Maintaining a healthy relationship with your customers is crucial for business growth. That’s why emails are so important – they help you connect with your audience, communicate important information, and nurture leads. However, sending and replying emails manually can be time-consuming and inefficient. Research indicates that employees spend an average of 8.8 hours weekly on emails. That’s almost two hours each day! This is where Salesforce comes in handy. Salesforce makes keeping track of relationships with your customers easier and more efficient. 

What Are the Types of Email Templates in Salesforce?

In this tutorial, you will be working with Salesforce Classic Email Templates and Salesforce Lightning Email Templates. Both of these are used in different situations.

Salesforce Classic Email Templates

These email templates are part of Salesforce’s older, classic interface but are still widely used. They offer several customization options and are more suitable for a straightforward and familiar user experience.

Salesforce Classic Email Templates are currently used with Workflow or Process Builder to automate email alerts. However, these two Salesforce features are being sunsetted. In their place, Salesforce Flow will provide the same functionality. The emails are sent automatically once triggered by a certain event, such as when a transaction is approved, or an account is past due. When you’re using the Chargent app, you’ll use this version when sending receipts, Payment Requests, and Automated Collection emails.

You can also use Salesforce Classic Email templates based on your design to automate an email sent out 30 days before a renewal period, for example. Once you set up your email automation, you don’t have to track and email customers individually and find information from multiple records, as the system will do that work for you. You can simply set up a timeline for automated emails through Salesforce Flow with a Classic Email Template.

Salesforce Lightning Email Templates 

If you prefer or are currently using the modern Salesforce Lightning Experience, you can leverage these email templates for your communication needs. These templates offer a more intuitive and user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality. You can also insert merge fields and dynamic content to personalize emails based on recipient data. Combined, these features make creating and customizing Lightning email templates easy, even without extensive technical knowledge. 

Salesforce Lightning Email Templates can be used for communicating with your customers one-on-one, or in automations. You can leverage merge fields in your templates  to contain information unique to the customer.

For example, at Chargent, we often get questions from our customers regarding their upcoming account renewals. With Lightning Email Templates, you can set up custom fields that will determine a renewal date and the amount that their renewal costs. It’s easy to create a custom template that populates the customer’s name, account, renewal date, and amount from their file.

Salesforce Classic Email Templates

How can you begin using this helpful tool today? Let’s go through building templates for Salesforce emails step by step.

Step 1: Create a New Template

Inside Salesforce, navigate to Setup. From there, you will enter a search in Quick Find for “Classic Email Templates.” Click the resulting link, which will take you to the email templates page. Click the New Template button to begin.

Step 2: Template Settings

Once you click the New Template button, you will see you can create four different types of email templates.

  • Text: This template is available for all users and contains plain text without formatting.
  • HTML (using Classic Letterhead): Only administrators or users with the permission “Edit HTML Templates” can use these email templates. They allow you to incorporate your company’s letterhead and branding elements in emails for a more professional look. 
  • Custom (without Classic Letterhead): Same as the HTML templates, only admins with the “Edit HTML Templates” can use it. This template offers flexibility because you can create more complex designs using custom HTML code. 
  • Visualforce: This template allows developers and administrators to leverage Visualforce markup to create templates.

While each option allows you to create a template, we’ll select the option Custom (without Classic Letterhead) for this article. After selecting that option, you will be brought to the next screen.

You will need to name the template and select the folder where it resides. If you choose to put your template in a private folder, you will be the only one with access to it in the future. If this is a template that all users will need access to, you want to make sure you check the box “Available for use.” Click Save and get ready to customize your template.

Step 3: Body Text and Merge Fields

On the next page, you will create your Salesforce classic email template. Drop-down menus allow you to select the object and merge fields. Merge fields allow you to personalize the email based on your organization and your customers. For example, create a salutation and insert the merge field for the customer’s first and last name. You can do the same at the end of your email and add a merge field with a specific name to be included.

For the merged fields to execute flawlessly, the data needs to be fully populated in the customer’s Salesforce record.

Step 4: Text Version

When you are happy with the template, you can click Next to create a plain text version. Most people have an email client that can read custom HTML, but not all. By creating a plain text version, you can increase your chances that the email goes to their inbox instead of a SPAM folder. But not to worry, your recipients will only get one version of the email.

Step 5: Test

It’s a great idea to send a test to make sure you’ve set everything up correctly. If you notice errors, you can go back and edit your HTML code and text email templates to your liking. If you are familiar with Salesforce’s automation tools, like Flow, you can set the Email Template to send based on an event automatically, such as when a payment fails.

Step 6: Attach a file

If you have a file that you’d like to attach to your Classic Email Template, that’s possible, too! Navigate to your folder of email templates and select an email. Click the Attach File button and select the file you wish to attach to your template. Click Save, and you’re done.

How to Find the Email Templates Section in Salesforce Classic

You can quickly find the Classic email template Salesforce section by following these steps:

  1. On your homepage, click the Setup icon.
  2. You’ll have a new page displayed with a “Quick Find” search box.
  3. Type “templates” in the search box.
  4. From the results, select Classic Email Templates, and the templates will appear.

Salesforce Lightning Email Templates

Now that you understand how to create Classic Email Templates, let’s take a look at Salesforce Lightning Templates.

The Lightning templates are similar to Classic templates and can be used in Salesforce automations.

 

Step 1: Load a Record

To start a Lightning Email Template, navigate to a record that contains Salesforce Activities. This will often be the Contact or Case record.

Step 2: Create the Template

Click the Email button. Instead of typing out a new email, click the Insert, Create, or Update Template button and select Create a Template.

Use the editing tool the same way you would any Email client and customize the fields. You can add a subject line, include images, create hyperlinks and bullets if needed.

You will see the brackets icon in the lower set of email tools, which allows you to add merge fields. Merge fields can be any standard or custom field and helps personalize the email by inserting field values from an already populated record.

You can attach files to your email here as well.

Step 3: Save

When you are done creating your template, click the icon to the right of the brackets to save your template.

Step 4: Use the Template

To use the template in the future, navigate to your Contact or Case record and click the Email button. Instead of typing out a new email, click the Insert, Create, or Update Template button and select Insert a Template. You can now choose the template you created and use it for the email activity. Click Send, and you’re done!

How do I Merge Email Templates in Salesforce Lightning Experience?

Once you create a template in Salesforce Lightning, you can add merge fields to your templates to personalize and enhance your emails. Here’s how to go about it:

  1. In the email template editor, hover and click where you intend to place a merge field. 
  2. Click on the merge field icon (often represented by { }) and select the object and field you want to merge, such as Account.Name or Contact.FirstName. This allows you to personalize each email with specific recipient information.
  3. Once satisfied with your template, click Save to retain your changes.

How do I Add an Image to a Salesforce Lightning Email Template?

Lightning Email Templates support dynamic content blocks. To add images to Lightning email templates, you can either upload them from your computer or use the images’ URLs to upload them from the web. 

Using the upload or browse option: 

  1. On the existing email template that you want to add images to, click on the Image icon.
  2. Select the Browse or Upload option.
  3. You can either upload the image directly from your computer using the Upload Image button or select the image from the Salesforce file library using the Browse option.
  4. Click Insert to add the selected image to the email template.
  5. Before saving, you can adjust the image’s size on the template by dragging the corners. 

Using the web image option:

  1. On the image icon, select the Web Image Option.
  2. Enter the image’s URL and fill in the Image Description space.
  3. Adjust the image to fit your preferences on the template, then click Save. 

What are the Limitations of Lightning Email Templates in Salesforce?

While Salesforce supports migration from Classic to Lightning, not all features and customizations from Classic Email Templates may be easily transferable to Lightning Email Templates. For instance, Lightning Email Templates restrict extensive HTML and CSS customization compared to Classic Email Templates. This can limit your design flexibility if you need to create highly customized email layouts.

Automate Payment Emails With Chargent

With Chargent, you can customize and automate payment receipts, ensuring that your customers receive the timely confirmation they expect when making a payment online. Chargent’s Payment Request feature allows you to customize emails with send payment links directly to your customers, enabling them to make a payment from their computer or mobile device at their own convenience.  With Chargent Automated Collections, you can automate your dunning processes by triggering follow-up emails for overdue payments. This feature, in concert with Chargent’s automatic payment collection retries, ensures that your business maintains a healthy cash flow by collecting more with less effort. Contact us today to integrate our top-rated payment processing app with your Salesforce workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you import email templates in Salesforce?

No. As of writing this blog, there isn’t a straightforward way to import email templates created outside Salesforce. Nonetheless, you can paste existing HTML into your templates. To do this, create a new template under the Custom (without using Classic Letterhead) option. After filling in all the basic information, paste the HTML code of your template in the HTML body field. 

How many types of Salesforce templates are there?

There are two main types of Salesforce email templates: Classic and Lightning. Under the Classic Lightning Templates, you can use four subcategories: Text, HTML with Classic Letterhead, Custom HTML, and Visualforce. 

What is the difference between Classic email templates and Lightning email templates?

The major difference between the two main Salesforce email templates is that Classic email templates are the older versions while Lightning is the newer, easier-to-use templates. With Salesforce Classic email templates, you require some technical knowledge to use them, while you may not require the same with Lightning because they have intuitive interfaces. 

How do I switch from Salesforce Classic to Salesforce Lightning?

Switching between the two Salesforce orgs is possible, depending on your needs. You can do this from the Salesforce home page by clicking your account icon on the top right. From the drop-down menu, select the “Switch to Salesforce Classic/Salesforce Lightning” option, depending on the one you’re currently using. 

How do I create an email template folder in Salesforce?

Before creating Salesforce email templates, you must enable the “Folders and Enhanced Sharing” functionality. Once enabled, follow the below steps:

  1. Select App Launcher on your Salesforce org dashboard and search for “Email Template.”
  2. Click on the “New Folder” icon on the upper right side of the dashboard.
  3. Create a name for your folder under the Folder Label and click Save. 

What are merge fields in Salesforce email templates?

Merge fields are the “placeholders” for the actual data (contact name, account details, etc.) you may include in an email before sending it.  They allow you to personalize emails with data from your Salesforce records. 

How many email templates can you have in Salesforce?

Salesforce has a limit of 500 email templates that you can create. Once you exceed this limit, you’ll receive the “UNKNOWN_EXCEPTION, Email template limit exceeded” message. If you need more templates than the allocated limit, you can request Salesforce to increase your limit by opening a case with the “Feature Activations & Limits Team” for consideration. Salesforce recommends that you prepare a strong case before requesting to increase your limit because they don’t approve all of them.