Digital Content: Create an Email in Salesforce

You can create emails using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SMC) to communicate with audiences for a technology launch, change, or retirement.

Signing In 

  1. Sign in to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
    1. You may be asked to verify your identity with a code sent to your email.
  2. Hover over Email Studio in the top menu and select Email.
  3. Select Content from the top menu.
    1. SMC has two different interfaces (Classic Content and Content Builder). Be sure you're using Content Builder shown on the left of the page directly under the top menu.
    2. Once you save your email, it will appear in the list of Content Items. 
    3.  You can use the Filter  in the upper right corner of the page to help navigate the list.

Creating an Email

  1. Select the Create drop-down menu in the upper right and choose Email Message.
    Drop down menu under the "create" button. "Email message" highlighted

Defining Properties

Use the Define Properties tab to choose the email type.

  1. Select Template from the drop-down menu next to Create Email.
    "Create email" drop down menu with "template" highlighted
  2. Select the SAVED tab.
  3. Find your email template.
    • When sending to all audiences other than IT@UMN, search for 650px Email Template.
      • There are four available sizes to choose from: 600px, 650px, 700px, and 750px. Select a wider template (700 or 750 px) for emails that include images or are generally longer, and select a narrower template (600 or 650 px) for shorter emails. 
    • When sending to IT@UMN, search for IT@UMN Community Announcement Template.
  4. Select your Email Template and choose Select at the bottom of the page.
  5. Name the new email (using the name of the draft Google doc) and select Next. 
  • Note: SMC will automatically save your progress, so manual saving is not necessary.

Adding Content

Use the Add Content tab to add the email content from your draft document into SMC.

  1. Add the subject line from the Google doc to the Subject field and Select Done to save.
    Subject field in Salesforce Marketing Cloud with "done" button highlighted. Alert message "A subject line must be entered to send the email."
  2. From the Blocks tab on the left side of the page, drag a Text block to the body of the email.
  3. Select the expand toolbar arrow in the WYSIWYG editor to expand all controls.
    In the Salesforce WYSIWYG editor, under the "content" tab, down arrow highlighted
  4. Copy the content from your source (ex. Google Doc) and paste as plain text into the text block content area in the left content pane.
  5. Format the text block following the steps below in exact order to ensure the layout and formatting is correct:
    1. Add or remove paragraph returns where needed.
    2. Format the headings: H2 is recommended with H3 for any subheadings.
      Formatting dropdown menu with headings listed
    3. Format any bulleted lists and/or numbered lists.
    4. Format all text (including headings):
      1. Font: Arial.
      2. Font color: Black.
        • If desired, change heading colors to maroon (#7A0019) or another color.
        • Note: If you apply text styling before formatting bulleted or numbered lists, the first list item may appear as a different (default) font style and size when compared to the other list items.
    5. Format the body text (excluding headings):
      1. Font size: 15pt.
      2. Format text: Use bold or italics as needed.
      3. Add any hyperlinks: 
        1. Select the Link  button.
        2. Enter the URL into the Link URL box.
        3. Check the box that says Include underline on hyperlink.
    6. Format the block settings:
      1. Edit spacing, padding, or add color backgrounds or borders.​​​​​​
      2. Select Done Editing.
  6. Scroll down to the email footer and replace RECIPIENTS with the footer text specified in your draft document.
  7. Select Save in the upper right.

Additional Resources

Last modified

TDX ID

7427