeline section, select + (Create a timeline record) > Email.
Select a recipient and enter the message subject.
Enter the body of your message, or insert an email template.
Select Send, or select Save to save the message as a draft and finish it later.

Tip

To add a link to your message, select the text you want to add the link to, press Ctrl+K, and type or paste the link address.

Use an email template

Email templates are standard messages that you send often, such as introductions, confirmations, thank-you messages, and reminders. They can include dynamic values that are filled in automatically, like the recipient's name or an order number. They give you a quick start when you're writing common messages.

Email engagement analyzes the performance of all the messages your sales team has sent from Dynamics 365 Sales and identifies the most successful templates. It shows all available templates, but highlights the ones that it found to generate the most opens, replies, or sales.

Create a message.
On the command bar, select Insert Template.
In the Email templates window, select the language if needed, and then search for and select a template.

Select Template window

Select Apply template.
Customize the template content as needed.
Select Send, or select Save to save the message as a draft and finish it later.

Follow or unfollow a message

When you follow an email, email engagement can tell you when the recipient opened it, replied to it, opened an attachment, or selected a link in it.

The Email Engagement section includes the following indicators and controls:

: Indicates you're following the current email, including any links you include, and you have the option to follow any files you attach. Select Don't Follow to stop tracking the message.

This state is the default for new messages when your organization has turned on email engagement and all the recipients allow following.
: Indicates you're not following the current email, including any links you include. You can't follow any attachments either. Select Follow to turn on following if the recipients allow it.
: Indicates that one or more recipients have following set to Do Not Allow. You can't follow this message unless you either remove the recipients that don't allow following or change their setting.
- Select View Preferences to view the recipient names and following preferences in a new window. Select a name to open the recipient's record.
- If you removed recipients who don't want to be followed or changed their setting to allow following, select Retry Follow to try again.
- Select Don't Follow to stop trying to follow this message.

Within about 15 minutes after a followed message is opened, the system creates an action card in the assistant. The card includes links to the message and related records and action buttons to generate a call activity, snooze the alert, or dismiss it. Learn more about guided customer communications with assistant.

Add followed attachments

When you follow an attachment, email engagement can tell you when the recipient opens it. To follow attachments, OneDrive for Business must be available in Dynamics 365 and your organization must turn on document management for email. Ask your administrator if the followed attachments option isn't available for you.

You can't add followed attachments if the message recipients don't allow following. You can still add unfollowed attachments. You can also mix followed and unfollowed attachments in any message you're following.

Create a message.
Turn on following for the message.
Select Save on the toolbar to save your message and turn on the attachment feature.
In the Attachment section, select New Attachment.
Select Choose File, and then locate and select the file.
Select Attach to upload the file.

It may take several seconds to upload the file, depending on its size.
Select Follow to track the attachment, or select Do Not Follow to stop following it.
Select Close to close the attachment window.
Select Send, or select Save to save the message as a draft and finish it later.

Choose the most effective delivery time

Your email messages may receive more or less attention depending on when they arrive in recipients' inboxes. For example, many people start their day with a full inbox, so messages that arrive overnight must compete for attention and may get put off or even forgotten. Emails that arrive later in the day may get noticed and handled right away. With email engagement, you can compose your email messages when it's convenient for you, but let Dynamics 365 Sales deliver them when it's best for your recipients.

The system sometimes recommends a delivery time based on the recipient's time zone. It assumes a standard workday of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, and suggests the next closest business hour if you're working outside the recipient's business day. If the message has more than one recipient or no address is provided, the system doesn't make a recommendation.

Your organization must turn on Bing Maps and the recipient must have a physical address in Sales for email engagement to determine the time zone.

If no recommendation is given, or if you prefer to use your own logic, you can specify any delivery time you choose.

The delivery time feature is available for both followed and unfollowed messages.

Create a message.
When you're ready to send the message, look under Send Later in the Email Engagement section.

If the system can recommend a delivery time, one appears here. Whether or not it does, you can delay delivery anyway.
Select Send Later.

If the system recommended a time or date, then that information is filled in for you. If not, the date is blank. In either case, it uses your local time, not the recipient's.

Use the Set at controls to set your preferred delivery date and time.
Select OK to save your setting and close the window.

The Delay Send indicator turns green. Select Change Schedule or Remove Delay if you need to change the delay or send the message right away. You can change the scheduled delivery at any time before the message is sent.
Select Send, or select Save to save the message as a draft and finish it later.

Scheduled messages appear as such in the Activities list for the Regarding record. Until the scheduled time arrives, you can delete or reschedule the message from there. You can also edit the follow-up reminder date or time. You can't change any other settings after you select Send.

Set a message follow-up reminder

If you want to make sure you don't forget to follow up on an important email, set a reminder. This feature is available only for sent email.

Create a message.
When you're ready to set the reminder, select Set Reminder in the Email Engagement section.

The Set Reminder window opens.
In the Title box, enter the text you want to see when the reminder is triggered.
In the Condition list, select the condition that triggers the reminder:
- If I do not receive a reply by: Triggers the reminder if no reply has been received by the Remind by date. Only available for followed messages.
- If the email is not opened by: Triggers the reminder if the message hasn't been opened by the Remind by date. Only available for followed messages.
- Remind me anyway at: Triggers the reminder at the specified time and date, no matter what.
In Remind by, specify the date and time to show the reminder if the Condition is met.
Select OK to save your settings and close the window.

The Set Reminder indicator turns blue and a short summary of your reminder settings appears. After the reminder time passes, the summary updates to indicate this. Select Change Reminder or Remove Reminder if you need to change the reminder or remove it.
Select Send, or select Save to save the message as a draft and finish it later.

When the reminder is triggered, the system creates an action card in the assistant. The card is given high priority, so you should see it right away. The card includes links to the message and related records and action buttons to snooze or dismiss the alert. Learn more about email reminder card.

Can't find the options in your app?

There are three possibilities:

You don't have the necessary license or role.
Your administrator hasn't turned on the feature.
Your organization is using a custom app. Check with your administrator for exact steps. The steps described in this article are specific to the out-of-the-box Sales Hub and Sales Professional apps.