How to Customize Salesforce to Enhance Brand Consistency

Today, businesses increasingly lean on Salesforce for its wealth of automation tools and user-friendly solutions. While the platform’s functional features simplify operations, it’s vital not to overlook aesthetic branding elements that make your business unique.

Logos, colors, and fonts contribute significantly to your company’s identity. Learn how to customize Salesforce to reflect your brand personality, given the platform’s versatility and ample customization tools.

Dive into our guide to explore how to:

• Craft a unique custom theme.
• Personalize your Login page.
• Customize your apps for a tailored user experience.
• Construct interactive pages using Lightning App Builder.
• Configure Page Layouts for optimal workflow.
• Create branded email templates for consistent communication.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

How to Enforce a Custom Theme Layout in Salesforce

While Salesforce offers default theme layout types for your organization, you have the option to craft a custom theme layout that aligns with your company’s branding. To establish this new layout, adhere to the following steps:

1. From Setup in the Quick Find box enter ‘Themes and Branding’ and click on it.
2. Click ‘New Theme’.
3. Enter Theme Name.
4. Set up Branding:

How to Set Up Branding in Salesforce | Ascendix

a) Upload the Brand Image.
b) Choose the Brand Color.
c) Check the ‘Override accessible brand color’ checkbox if you want to override the accessible brand color.
d) Check the ‘Use Brand Image on Lightning Experience Loading Page’ checkbox if you want to use the brand image on the Lightning Experience loading page.

How to Use Brand Image on Lightning Experience Loading Page in Salesforce | Ascendix

5. Set up Colors:
a) Choose the Page Background color.
b) Choose the Global Header Background color.
c) Check the ‘Use Brand Color’ checkbox if you want to use brand color for the links.
d) Brand-based palette is generated automatically based on the chosen colors.

How to Select a Color in Salesforce | Ascendix

6. Set up Images:
a) Upload the Page Background Image.
b) Upload Default Group Banner and Default Group Avatar.
c) Upload Default User Profile Banner and Default User Profile Avatar.

How to Set Up Images in Salesforce | Ascendix

7. Click ‘Save’

Voila! You have created your own theme.

How to Customize Salesforce Login Page

Extending your custom colors and logos to the login page in Salesforce allows you to reflect your company’s brand consistently and provides easy access for users.

Follow these steps to achieve this customization:

1. From Setup in the Quick Find box enter ‘My Domain’ and click on it.
2. In the ‘Authentication Configuration’ section click ‘Edit’.
3. Upload your logo image in the ‘Logo File’ field.
4. Choose a background from the palette in the ‘Background Color’ field.
5. Click ‘Save’.

How to Customize Salesforce Login Page | Ascendix

Now, employees and customers of your organization will start their journey with the branded login page!

How to Customize Applications in Salesforce

Frequently, companies create bespoke apps in Salesforce to house essential records and data. Thankfully, you can personalize these applications too. If you already possess an app within your Salesforce org, incorporating custom colors and a unique logo becomes an effortless task:

1. From Setup in the Quick Find box enter ‘App Manager’ and click on it.
2. In the list of apps find the one you want to customize and then click ‘Edit’ in the dropdown action next to it. Or you can create a new app by clicking on the ‘New Lightning App’ button.
3. In the ‘App Details & Branding’ section enter the App Name, Description, upload the Image (logo) and choose the Primary color for the app. If you don’t upload the image, the first letters of the app name will be used instead.

How to Add App Details and Branding in Salesforce | Ascendix

4. In the ‘App Options’ section you can configure Navigation Style, Supported Form Factors, Setup Experience, and App Personalization Settings for your app.

How to Configure an App in Salesforce | Ascendix

5. In the ‘Utility Items’ section you can add Utility Items which can be accessed from the Utility Bar in your app.

How to Add Utility Items | Ascendix

6. In the ‘Navigation Items’ section you can choose and arrange items that users can see in your app.

How to Choose and Arrange Items that Users Can See in Salesforce App | Ascendix

7. In the ‘User Profiles’ section choose the user profiles that can access this app.

How to Choose the User Profiles | Ascendix

8. Finally, click ‘Save and Finish’.

Congrats! You have customized your app. Now if we go to this app in App Launcher, we see that the customizations were applied successfully:

How to Check if the Customizations Were Applied Successfully | Ascendix

Notice that there is a pencil icon on the right side of the Nav bar. Once you click on it, you can easily and quickly add more navigation items:

How to Add More Navigation Items in Salesforce App | Ascendix

How to Build Pages with Lightning App Builder

Salesforce’s Lightning App Builder is a potent tool for building custom app layouts without needing to code. It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, enabling the easy addition and rearrangement of components to match your company’s brand. With App Builder, you can make your new home page pop with custom headers, footers, or navigation bars that display your brand colors and logo.

Moreover, it offers an array of pre-built components for further customization, or create your own for a truly unique touch.

In Lightning App Builder you can create and configure a Home page, App, Record Email Application (for Outlook Integration), and Embedded Service pages. To do that:

1. From Setup in the Quick Find box enter ‘Lightning App Builder’ and click on it.
2. Modify the existing page by clicking on ‘Edit’ or create a new one by clicking on ‘New’. For the showing purposes, we are creating a new App page.
3. Enter the name of the page and the layout. You will be able to change it later.
4. Click ‘Done’.
5. From the pane on the right side, you can drag the components and drop them in the main area in the middle.

How to Change Page Layout in Lightning App Builder | Ascendix

6. When you’re done customizing the page, click ‘Save’ and then activate it by clicking ‘Activation…’.

The page is all set and active! Now if you want to quickly edit it you can access Lightning App Builder directly from this page. Just click the gear icon and click ‘Edit Page’.

How to Quickly Edit a Page via Lightning App Builder | Ascendix

With Lightning App Builder you can also create custom Lightning components that will expedite the app development process. Unlike standard Lightning components crafted by Salesforce, these are tailored by developers, demanding specific programming skills, for example, to build a table with inline editing or multi-level forms.

If building an app in-house seems daunting due to a lack of expertise, Ascendix’s expert Salesforce app developers are here to help. We specialize in developing fully customized solutions that will reflect your Salesforce organization’s specifics, industry, and business needs. Plus, we ensure seamless integration with your existing Salesforce infrastructure, bolstering its stability and scalability.

Page layouts in Salesforce shape the organization of fields, sections, and related lists within your objects. Customizing these layouts paves the way for an employee-friendly, consistent interface. Enhance these layouts with your branding touches—be it custom fields, company-specific picklist values, or sections spotlighting crucial company details. This not only simplifies user navigation and engagement with role-specific data but also ensures a harmonious brand experience.

Each object in Salesforce, standard or custom, has a page layout. To access the layout follow these steps:

1. From Setup, go to Object Manager and click on the object.
2. On the right-side panel click ‘Page Layouts’.
3. Choose an existing layout or create a new one by clicking ‘New’.
4. From the top pane, you can drag elements onto the layout (fields, buttons, custom links, quick actions, etc).

How to Create Custom Page Layout in Salesforce | Ascendix

5. To create a new section, drag the ‘Section’ element onto the layout.
6. To modify section configuration, hover over the section header and click on the wrench icon. You can change the section name, choose where the section header is displayed, and choose the layout and tab-key order.

How to Modify a Page Section Configuration in Salesforce | Ascendix

7. You can check the field as required or read only by hovering over the field and clicking the wrench button. Non-required fields can be removed from the layout.
8. Click ‘Save’ or ‘Quick Save’.

That’s it – page layout is configured!

How to Customize the Salesforce Lightning Email Template

Salesforce provides email templates that allow you to communicate with customers, prospects, and internal stakeholders. To ensure a consistent brand experience, personalize these email templates to match your company’s branding. Incorporate your brand colors, logos, and fonts into the email templates, creating a professional and recognizable appearance. This consistent branding reinforces your company’s image and strengthens your brand identity in every interaction.

Standard ways to create email templates include ‘Classic Email Templates’ and ‘Lightning Email Templates’ pages from in Setup. But in this article, we want to discuss a whole new way of creating highly customizable email templates – Email Template Builder. To access this tool, the user must have ‘Access Drag-and-Drop Content Builder’ permission.

1. In App Launcher enter ‘Email Templates’.
2. Create a new template by clicking ‘New’.
3. Enter the info about the new template.
4. Click ‘Save’.
5. Click ‘Edit in Builder’.
6. From the right panel drag the components onto the main section. Add your company’s logo with the image component and apply branding styles and colors with Rich Text and HTML components.

How to Customize the Salesforce Lightning Email Template in Email Template Builder | Ascendix

7. On the right panel modify the name, description, and preheader in the ‘Details’ tab, and change the background and body in the ‘Style’ tab.
8. Click ‘Save’.

Now you can use this branded email template to notify your customers with the news of your company! Cool, right?

Final Words

Tailoring Salesforce apps to echo your company’s branding cultivates a professional and unified user experience. Infusing your logo, brand colors, and visual elements consistently across Salesforce interactions ensures a unified brand journey for both employees and customers.

Salesforce provides a spectrum of tools from custom themes, and logos, to page layouts, and email templates, enabling you to align your CRM platform with your unique brand persona. Capitalize on these customization options and Salesforce’s adaptability to craft a personalized, branded experience for your organization.

If you need specific Salesforce functionality impossible to obtain with configuration, Ascendix presents Salesforce customization services, strategically crafted to augment your revenue and sales productivity. We’ll refine your CRM-related operations, ensuring smooth, efficient workflows and personalized customer interactions, translating into substantial productivity growth.

Additionally, with our Salesforce customization services, you’ll get:

• Custom Object Creation: We’ll infuse your Salesforce solution with custom objects, fields, and records, enabling it to capture and reflect data beyond standard functionality.
• Data Processing: We enable bulk data processing and deduplication to support an extensive Salesforce solution.
• Task Automation: Your daily and recurring tasks will be automated with custom workflows and triggers.
• Reports & Dashboards: If the standard reporting functionality of Salesforce doesn’t provide critical insights to sales, marketing, and service operations, we’ll help you build custom reports and dashboards.
• AI Enhancement: We integrate Einstein AI with your Salesforce and modify it further to align with your specific needs.
• Third-Party System Integration: We facilitate seamless Salesforce integration with third-party systems, ensuring data consistency across systems.

Need professional help with aligning your Salesforce organization with your needs? Book a free CRM consulting call and we’ll find the solution together!