Outreach Sales Engagement Add-In for Outlook FAQ

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide information to Outreach Users about the new Outlook Add-in. The Outlook Add-in provides a seamless Outreach experience to Outreach Users who use Outlook inbox.

Intended Audience: 

• Outreach Users
• Outreach Admins

Notes:

• Recommendation:
  • For users who are using Outlook add-in on a daily basis, we recommend installing the new add-in.
  • For users who are not frequent users of the Outlook add-in, we recommend installing the legacy add-in.
  • Read more about the differences between the legacy and new add-in.

 

Outreach Sales Engagement Add-In for Outlook Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the legacy Outlook Add-in and the new Outlook Add-in?

Use case/Features	Legacy add-in	New add-in
Recommended for	Users whose emails are mostly to non-prospects and for whom a few seconds delay in sending non-prospect emails is not tolerable.  Users who are willing to explicitly use Send with Outreach when sending prospect emails that need to be tracked via Outreach.	Users who have a large fraction of their sent emails directed at prospects.  Users for whom it is a  high priority to ensure all prospect emails are tracked in Outreach without needing the user to think about this for each email. The Outlook add-in should NOT be installed for users who are not Outreach licensees.
Send experience	Separate “Send with Outreach” button. Only messages sent via this button are sent with Outreach features and are synced to Outreach Outbox.	Native Outlook Send button Messages to prospects are sent with Outreach features and are synced to Outreach Outbox.  Add-in identifies prospects during send action, eventually, prospects can be created on Send.
Add-in processing lag for emails to a non-prospect	0 seconds.  The Add-in is not in the path of regular Sends, it is in the path only when the user uses “Send with Outreach”.	Estimated at less than 1 - 3 seconds. The actual lag may be larger than this, depending on Microsoft and Outreach add-in processing lag, network speed, and machine quality.
Add-in processing lag for emails to a prospect	~Seconds to minutes.  The lag depends on Microsoft and Outreach add-in processing lag, speed of Microsoft message backend sync, network speed, and machine quality.	Estimated at 1-5 seconds. The actual lag may be larger than this, depending on Microsoft and Outreach add-in processing lag, network speed, and machine quality.
Send reliability	It may take several tries to send the message using the Send with Outreach button, due to the way Microsoft syncs messages and how the add-in processes them.	Messages are processed differently which results in higher send reliability than with legacy add-in.
Message can be saved to Drafts when a user clicks away from the email window while the message is still being processed [Windows native app and Outlook Web specific]	For messages sent with  “Send with Outreach” button. Processing lag affects only these messages.	All messages are processed through Outlook.  Processing lag affects all messages sent with Outlook.
Features		Extra features of the new add-in. Privacy and prospect-related features Prospect status (prospect / non prospect / blocked) is reflected in the add-in side panel. Information about opted-out prospects is surfaced in the side panel; emails are not synced to outbox;  mass communication tools in add-in (sequences) are blocked for opted-out prospects. Allows manual prospect creation from the side panel for any potential prospect, not just for the email sender. The side pane displays prospect status for all email participants, not just the email sender. Automatic prospect creation configurable by admin. Efficiency features Reminders - bump the email to the top of your inbox or create a task in Outreach; you can add a note to every reminder you create. Automatic reminders New Meeting links Public calendar link Opportunity Association directly from the inbox More Ribbon Icons
“Send later” with Outreach	Yes	No. Native Outlook Send later can be used.
Compatibility with New Outlook UI for Mac	No. We recommend using legacy Mac UI.	No. We recommend using legacy Mac UI.
Installation	Available in MS Add-in Store. Install via link directly in Outlook. Install via Microsoft Admin console.	Install via link directly in Outlook. Install via Microsoft Admin console.
Graph API compatibility	Yes	Yes

 

What are the new features of the new Outlook Add-in?

The existing Outlook add-in was rebuilt to provide a faster, reliable and more versatile experience that streamlines the inbox workflow for reps.

• Faster and reliable send experience - We have sped up the workflow with significant improvements to add-in send speed.
• Native Send - There is no more Send with Outreach button; you can use the regular Send button in Outlook. Utilization of Native send eliminates the possibility of non-synced prospect emails. There is no need to have the sidebar pinned for sending emails with Outreach (we recommend it, as you can indicate whether the add-in is enabled, see if the prospect is opted-out and warnings are displayed in this panel).
  
• More automation - We have automated steps that previously required manual actions. For example:
  • Open and Click tracking can now be enabled through Add-in settings and applied to all prospect emails—there is no need to add link tracking manually per email.
  • We added the possibility to configure automatic reminders (more info below).
    
• Prospect Creation controls - Have complete control over when prospects are created and when they are not. Prospects are no longer automatically created when using the Send button.
  • Admins can enable automatic prospect creation for their organization. That means that the add-in will create a new prospect in Outreach upon sending email to a non-prospect. A new record is created only when the sales representative confirms the intention. We have implemented this double-check to avoid unwanted syncs of non-prospect communication to Outreach.
  • When automatic prospect creation is disabled, emails to non-prospect are never synced.
    Prospects can be manually created and edited directly from Outlook inbox.
• Updated Reminders - You can create a task in Outreach as a reminder directly from Outlook inbox. You can also add a note when you create a reminder.
  
• Automatic Reminders - You can now configure your add-in to add reminders to all of your prospect emails. This saves you several clicks on every email.
  
• New Meeting Links - When inserting your availability, you now have the option to insert designed meeting links, in place of hyperlinked text. We also added the ability to insert the link to your calendar.
  
  
  
  
• Opportunity Association - Link emails to opportunities right from your inbox. If the prospect has an opportunity associated with it already, the user can associate the email communication with that prospect directly with this opportunity - all without leaving the inbox.
  
• More Ribbon Icons - We’ve added more icons to the Ribbon so you can access the best parts of the add-in with fewer clicks.
  

Deprecated Capabilities

• The new Outlook add-in does not support the Outreach Send Later feature.
  • Send later can be utilized through Outlook Native send later functionality.
  • Outlook Send later functionality is not supported for Outlook Mac users using the native Outlook app. The workaround is to use the Web Outlook app (OWA).
• The new Outlook add-in is not available in the MS Store. It is installed through a URL.

Sending messages with new vs. legacy add-in

Sending messages with the new add-in

All emails are sent with the native Outlook Send button. This brings several benefits to users, including automatic prospect email sync to Outreach and blocking mass-communication features when emailing the opted-out prospect.

In order to provide these benefits, the add-in needs to process every message sent via Outlook. This creates a slight delay for every message sent via Outlook.

• This delay is also affected by the speed of your network.
• This delay is significantly lower when sending messages to non-prospects or internal users.
• You can reduce this delay by disabling add-in when sending messages to non-prospects.

Note: Users of the Windows native Outlook app and Outlook web version may experience their emails being saved to Draft. This happens when users click away from the email window while the message is still being processed. (Read more)

Sending messages with the legacy add-in

Prospect emails that should be processed by the Outreach add-in are sent with the Send with Outreach button. There is a delay with emails sent with the Send with Outreach button; this delay is longer with the legacy add-in.

Communication sent with Outlook native Send button is not processed by Outreach. There is no delay on emails sent with the Outlook native Send button.

Note: If users use the inline reply mode in Windows native app and don’t wait until the add-in processes the message, their reply or forwarded message will be saved to Drafts. This applies to messages processed by the new add-in. In the case of the legacy add-in, these messages are sent with the “Send with Outreach” button. (Read more)

Recommendation

• For users who are using Outlook add-in on a daily basis, we recommend installing the new add-in.
• For users who are not frequent users of the Outlook add-in, we recommend installing the legacy add-in.

What versions of Outlook are supported by the new add-in?

The supported versions and minimum requirements for the new Outlook add-in are outlined in the Outlook add-in installation instructions.

How do I determine what version I am using?

See the Microsoft guide on how to check your Outlook version.

When will the new Outlook add-in sync emails to Outreach?

The Outlook add-in provides an additional layer of control over the communication through reps’ individual mailboxes. The Outlook add-in ensures that the communication is compliant, the prospect opt-out status is respected, and only prospect communication gets synced to Outreach.

• As a reminder, emails synced to Outreach are visible to all Outreach users within your organization.

Sending email to a blocked prospect

The Outlook add-in helps you to avoid an unwanted sync of non-prospect emails to Outreach.

Outreach works with the concept of Blocked Prospects. Admins can block contacts by navigating to:

Settings > Org > General > Emailing prospects.

It’s possible to block a single prospect or multiple prospects by using rules. (To learn more about prospect creation, see the Admin Settings General Org Overview.)

• When an opted-out prospect is a single recipient or among email recipients, Outlook add-in doesn’t detect this prospect and prospect creation from inbox is disabled for this prospect.
• If a rep is emailing to a blocked prospect with Outlook add-in enabled, communication is not synced to Outreach and features like Prospect creation directly from add-in, Meetings, Reminders, Open/Link tracking are disabled.

Sending email to an opted-out prospect

• When an opted-out prospect is among email recipients, Outlook add-in surfaces this information in the side panel.
• If you send an email to the opted out prospect from your inbox with Outlook add-in enabled, the email is sent but not synced to Outreach.
• You will not be able to add the prospect to a Sequence or use the Reminder, Meetings, Link/Open tracking functionality if the recipient of the email is an opted-out prospect or a group of the opted-out prospects.
• When sending a message to a group of prospects that consists of opted-out and not opted-out prospects, you will not be able to add opted-out prospects to the Sequence. You will be able to use Meeting, Reminder, and Link tracking with this email. These features require email sync to Outreach).
  

More control over prospect creation

The Outlook add-in provides more control when prospects are created and when they are not. The Outlook add-in will respect the rules you set so you can control what communication is being synced to Outreach.

Prospect auto-creation enabled

This is a setting on the organization level that is configurable by Admins. We recommend this set up when everyone at your organization uses the email address connected to Outreach solely for contacting prospects.

• Sending email to a prospect - Email will be synced to Outreach.
• Sending email to a non-prospect - Outlook add-in will create a new prospect record and sync the email if the rep confirms when hitting the Send button. Options will include Send with Outreach or Send without Outreach.

Prospect auto-creation disabled

This is a setting on the organization level that is configurable by Admins. We recommend this set up when anyone at your organization uses the email address they've connected to Outreach for anything other than contacting prospects.

• Sending email to a prospect - Email will be synced to Outreach.
• Sending email to a non-prospect - Email will not be synced to Outreach, and no prompt to sync to Outreach will appear upon send.

Outlook add-in is disabled

• Sending email to a prospect - Email will not be synced to Outreach.
• Sending email to a non-prospect - Email will not be synced to Outreach.

Note: We recommend having the side panel pinned so you see whether the add-in is enabled, disabled or whether the prospect opted out.

• There is no visual indicator in the read or compose experience of Outlook.
• Having the add-in enabled by accident might cause unwanted email sync to Outreach, whereas having the add-in disabled would not sync any prospect emails to Outreach.

Can prospects be automatically created?

Every non-prospect can be automatically converted into a prospect when the prospect auto-creation is on and you send emails with the Outlook add-in.

Admins can enable prospect auto-creation by navigating to: Settings > Org > Safety settings > Automatically create new prospects.

Note: This option only works for the new Outlook add-in. The legacy add-in does not support this.

If you have prospect auto-creation enabled, you will be presented with the following options when sending emails to a non-prospect:

• Send without Outreach (and do not create prospect).
• Send with Outreach and create the prospect on send.

Note: Prospects are only created when the recipients list does not contain any other prospects. When the recipient list contains other prospects, only the first non-prospect recipient is created as a prospect.

You can also skip this dialog for certain domains or particular emails by blocking them in your org settings. For almost all customers, this includes your internal domain.

If the majority of emails you send are to non-prospects, you can also disable the add-in for the time you are sending such emails.

Why do I see “Outreach is working on your request” when I send emails?

You may momentarily notice that Outlook displays the message “Outreach is working on your request” even when sending internal emails. Outreach is checking to see if there are any prospects on your email before sending the email. (No data is synced or stored for emails to blocked domains or non-prospects.)

This message can be displayed even when the add-in is disabled or when you are signed out. This happens because the new add-in uses the Native send Outlook button and Microsoft displays the message even though the add-in is not really processing the email. 

Emails sent when signed out from the add-in and with the add-in disabled are not being synced to the Outreach Outbox and Outreach features won’t apply.

Are there any tricks to using the native Send experience?

You can use the regular Send button for sending emails with Outreach. Outreach will evaluate in the background whether to sync or not sync the particular email. (Refer to Why do I see “Outreach is working on your request” when I send emails? above for more information.)

Here are a few tips to maximize your experience:

• Keyboard shortcuts - Since you can now use the native Send button to send emails, you can also take advantage of native Outlook shortcuts.
• Disabling the Add-In when not sending emails to prospects - To send emails without Outreach, open the Outlook Add-in side panel and use toggle add-in off.

When I try to send emails, a separate window opens. How do I stop this from happening?

For users on Outlook online (OWA), if their administrator has the OnSendAddinsEnabled policy enabled, they will see this experience when they try to send emails:

To avoid this, users should have their Outlook Administrator change the OnSendAddinsEnabled policy to Disabled. See Microsoft's guidance for detailed instructions.

Why are emails being saved to draft and with the following message: “An add-in prevented this message from being sent. It will be saved as a draft.”?

Information and resolution on this topic can be found here.

Can I schedule an email to send later?

Scheduling emails to send later can be done through Outlook’s native functionality instead of using Outreach’s Send Later.
Note: The Outlook native Send Later option is not currently available for Mac native app users.

For more information on how to schedule an email delivery in Outlook, refer to the Microsoft article Delay or schedule sending email messages.

Are links added via Meetings tracked?

Yes, these links are always tracked, regardless of whether link tracking is enabled in the Outlook add-in.

Is the new add-in available in the Microsoft Store?

No. The Outlook add-in includes the native Send feature, which is not allowed in the AppSource Microsoft store.

Why I am getting a warning about changed formatting?

In order to apply tracking, we need to modify the email contents, which can lead to a loss of email formatting on the Outlook for Mac platform. This is an Outlook limitation that is unavoidable—but this notification allows you to double-check that the email is ready to be sent.

I am using the Graph API to connect Microsoft 365 mailboxes. Will Outlook add-in work for me?

If end users require Outlook add-in from Outreach in their day-to-day workflow - both legacy and new add-in versions are compatible with the Graph API. Read more about the differences between the legacy and new add-in.