Cloudy's Chalkboard: How to Create an Email Letterhead

Creating an email letterhead is the first step toward fully harnessing the power of email from within salesforce.com.
If you are not already using email within (or integrated with) your salesforce.com, let's briefly consider a few benefits of doing so:

• 360 degree view of all communication with a Contact:  As you and your teammates communicate with your contacts, all emails are tracked on the contact record so that everyone can see the full story of those interactions (alongside logged calls and other activities).

• Automation: If you are using the Enterprise or Unlimited edition of salesforce.com, email messages can be automatically sent and logged, based on criteria you set.

• Consistent messaging: By utilizing Letterheads and Templates, you can standardize your messaging, reduce the time spent composing emails, and give all your emails a consistent brand identity, using a Letterhead with your colors and logos.

Get started down this path by following along with Cloudy to create a salesforce.com letterhead like this simple example:

With just a logo and a few color choices,
 Redpath now has a letterhead that will ensure a consistent,
branded look for all of their outgoing email.

Step 1: Upload your logo (or other image) to the Documents tab in your salesforce.com. 

•  If you cannot see this tab, find it by clicking the "+" to the right of your tabs.  

• If you don't have any document folders set up, you can create one by clicking the "Create New Folder" link.  For instance, create a folder called "Logos."

• Before uploading, make sure the logo is the exact size you want for the Letterhead.  Unlike other familiar document and image interfaces, such as Word or Google Docs, you will not be able to adjust the size of the image after loading it. (If you make a mistake on the size of the image, simply replace your original image or load it as a separate document.

• Be sure to select the "Externally Available Image" checkbox!

Step 2: Create the Letterhead Go to Your Name> Setup> Communication Templates> Letterheads> New Letterhead.

• Give your letterhead a descriptive name and be sure to check the "Available for Use" checkbox. Click "Next".

• On the Letterhead edit page which appears, add your Logo by clicking the "Select Logo" button and finding the logo you uploaded in the correct folder.  If you do not see your logo in the correct folder, you probably forgot to select the "Externally Available Image" checkbox!  You can fix it by going back to the Documents tab, find the logo, click "edit" and select the checkbox.

• Click through the other "Edit" boxes on the Letterhead editor to choose colors and styles for the rest of the letterhead.

• Click the "Preview" button above the editor to see how it looks!

• Click "Save".  (You can always come back and edit it more later)

Your Letterhead is ready to use. Try it out by navigating to a contact record and clicking "Send an Email." on the Activity History related list.  At the top of the email interface that appears, you will see a "Select Template" button.  (If you do not see your template in the pop-up dialogue, you probably forgot to select the "Available for Use" checkbox!  You can fix it by going back to the Letterheads page, clicking "edit" next to your letterhead, and marking the checkbox on the edit page.) With just this set up, you can send free form emails from salesforce.com that will have a consistent company brand, and the emails will be automatically attached to the correct contact records.

Next week, Cloudy will help you reach the next level of emailing in salesforce.com by creating Email Templates!

Read more Cloudy's Chalkboard tutorials:
Cloudy's Dashboard - Create Roll-up Summaries
Cloudy's Dashboard - Creating Dashboards

Cloudy's Dashboard - Grouped Bar Charts

Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Apsona

Have you ever wished you could import and export all of your salesforce.com data without firing up an external application or digging out your security token?

Have you ever encountered the limits of Salesforce.com reporting, wished that you could create more sophisticated reporting filters, or gotten frustrated while managing a list of custom report types?

How much time would you save if you could perform inline-editing on a whole list of records, without clicking into each one individually?

What if you could realize all of these functions and more with a single inexpensive app?

Apsona is one of Cloudy's favorite AppExchange apps, with such varied and powerful functionality that it can benefit any organization. What's more, nonprofits have access to 10 free licenses! 

Cloudy recently created an awesome report for a nonprofit client, allowing them to see which of their donors contributed to last year's matching grant Campaign, but did not contribute to the same Campaign this year. This insight will enable them to do a targeted and informed "ask" of those invested donors for this year's matching grant challenge!  The information on how to create this report using nested filters was right on the Apsona website:

The Apsona Website has lots of eye-opening use-cases and tutorials like this one!

Surely you are already considering the possibilities, but here are even more exciting ideas to ponder:

-Create Exception Reports: ie. Show all Accounts WITHOUT Opportunities
-Quickly change record ownership en mass.
-Import into multiple objects.
-Cleanse and import data in a single, integrated process.

Visit this page for some short, informative demos to see how powerful yet simple Apsona can be: Apsona Demos on the AppExchange 

If you would like help evaluating this App for your salesforce.com, installing it, or creating your first custom reports, CONTACT US!


Read Cloudy's reviews of other popular Apps:
Form Assembly
Conga Composer
Flip Top Social Profiles
Dupe Catcher
Rollup Helper