Setting Up Email Relay for Salesforce with Google Workspace

Email marketing is certainly a tough nut to crack, especially today.

If the recipient notices a sign that they are part of a bulk email chain, the purpose of which is to sell something, no matter if you're selling the exact product or service they need, users will mark your email as spam and move on with their lives.

If you are looking to set up an email relay in Salesforce, you have come to the right place. We will teach you how to set up a Salesforce email relay and increase your email deliverability numbers. Let's get into it.

What is the Problem with Salesforce Email Relays?

When someone receives an email from a Salesforce email server, they will immediately notice that it contains a "via" caption right next to the sender's name. This may seem okay to the untrained eye, but people in business know exactly what this means.

This caption is a clear indicator that the email is a non-personal, bulk email sent using an email relay feature. This also applies to bulk emails sent using Salesforce.

Yes, that's right! Emails sent from Salesforce can also be caught by inbox spam filters, and they could come with the dreaded "via" caption. If you are wondering why, Google has some explanation. Check it out.

“ Gmail detected that the email was sent via another mail service. This means that the sender may be using a third-party email service to generate this message. For example, the message may have been sent through a social networking site which offers an email service or sent through a mailing list that you’re subscribed to. Gmail displays this information because many of the services that send emails on behalf of others don’t verify that the name that the sender gives matches that email address. We want to protect you against misleading messages from people pretending to be someone you know.” Read more .

Thankfully, there is a way to configure email relays to avoid this issue when using Salesforce. Here at Cirrus Insight, we have extensive experience with email domains, setting up SMTP servers (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), SPF authentication (Sender Policy Framework), and DKIM methods (DomainKeys Identified Mail). But enough about us, let's focus on your issues.

Here's how your next email from Salesforce will reach your recipient domain just like you intended. For all this to work, you will need to be an administrator of your Salesforce organization account and the owner of your Google Workspace domain. Just input your credentials, log in, and follow the steps we have provided.

Step 1: Use the Salesforce Platform to Contact Support

The first thing you should check is whether you have properly set up Salesforce email relays. There are many ways to do this, but the best course of action is to file a case with Salesforce support.

Make sure to select "Limits and Feature Activation" as the case type and then request that they enable the Salesforce email relay setup.

During this part of the process, you will need to use your Salesforce Organization ID. When the case is resolved and you can enable email relays, you can proceed with the next step.

Step 2: Set Up the Relay for Emails Using Google Workspace

For this section, we have prepared an easy step-by-step guide to ensure that you will not encounter any hiccups. Just follow the steps, and you will have zero issues.

• Visit the Google Workspace and sign in with your administrator account. Please note that if you are not an administrator, you cannot use the Admin console.
• Follow this route. Go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing.

• Scroll down to find the SMTP relay service. Click there and then click on Configure. 

• Make sure that the following parameters are set up just the way we instructed.
  • For Allowed senders, use Only addresses in my domain.
  • For Authentication, use the Only accept mail from the specified IP addresses setting.
  • Add the IP addresses from the Salesforce documentation in the section about Email Relaying.
  • The Require SMTP Authentication setting should be unchecked.
  • The Require TLS encryption setting should be checked.

• When all of this is set up, click Save.

These settings must be taken care of if you want to achieve enhanced email deliverability and increase your open rates. Whenever you send something from your company's email, you should make sure that all your email communications are spot on.

Otherwise, you might end up on some blacklist, and once you're there, it's hard to escape. Please note that setting up multiple emails for your email marketing efforts is a common practice.

Now that we have set up Gmail, let's complete Salesforce's email relay setup.

Step 3: Properly Set Up Your Salesforce Org for Email Delivery

Here are the steps you need to take to set up Salesforce with Google as your email message relay.

• Log in to your Salesforce with your Org ID, click on Settings, and then select Email Administration> Email Relay Activation. If you don't see this option, confirm with Salesforce support that the feature is enabled.

• Now, you need to enter the following information:
  • Email Host: smtp-relay.gmail.com;
  • Port: 587;
  • TLS Settings: Required;
  • Restrict Relay To Domains: unchecked;
  • Active: checked;

• Now, click Save.
• Next, go to Email Administration > Deliverability.

• Under Bounce Management, uncheck the box.

• Under Email Security Compliance, uncheck the box next to "enable compliance with standard email security mechanisms." Please note that Google's servers will manage compliance.

• Test your configuration by going to Email Administration > Test Deliverability.
• Enter your email address and send a test message.

Open the test email using your Gmail account. The "via" caption next to the sender's name should not be there anymore. 

As an additional bonus, all emails you send via Salesforce will now be in your "Sent Mail" folder in Gmail, which keeps everything neat and organized.

What To Do If Your Emails Do Not Appear in Your Sent Folder in Gmail?

Naturally, you want this to work because it's an excellent feature. If it doesn't, you can fix it or simply set it up properly.

When you sign in to your administrator account and access your Google Admin console as the administrator, you need to go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance. Then, you need to select your organization on the left side of the screen. There, you will find the Comprehensive mail storage setting.

Find the "Ensure that a copy of all sent and received mail is stored in associated users' mailboxes" box and make sure that it is checked. After that, all you need to do is click on Save.

Think About Every Email You Send

According to Salesforce's policy, you cannot use Google Workspace to avoid Salesforce's mass email limits. The limit used to be 1000 emails a day, but it was increased to 5000, which should be more than enough. Just be sure to work on each email personally.

You should avoid Salesforce-generated emails, although they can be helpful in giving you some ideas. If you do everything by the book, you will reduce bounce rates and spam complaints. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer success team to ask some important questions.

We have also prepared a shorter version of this guide in a convenient Google document. You can view it online or download it and open it on Windows using your Office 365 suite.