Feature · Email SMS CRM Integration

An email and SMS CRM integration where both channels log to the same contact record.

Teams running outbound through email and SMS typically wire two bolt-ons: a mail-merge tool for email, a messaging vendor for SMS, and a CRM that neither tool reconciles against. Replies land in disconnected inboxes. Consent management lives in three places. On Strkr, email runs through native Gmail and Microsoft 365 integrations, SMS runs through Strkr Messaging (carrier-grade, tier-1), both channels log to the typed contact timeline, consent lives on the typed contact, and the audit log carries every send.

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What the shared stack covers

Seven jobs the integration handles natively.

Email and SMS carry different mechanics (open rates, reply thread shape, delivery semantics, carrier regulation) but share the business job: reach the contact and log the exchange. The seven jobs below cover what the integration handles natively rather than bolting on.

Native email

Gmail and Microsoft 365, OAuth per user.

Native SMS

Strkr Messaging, carrier-grade tier-1.

SMS runs through Strkr Messaging on a carrier-grade tier-1 provider ($29/mo base, $0.02 per SMS, $0.05 per MMS). Deliverability is high because the carrier relationship is first-party. The common failure where a bolt-on SMS vendor marks up carrier rates 3x gets avoided when the carrier is native.

Shared timeline

Both channels log to the contact.

Email sends and SMS sends both log to the typed contact timeline with the channel, the direction, and the body (or the body preview for compliance-sensitive deployments). The rep sees the full conversation across channels on one view rather than switching between email and SMS tools.

Consent on the record

Email and SMS opt-outs live typed.

Consent for each channel lives on the typed contact (email opt-out, SMS opt-out, broader DND). A send respects consent at the channel level: an email can still send if the SMS is opted out, and vice versa. The common failure where consent lives in three places and a sender hits an opted-out contact anyway gets avoided.

Reply routing

Inbound SMS lands on the contact.

Inbound SMS replies land on the typed contact timeline and notify the owning rep. The STOP keyword automatically flips the SMS consent flag so the next send blocks. The common failure where an inbound reply ends up in a shared mailbox nobody monitors gets avoided when the reply lands on the typed contact.

Sequencing

Multi-channel sequences with waits.

Outbound sequences compose steps across email and SMS with waits in between. A sequence sends an email on day one, a follow-up SMS on day three, and a check-in email on day seven. The sequence pauses on reply so the rep can pick up the human conversation. The ops lead builds sequences in the workflow editor.

Audit log

Every send, every reply, every opt-out.

Every email send, SMS send, inbound reply, consent change, and sequence pause lands on the audit log keyed on the contact and the actor. A compliance query covering every SMS sent to opted-out contacts in Q3 is a filter on the audit page. The audit log is append-only.

Why one stack beats two

Six failure modes separate email and SMS tools create.

Running email through one vendor and SMS through another splits the contact history, splits the consent model, and splits the audit chain. Six failure modes live customers cite when they consolidated onto Strkr.

Split consent

Opt-out in one tool, send from the other.

A contact opts out of email in the mail-merge tool. The SMS vendor does not know. The rep sends an SMS to the opted-out contact and triggers a complaint. On Strkr, consent lives on the typed contact so both channels respect the same opt-out signals.

Reply orphan

Vendor inbox nobody monitors.

A contact replies to an outbound SMS. The reply lands in the SMS vendor dashboard. The rep rarely opens the dashboard. The reply gets stale. On Strkr, the inbound SMS lands on the typed contact timeline with notification to the owning rep so the reply gets responded to.

History split

Email on one timeline, SMS on another.

Email history lives in the mail-merge tool. SMS history lives in the SMS vendor. The rep piecing together a contact's conversation history switches between three tools. On Strkr, both channels log to the same typed timeline so the rep reads the full conversation on one view.

Compliance split

Audit requires joining vendor logs.

A compliance query covering every outbound to Acme in Q3 has to join the mail-merge log and the SMS vendor log. The join is manual, error-prone, and expensive. On Strkr, the audit log is one ledger so the query is a filter on the audit page.

Markup accumulation

Each vendor marks up carrier costs.

The SMS vendor marks up carrier rates 2-3x. The mail-merge tool charges per-contact pricing. The total channel cost runs well above the native rates. Strkr Messaging passes the carrier cost plus the explicit regulatory passthrough with transparent per-message rates and no hidden markup.

Carrier branding leak

Vendor name shows up in opt-out footer.

A bolt-on SMS vendor sometimes leaks the underlying provider name in the opt-out footer or the help response. On Strkr, carrier branding never surfaces to the end user. The messaging reads as Strkr Messaging regardless of the carrier underneath. The common failure where a prospect receives an opt-out message naming an unknown provider gets avoided.

The engineering underneath

What keeps the integration compliant at volume.

Email and SMS carry regulatory weight: CAN-SPAM for email, TCPA and STIR/SHAKEN for SMS. An integration that handles 1,000 sends on a demo and fails compliance at 100,000 sends is a liability. Strkr ships the primitives that keep the integration compliant at volume.

TCPA posture

Consent capture plus quiet hours.

SMS honors TCPA: consent is captured and stored on the typed contact, quiet hours (no sends between 9 PM and 8 AM in the recipient time zone) enforce at the send boundary, and STOP keyword handling flips consent automatically. The audit log carries every consent capture and every quiet-hour block.

CAN-SPAM posture

Unsubscribe link, physical address.

Email honors CAN-SPAM: every outbound carries an unsubscribe link, a physical address, and a clear sender identity. An unsubscribe click flips the email consent flag so the next send blocks. The common failure where a mail-merge tool ships without an unsubscribe link because the ops team forgot gets avoided because the integration enforces at the send boundary.

10DLC registration

Brand and campaign on record.

US SMS requires 10DLC brand and campaign registration. Strkr Messaging handles the registration flow in the admin surface rather than requiring a separate vendor engagement. The registration data lands on the tenant record. The audit log carries the registration status so the compliance team can inspect.

Deliverability monitoring

Bounce rate, spam rate, carrier flags.

Email deliverability (bounce rate, spam complaint rate, inbox placement) and SMS deliverability (carrier flags, invalid number rate) surface on the admin dashboard. A spike in bounces or spam complaints flags the ops team before the sending domain reputation degrades.

Rate limits

Per-contact and per-domain throttles.

Rate limits throttle outbound: per-contact cadence (no more than one SMS per 24 hours), per-domain throttle (no more than N emails per hour to the same domain), and tenant-wide throttles for new domains. The common failure where a sequence floods a contact (or an ESP flags the sending domain) gets avoided when the limits are enforced.

Audit log

Append-only across both channels.

The audit log carries every send, every reply, every consent change, every opt-out, every quiet-hour block, and every rate-limit decision across both channels. The log is append-only with cryptographic integrity. The common failure where a vendor allows admin-level audit redaction (so the audit cannot survive a TCPA review) gets avoided.

Where email plus SMS deploys

Three live customer channel patterns.

A 55-seat outbound SDR team, a 180-seat inside sales org, and a 420-seat customer success team each run email and SMS differently. The channel mix and the sequencing flex to the role.

Outbound SDR

Email heavy, SMS for scheduling.

A 55-seat outbound SDR team runs email-heavy outbound (3-4 emails per week per prospect) with SMS as a scheduling follow-up on positive engagement. SMS is 90% scheduling confirmations, 10% soft follow-ups. The channel mix lands high meeting-book rates with low complaint rates.

Inside sales

Mixed sequences by segment.

A 180-seat inside sales org runs mixed sequences by segment. Enterprise segments run email-only (SMS feels pushy at that register). SMB segments run email plus SMS. The sequencing adapts to the segment on the typed opportunity. The ops lead maintains the sequence library.

CSM team

SMS for urgent, email for everything else.

A 420-seat CSM team runs SMS for urgent (ticket escalation, renewal reminder) and email for everything else (QBR scheduling, feature announcements, usage reports). The CSMs honor the opt-in: SMS only to contacts who explicitly opted in on the typed consent flag.

Monthly review

Ops lead inspects deliverability.

Monthly, the ops lead inspects deliverability metrics: email bounce rate, email spam complaint rate, SMS carrier flag rate, SMS invalid number rate. Spikes flag before the sending reputation degrades. The common failure where deliverability degrades silently over a quarter gets avoided through the monthly review.

Quarterly consent

Compliance pulls opt-out audit.

Quarterly, the compliance team pulls the opt-out audit: every consent capture, every opt-out, every STOP keyword, every unsubscribe click. The audit chain confirms that no outbound hit an opted-out contact. The audit filter runs on the shared ledger rather than joining across vendor logs.

Annual carrier review

Strkr Messaging bills reconcile cleanly.

Annually, finance reviews the SMS and email channel costs. Strkr Messaging bills carry transparent per-message pricing plus the regulatory carrier fee passthrough itemized on the invoice. The reconciliation is clean because the costs are not buried in a vendor markup. The common failure where SMS costs surprise finance at year-end gets avoided.

Email and SMS CRM integration where both channels share the typed contact.

Native Gmail and Microsoft 365 OAuth, Strkr Messaging carrier-grade SMS, shared timeline, consent on the record, append-only audit log. Transparent per-message pricing. Flat seat covers the integration. HIPAA BAA available, SOC 2 Type II in progress through 2026-Q4.

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Common questions

What buyers ask about this feature.

How does Strkr integrate email natively?

Email integration runs through per-user OAuth on Gmail and Microsoft 365. The rep sends from their own address. Replies land in the typed contact timeline and in the rep's inbox simultaneously. The integration respects CAN-SPAM at the send boundary: every outbound carries an unsubscribe link, a physical address, and a clear sender identity. An unsubscribe click flips the email consent flag on the typed contact so the next send blocks. The common failure where mail-merge sends from a shared vendor address and the reply never reaches the rep gets avoided when the OAuth is per-user.

What carrier backs Strkr Messaging for SMS?

Strkr Messaging runs on a carrier-grade tier-1 provider. Deliverability is high because the carrier relationship is first-party rather than mediated by a bolt-on vendor markup. Pricing is $29 per month base, $0.02 per SMS, $0.05 per MMS, with the carrier fee passthrough transparent on the invoice. Carrier branding never surfaces to the end user: the messaging reads as Strkr Messaging regardless of the provider underneath. The common failure where a prospect receives an opt-out message naming an unknown provider gets avoided.

How does consent management work across channels?

Consent for each channel lives on the typed contact: email opt-out, SMS opt-out, broader DND flag. A send respects consent at the channel level: an email can still send if SMS is opted out, and vice versa. STOP keyword handling on inbound SMS automatically flips the SMS consent flag so the next send blocks. An unsubscribe click on an outbound email automatically flips the email consent flag. The common failure where consent lives in three vendors and a sender hits an opted-out contact anyway gets avoided when the consent lives on the shared typed contact.

Does Strkr handle TCPA compliance for SMS?

Yes. SMS honors TCPA: consent is captured and stored on the typed contact (with the capture mechanism and timestamp on the audit log), quiet hours enforce at the send boundary (no sends between 9 PM and 8 AM in the recipient time zone), STOP keyword handling flips consent automatically, and 10DLC brand and campaign registration runs through the admin surface rather than a separate vendor engagement. The audit log carries every consent capture, every quiet-hour block, every STOP handling, and every outbound send so a TCPA review has the full chain of custody for every message.

Can an ops lead build multi-channel sequences?

Yes. Outbound sequences compose steps across email and SMS with waits in between. A sequence sends an email on day one, a follow-up SMS on day three (gated on positive engagement from day one), and a check-in email on day seven. The sequence pauses on reply so the rep can pick up the human conversation. The ops lead builds sequences in the workflow editor with the same primitives (threshold rules, waits, branching logic) used across the platform. The common failure where sequences live in a separate marketing automation tool and never reconcile with the CRM activity timeline gets avoided when the sequencing is native.

What does email and SMS CRM integration cost on Strkr?

The integration is included in the flat $50 per seat. Email through Gmail or Microsoft 365 uses the per-user OAuth with no additional per-send fee. SMS through Strkr Messaging carries transparent per-message pricing: $29 per month base, $0.02 per SMS, $0.05 per MMS, plus the regulatory carrier fee passthrough itemized on the invoice. The common failure where a bolt-on SMS vendor marks up carrier rates 2-3x and the real channel cost runs well above the published rates gets avoided when the carrier relationship is first-party and the pricing is transparent.

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