In Salesforce, sending emails to users and customers is a very common requirement. Earlier, admins used Workflow Rules or Process Builder to send emails, but now Salesforce Flow is the most powerful and flexible tool for automation.
Using Flow, you can automatically send emails based on record changes, user actions, or scheduled events.
This helps reduce manual work and improves communication with customers and internal teams. You can send emails using different methods, such as the Send Email action and Email Alerts.
As a Salesforce admin, sending emails to users and customers is part of my daily activities. Earlier, I used to schedule the routine email and had to send the other one manually.
After working with flows, I learned that emails can be automated in Salesforce Lightning.
In this Salesforce tutorial, I will explain how to send emails using flows in Salesforce.
- Send an email using the Send Email action element in the Salesforce flow
- Send an email from Salesforce flow using the Send Email Alert
What is Salesforce Flow?
Salesforce Flow is an automation tool that allows you to create business logic without writing code. It helps you automate tasks like updating records, sending notifications, and integrating systems.
Flows can:
- Trigger automatically
- Run on record changes
- Execute scheduled actions
One of the most useful features of Flow is the ability to send automated emails.
What is Send Email in Salesforce Flow?
The Send Email action is a standard feature in Flow that allows you to send emails directly by defining:
- Recipients
- Subject
- Email body
It gives flexibility to send dynamic emails using record data and templates.
Send Email with Flows in Salesforce
In this example, we will email the opportunity owner using the Send Email action element in the Salesforce flow, notifying them that the opportunity’s Amount is more or equal to 20K (target).
When the opportunity custom field Amount_c is greater than or equal to 20k, the flow will trigger and email the owner.
Follow the steps below to create a record-triggered flow that will send emails to the opportunity owner for closed opportunities.
- On Salesforce’s setup page, search for and select flows under the Process Automation heading.
- In the flow setup, click on the New Flow button.
- Select the option Start from scratch, and in the next window, select the Record-triggered flow and click on the Create button.
- To configure the trigger conditions, select the object as Opportunity. Under the heading ‘Trigger the flow when a record is updated.’
- According to the example, I have set the condition requirement to Amount being greater than or equal to 20k.
- Add an Action element to the flow, then search for and select the Send Email action from the list of actions.
- To make the email message more dynamic, go to the Body field of the email action and click Add a New resource.
- Enter the fields below in the New resource.
- Select the Resource Type as a Text template.
- Enter the API Name as a body.
- Enter the message in the body field.
- To get the record name of the current opportunity record, use ‘!Record.Name‘ and the same for other fields.
- At last, click Done.
- In the Email Action, select the Recipient’s address list field to trigger Opportunity > Owner ID > Email. This will send an email to the owner of the opportunity record.
- Enter the Rich-text-formatted body as True and enter the Subject of the Email.
- Save and activate the flow.
We have now created a record-triggered flow that emails the opportunity owner when the flow conditions are triggered.
Test the Flow
To test the record-triggered flow you created, follow the steps below.
- Navigate to the Opportunity tab, open a record, then update the field Amount_c greater than 20k.
- As we update the currency field, the record-triggered flow will run, sending an email to the opportunity record’s owner.
This way, we can send emails using the Send Email action in Salesforce by following the above steps.
Send an Email using Send Email Alert in the Salesforce flow
In this example, let’s consider a scenario where we email the account owners when the custom checkbox field Is_VIP_Customer is set to True. That email will inform the owner that the account (account_name) has been upgraded to VIP status.
To send an email using Send Email Alert in the Salesforce flow, we need to create and configure an Email Alert to use in the flow. So, we will first do that and then create a flow using the email alert.
Create Email Alert in Salesforce Lightning
To create an Email Alert in Salesforce Lightning, navigate to the setup page and follow the steps below to create an email alert in Salesforce.
- In the Quick Find box, search and select Email Alerts under Workflow Actions.
- In the setup window of email alerts, click on the New Email Alert button to create a new one.
- Enter the fields, description, and unique name, then select the object to set up the email alert. After this, select the email template from the Email Template lookup field.
- We can select the recipients from User, Role, Owner, Case Team, Public group, etc. An email will then be sent to the recipient’s email address.
- After adding the recipients, we can add Additional Emails, which can also be recipients who are not users or customers.
- At last, click Save.
After creating the Email alert, we will create a flow using the alert we created in the steps above.
Create a flow using Send Email Alert
Navigate to the Flows setup page and follow the steps below.
- On the Flows setup page, click on the New Flow button.
- Select Start from Scratch, then click on the Next button. In the next window, select the Record-triggered flow option, then click the Create button.
- According to the example’s scenario, select Object as Account, and under the heading ‘Trigger the flow when,’ choose the option ‘Record is created or updated‘.
- Then set the field Is_VIP_c (custom checkbox) to True in the condition requirements.
- Add the Send Email Alert element to the flow canvas.
- Select the email alert from the list.
- Enter the Label and the API Name for the email alert element. Then, in the Record ID, select Trigerring Account > Account ID.
- Enter the Flow Label and Flow API Name and click Save to save the flow.
- Activate the flow to deploy it.
The flow is completed now, and after activation, we will test and debug the record-triggered flow we created.
Test and run the flow
To test and run the record-triggered flow, follow the steps below.
- Navigate to the Account tab and update an account record by updating the custom field Is_VIP_Customer as True, and save the changes.
- As we update the Account record, the record-triggered flow will run, sending an email to the recipients we selected in the Email Alert.
The image above shows that the email was successfully sent to the recipient.
In this way, we can send an email using Send Email Alert in the Salesforce flow.
If you want to send emails using the Apex triggers, you can go to the Salesforce Stack Exchange and follow Send Email after Account is created—Apex.
Difference Between Send Email vs Email Alert
| Feature | Send Email Action | Email Alert |
|---|---|---|
| Flexibility | High | Medium |
| Uses Template | Optional | Required |
| Dynamic Content | Yes | Limited |
| Setup Required | No | Yes |
Conclusion
In Salesforce, automating email sending through flows enhances email management and reduces the risk of errors.
In this Salesforce tutorial, we have discussed the two ways to send emails to users and customers. Along with this, we also learned to create and use custom Email alerts in a Salesforce flow.
By following the steps above, you can efficiently automate email sending in your Salesforce instance.
You may like to read:
- Send SMS From Salesforce Using Twilio
- Email to Notify Task Owners Using Salesforce Flow
- Share Records Using Salesforce Flow
- Auto-Assign Records to Users Using Salesforce Flows
Abhijeet is a skilled Salesforce developer with experience in developing and integrating dashboards, data reports, and Salesforce applications. He is also skilled at optimizing processes and flow automation processes, coding, and executing complex project architecture. Read more about us | LinkedIn Profile.
