Send qualified leads to Slack

Slack is the fastest way to get a qualified lead in front of a person. Embers posts one card per lead into a single channel, with the score, why the person matched, the evidence, and a suggested opening line.

Before you start

• Permission to install apps in your Slack workspace, or someone who has it. Many company workspaces require a Slack admin to approve every new app; see Slack asks you to request the app.
• A channel for leads. A quiet, dedicated channel beats a busy one.
• For a private channel, invite the Embers bot to it before you pick it.

Connect Slack

1. Open the Slack integration

   Open Integrations in the sidebar (/integrations) and choose Slack (/integrations/slack).

2. Install the Embers Slack app

   On the Setup card, choose Connect Slack workspace. Slack asks you to approve the app, which requests chat:write, chat:write.public, channels:read, and groups:read: enough to list channels and post, and nothing that reads your messages. Slack then sends you back to the Slack page in Embers.

   Once connected, the page opens on one sentence that says whether Embers is posting, such as “Not posting yet: choose a channel”, over a line of facts: the last post, the workspace, and what posts. Needs attention (only when something needs fixing), the Activity card, and the setup cards follow.

   If Slack shows a request form instead of an Allow button, your workspace needs an admin to approve the app first. Slack does not send you back to Embers in that case, so nothing is connected yet. See Slack asks you to request the app.

3. Choose one channel

   On the Channel card, pick the channel under Delivery channel and choose Save channel. Until one is saved, Choose channel under Needs attention jumps straight here. Public channels are listed automatically; a private one appears once the bot has been invited to it. There is one channel per Embers account.

4. Choose what to post

   The What to post card has two switches, and every post goes to the channel above:

   • New leads (on for a new install): a scored engager matched your ICP or you approved them by hand.
   • Everything else (off): a known lead engaged again (one message per lead per scan), a lead changed pipeline status, and a client report finished generating.

   Turn on Everything else only once you know how busy the channel gets.

5. Send a test message

   Choose Send test beside the status at the top of the page (in the … menu on a phone). Embers posts a card built by the same code as a real delivery, marked Test, so you can check the channel and the formatting before a real lead arrives. The test needs a saved channel. If it fails, Needs attention shows why, with Send test to try again.

What the Slack card shows

Each lead card answers one question: is this person worth a message right now?

• Header: the person’s name and company.
• Fields: the score, the ICP verdict, and the strongest signal.
• Why now: one sentence on what they did.
• Evidence: a short quote from the post or comment, its source, and a link. Left out when there is nothing to quote.
• Suggested open: your stored DM draft, or a template when there is none. You edit it and send it from LinkedIn yourself.
• Contact: email and phone, only when Embers already holds them. Contact details need a paid plan and are not part of the free trial. The row is left out rather than shown empty.
• Buttons: Open in Embers and the LinkedIn profile.

Report cards are shorter, with an Open report button.

Who gets delivered

The Who gets delivered card holds Slack’s own delivery rules: a minimum lead score, ICP matches only, the sources that count, and titles and industries to exclude. Choose Save rules after changing them, or Reset to drop your edits. They are the difference between a channel people read and a channel people mute.

A lead the rules hold back is listed on the Activity card as Held back, with the reason, and is not retried on its own. Choose Send anyway on that row, or push the lead yourself with Send to.

Activity, retries, and pauses

The Activity card lists the last 30 days of posts, newest first: the lead, the status (Delivered, Failed, Held back, Blocked, or Sending), the reason, and when. A push from Send to is badged “Sent by hand”. Slack’s error codes read as sentences with the code kept, such as “Slack cannot find the channel (channel_not_found)”. Filter by All, Failed, or Held back. Retry re-sends a failed or blocked row, and Send anyway a held-back one, while posting is on and not paused. The newest three failures also sit under Needs attention with Retry, and See all N failed opens the rest.

Slack rate limits and Slack outages are retried: the first attempt plus seven retries, from 30 seconds out to about 6.3 days. Errors that retrying cannot fix pause the installation instead: the token was revoked, the channel was deleted or archived, or the bot was removed from it. The status then reads “Posting to Slack is paused”, and Needs attention shows the reason with Resume, for once you have fixed the cause.

A card Slack refuses for its content, such as invalid_blocks or msg_too_long, fails on its own row and does not pause anything; the next lead still posts. Five refused cards in a row with none posted in between pause the installation.

If posting is turned off, Needs attention offers Turn on; the workspace, the channel, and what to post stay saved. To remove the install, choose Disconnect Slack in the … menu beside the status and confirm.

Troubleshooting

Slack asks you to request the app

Workspaces that restrict app installs show a form to request the app instead of an Allow button. Sending the request notifies your Slack admins, and Slack leaves you on its own page: you do not come back to Embers, and Embers shows Slack as not connected.

1. Submit the request in Slack, with a note on what the app is for (posting qualified leads to one channel).
2. Wait for a Slack admin to approve it. Slack tells you when the app is approved.
3. In Embers, open Integrations, choose Slack, and choose Connect Slack workspace again. This time Slack shows Allow and sends you back.

If you are the admin, approve the Embers app from the app requests in your Slack admin settings, then connect again.

Other problems

Slack sent you back but nothing connected. A toast says why. “Slack install was cancelled. Nothing was connected.” means Cancel was chosen in Slack. A toast saying the Slack install link expired means more than 10 minutes passed between choosing Connect Slack workspace and approving in Slack. In both cases, choose Connect Slack workspace again.

The status reads “Posting to Slack is paused”. Slack refused the token or the channel, or refused five cards in a row. Slack delivery is paused walks through each cause, then choose Resume under Needs attention.

Needs attention shows “Embers can no longer post to” the channel. The channel was deleted or archived, or the Embers app was removed from it. Use Choose channel beside it to pick and save another, or fix the channel in Slack.

A private channel is missing from the list. The bot has not been invited. In Slack, invite the Embers app to the channel, then reload the page.

Send test is greyed out. Posting is paused or turned off, or there is no channel Embers can post to. Needs attention names which, with Resume, Turn on, or Choose channel beside it.

New leads are not posting, but tests do. A rule is holding them back, or New leads is off. With both switches off the status reads “Not posting: nothing is selected to post”. Choose Held back on the Activity card to read why each lead stayed out.

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