Letterhead
A Letterhead in Salesforce is a reusable branding template for HTML emails sent from the platform.
Definition
A Letterhead in Salesforce is a reusable branding template for HTML emails sent from the platform. It defines the header image (logo), the colors, fonts, and a footer (legal disclaimer, unsubscribe link) that every email template using the letterhead inherits. Admins build letterheads once under Setup, Classic Letterheads, and reference them from any HTML Email Template. The letterhead ensures the company''s emails carry consistent visual identity without each template designer having to copy-paste the same branding.
The feature is a legacy Salesforce Classic capability. Lightning Experience replaces the letterhead concept with Enhanced Email and Lightning Email Templates, where branding is built into each template or controlled at the org level via Email Brand Settings. Orgs migrating from Classic to Lightning often retire letterheads as part of the email-template refresh. Existing letterheads still work, but new email-template work in Lightning typically does not use them.
How Classic Letterheads worked and what replaced them
The Classic letterhead structure
A Classic letterhead is an HTML wrapper with three regions: header (logo image and any masthead content), body (where the email template content lives), and footer (legal disclaimer, unsubscribe link, contact info). Admins design the letterhead in the Setup UI''s WYSIWYG editor, save it, and reference it from any HTML email template. The template only contains the message body; the letterhead supplies everything around it.
Why letterheads exist
Consistent branding across hundreds of email templates is the problem letterheads solve. Without a shared wrapper, each template designer copy-pastes the same logo, the same footer, the same colors. Letterheads centralize this so updating the logo in one place updates every email that uses the letterhead. The pattern was elegant in 2010; Lightning makes it less necessary with org-level email brand settings.
Lightning Enhanced Email and brand settings
Lightning Experience approaches email branding differently. Enhanced Email stores emails as Email Message records; Lightning Email Templates carry their own embedded styling. Org-level Email Brand Settings let admins set company colors and the default logo URL that templates can reference. The combination replaces letterheads with a more flexible per-template branding model.
Mass email and marketing-mail context
Mass email (the now-deprecated SendEmail with massEmail capability) and Marketing Cloud email use entirely different infrastructure. Letterheads do not apply to Marketing Cloud; that product has Content Builder for branded templates. Orgs running marketing-driven email volume through Marketing Cloud Engagement do not configure letterheads at all.
Letterhead with Visualforce email templates
Visualforce Email Templates accept a letterhead reference at the messaging template level. The Visualforce markup renders inside the letterhead''s body region. The combination supports highly customized templates with shared branding; the pattern is less common in modern orgs but still functional.
Migration to Lightning email templates
Orgs cutting over from Classic to Lightning typically refresh their email templates rather than carrying the letterhead pattern forward. The new templates embed the branding directly (or reference Email Brand Settings) rather than relying on a separate letterhead wrapper. The migration is often a good time to audit and consolidate the email template portfolio.
Cert exam and historical relevance
Older Admin and Service Cloud Consultant exams referenced letterheads. Current exam material covers Lightning Email Templates and Email Brand Settings; letterheads appear only in legacy questions. Treat the term as historical context for inherited Classic orgs, not as a forward-looking design pattern.
Configure or migrate a Letterhead
Letterhead configuration is a Classic-era task. Modern orgs typically migrate to Lightning Email Templates rather than building new letterheads.
- Open Classic Letterheads
Setup, Communication Templates, Letterheads. The list shows existing letterheads with edit and delete actions.
- Create a new letterhead (if needed)
Click New Letterhead. Enter the label and the description. Save.
- Edit the visual design
Set the header image (logo URL), the body background, the footer content. Use the WYSIWYG editor or paste HTML.
- Reference from HTML email templates
When creating an HTML email template, pick the letterhead from the Letterhead dropdown. The template inherits the wrapper.
- For Lightning migration: rebuild as Lightning Email Templates
Each Classic template + letterhead combination becomes one Lightning Email Template with the branding embedded.
- Update Email Brand Settings
Setup, Email Brand Settings, set the default company logo and colors. Lightning templates reference these for consistent branding without a letterhead wrapper.
- Letterheads are a Classic feature. Lightning Experience replaces them with Lightning Email Templates and Email Brand Settings; new orgs should not invest in the letterhead model.
- Image URLs in letterheads must be accessible to email recipients. Internal-only URLs produce broken images in the customer''s inbox.
- Letterheads do not apply to Marketing Cloud emails. Marketing Cloud uses Content Builder; the two systems are entirely separate.
- Updating a letterhead updates every template that references it. The bulk update is the feature''s value, but it also means a mistake propagates to every email at once.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Create LetterheadsSalesforce Help
- Email Brand SettingsSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Letterhead.
- Email TemplatesSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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