Your Data and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Ebook
Your Data and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Ebook
Your Data
and Salesforce
Marketing Cloud
Table of Contents Chapter 3
How to define your
Foreword 5
data model in Salesforce
Introduction 6 Marketing Cloud 19
What is Marketing Cloud? 6 hat is Contact Builder in Salesforce
W
Who is this eBook for? 6 Marketing Cloud and what is it for? 19
How to read this eBook 7 Why would you use Contact Builder? 19
What is not covered in this eBook? 7 How to get access to Contact Builder 20
Why should you give someone
Chapter 1 access to Contact Builder? 20
What is a data model? 8
ow can you provide access
H
hich databases are used within
W to Contact Builder? 20
Salesforce Marketing Cloud? 9
hat are “contacts” in Salesforce
W
Relational databases aim to Marketing Cloud Contact Builder? 20
represent the world in a logical way 9
ow to identify contacts
H
Flat-file databases represent the in Contact Builder? 21
world in a more practical way 10
Where can I find my contacts? 21
Data Privacy 13
here does the data about
W
Chapter 2 contacts come from? 21
Identifying and preparing What is a Contact Key? 22
the data for Salesforce ontact Keys across different Studios
C
Marketing Cloud 14 in Salesforce Marketing Cloud 22
hat source data do you want to
W ontacts and Subscribers in Marketing
C
use in Salesforce Marketing Cloud? 14 Cloud: What’s the difference? 23
ow will you integrate your data in
H Subscribers in Email Studio 23
Salesforce Marketing Cloud? 15
Subscriber Key Best Practices 23
hat data to store in Salesforce
W
Marketing Cloud and how to use it? 17 ll Contacts and All Subscribers:
A
What’s the difference? 24
Business units in Marketing Cloud 17
ow to extract All Contacts to a data
H
How are business units organized? 18 extension from Marketing Cloud? 25
ow is the data shared between
H anual Contact creation
M
business units? 18 in Contact Builder 25
Import activities in Contact Builder 25
eleting Contacts in
D Subscriber Status 41
Salesforce Marketing Cloud 29 P
rofile Center 41
arketing Cloud Connect
M How to set up the Profile Center 42
and Contact Builder 31
Introduction to Automation Studio
What about deleting in Salesforce Marketing Cloud 43
synchronized Data Sources? 33
What is Automation Studio? 43
How to leverage your
synchronized Data Extensions? 33 ho needs access to Automation
W
Studio in Salesforce Marketing Cloud? 43
How can you put your data model to
action - with or without Data Designer? 34 ow to give or restrict access
H
to Automation Studio for
Chapter 4 Salesforce Marketing Cloud users 43
How to leverage data in hat does Automation Studio in
W
the studios and builders of Salesforce Marketing Cloud consist of? 44
Salesforce Marketing Cloud 35 ow to create a new automation
H
I ntroduction to Email Studio in Automation Studio in
in Salesforce Marketing Cloud 35 Salesforce Marketing Cloud 44
Anthony Lamot.
CEO & Co-Founder, DESelect
Salesforce Marketing Cloud as one of the leading Marketing Automation tools. Source: Gartner.
Throughout the text, you will notice that certain chapters are indicated
as primarily focused on Marketing Cloud admins, while others for email
specialists. The idea is to make it more convenient to navigate within the
eBook and quickly be able to find exactly what you need.
In the next chapter, you will find out what a data model is,
and what kind of data model is used in Marketing Cloud.
In the next chapter, we’ll dive into data itself, identifying what
data we need to store in Marketing Cloud and how to prepare
your data to upload in SFMC.
Data Privacy
We live in an age where data privacy is paramount for organizations that collect, store, and manipulate
users’ data. It’s key to comply with GDPR and CCPA data privacy guidance (amongst other worldwide data
privacy regulations).
Be aware of your organization’s data retention policy. It stipulates when data might no longer serve
its purpose (and should thus be deleted). This documentation also records whether the data retention
period has expired. The process of implementing a data retention policy begins by knowing what kind of
data your organization holds so that you might classify it.
Data privacy also implies the right to be forgotten; where a Contact’s entire record must be deleted upon
request. In Chapter 3 we will discuss Contact deletion options in Marketing Cloud.
I n the next chapter, you will find out how to organize your data in
Marketing Cloud using Contact Builder. Moreover, we’ll cover what
it entails and how to leverage Data Designer. We’ll also explain
how you can avoid using Data Designer and still have a great data
overview in Marketing Cloud.
So we’ve got into how to use your data within Marketing Cloud, but what about Contacts and defining
your data model? In this next section, we explore the big wide world of SFMC Contact Builder.
Keep reading! :)
This next chapter will most likely be most beneficial for Marketing
Cloud Admins and Marketing Automation professionals. This is
because you have to obtain a certain level of permissions in order to
leverage most of the functionality mentioned in this chapter.
Within Data Designer, data is stored using populations, attribute groups, attribute sets,
and attributes. Attribute groups can be related to one another as well as your Contacts using
data relationships.
Different accounts require different approaches for contact deletion. For example, if you have an
Enterprise 2.0 account, enablement for the entire organization occurs at the parent account level. It is
important to note all contact deletion processes are final, and Marketing Cloud cannot restore deleted
contact information.
Then Marketing Cloud will completely remove the contact from your account, which is final.
Marketing Cloud deletes contact information from lists and sendable data extensions. You can
delete up to one million records. This process does not apply to any non-sendable data extensions
not included in a population via Data Designer. You are solely responsible for deleting applicable
information from those sources.
As for contact deletion best practices, we suggest using Contact Key or Contact ID values to
delete Contacts.
If you linked multiple Subscriber Key or Contact Key values to the same contact, perform the
Contact Delete process for all values.
(Here you can choose entities to synchronize with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.)
After you choose CRM objects you would like to synchronize with Marketing Cloud, you will see the CRM
data in the Contacts overview.
Remember what we mentioned earlier? Marketing Cloud is not a data warehouse. Import only the data
you need for the marketing activities, and avoid flooding the platform with data you don’t need to use.
Suppression Lists
A Suppression List is a Subscriber subset you wish to omit from certain communications. These
lists filter out email addresses to prevent them from receiving your communications. They act as a
‘do not contact’ list for your email campaigns.
Types of suppression lists you may want to maintain could be:
• Contacts with a history of spam complaints
• Unsubscribe lists from previous providers or advertisers
• Addresses of your competitors
• Canceled customers
• Customers you have recently targeted or have already contacted several times
Publication Lists
Publication Lists control which emails your Subscribers receive. They allow Subscribers to control
what kinds of communications they receive, such as opting out of future sends on a list. If no
Publication List is selected at send time, the All Subscriber list is used by default.
If a Publication List is defined as public, it becomes visible in the Subscription Center, which
Subscribers can then opt-out of. Subscribers can opt-in to Public Publication Lists, but will only
receive emails if they exist in the Sendable Data Extension.
Filtered groups are basically (simple) segmented lists. Create filtered groups by filtering on ‘Profile’
‘Attributes’, ‘Preference Attributes’, ‘Filters’, and ‘Measures’. Random groups are compiled from
filtered groups. You can create a random group by splitting a Subscriber list or filtered group. These
groups can be renamed, moved, refreshed, and more. Groups can be used to create a segmented
list of Subscribers.
Data Views
Data views are system-generated tables (or “data extensions, DEs”) in Marketing Cloud. They contain
different information about the Subscribers and events, such as email/SMS sends, email opens,
or links clicked. You can also view behavioral information such as emails forwarded to friends.
There are 24 different data views in SFMC that you can check out here.
We also recommend that you check out the articles we have already
written on data views in Marketing Cloud:
• How to use Data Views in SFMC? A guide to select Contacts that are
known Subscribers
• Top 10 Salesforce Marketing Cloud data views
Measures
In Email Studio, you can define Subscriber behavior in units known as ‘measures’. Once you’ve created
a measure, it can be included as data filter criteria, to segment a Subscriber list.
Examples of measures include:
• Unique unsubscribes in the last 30 days.
• Total opens in the last 30 days
• Hard bounces in the last month
• Total click-throughs in the last 30 days
When working with measures, it helps to understand SQL and relational data structures.
• Data views provide more precise • The data retention period is limited
behavioral data. to 6 months.
If you prefer to have all your behavioral data in one place, you might find this useful:
• Replicate the data view structure in your data extensions (so-called “archive”). This is especially useful
for retaining data for more than 6 months since data extension data won’t update automatically as
with a data view;
• Create an automation flow to extract and archive data every 6 months, by choosing ‘overwrite’
as data action;
• For analysis/reports/RFM/behavioral segmentation, etc., use the ’archive’ data.
Subscriber Status
Subscriber Status refers to the email deliverability for a single Subscriber.
There are several statuses available:
• Active: The Subscriber can receive emails.
• Bounce (Returned): The Subscriber cannot receive emails due to one or two soft bounces, or one
hard bounce, and the Subscriber has not opened or clicked through the email.
• Held (Undeliverable): This status occurs after three soft or hard bounces, the Subscriber has not
opened or clicked through an email, and at least 15 days have elapsed since the first bounce.
• Unsubscribed: the Subscriber has requested to be removed or was removed from a Subscriber list.
• Deleted: The Subscriber was deleted from a Subscriber list. It’s better to change the status to
unsubscribed rather than deleting Subscribers, to prevent sending in a future send.
You can check Subscriber Status under All Subscribers, where you’ll find the Status field.
Profile Center
The profile center is a webpage where Subscribers
can enter and maintain the personal information
you keep about them. When you import a list in
Email Studio, you can import attribute values for
your Subscribers that appear when a Subscriber
visits the profile center. The Subscriber can
update and provide additional information on
this page. Your Subscribers can view their data
and subscriptions to your communications. Every
email you send through Email Studio contains a
link to the Profile Center, for Subscribers to use.
Most Marketing Cloud users build their own profile
centers that match their company’s specific
purposes and goals.
Note that this link is included by default in emails
based on standard templates. When building
HTML emails, you’re prompted to include the link.
(Adding new Preference Properties in Preference Management tab.)
Journey Builder is a Marketing Cloud feature that allows you to take a customer journey concept,
from whiteboard to modeling, using a simple and intuitive drag-and-drop user interface. You can
set behavior-based goals while planning multiple individualized interactions, all within the same
planning tool.
Journey Builder also integrates with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, ensuring seamless customer
experiences, while sharing the information with all users of all SFMC systems. So you can keep on
top of customer situation responses while avoiding any unnecessary duplication of efforts.
So let’s continue your journey (see what we did there?) and dive into it! :)
Data extensions
You can use data extensions (DEs) as an entry source for your journey. Data extensions are tables
that can contain a variety of data. If you want to freshen up your memory, just go back a chapter in
this eBook.
You can also filter Contacts you would prefer to restrict from the journey. You can filter their
attributes by simply using drag-and-drop. However, this segmentation option is rather limited and
does not allow you to leverage advanced segmentation.
Multi-step journeys
Multi-step is the reason why marketers love Journey Builder so much. It allows
you to build a journey that sends messages across any channel, based on
marketing logic and audience behavior. It allows the creation of complex and
highly personalized marketing automation campaigns. Leverage Multi-step
journeys, from welcome email series, to everyday purchases, or abandoned
cart journeys.
Transactional journeys
You can create a transactional journey, for when an event or action occurs,
enabling you to immediately send an email. A common use case for transactional
journeys is sending a personalized message, which responds to a specific action,
such as a purchase. You can also send an event-triggered message, such as a
password reset. Another possible use case is sending a message that’s triggered
by an action taken by your organization. E.g. updating a user’s status.
Join activity
When bringing Contacts from two (or more) Journey Builder paths into a single path, you use
Join activity. This activity redirects Contacts flowing down one or more branches, to an alternative
journey branch.
Customer updates
With Journey Builder’s Update Contact activity, you can change a Marketing Cloud Contact record
on a journey.
This altars Contact attribute values when they reach this activity in a journey. Choose a sendable data
extension and set a static overwriting value for each Contact reaching the activity. Date attributes
provide the option of Central Standard Time.
Journey settings
For Contacts re-entering the journey.
When creating a journey, you are invited to choose whether you’d like contacts to re-enter the
journey at any time, re-enter after exit, or restrict their re-entry. This is an important consideration.
Marketers would recommend contacts to restrict re-entering, to avoid the chance of duplicate
content being communicated. Another probability is that your communication might end up in the
spam folder.
Check this for best practice on how to avoid users re-entering the journey.
Exit activity
An exit is the journey’s end and requires no configuration. That said, this might not be the same as
meeting a marketing objective. You can use a goal or exit criteria to remove journey contacts before
they complete.
If contacts exit using goal functionality, they are tracked and measured against goal performance.
Check out more Journey Builder exit examples here.
Having read about how to add data in Marketing Cloud, where to store it, and how to make use of
it, you come to a point where you need to understand how to actually manage all that data in Marketing
Cloud.
• You can also make an inventory of your data extensions and clean the data that is no longer relevant.
You can obtain that by using code. Zuzanna Jarczynska has made an article on how to make an
inventory of your data extensions and data sources that you can access here.
• It’s important to keep your data consistent with the field format. For instance, make sure that
‘Subscriber Key’ is selected as a text field. That way when you want to import, merge, or segment
data, you’ll get the correct result and won’t be wondering why you see an error on your screen.
In the same manner, make sure you choose the date field format for data (note that by default
Marketing Cloud chooses US date format) and the email field for email addresses.
• Figure out timezones in Marketing Cloud. ExactTarget/Marketing Cloud system time is hard-
coded to UTC-6 (UTC minus six hours), and the system time does not change with standard versus
daylight savings time. Timezone and culture code settings at the user level take priority over
account settings. Times that are shown in the journey, and triggered send-tracking information,
remain in CST regardless of this setting. Moreover, if you add the data from Salesforce CRM, the
timezone rules will not be transferred. This means that once the data is available in Marketing
Cloud, it will respect the default Marketing Cloud time settings, or simply UTC -6. There is also a
known issue bug where Data Extension Created Date and the Modified Dates are NOT in the local
user timezone. So far there’s no workaround for this. Normally, you can use SQL to leverage the
timezones in Marketing Cloud, or alternatively, you can rely on an intuitive tool like DESelect, which
will help you control time zones without the need to write code.
• A part of Marketing Cloud ABC is respecting the folder structure. This has to be defined at the
organization-level when you set up Marketing Cloud. At this point, naming conventions should
also be defined. These details are sometimes neglected, which often leads to confusion and
mistakes. It’s also important to keep track of the changes of the names and folder structures in
case a new person joins the team, for instance. These are amazing resources that will help you
get the idea of how to organize naming conventions for your data. Here is a naming convention
help article by Salesforce. Here you can find a short guide on data extensions naming conventions.
• And finally, don’t be afraid to admit that you simply do not know what is best for your data. The
Salesforce community is a vibrant and helpful space where you can ask for help when stuck or
having an unexpected problem in Marketing Cloud. Join Trailblazer groups, Slack channels, and look
for the answers on Salesforce StackExchange. There are many amazing people out there who are
willing to help you when stuck, and who might well have the answer to your specific questions. We
encourage you to never stop learning on the platform, that changes so rapidly Staying in touch with
fellow marketers can make your work a lot easier and less stressful.
Tell us what your data management tips and tricks are! Share them by sending us an email at:
[email protected]. We will absolutely add your suggestions in our next edition of the eBook, and credit
you too. :)
For many marketers, data-related tasks are not the most interesting part of their job. The reasons
can be different, but the most popular would be that data management requires a lot of time and is
simply too technical. “Data” is often still looked upon as a boring subject. But it doesn’t have to be!
We believe data is wildly fascinating and can be fun!
Through careful analysis, and based on our customer success stories, we demonstrated that
DESelect can cut this time in half. Indeed, we can reduce the time you spend on data management
in SFMC from 40% to just 20%, as visualized below:
Thank
you
Hey!
This is Alina from DESelect - you may know me from articles I’ve written. Congrats on making
it to the end of this extensive eBook! Working on this eBook was a tremendous job and I’m
pleased we can call it a real team effort whereby we put our collective knowledge and that of
the Ohana together.
Personally, I became involved with Marketing Cloud a little over a year ago. Since then I’ve
received an Email Specialist certificate and can call myself a passionate Trailblazer (moving
confidently to become a Ranger soon). My journey of getting to know the SFMC world was
rather unexpected, but I can say now that I’m extremely grateful. Learning about this living,
breathing platform is exciting and challenging! Working for an awesome company like DESelect
is even more exciting.
Here’s a small reminder of who we are. DESelect is a segmentation solution for
Salesforce Marketing Cloud. We help marketers segment easier, avoiding the need
to rely on SQL queries to perform advanced segmentation. Our mission is to become the
preferred segmentation solution for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Stay in the loop with DESelect
updates and Marketing Cloud tips and tricks here.
We’re a young and vibrant company, consisting of an amazing team. To learn more about our
company, culture, and principles, go here.
If you’re interested in seeing how DESelect can help your company to save up to 50% on data
management, book a demo with us.