Connect Salesforce with Zapier
Send new Salesforce leads and contacts to a Mailsoftly list through Zapier, carry Salesforce opt outs across, and turn Mailsoftly signups into Salesforce leads.
If your leads and customers live in Salesforce, you can have them arrive in Mailsoftly on their own instead of exporting a spreadsheet every few weeks. The connection runs through Zapier, where Mailsoftly has its own app: Salesforce tells Zapier something happened, and Zapier tells Mailsoftly what to do about it.
Check two things before you start, because they decide whether this works for you at all. Salesforce only lets outside tools in on editions with API access. Enterprise, Unlimited, Developer and Performance include it, Professional needs the API add-on from Salesforce, and Group and Essentials can’t use it. Salesforce is a premium app on Zapier, so the Zap needs a paid Zapier plan. The Mailsoftly side works on any Mailsoftly plan, including the free one.
Create an API key named Salesforce
Zapier signs in to your Mailsoftly account with an API key. In Mailsoftly, open Settings, then the Advanced group, then API, and press Create New API Key. Name it Salesforce and copy the key right away, because for security it is only shown once.
The name matters more than it looks. Every contact that Zapier adds or updates with this key is tagged with the key’s name, so naming it Salesforce gives you a Salesforce tag on every synced contact without any extra step. You can build a segment on that tag, or leave it out of a campaign, whenever you like.
Use a key just for Salesforce rather than sharing one with other tools. If you ever want to cut Salesforce off, deleting that one key does it without breaking anything else.
Create the list your Salesforce contacts will join
Decide where the contacts should land before you build the Zap. Open Contact Lists and create a list, for example Salesforce Leads. Write the name down exactly as you typed it: the Add to Contact List action in Zapier finds your list by its exact name, and a list it can’t find stops the Zap with an error instead of guessing.
If the list starts a welcome automation, every new Salesforce lead who lands on it gets your welcome email while their interest is fresh.
Build the Zap from Salesforce to Mailsoftly
In Zapier, create a new Zap and choose Salesforce as the trigger. The triggers most people start with are New Lead, New Contact, Updated Record and Updated Field on Record. Connect your Salesforce account when Zapier asks; if Salesforce blocks the connection, your Salesforce admin may need to allow Zapier first.
For the action, choose Mailsoftly and connect it with the API key from step 1. Then pick what Mailsoftly should do:
- Add to Contact List puts the person on the list from step 2. Type the list name exactly as you saved it.
- Update Contact adds or updates the person without touching any list.
- Add Tag to Contact adds a tag of your choice, such as the lead source or status.
Map the Salesforce fields onto the Mailsoftly fields: Email is required, and First Name, Last Name, Company, Job Title, phones, address and Website are there too. Test the step, then turn the Zap on.
Choose Update Contact or Add to Contact List, not Create Contact. Both look the person up by email, update them if they already exist and add them if they don’t. Create Contact only adds new people and quietly skips anyone who is already in Mailsoftly, so their details never update.
Carry Salesforce opt outs across
Only send to people who agreed to hear from you, and make sure an opt out in your CRM reaches Mailsoftly too. Build a second Zap with the Salesforce trigger Updated Field on Record, watching the Email Opt Out field on your leads or contacts. Add a filter so the Zap only continues when the box is ticked, then choose the Mailsoftly action Add Global Unsubscribe and map the email address.
From then on, anyone who opts out in Salesforce is unsubscribed in Mailsoftly as well, and no campaign or automation will email them.
This works in one direction only. Unsubscribing in Mailsoftly doesn’t tick Email Opt Out in Salesforce unless you send it back yourself, as in the next step.
Send Mailsoftly signups back to Salesforce
To turn people who join through a Mailsoftly signup form into Salesforce leads, start in Zapier: create a Zap with Webhooks by Zapier as the trigger, choose Catch Hook, and copy the webhook URL it gives you.
Back in Mailsoftly, build an automation that starts when someone submits your form, and add a Send Webhook action. Paste the Zapier URL into Webhook URL. Under Data, add a line for each value you want to send, such as email, first_name, last_name and company, and pick the contact field that fills it. Mailsoftly sends them as JSON the moment the automation reaches that step.
In the same Zap, add the Salesforce action Create/Update Lead and map the values from the webhook onto the lead.
Salesforce won’t save a lead without a last name and a company. Map both, or set a fallback value in Zapier for signups that leave them blank.
Skip Zapier with a Salesforce Flow, if your admin prefers
If your team would rather not run Salesforce through Zapier, a Salesforce admin can post records straight to Mailsoftly. In Mailsoftly, create a webhook endpoint: it gives you a private URL that starts an automation. The automation’s first step finds or creates the contact from the email address in the data, and a later Update Contact step can fill standard fields and your own custom fields, which the Zapier actions don’t cover.
On the Salesforce side, the admin builds a Flow with an HTTP Callout that sends the record to that URL as JSON. Use an HTTP Callout rather than an Outbound Message: outbound messages are sent as SOAP XML, which the webhook endpoint can’t read. Receive data with a webhook endpoint walks through creating the endpoint and testing it.
Moving email copy over from Salesforce? Salesforce writes a first name as {!FirstName}, and in Mailsoftly it is {(first_name)}. Mailsoftly flags merge tags in the wrong format before you send; Personalize emails with merge tags lists the ones you can use.
Ready to try it in your own account?
Free to start with your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account. No credit card required.
