Contact Builder is the application within the Marketing Cloud that provides access to account contact data and relationships designed to be used conveniently. With Contact Builder, we can manage, consolidate, organize and link data from all of the Cloud Marketing applications and external sources.

If you’re not yet familiar with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud and would like an overview of what this platform offers, we invite you to read the following article to find out What is the Marketing Cloud? The Salesforce Digital Marketing Hub.

Data sources

Contact Builder within Marketing Cloud, is like any contact manager within a Marketing Automation tool. As with other tools, you can synchronize your Marketing Cloud data with other types of data sources. The ideal in Contact Builder is to synchronize Marketing Cloud with the information contained in Salesforce CRM (if you have one), but if you have another type of CRM you can also connect it, although many times you need to make a custom development and integration.

Within Contact Builder there are three types of Data Sources:

• System Data Sources: Within this type of data sources are included those related to Cloud Marketing, email applications, mobile applications or those related to Einstein Predictive Intelligence.
• Synchronized Data Sources: This type of data sources are usually those naturally synchronized in the Marketing Cloud, such as data stored in Salesforce CRM.
• Custom Data Sources: As the name suggests, these are custom data sources, where most of the time a custom integration is needed to make them work properly with Marketing Cloud.

Data extesion

Within Contact Builder, one of the most common actions is to manage, administer and create Data Extensions, but… What is a Data Extension?

A Data Extension is a table within the application database (in this case Cloud Marketing) that contains your data. It can be used to store a list of contacts (to send them an email, for example) but it can also be used to store any kind of information (products that a customer has bought, service contract history). In short, you can use a data extension to store subscriber information (as you do with lists) or to store relational data for these subscribers. Data extensions are very similar to tables in a database, as they are usually related to each other and serve to keep your contact information as complex as you want.

If you want to go deeper into the use of Data Extensions in the Marketing Cloud, we recommend reading the following article which specifies when to use a Data Extension or a subscriber list in the Marketing Cloud.

Attribute Groups: Contact records and Data Extensions

The logic of managing Data Extensions in the Marketing Cloud is the possibility of linking data from several data extensions in a single contact record. In order to understand this type of logic, we need to know that any Data Extension has a number of records. Each record in a Data Extension is a “contact” that makes up that database, but there can be the same contact record in several Data Extensions. Therefore, when using Contact Builder we need to link the data from several Data Extensions so that our subscribers are as complete as possible.

To make this step possible it is necessary to create attribute groups. Attribute groups allow you to organize your data because each group includes a data model consisting of data extensions linked to contact records or other data extensions. In addition, you can include as many data extensions as you need in an attribute group and you can use these groups in templates within Contact Builder.

Import of data

Contact Builder is the ideal application for importing data into the Marketing Cloud. Within the Import menu, you can import data in two different ways:

• Import Into Data Extension: This option allows you to import a series of data or a database into a Data Extension and configure the definition of the fields that will make up that Data Extension. This function is useful to define your own fields and not to make mistakes when importing data.
• Import Into a List: This option allows you to import data into a subscriber list or import data into the All contacts section. This option is ideal when you want to make a list of subscribers for an emailing for example, since Data Extensions are more complex databases, used for other types of purposes.

Best practices in Contact Builder

When you use Contact Builder, you must have a series of clear basic concepts to ensure the integrity and order of your data in a correct way. Therefore, the most important and fundamental concept to keep in mind is: Always use a single contact key per contact. This decision allows you to assign an email address, phone number and other information collected through different communication channels to your own contact (identified by the same contact key/subscriber key). The contact key must be a value that cannot be changed in the future (such as a physical address) and must always be unique for each contact, so ideally this value should be an ID (in the case of Salesforce it could be the Salesforce ID field) or an identifying number containing alphanumeric characters (never numeric only).

Another fundamental concept to keep in mind is to understand the difference between “All Contacts” and “All Subscribers” lists. These two lists may seem the same but have a big difference. On the one hand, the “All Contacts” list shows all the contacts collected within the Marketing Cloud (from Contact Builder). On the other hand, the “All Subscribers” list shows all the contacts subscribed within Email Studio, which can receive emails and communications from the Marketing Cloud.

A third fundamental concept to keep in mind is to avoid deleting contacts. This happens because Marketing Cloud always keeps information about the contacts even if they have been deleted from modules such as Email Studio. It is therefore important to avoid deleting contacts unless it is strictly necessary, so that the process of unsubscribing among other things is completed correctly and that information is reflected in the Marketing Cloud.

Finally, it should be noted that ContactID and SubscriberID are not the same as ContactKey and SubscriberKey. In theory, both ContactID and SubscriberID are used as substitute keys in the internal systems of the Marketing Cloud, which means that they are reflected in activities such as tracking extracts or system data views when performing queries. Therefore, it is not advisable to use these values in our activities in the Marketing Cloud, but rather to always use both the ContactKey and the SubscriberKey.

In short, Contact Builder is a powerful module within the Marketing Cloud since it is the basis of our communications by allowing us to import and host contacts and information from them in relational data systems. Therefore, a correct use of Contact Builder is a task that requires care and experience, but from ShowerThinking we are specialists in developing together with your company automation and marketing management programs through Marketing Cloud. Therefore, if you need help or training in Cloud Marketing we have the right team that can help you, so do not hesitate to contact us!

In relation to the topic I already mentioned in this post about Salesforce Certifications, I’m going to try to solve your doubts about how to take the exam for Cloud Email Marketing Specialist.

First things first: there are four exams to obtain the complete Cloud Marketing Certification:

• Cloud Marketing Manager: Designed for administrators who can set up cloud marketing products using industry and product best practices. Candidates should generally be familiar with the data structure in subscriber data management and can navigate the Setup. Certified Cloud Marketing administrators can successfully resolve account settings and user requests.
• Cloud Email Marketing Specialist: designed for those who can demonstrate knowledge, skills and experience in email marketing best practices. Includes message design, subscriber and data management, inbox delivery, and external integrations with the Email Marketing Cloud application.
• Cloud Marketing Developer: Certified Cloud Marketing developers have hands-on experience developing across the platform. They create dynamic, personalized messages and landing pages, and are proficient in the Cloud Marketing scripting languages. They also have experience in advanced segmentation, reporting and analysis, and data configuration.
• Cloud Marketing Consultant: Designed for those who can configure and deploy Salesforce Marketing Cloud application tools, providing solutions for running tactical and strategic email campaigns. Candidates must have extensive knowledge of Salesforce applications, set up and regularly manage Salesforce, and work with stakeholders to define requirements

Who it is aimed at

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist credential is geared toward individuals who want to demonstrate their expertise in email marketing best practices, message design, subscriber and data management, inbox delivery, email automation, and tracking and reporting metrics within the Marketing Cloud Email application.

About the exam

Now I’m going to explain the general idea of how the exam is.

• Content: 60 multiple choice questions
• Time allocated to complete the exam: 105 minutes
• Score to pass: 68%
• Language: English
• Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required by local law
• Recovery fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required by local law
• Delivery options: supervised exam delivered on-site at a test center or in an online supervised environment.
• Prerequisite: There are no prerequisites for this exam, however, I recommend that you complete the recommended Trailhead path provided by Salesforce as a practice before completing this exam.

Examination Outline

First of all, to start preparing for the exam we should visit the home page of the exams. Here you will find the basic information about the exam, the registration form and of course the study guide, all completely free of charge. You will also have access to support modules that reflect the points of the study guide, each section includes E-Learning modules, knowledge base articles (support information) and videos (mini videos to support learning). The E-learning modules are definitely a prerequisite for taking the exam and cover almost everything, the videos and the knowledge base articles are excellent for clarifying any questions we may not have understood. I would also recommend that you write notes while watching the videos to refer to them later.

In this structure of the exam, we should familiarize ourselves with each point of the topics to be covered and the weight of each one. The greater the weight, the more questions will usually be asked.

• Email Marketing Best Practices: 15%
• Email Message Design: 13%
• Content Creation and Delivery: 18%
• Marketing Automation: 19%
• Subscriber and Data Management: 28%
• Tracking and Reporting: 7%

SUBSCRIBER AND DATA MANAGEMENT – 28%

• Given the desired output requirements, set up Subscriber Lists and Data Extensions in the Marketing Cloud.
  • Subscriber Lists
  • Data extensions and data relationships
• Given a customer’s business requirements, determine how to import data into the Marketing Cloud according to best practices.
  • Subscriber import
  • Import to a data extension
• Given a client’s business requirements, configure the segmentation tools to accurately model subscribers and data.
  • Create a group based on data filters
• Given a customer scenario, recommend the marketing unsubscribe subscription management solution that meets the requirements based on frequency, permission and customer preferences.
  • Subscription Center

MARKETING AUTOMATION – 19%

• In a customer scenario, recommend the appropriate marketing automation solution.
  • Automation Studio Overview
• Given a scenario for managing customer data, set up the appropriate marketing automation tools.
  • Automation Studio Activities

CONTENT CREATION AND DELIVERY – 18%

• In a scenario, create and customize an email message to meet a customer’s needs.
  • Create an email
• Given a scenario, send and implement an email campaign to meet the customer’s requirements.
  • Create a simple and automated email
• Given a scenario, know how to manage the content needed to implement a customer’s email campaign.
  • personalization strings
  • Content Builder considerations
• Describe various sending capabilities in the email application.
  • Send an e-mail (tools and definitions)

EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES – 15%

• Given a customer scenario, evaluate email marketing elements and techniques to design an effective email campaign.
  • Develop effective marketing emails
• Given a customer scenario, recognize situations where legal compliance may be an issue during an email campaign.
  • Legal Compliance Guidelines
• Given a customer scenario, differentiate elements of an email that can affect the ability to deliver the message.
  • Improves email delivery capabilities
• Given a customer scenario, demonstrate appropriate and effective subscriber acquisition methodologies
  • Acquire new subscribers
• Given a customer scenario, apply best practices for communication with a population.
  • Involve your subscribers

EMAIL MESSAGE DESIGN – 13%

• Given a customer scenario, recommend email design best practices to implement.
  • Maximize your email design
• Given the desired output functionality, recommend methods for creating incoming emails.
  • Email Design Toolkit
• Given the desired output requirements, recommend strategies for testing A/B email elements.
  • Test A / B

• Given the desired delivery process, recommend using the Cloud Marketing tools when preparing an email to send.
  • Content Detective
  • Previewing the subscriber and sending a test
• Given an email design, determine the correct use of approvals.
  • Summary of approvals

TRACKING AND REPORTING – 6%

• Given a customer scenario, explain the different metrics available for email campaigns and what each one means.
  • Email Studio Tracking (general description)
• Given an email campaign, describe the steps needed to analyze performance results.
  • View tracking results for an email delivery
• Given the need to run reports, configure and run Cloud Marketing ad hoc and automated reports.
  • Reports (general description)

Tips

• Cloud marketing is a complex platform, do not try to cover everything at once, focus on what the test asks for
• When you take a test, first try to eliminate incorrect answers to make sure you are confident with each answer
• Do all the Trailhead modules related to Cloud Marketing while taking notes to help you memorize and learn.
• Read their posts on the Salesforce blog to stay up to date

Other credentials

I would also recommend that you consider getting certified on these credentials which I believe are important to get started and will add value to your resume:

Pardot Specialist

Salesforce Administrador

Understanding what Reply Mail Management is when working in the Marketing Cloud is essential if you want to have a transversal communication between the company and the customer. If you need help in its configuration and in understanding all the functionalities that Marketing Cloud offers regarding Reply Mail Management, you are in the right article.

This post is focused on the specific use of Reply Mail Management in the Email Studio module within Marketing Cloud. If you are not yet familiar with this Marketing Cloud module, we invite you to read the following article, where it talks in depth about what Email Studio is: Email Studio in Marketing Cloud: what it is and what it offers. On the other hand, if you still do not know the Marketing Cloud platform or have not been clear about some concepts about it, you can visit the following article to familiarize yourself with it and know What is Marketing Cloud? The Salesforce Digital Marketing Hub.

Reply Mail Management: what is it?

When we talk about Reply Mail Management (or RMM) we mean the ways we handle responses to emails sent through the Marketing Cloud. These responses are produced automatically once Reply Mail Management is configured and include auto-responses and unsubscribe requests that we receive in response to emails already sent. In addition, Marketing Cloud allows us the ability to automatically forward emails when they need to be reviewed by a third party.

The first thing to do when configuring and using Reply Mail Management is to create a specific email address to be answered, called “reply-to address”. Once this address is created, when you receive an email, the RMM applies a set of matching rules to determine if the email is an out of office reply, an automatic reply or an unsubscribe request and acts on the message according to the previously configured characteristics.

The Reply Mail Management system also acts on these functions:

• Forward an email to different users depending on the circumstances of the received email.
• Make an auto-response and control the content of that auto-response message.

In the following image you can see an outline of how the RMM works in Marketing Cloud:

Options to consider during the configuration process

• Email Display Name. This is the name that appears when the subscriber responds to emails sent by the company. Ideally, a corporate name should be used in the case of a general email address, or there is also the possibility of using a name of a company employee.
• Reply Subdomain. The subdomain is the part of the URL that points to the Marketing Cloud auto-response rules. If the company has an email address with the following structure nombre@ejemplo.com, a subdomain must be created that contains this structure, such as: email.example.com or reply.example.com.
• Email Reply Address. Basically this option allows you to configure the email address that will appear to your subscriber in the communications they receive. It is important to establish a specific email address for this, such as: reply@ejemplo.com. Although this address is not a valid email address in most cases, it does not matter since the address manages the response through the RMM with the different sender profiles created.
• DNS Record Redirect Complete. Before enabling this option and configuring the RMM you must complete the Domain Name System (DNS) record. This process requires technical assistance from the ISP and the Marketing Cloud representative.

Configuración del Reply Mail Management

The process of setting up the RMM is a simple process, but it needs to be done in a certain way. The process comprises three general parts:

1. Specifying a reply subdomain (as we have seen before).
2. Request the relevant DNS changes from the ISP and the Marketing Cloud representative.
3. Configure the RMM settings within the Marketing Cloud

The most interesting part is the third one, and therefore we are going to observe how it looks in Marketing Cloud.

As we can see, there are 4 sections in the RMM settings: Reply Address Definition, Reply Filters, Response and Routing.

The most important is the first one, which has been explained above. Then, in the filters, Marketing Cloud offers us an option to delete the auto-responses and out-of-office messages and another one to manually manage the unsubscriptions. We must pay close attention to the Response section as this is where we can manage the auto-response message we want to be shown to our subscribers, whether it is going to be specific, general or not. Finally, we are asked to fill in an email address where the remaining autoresponders will be forwarded.

Once the RMM configuration is established, we can improve this process by creating sender profiles and configuring Triggered Sends for auto-responders. This is common because in this way, the degree of automation when answering our subscribers is much higher and it allows us a wide flexibility being able to send auto-responses from different Sender Profiles. If you want to find out more about what a sender profile is and how to create one in the Marketing Cloud, click on the following link Sender profiles in Marketing Cloud.

Case Study: Importance of the MRI

The company Global Tech S.A. sent 20,000 emails on Friday. Without the RMM option, starting Monday morning, employees should manually manage all incoming responses such as out-of-office, auto-responses, unsubscriptions, as well as individual customer responses.

However, with the addition of the RMM option which manages a large percentage of responses automatically on the spot, customers are completely satisfied as they receive personalized attention the very moment they send their email response.

In short, the configuration and implementation of the Reply Mail Management option is a great success in companies that handle a large volume of weekly emails and want to save time and costs in managing the responses of their subscribers. In addition, the implementation of this option allows to put the subscriber in the foreground and offer him an automatic, personalized and instantaneous response, thus improving the perception of the company by the customer.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions related to the Marketing Cloud or if you are interested in being guided through its implementation.

If you have reached this post, it is probably because you have difficulties in understanding what a Sender Profile is when you work with the Marketing Cloud. Read on to find out what a Sender Profile really is, the possibilities it offers to get the most out of it and everything it brings to you within the Marketing Cloud.

This post is focused on the knowledge about Sender Profiles in the Email Studio module within Marketing Cloud. If you still don’t know this module of Marketing Cloud, we invite you to read the following article, where we talk in depth about what Email Studio is: Email Studio in Marketing Cloud: what it is and what it offers. On the other hand, if you still do not know the Marketing Cloud platform or have not been clear about some concepts about it, you can visit the following article to familiarize yourself with it and know What is Marketing Cloud? The Salesforce Digital Marketing Hub.

What is a Sender Profile?

A Sender Profile in the Marketing Cloud, as its name suggests, is a profile that specifies shipping information and can be reused as many times as you want just by selecting the correct profile in the shipment.

The Sender Profile has its own name, which is very useful when identifying the different Sender Profiles (for example, if we handle Marketing Cloud for an international company, we can create different Sender Profiles for each country and differentiate them by name).

Within each Sender Profile there are two very important configuration sections:

• Sender Information. Here you specify the name of the Sender itself in the e-mails and also the e-mail address through which you will be sending them (the “from name” and “from e-mail” fields respectively).
• Custom Reply Mail Management Settings. Through this section, what allows you Marketing Cloud is to configure a “from name” and “from email” to perform forwarding, as well as configure auto-responses and forwarding through Triggered Send, which will be explained later.

Likewise, you can configure Sender Profiles based on the users we have in the Marketing Cloud. This is useful for companies that make personalized sendings through their employees.

What allows us to do a Sender Profile in the Marketing Cloud?

As mentioned above, the main functionalities of a Sender Profile are to differentiate the name of the sender and the e-mail address, as well as to manage forwarding and auto-responses based on Triggered Sends. All this by means of the possibility of creating as many Sender Profiles as we want and being able to use them only by changing the sending profile when doing so.

But you may ask yourself, isn’t it possible to personalize Sender Profiles based on the contact information of my company’s employees? The answer to this question is yes. Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows accounts that have the “Enhanced Sender Profile” feature to create a “Dynamic Sender Profile”.

Dynamic Sender Profiles

A Dynamic Sender Profile, is a dynamic Sender Profile that thanks to AMPscript technology changes its information “from name” and “from email” based on attributes previously loaded in the Salesforce CRM module for our customers.

The Dynamic Sender Profile will only work if the customers to be sent have two information fields previously loaded into the Data Extension and Sales Cloud with the attributes “from name” and “from email”. Once these attributes are loaded, using AMPscript technology and having created a Sender Profile that uses this technology to map the information loaded in the Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud, the “from name” and “from email” will change based on the data loaded for each customer.

This is very useful when you have to send from different email addresses that correspond to employees of a company, and the content of the email is the same for all customers.

This particular Sender Profile, can have problems when there is a customer who does not have information loaded from these two attributes mentioned above, or the information loaded between Clouds is different. If this happens, Marketing Cloud will recognize the error and load the information “from name” and “from email” by default.

How to create a Sender Profile?

Creating a Sender Profile is a very simple process that will only take a minute. To do this, go to Email Studio and within the Admin tab in the Send Management section choose the option Sender Profiles.

Once you are in the Sender Profiles menu, just click on the Create button and once you are in the menu, all you have to do is fill in the requested fields with the data you want to put in your Sender Profile.

In the following image, you can see the steps to follow to reach the Sender Profile menu and create one:

What is a Triggered Send and how to assign it to a Sender Profile?

Triggered Sends are commonly used to send relevant, personalized and timely messages to users. These types of messages are usually welcome emails, automatic no-response emails or thank you emails when making a transaction, among others.

This type of sending allows you to associate it to a Sender Profile to show the sending information and associate it to a specific email previously created so that this type of email is always shown. In addition, they allow you to manage whether you want this Triggered Send to be excluded from any list or data extension, as well as to add users from this Triggered Send to different lists or data extensions.

To associate a Triggered Send to a Sender Profile, the only thing you need to do is enter the Sender Profile configuration (as shown above) and in the Custom Reply Mail Management Settings choose the options to use an auto-response or forward through a triggered send, that simple.

Advantages of creating Sender Profiles

As mentioned above, the main advantage of creating a Sender Profile is that we don’t have to fill in “from name” and “from email” information every time we send an email in the Marketing Cloud.

This advantage is reinforced with the possibility of creating Dynamic Sender Profiles, since once a Dynamic Sender Profile is created we can use that same profile to send an entire department, as long as the content of the emails is the same among all the Senders.

Finally, I would like to emphasize the main advantage that Marketing Cloud allows us to configure Triggered Emails to set up the auto-responses and forwarding of a Sender Profile.

In any project where you want to get the most out of Email Marketing strategies, the possibility of creating Sender Profiles with Marketing Cloud, allows a detailed customization, a considerable time saving and better results. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any doubts related to Marketing Cloud or if you would like us to guide you through its implementation.