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Nancy Townsend Sending series of emails (external) through Flow
Hello,
I am moving from Active Campaign to SFDC and am trying to build my first flow. Here's what I am trying to solve for:
When a contact meets the following criteria:
"21 Day Challenge" checkbox = True AND "21 Day Challenge Start Date" = Today, then begin a once daily flow of emails for 21 days.
When they reach the 21st day, then remove them from the flow. Emails will be stored as classic email templates and be sent to external email address of SFDC contacts.
Is flow the best way to approach this?
Thanks!
Using a flow to solve your requirement has the following limitations:
1. Email Static Action can send an email to up to 5 email addresses (stored in a Collection Variable).
2. No use of email templates.
3. Complex custom logic to ensure that the emails are sent every day.
The first limitation can be solve in my opinion if you follow the approach outlined in the following articles (path 1a and 1b from my flow above)
Rakesh Gupta: https://automationchampion.com/2015/02/03/add-record-to-multiple-chatter-groups-parsing-multi-select-picklist-fields-flow/
Deepak Anand: https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/coi6btfTBg
Mayank Srivastava: http://succeedwithsalesforce.com/parsing-an-objects-multi-select-picklist-selections-to-use-in-a-visual-flow/
You can utilize a variable that will count the number of contacts and then some assignment elements to store the contact email 5 at a time and then a desicion element to root to numerous email static actions that will utilize the previously stored variables. For this to be achieved you will need to know from before the number of contacts that you will send the email to so that to plan accordingly the number of variable (store email) and the number of email static actions.
The second limitation can be solved to an extent with manipulating the text stored in the text templates (utilize them as holding vessels for your text since you cannot utilize email templates) via following the article: https://goravseth.com/manipulating-text-in-flows)
The third limitation for luck of a better term is how you will design your logic to properly process the requirement to send the emails every day and how to root your variables (holding a maximum of five emails each) to the appropriate email static actions, which will be a pain in the ass.
Further to the above please consider viewing the below video series from Salesforce on visual flow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UC9uMVxECc&list=PLrC_ei2_Pv0GsCrUp6xORzVT62FCFAWMl
Specifically the video titled: 1C Flow Builder Tutorial - Get Multiple Records and Loop, where a loop and an email static action are utilised. Maybe here lies the solution for emailing more that 5 contacts.
It is my opinion that the flow solution will require considerable amount of time and resource from your part. If I was in your position and because I know very little in the area of coding I would consider other routes in order to create a working solution so that to get the ball rolling and as a side progect I would work on solutions based on the visual flow.
Sf from what I know (pls correct me if I am wrong) is not designed for mass emails since it has strick limits (500 for Enterprise and 1000 for Unlimited) so one approach I would examine, is the utilisation of a campaign and/or a custom object and an external mailing system and/or a mass email application from appexchange, but unfortunately I have no experience to share with you on this solution.
From quickly looking at the app exchange (which I am sure you have already checked) I came across the following free applications:
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000008agC1EAI
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B5ESSEA3
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000DvGfCUAV --- this one can shedule sending email either on-spot or in future.
Wish you all the best, If you solve the requirement I would be very interested in reading your solution.
With regards
Dimitrios
All Answers
If I understood correctly you plan to utilize the Email Static Action with a visual flow.
Will you be collecting All the Contact Emails in one Collection variable that it is passed in the Email Action?
If yes then you can only send an Email Static Action "Mass Email" to only 5 email addresses.
Then you will need to create some custom logic to incorporate sending daily Emails for 21 days, which will give you some pain to design it.
And then you may end up like me where I have tried something simillar to your requirement (see flow at the end - path 2) with the exeption of the recurent emails, where I have tried three different approaches to end up with an Error message I cannot decifer/interprete: Error - The "Email_Action_1" element in your flow has validation errors. The error is hitting me for all paths I take, to which I have found no solution so far.
Also take into consideration that an email template cannot be sent via flow. Only text email formats can be send, which you will need to prepare and store into a text template (you can though stylize them to a degree, please see article: https://goravseth.com/manipulating-text-in-flows).
Another point you will need to consider is if the outbound emails change every day OR remail the same. Because if they change, it will add to the complexity of the solution since you will need to create the logic OR incorporate this into the existing logic.
An email template can only be sent if you utilize an Email Alert which you will need to create prior to the flow, a solution with the following limits:
The daily allocation for emails sent through email alerts is 1,000 per standard Salesforce license per org—except for free Developer Edition and trial orgs, where the daily workflow email allocation is 15. The overall org allocation is 2,000,000.
An email alert can be specified when created to be sent to an email field in the record. So you will have on Email Alert per record which will add to the complexity of your solution.
I would definately be interested to learn if you solve your requirement via visual flow.
My flow
With regards
Dimitrios
We have 21 different templates in a newsletter format (one for each day) so I'm not sure it makes sense to undertake this in Salesforce or try something else like a MailChimp. Have you looked at any other alternatives outside of SFDC?
Using a flow to solve your requirement has the following limitations:
1. Email Static Action can send an email to up to 5 email addresses (stored in a Collection Variable).
2. No use of email templates.
3. Complex custom logic to ensure that the emails are sent every day.
The first limitation can be solve in my opinion if you follow the approach outlined in the following articles (path 1a and 1b from my flow above)
Rakesh Gupta: https://automationchampion.com/2015/02/03/add-record-to-multiple-chatter-groups-parsing-multi-select-picklist-fields-flow/
Deepak Anand: https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/coi6btfTBg
Mayank Srivastava: http://succeedwithsalesforce.com/parsing-an-objects-multi-select-picklist-selections-to-use-in-a-visual-flow/
You can utilize a variable that will count the number of contacts and then some assignment elements to store the contact email 5 at a time and then a desicion element to root to numerous email static actions that will utilize the previously stored variables. For this to be achieved you will need to know from before the number of contacts that you will send the email to so that to plan accordingly the number of variable (store email) and the number of email static actions.
The second limitation can be solved to an extent with manipulating the text stored in the text templates (utilize them as holding vessels for your text since you cannot utilize email templates) via following the article: https://goravseth.com/manipulating-text-in-flows)
The third limitation for luck of a better term is how you will design your logic to properly process the requirement to send the emails every day and how to root your variables (holding a maximum of five emails each) to the appropriate email static actions, which will be a pain in the ass.
Further to the above please consider viewing the below video series from Salesforce on visual flow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UC9uMVxECc&list=PLrC_ei2_Pv0GsCrUp6xORzVT62FCFAWMl
Specifically the video titled: 1C Flow Builder Tutorial - Get Multiple Records and Loop, where a loop and an email static action are utilised. Maybe here lies the solution for emailing more that 5 contacts.
It is my opinion that the flow solution will require considerable amount of time and resource from your part. If I was in your position and because I know very little in the area of coding I would consider other routes in order to create a working solution so that to get the ball rolling and as a side progect I would work on solutions based on the visual flow.
Sf from what I know (pls correct me if I am wrong) is not designed for mass emails since it has strick limits (500 for Enterprise and 1000 for Unlimited) so one approach I would examine, is the utilisation of a campaign and/or a custom object and an external mailing system and/or a mass email application from appexchange, but unfortunately I have no experience to share with you on this solution.
From quickly looking at the app exchange (which I am sure you have already checked) I came across the following free applications:
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000008agC1EAI
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B5ESSEA3
https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000DvGfCUAV --- this one can shedule sending email either on-spot or in future.
Wish you all the best, If you solve the requirement I would be very interested in reading your solution.
With regards
Dimitrios