What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

In 2013, Salesforce acquired the e-mail marketing platform ExactTarget and eventually turned it into Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

While there are technically 2 marketing automation platforms within the Salesforce ecosystem of products, Marketing Cloud is focused on B2C customer acquisition and nurturing across e-mail, social, and paid advertising to unify a company's data from all digital touch points. This enables companies to build real-time insight models that deliver powerful automation and campaign execution.

Over the years, Marketing Cloud has grown in complexity and offers a number of add-on products in addition to the core e-mail platform. We highlight some of the main components below before diving into the technical expertise needed to manage Marketing Cloud and continue building out functionality within it:

Journey Builder

This lives inside of Marketing Cloud suite and is one way to plan the customer experience. This allows you to be automate follow up and customer engagement based on prior actions that customer has taken. Let's break this down more. As an example, customers may take a variety of steps and interact with your brand across various channels before ultimately buying what you are selling. The journey builder allows you to make a chart with blocks and arrows to build automated solutions that execute next actions and deliver dynamic messages to target customers. As the customer navigates landing pages, you can build a journey to nurture them through a purchasing funnel and automate touchpoints over time.

Creating Dynamic Content

While journey builder lets you automate messaging, delivering the right message at the right time in the purchasing funnel is critical to converting new customers. Salesforce applications are great at gathering data insights about customer intent, which can be used by a Marketing Cloud Developer to craft responsive website design or dynamic HTML e-mail content unique to them. Building out dynamic content within Marketing Cloud does require specific technical knowledge.

SQL Queries and Marketing Cloud

In general, SQL queries are the best way to work with relational databases and it's an important component to Marketing Cloud, particularly in Automation Studio. Using these queries, a company is setting up how they want data to flow into and out of Marketing Cloud, what to do with the data when it arrives, and provides specific instructions and how to analyze various imports to inform on the next action in your marketing campaign.

Using Content Builder

Effective online marketing requires unique content for each channel you are utilizing, whether that's e-mail, custom landing pages, social, or paid ads. Content Builder is a content management system within Marketing Cloud that serves as a repository for a company's images, documents, and specific messaging and provides a drag-and-drop interface for Marketing teams to publish into various campaigns.

Email Studio

This is another core feature provided by the marketing cloud. This allows you to create and develop emails based on profile data. This being said, you can also send mass emails without leaving any customers out.  For example, if you wanted to send a follow-up thank you email to customers that purchased something within the past 30 days, you can tell the email studio to only send it to those customers. If you want everyone to get your email about an exclusive promotion that is going to happen next month, you can have the email sent to everyone.

In this studio, the sky is the limit. You can make the email as attractive or bland as you'd like. It has the ability to hold photos and videos, as well as include links and hold multiple lines of text. These emails are sent as if it is a one-on-one conversation. Even though you're probably sending out a couple hundred emails. The email is going to look like it was created specifically for that one client. There is no easier way to make them feel special.

Mobile Studio

This studio is just for what you think it is - mobile marketing. These feature allows you to elevate the way you are communicating with your customers. You're able to send text messages, allow push notifications, and even chat back and forth. A helpful feature is that it allows you to see a mock up of a cell phone to demonstrate exactly how your message will be delivered to the customer. We live in a world where more and more people are able to communicate and complete tasks on their mobile devices.

Some customers may find it extremely helpful to communicate via text instead of a phone call or email. If this is the case, and you're using Mobile Studio, you are going to deliver professional text messages as part of a more robust campaign.

Social Studio

This feature is completely unique and allows you to manage all of your social media platforms. You're able to dive deeper into the industry you are in. For example, if people mention a certain topic that applies to you like "new roofing materials being used," you're able to see more conversations about the pros and cons of using this material. If your company is on all social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc) this can be a great tool. You would be able to create social media posts to store in your content management studio and then automatically publish across social accounts for you. This is going to save you a lot of time because you won't be creating the same content over and over.

One more exciting option is the fact that Social Studio is able to monitor the performance of the post and put the data into a readable report. The goal is to see how the Marketing Cloud is able to measure this specific data. A lot of marketers want to know how many people read the post, did they click on it, did they happen to share the post and more importantly, what next actions they took after interacting with your content on social. This is a key component to cross-channel marketing attribution!

Interaction Studio

If you've never used artificial intelligence (AI) before, you surely will with this feature. AI helps you to make decisions based on the content you are creating. It has the intelligence to help you fine-tune content for the algorithms. Salesforce Marketing Cloud's AI is specifically named Einstein. It is there every step of the way to make sure you are using the feature to the best of your ability.

For example, you are presenting your customers with the next best thing, or a discount on something you offer, AI is automatically going to show them content based on past Google searches. AI is simply always analyzing the actions of customers and organizing the information in a way that you're able to maximize your business. Additionally, if you're able to define goals and key metrics, Einstein is going to give you some ideas in order to test your content before publishing it. This allows for a broader scale of analysis.

Advertising Studio

By using this feature you are going to ensure your customers are getting a one-on-one experience, like the advertisement is specifically talking to them. Not only is this feature going to give you incredible reach, but you're able to see how far it goes.  You're going to be placing this ad on sites where you know your customers are and similar to Social, will allow you to track web behavior across your own properties and beyond.

Hiring a Salesforce Developer

Every firm is unique. Accordingly, you’ll need to find the right developer when searching for talent to manage your Salesforce deployment. Still, it can prove challenging to find the right Salesforce expert. Writing code is an essential part of extending any CRM platform, software, or product. However, coding isn’t necessary for many Salesforce projects. Salesforce provides developers with a comprehensive toolbox. It includes drag-and-drop capability for databases and user interfaces as well as editable point-and-click tools. It’s possible to create a customized and advanced business solution using only the Salesforce software development tools. In many instances, developers need not write a line of code. However, Salesforce experts must have coding capabilities when the need for it arises.

To learn more about how to find and hire a Salesforce developer for the long run, continue reading.

Why You Need to Get Salesforce Deployment Right

Many companies don’t base their CRM strategy on their customers’ needs. They fail to forge deeper relationships with their customers. Here lies an opportunity for you to outdo your competition. With Salesforce, you can deliver personalized customer engagements consistently. You can also routinely improve the customer experience. By doing so, you’ll ensure customer loyalty. Customers always appreciate when you go above and beyond their expectations.

What is Salesforce Administration?

Just in case we skipped too many steps ahead, let's take a look at Salesforce Administration 101.

At the most basic level, Salesforce Administration involves the day-to-day support, maintenance, and management of your internal Salesforce org. A big piece of it is focused on the users - ensuring they are properly trained on the features available and aware of what data needs to be input for proper Sales reporting, lead attribution, forecasting metrics etc. Salesforce Administration best practices say that you should have at least 1 Salesforce Admin for every 30-40 users with the recommended number increasing incrementally as you add users and feature complexity.

If you don't hire the right Salesforce Admin team, you run into data quality issues and user adoption challenges that negatively impact your ability to get value from the platform.

What type of Salesforce help do you really need?

You may have already decided that you need a dedicated Salesforce Administrator. Alternatively, you may have yet to evaluate your options. In either case, your next step is figuring out what strategy works best for your company.

You have three choices when hiring a Salesforce Administrator. These choices include hiring a:

1. Salesforce Consulting Partner

2. Salesforce Administrator Consultant

3. Full-Time Salesforce Administrator

You may already know what type of arrangement fits your needs. In that case, you can focus on finding a qualified Salesforce Administrator using our platform. However, other companies may still wonder which option makes more sense.

Firstly, no company should completely outsource its Salesforce product strategy. Still, your staff members may have limited Salesforce knowledge or you may need a specialized Salesforce skill set for a one-time project. In that case, you may want to hire a Salesforce Admin Consultant on a short-term project. We see this as a common approach for companies that need to hire a specialized Salesforce Consultant to integrate Conga CLM, for example. They’ll help you to assess your goals and expenditures for a specific project and also help you to establish best practices.

Without inbound leads, Sales is left investing significant time in unproductive activities. This is why many companies turn to Pardot, a leading Marketing Automation platform that helps teams generate, manage, and build robust pipelines of qualified leads for B2B organizations.

For companies already using Salesforce Sales Cloud as their CRM, it's a no brainer to integrate Pardot for a seamless integration and a simple partnership between your Sales and Marketing teams.

Using Pardot, you can create custom email campaigns with automated triggers, attribute where Sales activities originated, and get hard data about what’s working in your sales approach as a whole. Pardot is at its best when you know exactly how to use it and when you can properly integrate it into your existing Sales processes, lead management strategy, and CRM setup.

This is where it’s necessary to have a Pardot Consultant that understands your business and can customize the platform for you.

What does a Pardot Consultant do?

When you bring a Pardot Consultant on board, you can expect them to do more than just tell you the steps you need to take during initial setup. Pardot Consultants are more deeply embedded into an organization since an understanding of your broader Marketing Operations and Sales strategy is necessary. A few benefits they should provide include:

Automating Business Processes Between Sales and Marketing

One of the great things about Pardot, in particular, is that many of the processes that have been done manually in the past can now be automated. Pardot allows up to 150 automation rules to be created. A Consultant can discuss your specific needs and then set up the automation rules to meet those needs. This kind of automation can foster increased support between sales and marketing teams, leading to efficient campaigns that generate more sales, cutting down on manual entry, automating the process of reconnecting with old customers, and easily correcting or eliminating incomplete lead entries. Pardot takes on many formerly tedious tasks on its own. But it does need to be set up in the first place and that is best done with a knowledgeable Pardot Consultant!

Setup and Account Configuration

It’s no small feat to properly set Pardot up for an organization. Making sure it integrates with (or replaces) current software is tough enough. To be successful, your Pardot Consultant will have to connect with your Business Systems team to make sure everything is optimized. But a Consultant can also help you to make sure all accounts are configured properly. Your organization may not need all features for every employee. Configuring Pardot to meet the needs of various teams will set you up for success and minimize unnecessary license expenditures.

B2B Marketing Analytics

Analytics can help you to know who your current customers are, what might attract future customers, and what you need to change in your campaigns.When it’s properly optimized by an expert, Pardot is fantastic at helping your team close the deal with MQLs and SQLs.

Defining Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

MQLs are potential customers who expressed interest in your products or services. They might have filled out a form on a website, left a business card at a trade show, or shopped in your online store. Pardot Marketing Automation Consultants can make sure you have a good framework for how you define an MQL and ensure Pardot is properly identifying and sorting your B2B leads.

Defining Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs)

An SQL also has the intent to buy, but they have actually expressed an interest in your products or services.

Typically, MQLs become SQLs because they’ve been handed by the Marketing team to the Sales team to be targeted as potential customers. This handoff is a critical step for any Pardot Specialist to properly design. A Pardot Consultant can help to ensure that the handoff is seamless so that all teams are set up for success and the right type of leads are being passed to Sales, in order to use their time effectively and maximize the conversion rate of inbound leads!

Salesforce Architects are one of the most important and highly sought after functions in the Salesforce ecosystem. Given the complexity of the Salesforce platform, there are a variety of different skill sets that fall under the 'Salesforce Architect' umbrella - we help breakdown the difference between each, the job they do, and the Salesforce skills you should be looking for when hiring an Architect.

What does a Salesforce Architect do?

Manages Business Stakeholders

Typically, the Salesforce Architect will lead the strategy across end-to-end implementations and a key piece of that role is managing both Business and Technical stakeholders. The value of a Salesforce Architect comes from the fact that they are able to help optimize business processes, while translating those into technical solutions on the Salesforce platform, and bringing all of your systems & data together in one place.

Designs Technical Solutions on Salesforce

A Salesforce Architect knows the capabilities and limitations of what the platform can do - they are versed in multiple Clouds and understand when to use configuration vs. custom Apex development, how to use out of the box integration tools or work with APIs and custom integrations, and they are able to guide both Technical and Functional Delivery teams.

Architects Integrations

Depending on the Salesforce platforms being deployed and complexity of the broader systems environment, degree of difficulty with integrations will vary. Salesforce offers a 'native' integration platform - Mulesoft - that requires technical expertise but is a simple way to connect Salesforce with other applications being utilized. The methods will vary but Salesforce Architects can identify the right integration / middleware platform and design the integration roadmap.

Builds a Security & Data Model

As part of platform architecture and integration strategy, Salesforce Technical Architects will build a security and data model to ensure company data isn't vulnerable. Particularly when dealing with Health Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, and other industries with compliance requirements, this is a key element to the Architect's skill set.

Oversee Salesforce Project Team

In addition to leading the strategy, a Salesforce Architect will often manage the day-to-day Deliver team. Technical Architects will write technical requirements, lead Scrum meetings, and manage the Salesforce Engineering team while Solution Architect will play a similar role over top of Business Analysts or Administrators.