Using the Inbound Email Workflow Trigger

Automate Actions for Incoming Emails

The Inbound Email workflow trigger activates an automation whenever an email arrives in one of your connected mailboxes. This powerful tool allows you to automatically process, categorize, and respond to incoming messages, whether they are from a new lead or an existing contact in your CRM.

Understanding the Trigger's Purpose

This trigger is designed to capture all inbound emails. It differs from other email-based triggers that only activate when a known contact replies to a message you sent. The Inbound Email trigger can handle three scenarios:

• Cold Emails: First-time messages from senders not yet in your contacts database.
• Warm Emails: New messages from existing contacts in your CRM.
• Customer Replies: Responses from known contacts within an existing email thread (this can be enabled or disabled via a trigger setting).

Important Prerequisite: To capture cold inbound emails from unknown senders, your location must be configured with a supported dedicated email domain (such as a Mailgun dedicated domain or the platform's own email service). If you are using a two-way sync with Gmail or Outlook, a shared domain, or another SMTP setup, the trigger will only capture emails from existing contacts.

Configuring the Trigger

To add this trigger to a workflow:

1. Navigate to Automations and then Workflows.
2. Create a new workflow or edit an existing one.
3. Click + Add New Trigger and select Inbound Email from the list.
4. Give the trigger a clear, descriptive name for easy identification.
5. Use the + Add Filters button to define which specific emails should start the workflow (see the Filters section below).
6. Configure the available trigger settings, such as whether to track replies in existing threads or automatically create a contact for new senders.
7. Click Save Trigger.
8. Add your desired actions to the workflow and publish it.

Using Filters for Precision

Filters allow you to control exactly which inbound emails activate your workflow. You can apply multiple filters to create precise conditions. For filters that support multiple values, you can enter them separated by commas.

Available Filters

Email Sent To / Mailbox

• Operators: Equals, Is any of, Contains, Does not contain.
• Behavior: This filter checks the email address(es) in the 'To' field. 'Equals' matches a specific address. 'Is any of' passes if any address in the 'To' header matches your list. 'Contains' and 'Does not contain' perform a substring match on each address.

From

• Operators: Equals, Contains, Does not contain.
• Behavior: Matches the sender's email address (not the display name). The check is case-insensitive.

CC

• Operators: Equals, Is any of, Contains, Does not contain.
• Behavior: This filter checks the 'CC' field. 'Equals' passes only if the specified email is present. 'Is any of' passes if any address in the CC field matches your list.