Letterhead
A Salesforce email template component that defines consistent branding elements (logo, colors, footer) applied across HTML email templates.
Definition
A Salesforce email template component that defines consistent branding elements (logo, colors, footer) applied across HTML email templates. It ensures outgoing emails maintain a uniform organizational appearance.
In plain English
“A Letterhead in Salesforce is the branding wrapper for HTML email templates. It defines the logo, colors, header, and footer that get applied across your email templates so all your outgoing emails look consistent and on-brand.”
Worked example
The marketing team at Brookmoor Capital creates a Letterhead in Salesforce containing the company logo (top), brand colors (header bar in #2C3E50, accents in #E74C3C), and a standardized footer (legal disclaimer, unsubscribe link, address). All HTML email templates reference the Letterhead - when the design team updates the logo or footer wording, the change propagates to every email template that uses the Letterhead. Without it, the same updates would happen template-by-template - error-prone and inconsistent. The Letterhead is the brand-consistency wrapper for outbound email.
Why Letterhead matters
A Letterhead in Salesforce is an email template component that defines consistent branding elements (logo, colors, header, footer) applied across HTML email templates. Admins create a letterhead once with the organization's branding, then use it as the foundation for multiple email templates. When users send emails using those templates, the letterhead's branding appears automatically, ensuring all outgoing communications maintain a uniform organizational appearance.
Letterheads are valuable because they centralize branding maintenance. Without them, every email template would need to duplicate the branding code, and updating the brand would mean editing every template. With letterheads, branding lives in one place and updates propagate to all templates that use it. Modern Salesforce orgs often use Lightning Email Templates which have their own approach to consistent branding, but letterheads remain relevant for Classic email templates and for orgs that haven't migrated.
How to create Letterhead
Letterheads are the brand wrappers for Classic HTML Email Templates — header logo, footer disclaimer, branded colors. Apply consistently across email templates for visual brand uniformity. Lightning Email Templates have their own embedded brand styling separately (no Letterhead concept). For Classic, Letterheads remain the standard.
- Open Setup → Classic Letterheads
Setup gear → Quick Find: Classic Letterheads → Classic Letterheads.
- Click New Letterhead
Top-right of the list.
- Set Letterhead Name and Description
Convention: per-brand or per-team ("Acme - Primary").
- Tick Available For Use
Without this, the letterhead doesn't appear in Email Template pickers. Common oversight.
- Configure Header section
Logo image (uploaded as a Document), top color band height, alignment.
- Configure Footer section
Disclaimer text, color, font.
- Configure Background colors and Top / Bottom Borders
Body color, border width and color.
- Save → use in HTML Classic Email Templates
When creating an HTML Classic Email Template, pick this Letterhead from the Letterhead picker.
Required.
Required to be ticked for the Letterhead to appear in template pickers.
- Letterheads only work with HTML Classic Email Templates. Lightning Email Templates have their own embedded styling — Letterheads aren't a thing there.
- Available For Use is off by default. Forgetting to tick this leaves the Letterhead invisible — same gotcha as Classic Email Templates and Quick Text.
- Logo images are stored as Documents (legacy Document object). Document storage counts against file storage limits — large logos add up across many letterheads.
How organizations use Letterhead
Uses letterheads to maintain consistent branding across all customer-facing emails, with one central letterhead applied to dozens of email templates.
Updated their corporate logo and brand colors by editing one letterhead, with the change automatically reflecting in all dependent email templates.
Migrated from Classic letterheads to Lightning Email Templates during their Lightning Experience rollout.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Letterhead.
- Create Classic Letterheads for Email TemplatesSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Letterhead in Salesforce?
Q2. Why use letterheads?
Q3. What's the modern alternative?
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