Guide for navigating Google and Yahoo’s new policies in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Guide for navigating Google and Yahoo's new policies in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

The world of email marketing is changing significantly due to new policies from giants like Google and Yahoo. These policies, designed to protect people from unwanted spam and enhance email security, require marketers to adjust their strategies.

This guide explores how Salesforce Marketing Cloud can help you adapt to these changes, ensuring your emails not only comply with these new rules but also continue to be effective and connect meaningfully with your audience.

Revised Sending Policies

Starting February 2024, Google and Yahoo will introduce new rules for those sending a large number of emails to @gmail and @yahoo addresses. These rules aim to strengthen mailboxes against spam and fraudulent emails. The focus is on authenticating the sender’s identity and making sure the content of emails is relevant. This means if you send a lot of emails, it’s more important than ever to use authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Also, you should keep spam rates very low and make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe if they choose to do so.

Who Needs to Pay Attention

  • High-Volume Senders: If you send more than 5000 emails a day, you must refine your delivery methods and maintain a good IP reputation to ensure your emails are delivered successfully.
  • Senders without Authentication: Using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is no longer optional; it’s essential. Salesforce Marketing Cloud makes these easier to implement, but you need to pay attention to the setup details.
  • No Clear Unsubscribe Option: You must provide a clear and straightforward way for recipients to opt out of your emails. It’s now a requirement, aligning with both user expectations and the new emailing standards.
  • High Spam Rates: Keep your spam rate below 0.30%. Going over this can harm your IP reputation and your email delivery success, so act quickly and effectively if your rate goes too high.

Importance of Email Authentication

Validating your emails using protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is crucial in validating the authenticity of your emails and optimizing deliverability.

How to Set Up Email Authentication

  1. SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Validates and confirms that emails sent from your domain are actually coming from a server that’s allowed to send them.
    • Setup in Salesforce Marketing Cloud: If you’re using the Sender Authentication Package and your domain is linked to the servers of Marketing Cloud, then your SPF is already set up. If not, you need to add SPF records. These records give permission to Marketing Cloud to send emails from your domain. You do this by adding the line include:cust-spf.exacttarget.com to your domain’s SPF record in the DNS settings. This step is vital to make sure your emails are delivered properly and don’t end up in the spam folder. More detalied information in Help And Training Community.
  2. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails, which recipients can check to confirm the email is genuine and that it really came from you.
    • Setup in Salesforce Marketing Cloud: f you’re using the Sender Authentication Package, your DKIM is already up and running. If you’re not using it, you need to create DKIM keys in Marketing Cloud and then add the public key from these to your domain’s DNS records. Doing this strengthens the trustworthiness and security of your emails.
  3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Combines SPF and DKIM, adding an additional layer of authentication and giving you insights into any issues with authentication.
    • Setup in Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Setting up DMARC involves creating a DNS record that specifies how emails that fail SPF and DKIM checks should be handled. This helps protect your brand from email fraud and improves the likelihood of your emails being delivered successfully.

Implementing and checking that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up correctly does more than just improve how often your emails are successfully delivered. It also makes sure that your email marketing strategies are up-to-date with the newest standards for security and privacy. Tools like Aboutmy.email provide specific insights for each email you send. This is particularly helpful if you’ve got a Sender Authentication Package (SAP) from Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It makes it easier to meet the new email sending rules set by Google and Yahoo.

Good Practice

Simplified Unsubscribe Process, One-Click Unsubscribe in SFMC

Making it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe is crucial, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) has a streamlined process for this. It automatically includes an unsubscribe feature in its emails, which aligns with the best practices for allowing users to opt-out. In addition, the inclusion of an Unsubscribe Link or consent management option in the body of the email is necessary for the user experience and ensures that users can easily manage their email preferences, reinforcing a user-centric approach to email communication.

To ensure the SFMC Preference Center is operational, especially the One-Click Unsubscribe option, you should:

  1. Check the Email Code: Look at the original version of your email. If you see the tag List-Unsubscribe=One-Click, it means the One-Click Unsubscribe feature is integrated properly, making it easy for users to opt-out.
Email mostrar. List Unsubscribe
List Unsubscribe
  1. Use AMPscript in SFMC: When you’re creating an email in Marketing Cloud, add the AMPscript code %%unsub_center_url%%. This links directly to the default preference page of Marketing Cloud, making the unsubscribe process clear and in compliance with regulations.
Subscription Center New Policies

In addition, it should be noted that Google applies algorithms that analyze users’ interactions with the emails they receive, so its email service proposes the option to unsubscribe from newsletters and promotions based on the subscriber’s interaction with these emails. If a user receives many marketing emails from a company and never interacts with them, the Gmail application will proactively start suggesting to unsubscribe to help optimize their inbox.

Example of the google unsubscribe button in the inbox of emails:

From name. new policies

Managing Your Audience and Keeping Your List Clean

Regularly cleaning your subscriber list to remove addresses that cause bounced emails is essential. Setting up a consent process helps keep your list up-to-date. Using Data Cloud for sophisticated data management lets you segment and personalize your audience on a large scale, using AI and machine learning to streamline your campaigns. This is a key practice for fine-tuning your audience engagement.

Monitoring and Adapting Your Strategy

It’s vital to monitor your campaign’s bounce rates using the analytic tools in Marketing Cloud. By closely examining the tracking and reports in Report Analytics, you can identify issues early and adjust your strategies to improve your metrics. Pay special attention to Blocked Bounces, as they’re a key indicator of potential issues. Tools like PostMaster Tool also provide extra insights and help you maintain a good IP reputation.

Content Personalization

Creating relevant, personalized content is critical to today’s digital marketing strategy. Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides tools that allow you to craft messages that reflect the specific needs and preferences of each subscriber. Personalization, in this context, becomes an essential strategy to increase audience engagement. The platform also offers advanced capabilities for segmentation and A/B testing, allowing you to continuously adapt and refine your messages based on a detailed analysis of user behavior.

In conclusion, Salesforce Marketing Cloud helps to align the new policies of these important email services, and follow the new regulations that as we are seeing are leading to a comprehensive protection of the user. For this reason it is vital to adapt to these new changes so that the impact on our email marketing strategies is minimal. Also keep in mind that these changes are going to be more and more frequent. Anticipating future trends and being prepared to face the coming challenges will better position us to seize the opportunities in the new era of email marketing.

Note: Always check the official Salesforce Marketing Cloud documentation before implementing any changes to ensure your methods are up-to-date and compliant with current standards.

Discover the Potential of Rep Suggestions Triggered from Marketing Cloud

Veeva Suggestons

CRM suggestions enable customer-specific information and recommend actions to reps. In this post we are going to break down this Veeva functionality piece by piece, diving deeper into how to use them strategically from Marketing Cloud and truly empower your Sales teams.

Widget Suggestion

What you need to know about Veeva suggestions

Once activated, reps can receive timely, actionable insights on their iPad. It’s all about guiding to the next interaction with the relevant HCP using their preferred channel and optimal key message. Let’s browse through the suggestions as they appear in Veeva’s CRM interface.

Suggestion Pannel

Each suggestion is linked to a specific action, such as scheduling a call or sending an email. Reps can directly take action from the Suggestion panel or dismiss the recommendation.

Send an Email From a Suggestion: Users can send approved emails directly from suggestions. It’s possible to keep track of the email activity.

Schedule a Call From a Suggestion: Reps can schedule calls directly from suggestions. It’s possible to keep track of whether users execute the suggestions.

Mark as Complete: When a suggestion is marked as completed, it’s removed from the user interface.

Dismiss: Suggestions can be dismissed using the Dismiss button. Feedback on suggestions can also be captured. Veeva provides the ability to define and assign surveys to suggestions. New surveys can be created or edited in the CRM before the suggestion is activated.

Feedback captured on suggestions

Key Suggestion Components

Title: Title of the suggestion

Reason: Reason for the suggestion to the representatives

Priority: The suggestion can be configured as low, normal or high priority. 

Expiration date: A suggestion can be assigned an expiration date value.

Suggestion survey: Veeva CRM can be used to generate feedback on suggestions.

A Data-Driven Strategy for Smarter Suggestions

Suggestions are based on data and predictive models. A data-driven strategy is key to leveraging what is learned to enhance next best actions. HCP information is sometimes siloed, so knowing and building a repository with all the knowledge in one place is more relevant than ever.

What happens if we don’t have the right technology and data strategy in place? The rep may start to distrust these recommendations and eventually stop using the system. Suggestions should empower the field force, helping the sales team to focus on the relevant targets and priority activities.

Reps are not expected to be data analysts, suggestions can enable them to easily extract digital insights. Suggestions need to bring confidence to reps, providing them with information, evidence and insight so that they can take back control and achieve the long-awaited HCP-centric view.

Why Marketing Cloud Can Create Empowering and Trusted Suggestions

Field force activities are no longer the core of HCP interactions. For this reason, Salesforce Marketing Cloud can play an important role in bridging part of the gap that Pharma companies have between Sales and Marketing. Suggestions can provide much more awareness of what the Marketing team is doing in other types of communications and others channels. From a marketing perspective, suggestions represent an opportunity to create actionable Sales insights through existing or predictive digital data.

Uses Cases

For example, it could be valuable to launch some always-on flows triggering suggestions. An attractive one can be if an HCP opted-out from digital communications. It’s an opportunity for the rep to schedule a call in order to understand and collect channel/content preferences.

We can also use webinar registrations as a trigger for suggestions. Just after the event, the rep can send an Approved Email with extended information regarding the event. There’s even the possibility to alert if the HCP expresses a low/high satisfaction on a webinar due to a specific reason.

We can also recommend an interaction after a web registration, or if we register a relevant email engagement in a period of time or interest throughout the cycle for a particular key message.

What is really exciting is Marketing Cloud’s ability to measure campaigns by adding as a stage whether the sales call was actually recorded, the results of the Approved Email or simply the reason why the rep rejected the recommendation. We can gather all the data together in Marketing Cloud, close the funnel and fully understand the results of a campaign.

The examples presented are isolated use cases. Where the tool really comes into its own is when considering suggestions in order to implement an omnichannel strategy with well-defined and measurable objectives. By combining Sales and Marketing data, we can ensure that a rep’s next move is going to be authentic and meaningful to each customer segment and aligned to the brand’s global strategy.

What is Data Cloud?

What is Data Cloud?

An unified vision of the information

Data cloud

Data Cloud is a key technology for the management and efficient analysis of large volumes of data. Some years ago, the main problem companies faced was obtaining information about their clients and their interactions. Nowadays, the issue lies in correctly managing all the information gathered from different platforms, which is also stored in different places. This situation prevents a more in-depth and effective analysis of clients’ activity.

With all this information in storage, the focus shifts into unification and harmonization processes. How can we manage all this data about clients under a single image, on a single platform?

Salesforce Data Cloud – previously known as Customer Data Platform, or CDP for short– has revolutionized information management and personalization of the communications sent to the client.

On a single platform, under the same umbrella, it concentrates all the data from our clients and provides a single enriched image that allows us to impact them with the greatest possible personalization.

What is exactly Data Cloud?

But… What is Data Cloud? Well, it is a huge data platform built into Salesforce. It ingests data from different platforms and unifies it following a series of rules –known as match rules–. Thanks to that, you are able to have a complete image of your customer: Interactions in the different platforms, engagement, visits…

In addition to this, Data Cloud allows the creation of complex segments through an easy and intuitive drag and drop interface. This gives the user the opportunity to create audiences not only by mixing information from all the data sources required, but also without requiring technical skills. In fact, Data Cloud’s intended target are marketers.

 

How Data cloud Works

What other benefits can I obtain from Data Cloud?

Apart from the magic of the unification and the availability of creating segments, Data Cloud provides other benefits that should be highlighted.

Export the information to other platforms

In the same way it can receive data from any data source, after creating an audience, it can be sent back to another platform; its consolidated data can be used where needed. For instance, it can be used to create a campaign in Salesforce Marketing Cloud through a journey based on the clients of a Data Extension which will be automatically created when sending the segment from Data Cloud.

Additionally, another interesting option is to send the audience to a specific analytics tool that could help discover new insights or enrich an engagement analysis.

Create Calculated Insights to enrich your segments

Calculated Insights Builder

One of the main tabs found in Data Cloud’s menu is named ‘Calculated Insights’. These are calculated metrics which, thanks to the development of complex formulas and queries, provide numerical insights about anything imaginable.

For example, you can build a CI to know the number of times a customer has visited your web during the past month. Or maybe you could calculate the open rate of the customer to enrich your segmentations by including only those with a high or medium open rate.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless, so, are you ready to let your imagination fly?

Data Cloud has brought us a new world of enriched and unified data to create any segment and analyze it with better results. If you are thinking about driving your company’s data to the next level, you should keep Data Cloud in mind.

STO – SFMC Einstein Send Time Optimization

STO Salesforce Marketing Cloud Einstein Send Time Optimization

It is undeniable that in the digital world, every interaction counts. The success of a campaign can depend on the ability to reach customers at the right moment. Salesforce Marketing Cloud has incorporated an innovative and revolutionary tool called Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO), which uses artificial intelligence to optimize the timing of emails in our marketing strategies.

This article will teach us in detail what STO consists of, the importance of timing in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, how the tool works, and the advantages of implementing it in our strategy planning.

Definition of STO in SFMC

As defined earlier, the abbreviation STO, Einstein Send Time Optimization, is nothing more, nothing less than a unique and distinctive feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Einstein Copilot

It is a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the optimal time to send emails to each email address or individual, optimizing and personalizing the send based on the individual’s history, behavior, or preferences.

Why Send Times are Important in SFMC

In a time when we receive an immense amount of emails in our inbox, receiving a message at the right time can be crucial and can significantly impact the open and click-through rates.

This action could improve the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and strengthen the bonds with our customers.

STO - Einstein Send Time Optimization

It is an advanced tool within the SFMC universe focused on send optimization. STO, unlike traditional methods that set a fixed schedule, uses artificial intelligence algorithms to personalize the send for each contact.

Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence

The essence of STO lies in the integration of artificial intelligence, specifically Einstein, Salesforce’s AI engine. This fusion allows for a deep analysis of historical data and behavioral patterns, generating accurate predictions about the most opportune moment for interaction.

Operation of STO in SFMC

Examining the Interaction Log

Einstein Send Time Optimization carefully analyzes the interaction history of each individual by examining clicks, opening patterns, and other behaviors to understand past activity perfectly and predict the best future moment.

Predicting the Perfect Sending Time

Based on all this and using predictive algorithms, it determines the best time to send the message to each individual. STO goes beyond simple scheduling and dynamically adjusts to the recipient’s habits at each moment.

Enstein Send Time Optimization
STO Enstein overview model

Advantages of Implementing Einstein STO in Your SFMC Strategy

Optimization and Maximization in Campaign Effectiveness

By implementing Einstein STO in our journey, our campaigns will experience significant and relevant optimization. Messages will be received at the most opportune moment, enhancing effectiveness and improving campaign results.

Increase in Participation and Open Rate

We typically measure the effectiveness of our campaigns through open and click-through rates, and this is where one of the most significant benefits of using STO can be observed. It is proven that such personalization results in increased attention from recipients.

Real-Time Personalization

As mentioned earlier, it is not just about simple scheduling; STO allows instant adaptation to real-time changes in user behavior, creating a tool that provides more relevant and timely messages.

Points to Consider and Best Practices

Ensuring Accuracy and Relevance of Information

An essential part is ensuring the quality of the data used by STO. The tool’s predictions depend directly on the accuracy and study of historical information.

Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation

Successful implementation involves constant monitoring and continuous evaluation of results. Adjusting strategies as needed ensures effective adaptability to changes in customer behavior.

Enstein Send Time Optimization.
STO Enstein Analytics

Integration with Other Marketing Strategies

A good marketing strategy is one that blends different marketing tools. It is a best practice to integrate STO with other marketing instruments to strengthen the overall strategy.

Final Conclusion

Review of Einstein STO Advantages

In conclusion, reviewing the advantages offered by Einstein STO highlights the transformation it can bring to strategies in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Time optimization is currently a key and differentiating factor for success in our campaigns.

The Future of STO Optimization

As an additional note and looking towards tomorrow, we will continue to explore the future of send time optimization in digital marketing. With the current perspectives for the future and the innovations being hinted at, the effectiveness of marketing strategies will undoubtedly continue to be refined.

STO is not just a current solution; it is a vision of the future of personalized and efficient marketing.

Would you like to know more about field validation on SFMC forms? Visit these links:

Front End Best Practices for Email Marketing

Front End Best Practices for Email Marketing

Ever since its inception, digital marketing has been experiencing continuous growth. In today’s landscape, where intense competition is the norm, user’s attention has become a precious resource. In this scenario, front-end optimization in email campaigns is essential to ensure the success of marketing strategies.

This article will address the fundamental points to consider when creating an email, emphasizing that it is actually the small details and the most basic elements what ultimately make an email stand out in the inbox.

Inverted Pyramid

Structuring the email with the most relevant and valuable information –from the user’s perspective– at the top is the key message for the broader audience.

After that, the email should provide secondary information for a smaller audience,  which delves into details that complement the initial information. Finally, other interesting related content should be included as an extra layer.

Invertid Pyramid Front End

Example Email with an Inverted Pyramid

Modular Layout

Modular email design involves dividing emails into independent blocks or modules, similar to Lego pieces. This saves time when building emails and provides consistency to the brand.

The functional benefit is that these blocks facilitate responsive design for any device, organizing and adjusting different sizes for optimal readability and user interaction.

Responsive Design

Even today, some emails do not adapt to mobile devices or tablets, leading to a poor user experience. It is important to mention the “Mobile First” design trend, which prioritizes resolutions found in mobile devices, as it is here to stay.

Responsive Design Front End Email

Responsive Design emails for mobile and desktop

Focus on CTA (Call to Action)

CTAs should be strategically placed within the email, ensuring they are easily visible and accessible. Placing them in prominent areas, such as the beginning or end of the content, increases the chances of recipients noticing them.

The button design is crucial for guiding the user, where size and visual contrast need to be considered while still staying true to the brand’s design.

Safe Fonts

Web-safe fonts have the highest probability of being installed on a wide range of devices and recognized by browsers and email clients. Using them in emails reduces the likelihood of font modifications or errors. Examples of safe fonts include:
aA
Arial
aA
Helvetica
aA
Verdana

Personalization

Subscriber attributes should be inserted into the email, through the use of personalization strings in Marketing Cloud. These strings can be inserted into the subject, pre-header, and content, thus providing a simple way to personalize the message and enhance open rate metrics.

EMAIL MARKETING TRENDS 2024

Dynamic Content: This is an advanced solution where the actual content that the user is shown is based on audience segmentation. This permits the delivery of a more personalized and significant message.

Dark Mode: A feature which is increasingly used. It requires adapting to design changes and considering key aspects such as readability and aesthetics.

A/B Testing: Through testing, and Continuous Email Optimization based on performance feedback, emails can be fine tuned to increase their performance.

Would you like to know more? Visit these links:

What is Marketing Cloud Engagement? The Salesforce Digital Marketing Hub

What is Marketing Cloud Engagement?
Marketing Cloud is a trend, if you are reading this article it is because you have surely heard the potential of this platform developed by Salesforce. But do you really know what Marketing Cloud is? In the digital world there is a lot of confusion when it comes to cataloging different technologies, although Marketing Cloud has some similarities with marketing automation tools, it really isn’t, it is what is currently called Digital Marketing Hub.

What is the difference between Marketing Automation and Digital Marketing Hub in Marketing Cloud?

As we have seen, both technologies share many similarities, however they are different. Both start from the most basic concept of email marketing, but each has evolved differently. While in marketing automation we always talk about tools, in Digital Marketing Hub we have to talk about a platform. This difference is due to the fact that marketing automation tools are closed solutions that do not require technical development and digital marketing hub platforms are unfinished technologies that require development to start operating.

Another big difference is the business objective of each of them, while marketing automation tools are focused on B2B business models, digital marketing hub platforms are optimized for B2C models. This approach is found in Salesforce, while Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (previously known as Pardot) is the marketing automation tool, Marketing cloud Engagement is the digital marketing hub platform. Following the examples of Salesforce, in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (previously known as Pardot) we find lead generation, lead management and sales aligment functionalities that are not developed in a standard way in Marketing Cloud. However, in Marketing Cloud we can work with many more channels that in Pardot you don’t find like SMS, mobile or Advertising. Besides being much more powerful in the area of Social Media.

Finally, the big difference also lies in the data management and volume of data. While Pardot is a tool to work with reduced data sizes (less than one million records), Marketing Cloud is a platform to support much more customer data.

If you want to know more about Marketing Cloud continue reading this article, if you want more information about Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (previously known as Pardot) you can find it at Is Pardot the best Marketing Automation tool for B2B?

Marketing Cloud History

Although Salesforce took its first steps in developing a Social Media Marketing suite, it wasn’t until 2011-2012 that it made a strong commitment to digital marketing with the purchase of ExactTarget for $2.5 billion (U.S.) and Radian6 for $376 million. With ExactTarget, he not only acquired the leading platform for mass emailing, but also “bounced” to another set of tools that months earlier ExactTarget had purchased, these were Pardot, CoTweet, iGoDigital and Keymail Marketing. On the other hand, Radian6 positioned Salesforce as a leader in social listening, a positioning that it complemented with the purchase in 2012 of Buddy Media, providing all the social media management functionalities.

Over the last few years, Salesforce has faced the challenge of integrating all these acquisitions under a single platform, which it called the Marketing Cloud. It has also incorporated new acquisitions that have positioned it as the leading customer management platform. Here we find Krux (data management platform or DMP) and Datorama (marketing analysis platform) or Evergage (real time personalization).

The history of Marketing Cloud is key to better understand this platform, since the history of acquisitions is at the same time one of the main disadvantages and virtues of Marketing Cloud. It has all the needs of a marketing department, from advertising, email marketing, mobile the journeys or analytics, and even its own DMP but at the same time makes it complex to operate by non-specialized teams. Marketing Cloud’s latest big innovation has been Data Cloud, Salesforce’s commitment to a Customer Data Platform (CDP). We could say that Data Cloud was born from the evolution of DMP. First called Salesforce CDP, then rebranded as Genie, and finally rebranded again as Data Cloud. This platform is a solution that allows the data of all clients to be unified. Generating audiences or segments for marketing actions.

Marketing Cloud Features

Why use Marketing Cloud in a marketing project? The main feature is that centralizing communications with customers over multiple channels. Different studies indicate that the value of a company that offers a diversification of channels is greater than that related by traditional means.

In addition, the Marketing Cloud is a platform that allows us to develop a personalized digital experience with our customers. Up to 86% of buyers will pay more if they receive a better customer experience, but only 1% of customers think their salesperson meets their expectations. Improving the customer experience allows companies to better understand and adapt to the ever-changing expectations of their customers.

How does Marketing Cloud work?

Marketing Cloud is a platform composed of several subclouds, if we start with the most basic we find Email Studio, Mobile Studio, Social Studio and Advertising Studio that allow working multichannel communications with customers through different digital channels. But the great value of Marketing Cloud lies in combining the full potential of customer data collection with the automation of communications on any channel, for this we find other subclouds that have allowed to work this omnicanality, here we find Contact Builder, Journey Builder, Automation Studio, Analytics Studio, Salesforce DPM or Audience Studio (moved to Data Cloud) and MC Personalization.

Email Studio

This is one of the most powerful email marketing platform in the market, usually marketing teams are used to working with email marketing solutions and not platforms, at this point it is worth clarifying again what the difference between the two concepts is.

While a solution is a completely finished software and only requires small configurations to start operating, a platform is a set of tools that offer the ability to customize even the smallest detail of the processes of a company. There are several advantages when working on a platform like Email Studio:

  • Scalability, allows working with a high performance on databases of millions of records.
  • Control, in Marketing Cloud you work on your own IP, unlike more traditional email marketing solutions that work on shared IPs.
  • Data processing, in addition to working on conventional email marketing lists, incorporates all the power of data extensions, automation study, etc.
  • Integration, all the ETL part of Marketing Cloud allows working almost any customization of marketing or business processes, as well as incorporating on the platform all transnational processes.

If you are interested in knowing everything that offers this subcloud within the Marketing Cloud, visit the following article: Email Studio in Marketing Cloud: What is it and what it offers.

Content Builder

In addition, Email Studio incorporates very advanced tools for the layout and composition of emails, which are part of the Content Builder, the Marketing Cloud content management solution. A tool designed for large corporations that require a highly structured organization where collaboration and security of publications and content prevails.

Advertising Studio in Marketing Cloud

Without a doubt the dream of many marketing teams, to connect CRM data with different digital advertising platforms. Advertising Studio is the perfect tool to generate campaigns and customer omnichannel journeys.

It enhances the possibilities of any marketing team by improving the processes of acquisition, reactivation and loyalty. Work your own databases with the most powerful digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn and Youtube.

Mobile Studio in Marketing Cloud

It allows to connect with customers through mobile messages. On a single platform you can send SMS, push notifications and chat applications. Improves the customer experience and offers real-time communications, from product delivery notifications to meeting reminders or SMS marketing campaigns. It also incorporates the technology needed to perform Geofancing or Proximity Marketing actions.

Social Studio [will be discontinue, scheduled for Nov 18, 2024]

The perfect solution for generating personalized experiences through social channels, connecting CRM, customer care and marketing data. The social listening tool allows you to know what they are saying in social networks about your brand or your competitors, analyzing their feelings and locating where the conversations are happening. In addition, it allows you to work on social contingency plans in real time, allowing you to talk to customers about social channels or activate processes for incident management and customer service. It also incorporates Social Media Management functionalities, allowing you to manage the publications of your social channels through the Marketing Cloud. And all under the content management potential of Content Builder and the possibilities it offers to improve dissemination through paid media campaigns.

If you want to discover more about Social Studio, we recommend you to visit the following article: Social Studio: More than a Social Networking Manager

Contact Builder

audience builder

Marketing Cloud is a tool that collects data from multiple sources:

  • External data, from a point of sale (physical store) to an ERP.
  • CRM or loyalty databases, such as Salesforce.
  • It is also capable of managing data from digital channels: behavior in social networks, advertising campaigns or web activity.
  • Marketing Cloud can be a formula one of marketing but its fuel is the customer data. Having an adequate data capture and organization plan is one of the most important elements to take advantage of this tool.

Marketing Cloud fuel is customer data. Having an adequate data collection and organization plan is one of the most important elements to take advantage of this tool.

Journey Builder

journey builder

The second part of the tool is the core or brain where the communication flows with the customers are programmed, using all the channels offered by the Marketing Cloud.

All this is best understood with an example: a company sends an invitation to its customers by email, which contains a CTA that leads to a web or landing page that contains a form that if completed by the customer is sent a confirmation by SMS, finally the days before the event is impacted through advertising campaigns with discounts for friends and family. It is a flow that communicates with the same customer through different channels but has finds the interaction with each of them to evaluate a next action, is what we call omnicanality. In addition, all the information that we obtain during the process is stored to improve the knowledge about the preferences that our clients have.

Journey Builder is a graphic tool that allows us to configure from the simplest communication flows to complicated customer relationship campaigns. The examples of marketing flows that we usually work from ShowerThinking are welcome packs, on boarding, off boarding, cart membership, renewals, event registration, we miss you, commercial reactivation, etc.

Automation Studio

automation studio

The Journey Builder module works in tandem with Automation Studio, which is a tool that helps us to segment our customers and choose who we communicate with.

Suppose we want to contact those customers who have not made a purchase for more than 90 days. This is precisely the function of Automation Studio, we generate lists of customers that we will introduce in a process in Journey Builder.

Let’s take a more advanced example: we want to automate the sending of an email with a discount to customers who have not made a purchase for more than 90 days, and if they don’t respond to the email, they will enter a retargeting campaign for a month, specially designed to make them consume products again. With Automation Studio we can automate the segmentation and with Journey Builder we can automate the sending of the discount by email and the retargeting campaign.

Audience Studio or DMP (Data Management Platform) [Transfered to Data Cloud]

Audience Studio is Salesforce’s DPM, the Marketing Cloud tool that captures and unifies data, to activate marketing campaigns.
It allows a better knowledge of the customers and generates much more personalized actions to increase customer engagement or experience through advertising campaigns, content and e-commerce. DMP not only works with your own data, it allows you to locate potential audiences through second to third party data.

MC Personalization (previously known as Interaction Studio)

It is a platform acquired by Salesforce in 2020 known as Evergage. It is a webtracking solution that allows to identify users through cookies, similar to Google Analytics, but additionally offers dynamic content functionalities on the web. And all this without the need to make changes in the back end of the websites, marketing teams can modify any element of a website thanks to its dynamic content interface. Personalization integrates natively with Sales Cloud and Data Cloud, enabling customer profiles that combine web interaction data with CRM data. In addition, it has a native connector with Marketing Cloud Engagement, being able to launch journey builders with segments created from Personalization.

If you want to expand your knowledge about Marketing Cloud Personalization, we recommend you to visit the following article: Marketing Cloud Personalization, Interaction Studio, Or Evergage – But What Exactly Are They?

Data Cloud (previously known as Salesforce CDP)

Salesforce’s big bet in recent years is the CDP (Customer Data Platform) solution. One that is revolutionizing the strategies of marketing and business teams.
 
Data Cloud allows you to connect all companies’ platforms and databases and create a unified customer profile. Offering marketing teams the ability to perform segmentation with just a few clicks, combining all existing customer data (contact, transactional , interactions, profiles, …). It also allow to activate segments on any channel, whether sending automated customizations to Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement or paid media platforms like Google or Meta.
 
If you want to know more about Data Cloud, we recommend you to visit the following article: What Is Data Cloud?
 

Marketing Cloud Analytics (previously known as Datorama)

analytic builder

We can use the own reports generated by the platform. It is one of the few tools that gives us the possibility to extract all the information in raw and download it through an excel or csv file to analyze it externally.

It also has a very interesting element, called Einstein Predictive Content to make the prediction of customer behavior with respect to content.

Recovering the acquisition history of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it is the purchase of Datorama in 2018 that has meant a significant advance in the area of analytics. It is a tool focused on both agencies and marketing teams, offering a suite of integrations with the most important digital technologies, as well as a series of functionalities for the design of control panels.

What you need for Marketing Cloud implementation

Choose marketing automation or digital marketing hub

There are dozens of Marketing Automation tools. Marketing Cloud has been highlighted by Gartner as a leader in multi-channel automation tools, a new category called marketing hub and which sets it apart from the competition. There are multiple automation tools with more limited functionalities, some others oriented to a small business segment. There are other tools that are located in a different quadrant since they are open source tools where there is no license fee.

Work team

An important element in Marketing Cloud is to know what kind of human team is needed to operate this tool. Work hand in hand with the Marketing Automation specialists and the technical programmers or developers, while the specialist is in charge of all the automation and segmentation configuration, the technician gives support on the integrations and code requirements. Sometimes, on large Marketing Cloud projects it is necessary to work with Salesforce Architects, who offer security on the performance and stability of the platform.

Marketing Cloud has the possibility of dividing the operation of the platform under different business units, called Business units. For example, if your company is divided into different business units by geographical region or by different brands. You also have the possibility of creating a business unit for a partner company can develop a marketing program coordinated with you.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Team

Salesforce Certifications

Many of these positions we are talking about require very specialized training. Salesforce has one of the best online training platforms for its products called Trailhead. If you want to go a little further, you also have the possibility of obtaining official certification. These are exams that you can take at authorized centers or online from home if you have a webcam. Specifically, Marketing Cloud has 4 certifications, each one oriented to a different profile:

Conclusions

Marketing Cloud becomes a practically unique tool in those projects where you want to take full advantage of databases, whether for acquisition strategies, reactivation or customer loyalty. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the tool or would like us to guide you through the implementation and operations of Salesforce’s Digital Marketing Hub.

Individual Email Results in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Headline Individual Email Results

In today’s digital age, the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns has become a critical indicator of the success of any marketing strategy. At our agency, we strive to utilize the most advanced technological tools to ensure that our email marketing campaigns are executed efficiently and effectively. One such tool is Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a platform that offers a variety of functions for the management and analysis of email campaigns.

At the heart of this effective data management is the CRM synchronization of the Individual Email Results (IERs) object. Below, we break down how this synchronization and the inherent capabilities of IERs can be a very powerful resource for optimizing our email marketing strategies.

Capabilities of IERs

IERs are not only a representation of email results but can also be a powerful source of insights to understand and improve the way we communicate with our audience.

  • Understanding audience engagement: IERs allow for a detailed understanding of how and when the audience interacts with email communications, providing valuable data that can be used to refine marketing strategies.
  • Analysis of sending data: IERs offer an opportunity to investigate and analyze data from past email campaigns, especially when integrated with Sales or Service Cloud. This integration allows for detailed analysis within the Salesforce platforms, providing valuable insights to improve future email campaigns.
  • Automatic synchronization for precise segmentation: The automatic synchronization of data between Marketing Cloud and CRM allows for precise audience segmentation, which is essential for personalizing email campaigns and improving engagement rates. The combination of attributes in the Marketing Cloud data aids in compiling a segmented target audience.

Key Advantages of Synchronizing the Individual Email Result (IER) Object

  1. Visualization and synchronization: IERs are reflected in the related lists of Contact or Lead records in Salesforce, providing a view of email interactions. This synchronization is carried out through Marketing Cloud Connect, facilitating a direct correlation between marketing platform data and customer relationship management.
Data enrichment for deep analysis Showerthinking
  1. Data enrichment for deep analysis: The linking of IERs with data in SendLogs, since 2022, includes key identifiers such as Subscriber ID, JobID, BatchID, and ListID. This inclusion allows for deeper analysis and a clearer understanding of the performance of email campaigns.

Generation and Monitoring of Individual Email Results (IERs)

The creation of Individual Email Results (IERs) is a strategic process carried out in the following ways, allowing for meticulous tracking of email interactions:

  1. Marketing Cloud: When executing email sends from Marketing Cloud platforms such as Email Studio, Journey Builder, or through Triggered Sends, it is crucial for users to check the “Send Tracking Results to Sales Cloud” box. By doing so, IERs are automatically generated in Salesforce, enabling real-time tracking of the interactions of sent emails.
Send Tracking Results to Sales Cloud Showerthinking
  1. Salesforce: When sending emails from Salesforce, users can make use of the ‘Email Send’ tab associated with a specific Campaign or report, which also results in the creation of IERs reflecting the performance of those sends.
  2. SubscriberKey and data synchronization: It is essential to use Salesforce’s 18-digit ContactID as the Subscriber Key in Marketing Cloud. This practice ensures accurate correspondence between Salesforce records and tracking data in Marketing Cloud. In addition, an hourly synchronization of tracking data from Marketing Cloud to Salesforce CRM is established, a configuration that is determined during the installation process of Marketing Cloud Connect.

Common Issues and Solutions

Individual Email Results (IERs) are a crucial component for monitoring and analyzing email interactions in Salesforce and Marketing Cloud. However, some challenges can arise during their handling. Below, we present a review of common problems and their possible solutions:
  1. Access and Permission Issues: Review and configure user permissions appropriately to ensure necessary access to IERs and relevant data for effective tracking and analysis of email campaigns.
  2. Data Inconsistencies: In case of discrepancies between IER data and other data in Salesforce or Marketing Cloud, review configurations and synchronizations, and explore system logs and reports to identify and correct inconsistencies.
  3. Late Data Synchronization: Although Marketing Cloud Connect configuration provides for hourly synchronization, large volumes of data can extend this process. A quick solution might be to use the “Request Tracking Immediately” option in the Email Send record. In recurring cases, contacting Salesforce support can be beneficial: Issue.Salesforce
  4. Absence of Data in Salesforce: Verify that the 18-digit Salesforce ContactID is being used as SubscriberKey in Marketing Cloud. Also, ensure that the selected audiences come from Salesforce data extensions.
  5. Data Storage Issues with IERs: Deleting old tracking data could be a solution to storage problems. Also, consider marking the “Send Tracking Results to Sales Cloud” option only for essential emails and consider transferring tracking data to large objects or external systems to avoid additional storage costs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the synchronization of the Individual Email Results object and its effective integration into Salesforce Marketing Cloud is an essential pillar for optimizing our email marketing campaigns. By leveraging these technical capabilities, we can better understand the behavior of our audience, improve engagement and ultimately achieve a higher ROI in our email marketing strategies. At our agency, we continue to explore and take advantage of the advanced technical capabilities that platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud offer, to provide superior and results-oriented email marketing solutions to our clients.

Marketing Cloud Personalization, Interaction Studio, or Evergage – But what exactly are they?

Marketing Cloud Personalization

Undoubtedly, one of the most critical terms in modern marketing is personalization. There’s no marketing campaign without personalization, and we achieve this through Marketing Cloud Personalization. By tailoring each interaction with our users to the maximum extent, we make it more effective and strengthen our company’s connection with both existing and potential customers. We utilize the data we collect to gain more insights and provide a better consumer experience. The goal is to deeply understand our customers to deliver the best possible experience.

To do this, we need data because they are what drives the world. They help us comprehend what has happened in the past, what is happening in the present and enable us to act accordingly in the future, whether it’s near or distant. However, they are of no use if they are scattered across various platforms because it complicates the analysis task for creating personalized campaigns.

You may have heard of Interaction Studio before Marketing Cloud Personalization, as it recently underwent a name change to better reflect its amazing capabilities: personalization.

Marketing Cloud Personalization. ShowerThinking

But what exactly is Marketing Cloud Personalization?

It’s a tool found within Marketing Cloud itself, allowing us to enhance the experience this powerful program provides to our company even further.

It offers the opportunity to design and implement one or multiple marketing campaigns from a single tool.

Personalization Marketing Cloud

Since it operates with first-party data, we achieve spectacular and impressive data quality. This allows us to set up campaigns on various platforms, such as web pages, emails, SMS, and more. By doing this, we customize the user experience in real-time, making it unique.

Furthermore, any company looking to add unique value to its operational data can use this tool, designed for that purpose. With two versions (Growth and Premium), users can choose the edition that best fits their business model.

Marketing Cloud Personalization

Marketing Cloud Personalization is packed with features that make the marketing campaigns it creates more comprehensive.

  • First, we can obtain data by syncing with several platforms Marketing Cloud Personalization offers. (for example, Salesforce or Selligent). : “This method ensures users in our CRM are integrated into the tool, starting campaign creation for them.
SalesforceCRM Integration
  • Think of Einstein as if it were a recipe. It allows us to personalize the campaign even further through Recipes, Ingredients, and Boosters to make predictions about potential products/items that might interest our customers based on their activity.
  • In addition to this, we have the Guardian, a functionality that continuously monitors the metrics of your website or app and uses that data to identify potential issues.
  • Indeed, Marketing Cloud Personalization is designed to be used as a profiling tool, providing personalization within it, but don’t let that be the limit! We can export our data to Marketing Cloud to use in email or SMS marketing campaigns.
  • How will we test the two types of campaigns? A/B testing analyzes two campaign performances. Success measured with control group.
  • Create surveys for a complete experience. Use results for segmentation.

Example of Personalization:

To better understand the complexity of Marketing Cloud Personalization campaigns, here’s an example:

Imagine our e-commerce selling diverse foods: perishables, international, various sizes.

E-commerce ShowerThinking

Only registered users can make purchases on our e-commerce platform, so we should synchronize them with our CRM (in this case, Salesforce).

After having all this in place, we’ll proceed to create our campaigns. Based on certain attributes that we need to segment, we’ll have a better-distributed audience, and we’ll create three campaigns:

  1. People coming from Data Cloud interested in products originating from the U.S. will see a banner with information about allergens.
  2. Anyone coming from Spain will encounter a pop-up in the middle of the campaign informing them that their orders will include a bonus bottle of olive oil just for buying from there.
  3. Anyone who visits 3 or more pages for the first time will see a pop-up asking them to rate their experience. This information will be exported to Journey Builder to target them with new offers a week later.
    With this approach, we can have three different campaigns directed at market segments, each with its unique characteristics.

With this approach, we can have three different campaigns directed at market segments, each with its unique characteristics.

So, are you ready to dive into Marketing Cloud Personalization?

SMFC Content Builder Guide

Content Builder Header Image

To understand Content Builder well, we must first know what Salesforce Marketing Cloud is. We’re talking about a platform that provides us, within a single location, extensive options and tools to unify communications with customers across multiple channels. Additionally, it allows building a personalized digital experience.

This platform consists of various sub-clouds, primarily Email Studio, Mobile Studio, Social Studio, and Advertising Studio, which allow for multichannel communication with customers through different digital channels.

The strength of Marketing Cloud lies in combining the full potential of customer data collection with the automation of communications across any channel. This is where other sub-clouds come into play, allowing us to work with omnichannel capabilities, including Content Builder, Journey Builder, Automation Studio, Analytics Studio, Salesforce DPM or Audience Studio, and Interaction Studio.

What is Content Builder?

Contact Builder is a multichannel content management tool that consolidates images, documents, and content in one location for use within Marketing Cloud. It provides an easy-to-use “Drag & Drop” interface for organizing, creating, and managing content according to preferences.

Contact Builder is designed for large companies that require highly structured organization and shared resources managed by a large number of people. It also necessitates a high level of review and compartmentalization when creating publications and content.

Folders – How to Create and Where to Find Them?

As mentioned earlier, Content Builder allows quick and easy organization of content, with intuitive search capabilities. Upon entering the tool, you can view all the content stored in your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account, with various filters and tools to segment folders.

Content Builder Folders

To easily find content without complicating things, consider the following tips:

Click on “Content” to navigate through folders, which are organized alphabetically. It’s recommended to use subfolders, managing content numerically before transitioning to the campaign name.

Use Filters based on existing criteria in categories such as:

  • Types (e.g., images or text)
  • Tags (applied to Marketing Cloud files)
  • Owners.


Use the search function by entering keywords instead of the full file name, providing information from categories like Content, Name, and Content in files. To classify content by field, select a field name. To view different results between contextual information and content, choose between list or thumbnail views.

  • Content
  • Name
  • Content in archives

Content Creation Tools:

When creating a campaign and designing content, Content Builder offers a catalog of options to design from scratch or reuse old resources for layout. These tools connect with Email Studio, enabling the linking of various creatives when launching campaigns.

Content Builder Content Creation Tools

These tools include Email Message, Email Template, Content Blocks, and Mobile App.

Email Message: Create new emails in various ways, using a pre-existing template, pasting HTML code, or using AMP email (offering real-time interactive data and content). Additionally, you can reuse previously created emails.

Email Template: Templates create design models to save and manage for use within emails in future campaigns. Note that templates cannot be sent, and they can only be created by pasting HTML code or reusing an existing template.

Content Blocks: Content Builder not only allows the creation of emails and layouts but also content blocks and forms. These elements can be injected into emails and campaigns as needed, stored in different folders generated.

Content Builder Layout Mobile App

Here are some key content creation tools:

  • Layout: Create content blocks with images, text, buttons, interlinked to form content structures.
  • Image: Insert image formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, and AMPscript.
  • Freeform Content: Add text, links, and images to any layout.
  • HTML Content: Paste or upload HTML code into Content Builder blocks.
  • Dynamic Content: Design content specifically for a specific audience, customizing content attributes.
  • A/B Test Content: Create two different content areas for testing to determine which performs better, tracking results.
  • Button Block: Create buttons (CTAs) to be inserted into campaign emails.

Mobile App: A tool designed for creating exclusive content for mobile users in SMS format. It also includes in-app messages with layouts specifically designed for mobile rendering.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Content Builder is a fundamental pillar of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The demand for content generation requires well-categorized materials organized within folder structures. Understanding all the tools available in Content Builder facilitates content creation, providing an advantage when launching campaigns.

At ShowerThinking, we hope this guide has helped you better understand the functionality of this tool and serves as a starting point for delving deeper and expanding your knowledge.

WhatsApp in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

WhatsApp in Marketing Cloud. ShowerThinking
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers personalized email marketing campaigns, with the option of instant messaging through WhatsApp. Here are some key aspects to consider when using WhatsApp in Marketing Cloud.

WhatsApp in Marketing Cloud

Many marketing and sales departments are considering exploring WhatsApp as an additional communication channel with their customers as part of their strategy.

This is a natural progression as consumers are increasingly accustomed to interacting with different communication channels and consuming content in a personalized and medium-specific manner.

However, when a marketing department considers incorporating WhatsApp into its communication strategy, many questions arise: Is it too intrusive? What type of communication can I send to my customers? What are the most common use cases? What limitations exist? Can it be integrated with the technology I currently have?

In this article, you will find answers to all these questions that resonate in the mind of a marketer and may be hindering them from taking the next step.

Where do I start?

Within Mobile Studio, it is essential to have the WhatsApp option enabled.
Mobile Studio WhatsApp. ShowerThinking
If this option does not appear, you should contact your Salesforce representative or seek assistance from a Salesforce consulting partner, such as ShowerThinking, for guidance. Once the module is active, access the account settings. It’s important to note that you need a WhatsApp Business account, which also needs to be configured. Additionally, because Facebook (Meta) owns WhatsApp, you must properly configure your Facebook Business account. If all of this just feels like a tongue twister, you can visit the Meta link on account settings for more information.

I have it configured, what's next?

The next step is for you to create templates. If you’re familiar with launching advertising campaigns on Facebook, you know that Meta reviews and approves all ads. The same process applies to WhatsApp.

You should first create a template with the message you want to send. Do this through the ‘Message Templates’ option within Marketing Cloud.

Whatsapp Template. ShowerThinking

Since creating templates involves some peculiarities, you can visit this link where Meta provides all the information needed to create message templates for a WhatsApp Business account.

Content Builder

Once the template is approved (it usually takes between 24/48 hours), you will enter Content Builder to access it. Here you can preview, configure variables, and make small edits.

Variable. ShowerThinking
The use of variables is what makes WhatsApp service interesting. Consequently, we can set up automatic responses based on the user’s response. In this regard, it is advisable to offer the client closed options (Yes/No) to configure the most accurate automatic response possible.

Contact Builder

On the other hand, Contact Builder generates our audience. Since it’s a new communication channel, you need to consider the process and consents. You can visit this Meta link on Best Practices for WhatsApp consents.

When importing our database, in the APP Channel section, select “WhatsApp”. This confirms to Marketing Cloud that these contacts have consented to being contacted through the WhatsApp channel.

App Channel. SHowerThinking

Journey Builder

Final step is the configuration of our delivery. Managed through Journey Builder, from the input audience to responses based on the variables configured in the template from Content Builder.

This is what is truly interesting; we can create flows based on immediate responses from our clients. Additionally, we can set up a series of responses in case the client spontaneously communicates with us.

Journey Builder Whatsapp. ShowerThinking

Main use cases

And finally, we are going to share with you the main use cases that we are working on with our clients so that they can serve as inspiration for you to apply them to your business.

  • Personalized offers: Who hasn’t received a percentage discount for their next purchase via WhatsApp? It’s one of the most common uses. Thanks to having all the data within the Salesforce ecosystem, we can use it to send personalized offers.
  • Order confirmations: If you have an e-commerce business and want your customer to instantly receive confirmation of their order, WhatsApp in Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows you to do that. A way to improve the post-sales experience for our customers.
  • Communications to the sales network: If you manage sales teams or are part of one, you know that the company phone is one of their main tools. Why not send everyone a message via WhatsApp informing them of the time of the next team meeting? “I didn’t read the email” will no longer be an excuse.
  • Customer support: Another communication channel your company can offer. It can be a quick access point for the customer, generating a very positive experience. The use of WhatsApp is integrated into our daily lives. Being able to use it directly with companies creates a sense of accessibility and closeness to the customer.
  • Appointment/meeting reminders: WhatsApp is an ideal communication channel to remind our clients or suppliers of upcoming appointments or meetings. It’s a very common and well-received use case among users.

In summary, the integration of WhatsApp into Salesforce Marketing Cloud enhances marketing and sales strategies. Through this powerful combination you can improve communication and customer experience.