How to use Draftship with Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce has multiple email systems: Lightning Email Templates, Classic HTML Email Templates, and Email-to-Salesforce. Here's how to drop Draftship HTML into Lightning Templates without losing merge fields.
Salesforce Sales Cloud has three email surfaces and they don't share much: Lightning Email Templates (the modern default), Classic HTML Email Templates (legacy), and Email-to-Salesforce (forward emails into the CRM). For sending outbound, you'll use Lightning Email Templates. The path from Draftship is straightforward once you know the merge field syntax.
Where Sales Cloud accepts pasted HTML
In Lightning, navigate to Email Templates (in the App Launcher, or via Setup). Click New Email Template. Pick the Custom HTML type. Paste your Draftship export.
When the rep clicks Send Email on a contact record, they pick the template. Salesforce resolves merge fields against the open record at send.
Merge field syntax
Salesforce merge fields use {!Object.Field} for Classic and Lightning Component templates, and {{{Object.Field}}} for Lightning Email Templates with the new Email Template Builder. Drop into the Custom HTML template, the syntax is {!...}.
| Draftship | Salesforce Sales Cloud |
|---|---|
{{ first_name }} | {!Contact.FirstName} |
{{ last_name }} | {!Contact.LastName} |
{{ email }} | {!Contact.Email} |
{{ company }} | {!Account.Name} (when contact has parent account) |
| Owner first name | {!User.FirstName} |
For lead records, swap Contact for Lead. For deal context, use Opportunity. The merge field resolves against the active record type at send.
List Email vs Single Email
- Single Email: rep clicks Send Email on a contact record. Goes through the rep's mailbox via Lightning Sync or Einstein Activity Capture.
- List Email: rep selects a list view and sends to multiple contacts. Goes through Salesforce's send infrastructure with mass email caps (5,000 per day per user as of 2026).
Both use the same Email Template. The send rules differ. List Email respects the unsubscribe and Email Opt Out fields.
What Salesforce does to your HTML
Lightning's HTML editor preserves pasted markup faithfully. A few things to know:
- The Email Template Builder (drag-drop, separate from Custom HTML) wraps everything in their components. Custom HTML is the template type that respects Draftship.
- Inline styles survive.
<style>blocks survive. Conditional comments survive. - Salesforce can re-encode entities on save; check curly quotes and em dashes (don't use them) in your final review.
Test send checklist
- Send a draft to yourself from a real contact record to validate merge field resolution.
- Run the rendered email through the size checker.
- Test on Gmail and Outlook receiving accounts.
- Confirm Email Opt Out and unsubscribe respect for List Email sends.
When to use Pardot or Marketing Cloud instead
Sales Cloud's email is built for 1:1 rep outbound. If you're running marketing campaigns at scale, move to Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) or Marketing Cloud Email Studio. Both have richer template builders and proper list management.
For Pardot specifically, see Use Draftship with Pardot.