Email automation brings great power and time savings to the routine task of sending emails to customers and prospects, but it can also ensure that these emails are always sent, and sent on time.
Integrating with GMail and Outlook, however, brings automation directly to the account manager’s inbox and provides several benefits:
Ruly makes it easy to integrate with both Gmail and Outlook, with pre-configured connectors supplied with the base system. Other email systems can also be easily set up as well.
Each user can be configured individually to either send email natively through Ruly or by using their personal Gmail or Outlook account. The default setting is Ruly.
Each workflow in Ruly can be configured individually to send emails either using Ruly or using the personal email of the end-user that triggered the workflow.
Below is an email template that has been configured to be sent through Gmail/Outlook. Rules are then configured that govern the conditions when this email will be sent.
The Allow editing before sending toggle allows email contents to be edited by the end-user just before they are sent. Otherwise, emails are sent in the background.
Below is an example of an email, triggered by a rule, that is being edited by the end-user prior to sending.
The end-user authorizes the email to be sent through their personal email by granting access to Ruly to perform this action. This process uses the OAuth protocol.
After the user grants consent, the system will store a token that can be used in future requests (unless the end user revokes access or the token expires).
Ruly will store and automatically refresh the token so Ruly will be able to send emails on behalf of a person, without the need to re-authorize, or for the user to even be logged in.
For example, in Gmail, the token can be refreshed for up to 6 months, without user interaction. Note that users can at any time explicitly remove the tokens from their Google Console. Administrators may also remove tokens using the Tokens tab on the OAuth configuration screen
Users will be notified automatically by Ruly if their token expires and they need to re-authorize.
All emails that are sent through Ruly, regardless of which provider actually sends the email (e.g. Ruly, GMail, or Outlook) are stored in the Email log feature. This is useful for troubleshooting. The log shows whether the email was sent successfully and what actions in Ruly triggered the email to be sent.
There are two ways users of applications built on Ruly are able to send bulk emails through their personal email accounts. Both accomplish the same thing, but one is scheduled automatically, and the other is controlled by the user.
Rules: An administrator creates a rule that automatically sends emails when configurable conditions are met and then emails are sent to all users in the query linked to that rule.
User configurable views: Users create their own views (filters on a list) and then email those contacts on their own schedule. Administrators can also create these views for users. The user selects the view using the pulldown by the view name.
Using Business Rules, email automation can be used to send emails via polling (checking if something has changed in an external system using an API) or sending emails on a pre-determined schedule.
Here are some example workflows:
Ruly will release a new plug-in for Customer Marketing Campaigns that will come with pre-built email operations that you can use or modify for your own needs. Ruly already supplies the OAuth configurations and is verified to send emails using Gmail, however, this should make it even easier to integrate this functionality into your own project.