Manually entering data from emails into Monday.com can be time-consuming and inefficient, especially when dealing with numerous inquiries. Fortunately, you can automate this process, saving valuable time and ensuring no lead or important information slips through the cracks. This guide will walk you through how to set up an automated system to create new items in your Monday.com boards directly from incoming emails.
There are two primary methods to achieve this automation, depending on where your emails originate: using Monday.com forms for website inquiries, or leveraging a tool like Zapier for emails from various sources.
Method 1: Using Monday.com Forms for Website Inquiries
If your leads or inquiries primarily come from your website, the simplest and most cost-effective solution is to embed a Monday.com form directly onto your site. This method bypasses email entirely for website submissions, directly inputting customer details into your chosen Monday.com board.
By using a Monday.com form, it’s as if your website visitors are directly updating your Monday.com board themselves. This eliminates the need for email parsing and streamlines the data capture process for website-originated leads.
Method 2: Automating Email Data Capture with Zapier
For businesses receiving inquiries from multiple sources, such as various online platforms or third-party booking sites, a more robust solution is needed. Zapier is a powerful automation tool that can bridge the gap between your email inbox and Monday.com. While it involves a slightly more complex setup, Zapier offers flexibility and can be used for various automation workflows beyond just email processing.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to use Zapier to automatically create Monday.com items from new emails:
- Customer Inquiry: A customer submits an inquiry through one of your platforms (website, booking site, etc.).
- Email Generation: The platform automatically generates an email containing the customer’s inquiry details. This email should be sent to your designated inbox and formatted consistently for each inquiry.
- Zapier Email Forwarding: Set up an auto-forward rule in your email account to automatically send a copy of each inquiry email to a dedicated Zapier email address. This address is easily created within your Zapier account settings and acts as the trigger for your automation.
- Zapier Trigger Setup: In Zapier, create a new “Zap” (automation workflow). Set the trigger to be “Email by Zapier” and configure it to trigger when a new email is received at your dedicated Zapier email address. You can further refine the trigger by specifying criteria like the subject line of the email (e.g., “New inquiry from website A”).
- Email Parsing: This crucial step involves training Zapier to extract specific data points from your consistently formatted inquiry emails. Zapier’s “Parsing” feature allows you to highlight and label the data fields you want to capture (e.g., customer name, email address, phone number, inquiry details). This step is straightforward if your emails follow a predictable format.
- Connect to Monday.com: Choose Monday.com as the “Action” app in your Zap. Select the action to “Create Item” (or “Update Item” if you are updating existing items).
- JSON Configuration (Advanced): This step is more technical but essential for correctly mapping the parsed data to the corresponding columns in your Monday.com board. Zapier uses JSON code to format the data being sent to Monday.com. Refer to both Monday.com and Zapier documentation for detailed instructions on the required JSON format for updating columns.
- Activate Your Zap: Once you have configured all the steps and mapped the data fields to your Monday.com board columns, turn on your Zap.
Now, whenever a new inquiry email arrives in your inbox and is forwarded to Zapier, the automation will trigger, parse the email content, and automatically create a new item in your designated Monday.com board with the extracted customer information.
For users without coding experience, Zapier offers a user-friendly interface to set up this email automation without needing to write complex code or directly use APIs.
Conclusion
Automating the creation of Monday.com items from new emails significantly streamlines your workflow, reduces manual data entry, and ensures timely responses to inquiries. Whether you choose to use Monday.com forms for website-specific leads or utilize the power of Zapier for broader email automation, integrating these tools can dramatically improve your efficiency and data management within Monday.com. Consider exploring these methods to optimize your lead capture and response processes.
