📘 Overview
Followup CRM can send and track email from your connected Outlook or Gmail account. New emails are tracked with background metadata (Message-ID threading), so the subject line no longer needs the old (Project Name - ID) code.
This article covers:
- 🔌 Connecting your external email
- ✉️ Emailing from a project
- 📝 Using External Email / Compose Email (templates & sequences)
- 🔗 Linking existing inbox emails to a project or contact
These steps apply to Outlook and Gmail.
🔌 Step 1: Connect your external email
- Click your name in the top right → Your Settings.
- Scroll to External Email.
- If not connected, connect your Gmail or Microsoft account.
✅ Once connected, Followup can send from your mailbox and track replies tied to that connection.
✉️ Step 2: Email from a project (envelope icon)
- Open a project.
- Under project information, click the envelope icon.
- Use the pop-up editor like Outlook/Gmail (including your standard signature).
✨ What’s new: The subject line no longer auto-adds a project ID code. Tracking happens in the background when you send from Followup, and replies continue to thread into the project’s External Email section as long as the mailbox stays connected.
💡 You do not need to keep a project code in the subject for new mail.
📝 Step 3: Compose Email under External Email
- On the project, go to External Email.
- Click Compose Email.
- Use the in-Followup editor.
⭐ Bonus: This path supports templates and sequences.
Same as Step 2: new compose subjects do not rely on the old tracking code.
🔗 Step 4: Link an email from your inbox (new)
If an email wasn’t sent from Followup (or isn’t showing yet), you can link it manually.
- Open the project (or contact) Emails / External Email section.
- Click Link an email.
- Your connected inbox loads recent messages (roughly the latest 20–30).
- 🔍 Search by sender or subject to narrow results.
- If needed, use Scan inbox for matches (refresh / deeper match by sender, participants, or title).
- Select the message → Link.
📌 It appears in the External Email list on the left.
This works on:
- 🏗️ Projects
- 👤 Contacts
⚠️ Important notes about old vs new tracking
| Topic | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 🆕 New emails | Tracked via background metadata — no subject code required |
| ↩️ Replies | Continue to follow the thread into Followup when the mailbox is connected |
| 📜 Old emails with the code | Still supported in the background; existing records are not broken |
| 🚫 Automatic backfill | Existing emails are not auto-linked historically |
| 🛠️ Manual cleanup | You can link older messages with Link an email, then stop relying on the subject code going forward |
💡 Best practices
- 🔌 Keep your external email connected under Your Settings.
- ✉️ Prefer sending from Followup (envelope or Compose Email) so threading starts cleanly.
- 🔗 Use Link an email + search / Scan inbox for matches for mail sent outside Followup.
- ✅ Don’t worry about removing the old subject code from new sends — it’s no longer required.
- 📝 Use Compose Email when you need templates or sequences.
✅ Result
You can run client email from Followup with Outlook or Gmail, track new conversations without a subject-line project code, and manually link inbox messages to projects or contacts when needed.
Happy Selling! 🎯