Why CRMs Need Full Email Integration

We just released a feature that lets you send emails without leaving Day.ai. It seems like a small thing, but it’s a major signal flare. It’s another step in moving our users from bricklayers to architects. From practicing your scales to improvisational jazz. There are three basic problems any CRM needs to solve elegantly if it’s going to be useful at all: 1/ How to get your data into the system and well organized 2/ How to help you figure out where to start your day, and where you left off 3/ How to help you achieve something meaningful by the time you close your laptop It shouldn’t be hard. But somehow, it is. Here’s what it actually looks like for most people today: Take manual notes, type your notes into fields, decide what's an opportunity, update some stages, set a few reminders, create custom views, remember to check those views later, open Gmail in another tab, find the contacts you need to reach out to, draft those emails, and then send. Here’s what it should look like: The contact information you need appears when you need it, automatically. Your meeting notes create themselves after a call. The prospects that fit your ideal customer profile move to the right deal stage based on the conversation you had. The system reminds you to follow up with them, at just the right time. Click that reminder, and a email gets drafted while you watch. Tweak it as needed, add some (suggested) CCs, and hit send — all without leaving Day.ai. In the old paradigm, you had to remember every detail. You had to do a lot of data entry, data housekeeping, and data management, too. On top of all the thinking through of priorities, remembering all the details that don’t fit into a box, staying on top of it all while looking ahead. It’s a massive amount of cognitive load. And it gets in the way. None of that is actually the job to be done. In truth, all those tedious micro-decisions should be your CRM’s job. You shouldn’t have to worry about capturing data, organizing it, making sense of it, and planning your next step. Being able to compose and send email from inside Day.ai is the logical next step in the process of taking all that needless work off your plate. No, you shouldn’t have to copy and paste from CRM to Gmail. No, you shouldn’t have to mark down that you did it, on what day, and why.

📬 If your direct mail donors aren’t hearing from you via email, you’re leaving connection (and likely, dollars) on the table. You Need to Email Your Direct Mail Donors! ✉️ Today’s donors don’t live in one channel. They move between print, inboxes, social feeds, and real-world experiences. The organizations that grow 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 are the ones that meet donors where they are and follow up with intention. 💡 Avid (authored by Nathan Hill) just dropped a new blog that breaks this down: “𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀” 📌  𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁. Donors don’t live in one channel. Even those who give via direct mail expect follow-up via email—and feel neglected if they don’t get it. 📌  𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. When direct mail donors also receive well-timed, personalized email follow-up, they’re more likely to give again. Stewardship ≠ silence. Email is often the fastest way to say “thank you” and deepen trust. 📌  𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. Email lets you quickly acknowledge gifts, share impact, and deepen connection, especially when snail mail is slow or skipped. 📌  𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. To avoid missed opportunities, your CRM or fundraising platform must unify direct mail and email donor data. You can’t engage what you can’t see. 📌  𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗻. Trigger emails based on offline actions (like a mailed check or RSVP) to increase relevancy and keep donors feeling seen. This isn’t just a best practice, it’s a mission-critical shift. And it’s easy to start when your systems talk to each other. 🧠 Your direct mail isn’t the end of the donor journey. It’s just the beginning of a more responsive, connected one. And just having someone’s email address doesn’t mean they’ll give more, but if an 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 donor willingly gives you their email, that’s a signal. It reflects 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁, 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆, and a higher likelihood of giving again (and giving more). 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eFUcTHud At the end of the day, 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 to run effective multi-channel campaigns. Understanding the true impact of each channel is nearly impossible when most of our 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱. On top of that, it’s a tremendous amount of work to identify which audiences should be targeted in each channel; and then keep all your lists accurate and up to date. Avid 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀, taking the grunt work off your shoulders and delivering better results. It serves up meaningful data insights, empowers match back reporting for multichannel attribution, and manages & synchronizes your segmentation automatically. #Nonprofit #DirectMail #Email #Philanthropy #NonprofitTech #avid

Most marketers have a strategy for the message. Very few have one for the reply. We spend hours crafting the perfect campaign… but when someone replies with a question, concern, or demo request? That message disappears into a support inbox or someone’s Gmail — and marketing rarely hears what those replies reveal: what resonated, what caused friction, or what questions still linger. Without that feedback, you’re optimizing in the dark — doubling down on messaging that might be missing the mark, or failing to address what’s really holding leads back. That gap is costing you conversions. I wrote this article to share why shared inboxes aren’t just for customer support — they’re a strategic tool marketers can use to: ✅ Uncover the objections killing conversions ✅ Track performance beyond opens and clicks ✅ Align more tightly with sales, support and success And if your inbox lives inside your CRM, those insights can trigger automations, segment your leads and strengthen your entire funnel. This might be the most overlooked piece of the marketing stack — and I think it’s time that changed. I'll link the article in the comments, give it a read and let me know your thoughts.

The dirty secret of sales? The growth of sales reps and their reputation often depends on how well they update their CRM data, which is a completely separate skill than selling. 😓 The worst part about it is that the time spent maintaining perfect CRM data is time wasted because it's often hard to nail the details. The more deals you manage, the worse it gets. After a day of 6-7 customer calls, accurately remembering and logging every important detail is literally impossible. The solution? Next-generation CRMs that eliminate data entry altogether. 🚀 Your CRM already has access to your emails, calendar, and call recordings. It knows more about your customer interactions than you can remember. So why are you still manually updating it? At Clarify, we're building a future where your CRM manages itself—listening to calls, drafting follow-ups, and updating deal stages based on actual conversations. This isn't theoretical. Early adopters are saving 20+ hours monthly while maintaining more accurate pipeline data than ever before. Old-school sales leaders might call this heresy: "You need to feel the pain of CRM updates to stay disciplined!" But I believe the opposite—the less time spent on data entry, the more time for actual selling. What do you think? Is the era of manual CRM updates finally coming to an end? 💭