Salesforce is a really fantastic tool for entering very specific information. This information could be anything from images to phone numbers.
However, today we’re going to be going over how to create an email field in salesforce.
Reasons for creating an email field
So there are many reasons for creating an email field. This could be for a marketing campaign, adding someone to a weekly newsletter, or using this internally to update employees.
Another large reason for creating an email field is the formatting. Salesforce automatically recognizes that it is an email and will require the format of [email protected].
Finally, because salesforce recognizes this format you can send emails from salesforce to those emails! 🙌🙌🙌
Video Tutorial
One quick note before we jump into the tutorial! I do have a youtube video on this if watching it is more your jam. I will drop the video here.
Navigating to the Fields
Now to create the email field in salesforce.
First, you will want to be in the setup section of salesforce. To do this you will want to click the gear icon in the top right corner of the salesforce page.
Set up should look something like this:
Then from set up, go to the object manager that is next to the home tab.
It should look something like this:
So from here, you will want to select the object that you want the field to be on.
One thing to remember is that an object is a grouping of data. So any deals in the pipeline would be in the opportunity object and any prospects would be in the leads object.
I selected a custom object called ‘new object’ that I created for the tutorial. Please choose the object you wish to have the email field in.
Next, you will see the different items you can add or customize to the objects, go to the fields and relationships tab and click!
It will look something like this:
From here select the ‘new button’.
Creating the Email Field in Salesforce
This will bring you to a page that allows you to choose the data type or the formatting of the field. Scroll to the email button and select.
It will look like this:
Click the next button.
You’ll see this screen.
Enter the appropriate information.
So let’s go over what each of these items means.
First is the field label. This is the name of the field.
Then the field name is going to be auto-generated. It’s the system name for salesforce to understand which email field it is. Just leave it as it is.
Next is the description, which will tell other administrators on the setup side of salesforce what this field is or what it’s used for. If this field is not self-explanatory for the purpose, then add a description.
Then, you can choose to make this required. So in order to save the record on the frontend, this field needs to be filled out.
Then is a unique selector. This allows you to choose if the email can only be entered once into the system.
Finally, you can choose if this is an external id. Meaning, this could be used in a different database such as outreach.
Click next and you’ll see this screen:
You’ll need to establish field-level security. Field-level security is allowing which fields are available to which users and if they can edit those fields.
This is a super important step so please do some research on whom you would like to give access to.
Click next and you’ll see this screen:
Finally, you’ll add the field to the page layouts!
The page layouts are used to house all the fields you see on the front end.
Hit save and you will have successfully created a new email field. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Use Cases for an email field in Salesforce
So now that we’ve gone over the basics of creating the email field. Let’s jump into some of the potential use cases for an email field.
Standard Use Cases:
Salesforce has some email fields automatically created and these are used for a multitude of purposes:
- On the lead object to get into contact with our prospects.
- On the contact, object to get into contact with our customers.
- On the campaign object to send out updates about upcoming events and sales.
Custom Use Cases:
The following are some custom use cases for the email field. These are things that would need to be built out if your company is looking to use these.
- On a custom, projects object to get in contact with contractors or consultants.
- On an external object that is used to connect two systems using a person’s email address.
Conclusion
Big congrats to you for making it through this tutorial!
You can check out more from us on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCka5mwxtdkUE7AoScLcG2DA/featured
You can learn more about us here: https://salesforceemily.com/?page_id=314