Salesforce Account Engagement Email Automation Setup
Overview
Working session between Chris Østergaard and Karly Oykhman to plan and begin implementing Salesforce Account Engagement (AE) email automation for a client (Cora). The goal is to route leads from three WordPress landing pages into segment-specific email flows. Two blockers were identified and assigned to Chris; no hard deadline exists — correct setup takes priority over speed.
Attendees: Chris Østergaard, Karly Oykhman (Asymmetric)
Date: 2026-04-05
Goal
Automate email nurture flows in Salesforce Account Engagement so that when a prospect submits a form on one of three landing pages, they are captured as a Salesforce lead and enrolled in the email sequence for their segment:
| Segment | Landing Page |
|---|---|
| Digital Fabrication | WordPress page (Google Ads traffic) |
| Traditional Fabrication | WordPress page (Google Ads traffic) |
| Fine Art | WordPress page (Google Ads traffic) |
Architecture & Segmentation Logic
- Leads arrive via Gravity Forms on WordPress landing pages.
- Each form submission should create a Salesforce Lead/Prospect with the
Business Channelfield populated to indicate segment. - AE uses
Business Channelto route prospects into the correct email flow. - Three AE Campaigns (one per segment) are used to bucket email performance metrics (open rates, click rates) by segment.
Campaign Structure
Karly created the "Digital Fabrication" campaign as a test. Two more need to be created:
- Traditional Fabrication
- Fine Art
Campaigns are created under the Campaigns tab in AE → New → provide a name. A description (e.g., "Email flow from [segment] landing page form") is optional but recommended.
Future consideration: Parent campaigns (e.g., "Website Leads" or "Google Ad Leads") can group all three segments for roll-up reporting.
Key Decisions
- Segmentation field:
Business Channel(not "Business Type" — earlier naming confusion resolved) - One campaign per segment to enable clean per-segment email performance reporting
- Priority: correctness over speed — client has no hard deadline; setup should be done properly
- Karly will document the full segmentation logic in a Loom video for Chris's reference
Blockers
Blocker 1 — Gravity Forms → Salesforce Sync Not Configured
Status: ❌ Unresolved — assigned to Chris
- The Gravity Forms Salesforce Add-on is installed on the WordPress site but has not been configured.
- Chris submitted a test "Fine Art" form; the lead did not appear in AE's "Prospects Created" dashboard, confirming the sync is broken.
- The add-on requires a feed to be created that maps Gravity Forms fields to Salesforce fields.
Resolution path:
1. Configure the Gravity Forms Salesforce Add-on feed for each form.
2. Map form fields to Salesforce fields, ensuring:
- Lead Source = "Website"
- Business Channel = correct segment value (e.g., "Digital Fabrication", "Fine Art")
3. Verify leads appear in AE after a test submission.
Related issue:
Traditional Fabricationis missing from theBusiness Channelpicklist in Salesforce. Karly will add it before Chris configures the feed mapping.
Blocker 2 — Email Template Missing AE Unsubscribe Tag
Status: ❌ Unresolved — assigned to Chris
- Raphael built an approved HTML email template. When Karly attempted to save it in AE, it threw: "The unsubscribe tag is required in the body of the email."
- Root cause: The template contains static unsubscribe text ("you can unsubscribe here") with no link — AE requires a dynamic unsubscribe tag specific to its platform.
- Every ESP has its own unsubscribe tag format; Chris will research the correct AE syntax and update the HTML.
Resolution path:
1. Identify the correct AE unsubscribe merge tag (e.g., %%unsubscribe%% or similar).
2. Replace the static text in Raphael's HTML with the dynamic tag.
3. Re-save the template in AE.
4. Address a secondary cosmetic issue: a placeholder image in the template preview is misaligned — Chris will coordinate with Raphael to fix and refine the template before building the three segment-specific emails.
Access & Permissions
Chris initially could not access the AE app. Resolved during the meeting:
- Karly added the
Account Engagement Connector Userpermission set to Chris's Salesforce user profile. - Chris confirmed successful access to the AE app afterward.
Action Items
| # | Owner | Task |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karly | Record Loom + write up segmentation logic (Business Channel field, flow routing) for Chris |
| 2 | Karly | Add "Traditional Fabrication" to the Business Channel picklist in Salesforce |
| 3 | Karly | Create "Traditional Fabrication" and "Fine Art" campaigns in AE |
| 4 | Karly | Add Chris and Raphael to the ClickUp task containing the HTML template |
| 5 | Chris | Configure Gravity Forms Salesforce Add-on: create feeds, map fields, populate Lead Source and Business Channel |
| 6 | Chris | Fix AE unsubscribe tag in HTML template; coordinate image alignment fix with Raphael |
| 7 | Chris | Build three segment-specific emails from the refined template; assign each to its corresponding AE campaign |
Transcript Excerpts
On the project goal:
"They want to set up emails to where whenever somebody fills out that specific landing page, whether it's their segments are digital fabrication, traditional fabrication, and fine art — whenever somebody fills out one of those forms, they get added to the system and into an email flow that's specific to that segment." — Karly, ~5:05
On the Gravity Forms sync:
"I'll need to look into what actually is required to connect Salesforce and Gravity Forms." — Chris, ~24:10
On the unsubscribe tag:
"Every platform has their own structure for unsubscribes... I don't know [the AE format]. I can go mess around with it." — Chris, ~26:17
On timeline:
"They're not ones that's like they want to get it done like yesterday... we want to get it done properly, not quickly." — Karly & Chris, ~28:08
Related
- [1] (if created)
- [2] (if created)