Introduction to Salesforce Marketing Cloud

In this post we will talk about what is Salesforce marketing cloud and how to get started with Marketing cloud email Studio. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a provider of digital marketing automation and analytics software and services. Marketing cloud is the platform for delivering relevant, personalized journeys across channels and devices – enabling marketers to deliver the right messages to the right people via the right channel

What is Marketing Cloud ?

1. Marketing Cloud is comprised of a suite of studios and builders (Email Studio, Journey Builder, etc.).
2. The platform lets you manage messaging through multiple channels: email, sms, ads, and push.
3. Automation Studio and Journey Builder allow customers to automate their marketing programs to increase reach and efficiency.
4. Tracking and reports provide analytics that allow customers to measure and improve their programs.
5. The API and SFTP enable integration with any external system. Customers use these to integrate with web analytics, data warehouses, CRM systems, POS systems, custom apps, and more.

 

Product	Description
Audience Studio	Capture data from any source and device, then unify, segment, and activate audiences to create valuable customer experiences
Data Studio	Expand your reach with a data sharing platform where publishers can share 2nd party data with marketers in a trusted and transparent way
Google Analytics 360	Gain cross-channel insights for seamless customer journeys with Google Analytics 360 + Marketing Cloud.
Social Studio	Listen, publish, and engage to create customer advocates. Connect social to marketing, sales, and service in one platform powered by AI.
Journey Builder	Deliver cross-channel personalized experiences at every step of the customer lifecycle with campaign
Interaction Studio	Visualize, track, and manage customer experiences with real-time interaction management—driving valuable engagement at the right moment
Email Studio	Use data from every department to build smarter email—from basic marketing campaigns to sophisticated 1-to-1 messages
Mobile Studio	Send consistent SMS, push, and chat app messages in real-time
Advertising Studio	Use CRM to securely power 1-to-1 advertising across Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Display at scale

Check this recording to learn about basic of Marketing Cloud. We did the session in ApexHours. The aim of this session was to conduct a basic introduction of the different studios and builders in Marketing Cloud and demonstrate a live walkthrough of setting up a campaign which will touch on data design and automation best practices.

Development Process

Marketing Cloud – Email Studio

Email Studio Create 1-to-1 customer journeys with personalized email marketing at scale. Email studio is great channel for reaching customers, email is better in conversions, Customers trust email It’s easy to track customer behavior —like which emails they open, which links they click, which offers they redeem, and on which devices. With Email Studio you can build great emails, segment and target your audience, and send with confidence—all without any coding. Share content development across channels: Easily tag, search, and share content across distribution channels—including email, social, and mobile using Content Builder—for content creation and management at scale.

Subscriber

A subscriber List is a Collection Of Subscribers Who Opted-in to receive email communication from marketing cloud. Subscriber automatically belong the standard all subscriber list, and additional subscriber list an be created to segment subscriber for targeted email communication.

Data Modeling & Segmentation

 

List

1. Lists are the default method of storing subscriber data in the Email application.
2. They require minimal configuration and setup.
3. They are used for sending. You send to a list in your account.
4. Lists use the standard profile and subscription centers.
5. Email address and Subscriber Key attributes are required.
6. Limited Field Types
7. Less than 500,000 Subscribers

Data Extension

1. A data extension is a flat file of data that you can relate to another data extension via AMPscript.
2. All data extensions are custom tables. They provide a flexible data model, and they tend to run faster and handle larger loads of data.
3. Data extensions can contain subscriber data, just like a list. If they contain data about subscribers and are marked as used for sending, they are called Sendable Data Extensions.
4. Data extensions can also contain other data, like purchases, web analytics, and even URLs to images that you want to display. These are called Non-Sendable Data Extensions.
5. More than 500,000 Subscribers
6. Complex Relationships
7. Triggered Sends
8. SOAP and REST APIs
9. More Field Types

 

Tracking

Tracking is a result of your email send. Within tracking, you can view critical elements, such as email opens, clicks, and other metrics online.

 

Send Flow

1. Properties: Email, Subject Line, Send Classification, etc.
2. Audience: Target, Exclusion, Suppression, etc.
3. Delivery: Schedule, Send Throttling, Advanced Properties
4. Review: Check and correct errors before sending
5. Increase Confidence: See what you’re sending and reduce errors.

 

A/B Testing

1. Simple tool used to optimize email campaigns.
2. Used to market test two versions of an email to two audiences.
3. Automatically splits audience, calculates winner, and can send winner to remainder.
4. Uses the email's engagement data to automatically determine and distribute the winning email.
5. Perform A/B Testing on:
6. Subject Lines, Emails, Content Areas, From Names, Send Dates and Times, Preheaders

Please check this apex hours session to learn about marketing cloud email studio.

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Thanks,
Amit Chaudhary