The hardest part about finding a reliable Salesforce Marketing Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Implementation Partner is that the biggest Partner doesn't necessarily mean the best Partner when it comes to Marketing Cloud.
In the Salesforce ecosystem, when selecting an Implementation Partner, you want to go with a
specialist. This means finding a vendor that focuses on 1-2 Salesforce products and nothing else! These days, the biggest firms - Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, IBM - are
generalists when it comes to the Salesforce platform.
They likely have some dedicated
Marketing Cloud Consultants in the organization but overall, it's not a core focus or area of specialty.If you have a project that involves implementing a variety of different Salesforce products simultaneously - for example, you want to deploy Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and Marketing Cloud together - then these big Partners are the best option for you.
However, if you have a project that only involves implementing SFMC and integrating it to your existing tools, you might want to look for a smaller, more specialized implementer.Finding the right Salesforce Marketing Cloud Partner depends on a variety of factors. (This might not be what you wanted to hear, so we put together the Best Salesforce Marketing Cloud Partners in 2022 to help guide you!)
These are the largest Salesforce SFMC Partners for the North American market and should typically be reserved for projects in the $5m to $10m budget.
The way they operate is to deploy larger scale, cross-disciplinary Delivery teams comprised of multiple Consultants, Developers, Administrators, Architects, and Email Campaign Specialists.
An expected hourly bill rate for these Partners is in the $250/hour to $400/hour range and you will be encountering a Delivery team of 20+ individuals.
While they are one of the largest Salesforce Implementation Partners, they do have an extremely well-established SFMC Practice. Unlike some of the bigger firms that only focus on 'multi-Cloud' projects, Slalom does maintain a focus on standalone SFMC engagements, which provides a unique specialization at their scale.
67 Certified Marketing Cloud Consultants
34 Certified Marketing Cloud Developers
202 Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialists
Dentsu (formerly DEG Digital)
In 2018, DEG Digital (an established Salesforce Implementation Partner that had acquired numerous mid-sized Partners along the way), was acquired by Dentsu, a Japanese advertising giant. Prior to that acquisition, DEG Digital was the largest standalone Salesforce Marketing Cloud Partner in the United States. This has remained a core competency while also being integrated into a broader Marketing and Advertising agency.
145 Certified Marketing Cloud Administrators
123 Certified Marketing Cloud Consultants
67 Certified Marketing Cloud Developers
412 Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialists
This is the Digital arm of Deloitte, one of the largest Management Consulting companies in the world. While Deloitte does a little bit of everything inside and outside of technology, Deloitte Digital is solely focused on digital transformation strategy with an enormous focus on Salesforce. While they start to creep into 'generalist Partner' territory, the scale of their Marketing Cloud capabilities and number of Certified Consultants across the Practice make them a strong option for any Enterprise engagements.
338 Certified Marketing Cloud Administrators
303 Certified Marketing Cloud Consultants
151 Certified Marketing Cloud Developers
934 Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialists
A multinational, British communications and advertising agency, WPP is a relatively new entrant to the Salesforce ecosystem. Given their core focus on Marketing & Advertising strategy, a logical expansion for them was moving into technology consulting and digital transformation with these efforts focused strictly on Marketing tools.For this reason, they unique in the fact that they are a huge company overall with a relatively modest Salesforce Practice but the entirety of that Practice is focused on Marketing Cloud.
35 Certified Marketing Cloud Administrators
70 Certified Marketing Cloud Consultants
33 Certified Marketing Cloud Developers
271 Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialists
Pierry (now Wunderman Thompson)
In 2017, Pierry was acquired by Wunderman Thompson, which is another global Marketing Communications agency with 20,000+ employees that had no presence in the Salesforce ecosystem until acquiring their way into it.
At the time of acquisition, Pierry was a top 10 Global Salesforce Partner with one of the most established, strongest Marketing Cloud Practices. This was a brilliant integration of Marketing Cloud expertise into an existing behemoth in the Marketing landscape.
33 Certified Marketing Cloud Administrators
25 Certified Marketing Cloud Developers
60 Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialists
