Link an email message to a Potential

Link an email message to a Potential

I am looking for a way to

1. Link  specific emails to potentials using a subject line reference id that would be unique to that potential.

Our loan origination platform allows us some functionality if we cc and email to a specific Email  And that subject line has a reference number embedded between two square brackets 
eg [VMLAB-12345]    

2. The ability to select a potential from a drop down list as I was able to do with gold mine for the last 20 years And link that outbound email to a specific potential that is currently active.