Configure email promotion rules for Activity Management

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated July 7, 2026
  • 1 minute to read

    • Configure email promotion rules to automatically process staged emails for manual association through the ServiceNow CRM for Outlook add-in or to trigger AI-powered auto-association with existing sales entities.

    Before you begin

    Note:
    Configuring email promotion is required if you're on CRM Outlook Add-in application version 1.0.1.

    Role required: admin

    About this task

    Email promotion rules enable the following workflows for managing staged emails:
    • Manual email association: Agents use the ServiceNow CRM for Outlook add-in to associate emails with CRM records, triggering promotion from the Staged Email [sys_email_staging] table to the Email [sys_email] table.
    • AI auto-association: When an agent receives an email with no existing CRM record association, the promotion rule triggers the AI sales activity association workflow to automatically match the email to a relevant sales entity (Lead, Opportunity, Contact, or Account) using semantic analysis and intent detection.

    Procedure

    1. Log in to your ServiceNow instance.
    2. Add a promotion rule.
      1. Set the application scope to Global.
      2. Navigate to All > User Mailboxes > Promotion Rules.
      3. Select New.
      4. On the form, fill in the fields.
        Table 1. Email Promotion Rule form
        Field Value
        Name <promotion rule name>
        Condition

        (current.target_table == "<table_name>") && !gs.nil(current.instance)

        For example, (current.target_table == "sn_lead_mgmt_core_lead") && !gs.nil(current.instance)
        Promotion strategy Promote and run Triggers
      5. Select Submit.
    3. Create a business rule on the Staged Email [sys_email_staging] table.
      1. Set the application scope to Global.
      2. Navigate to All > System Definition > Business Rules.
      3. Select New.
      4. On the form, fill in the fields.
        Table 2. Business Rule form
        Field Value
        Name <business rule name>

        For example, Trigger promotion rules on CRM emails.
        Table Staged Email [sys_email_staging]
        Active Selected
        Advanced Selected
      5. In the When to run tab, enter the following values.
        Field Value
        When after
        Insert Selected
        Update Selected
        Filter Conditions [Target] [changes] AND [Target table] [changes]
      6. In the Advanced tab, add the following values to trigger email promotion processing for staged CRM emails.
        Field Value
        Condition sn_crm_outlook.CRMOutlookAddinConstants.PROMOTED_TABLE_LIST[current.target_table] == true && !gs.nil(current.instance) && gs.nil(current.email)
        Script gs.eventQueue("email_staged.read", current);

        The script event initiates asynchronous processing to promote the staged email and trigger the appropriate association workflow.

        The following image shows the Advanced tab with Condition and Script fields populated.
        Advanced tab with Condition and Script fields populated.
      7. Select Submit.

    Result

    Staged emails that meet the specified conditions are processed according to the configured promotion rules. Promoted emails appear in the Emails tab on manually associated records or in the activity stream on AI-matched records.