Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps marketers to establish and manage customer marketing connections and campaigns.
Looking back to its history, the core of SFMC was not originally built by Salesforce, but was acquired by them in 2013 when they acquired ExactTarget. This is significant since the term “ExactTarget” is still occasionally used when referring to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Salesforce also acquired Pardot, which ExactTarget had previously purchased, as part of the same deal. Pardot was created as a B2B marketing automation tool for small businesses (as opposed to ExactTarget, which was more B2C-focused), and it is still in the Salesforce ecosystem today. It has not yet been merged or integrated into SFMC/ExactTarget. It was also not renamed as a “Cloud” Salesforce product.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a marketing platform that supports multi-channel campaign execution, dynamic customer journeys, pre- and post-campaign analytics, audience development and segmentation, social media interaction and advertising, and a data management platform, among other things. SFMC does this through the use of “Studios” and “Builders” components.
- “Studios” are used to manage and interact with communication channels. Email Studio, Social Studio, and Mobile Studio are all included in SFMC.
- In the Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform, “builders” are used to manage data, content, and customer journeys. Studios frequently utilise them, but they aren’t required (e.g., Analytics Builder).
What may Salesforce Marketing Cloud be used for?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a feature-rich platform with marketing-related capabilities. The following are examples of this:
- Real-time customer engagement
- Automated email and marketing
- Engagement, listening, and advertising on social media
- Push notifications and mobile messaging (SMS)
- Marketing analytics for customers
Advantages of Marketing Cloud
Salesforce highlights the benefits of its Marketing Cloud platform in these four:
A deep understanding of the consumer: this platform makes it possible to connect data from various sources and devices in order to obtain a single unified view of the customer. You’ll also be able to acquire and activate data from first, second, and third parties.
Artificial intelligence customization: Marketing Cloud allows data to be combined with the Einstein tool, allowing AI to arrange interactions. As a result, the platform allows for tailored consumer communication based on their connection with the brand.
Create interest throughout the journey: this Salesforce marketing platform develops interest and awareness throughout the process (a two-way real-time interaction), as well as insights to provide each consumer the optimal action for them.
Impact assessment: Using artificial intelligence and the digital tool Google Analytics 360, Marketing Cloud measures the consumer journey across several channels and devices.
Management of data
Data management in Marketing Cloud is accomplished through the use of data extensions (tables) that can be linked together to construct a relational database supported by SQL.
This, combined with SFMC’s ability to store a variety of data types and construct your own data model, gives it an edge over competitors who only support a limited data model constrained by the data they can import and handle.
One of the reasons for this is that it allows for more complex audience segmentation and building within SFMC.
Capabilities for Integration
Salesforce Marketing Cloud has a lot of integration capabilities and can pull data from a lot of different places (another factor in why the data management features are so valuable).
SFMC features several APIs, including a REST API and a SOAP API, in addition to the expected connectivity to Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Service Cloud (through Marketing Cloud Connect).
Adding to your current contact information in SFMC, importing content, and initiating triggered sends are all common uses for these APIs.
Applications from Third Parties
Salesforce Marketing Cloud has a large number of third-party applications, including those from the Salesforce AppExchange, that may be used to expand its capabilities and tailor it to your specific company needs. Consider the AppExchange to be SFMC’s equivalent of the Apple App Store or Google Play Store (and other Salesforce Clouds).
Aside from the AppExchange, SFMC can be enhanced with a variety of third-party products from Salesforce partners.
Artificial Intelligence in Action
Within SFMC, Salesforce’s artificial intelligence technology, dubbed “Einstein,” has various fascinating applications, including:
- To anticipate who will interact with messaging, use engagement scoring.
- Sent time optimization predicts the ideal time to send a message to each individual, ensuring that it is opened as soon as possible.
- To figure out how many messages to send each person, look at their engagement frequency.
Marketing Cloud has services for both B2B (where the customer is another firm) and B2C (when the product or service is sold directly to the consumer).
Is Marketing Cloud suitable for any business?
While Marketing Cloud is frequently thought of as an enterprise-level platform (which it is), the multiple editions make it adaptable to businesses of all sizes. You may also customise SFMC to your individual needs with the a-la-carte style selection of add-on features, and it can adapt to your (and your customers’) changing needs.
As previously said, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is primarily a B2C platform, however that does not imply it is not used by B2B firms. Customers, particularly decision-makers within a firm, demand to be given with customer journeys similar to those provided to B2C customers, hence SFMC’s use in B2B is growing. While SFMC is not the cheapest product in its category, it is an extensible platform that can develop with your business and is not a tool that will be outgrown. Any tool in your technological stack should take this into account.