With the news that Marketing Cloud Growth has become available for some Account Engagement (Pardot) customers, and will be for others (in a phased approach), some of you may be perplexed about why Salesforce has done this, and if you can take advantage of this ‘hot’ new offering for marketers.
Over the past few years, Salesforce has been working on what’s termed as “object alignment” – you’ll see this in action in Account Engagement’s evolving data model. In simple terms, Salesforce has been moving Account Engagement’s functionality onto the “core” Salesforce platform to leverage its services, such as Salesforce CMS for file storage and the user permissions framework. Now, with Marketing Cloud Growth, marketers will also be leveraging flow to automate campaign processes, and Data Cloud to perform segmentation*.
Here are four ways that you can start the ball rolling on your migration to Marketing Cloud Growth to get ahead for your organization.
*Note: Marketing Cloud Growth is, technically, built on Data Cloud.
1. Set Up Your Data Model (in Data Cloud)
I’ll be honest – Data Cloud can seem like an enigma when you first encounter it. There is a new glossary of terms to learn, which made me feel like I was relearning Salesforce all over again.
In order to use Marketing Cloud Growth, for segmentation and activation, you will need to have set up a data model in Data Cloud. From Data Model objects (DMOs), to Data Lake objects (DLOs), and more, this can be a head-scratching exercise. I recommend reading Eliot Harper’s articles on what this all means, and seeking the help of a specialist (in-house, or at a consultancy) because once set up, it is hard to back-track and unpick this type of configuration.
2. Convert Files to CMS
Salesforce CMS is a repository for assets, like images, that’s shared across any products in the Salesforce product suite that your organization utilizes.
For Account Engagement admins/users, Salesforce CMS came into view when the Lightning email builder was released, superseding the “classic” email builder. The Lightning builder leverages Salesforce CMS (as opposed to Account Engagement’s own file repository). This is the same situation for Marketing Cloud Growth’s email builder.
You can copy your Account Engagement files into Salesforce CMS, as opposed to downloading, and reuploading. This was an update delivered during the Summer ‘24 release. This (again, I assume) would maintain the image’s reference so that you are not breaking any existing assets where the image is used.
Note: this is only functional “with Data Cloud enabled”.
3. Get Flow-Curious
As I mentioned earlier, Salesforce is being smart about leveraging the same “platform services” that other products utilize. We know Flow as Salesforce’s automation engine, bringing incredible power to the non-coder that they historically didn’t have. Flow also powers the automation behind Marketing Cloud Growth Edition too, known as “Campaign Flow”.
Campaign Flows stitch together marketing activities, such as email sending. These are triggered from a form submission or a segment (i.e. the starting points).
In the guide above, you will notice a comparison table between Salesforce Flow (back-end, for admin usage) and Campaign Flow for marketers. You will notice that not all elements are available in Campaign Flow, but there is a significant overlap. Becoming familiar with the terminology of Flow elements will be a step forward in the right direction.
4. Communicate With Your Salesforce Admin
Alignment between Account Engagement (Pardot) and Salesforce Admins has always been necessary to ensure that the platforms work together in harmony.
With Marketing Cloud Growth now on the scene, this is something that is of increasing importance.
If you have been a marketer working in Account Engagement, you may not have to communicate extensively with your Salesforce admin – in fact, in larger organizations, there could very well be multiple people in the CRM team. It’s good to start identifying who will be working to set up, and further support, Marketing Cloud Growth. Examples of when you would need to get your Salesforce admin involved include:
- Permission assignment: While the permissions granted to each role remain different, if you don’t have user permissions to access Salesforce Setup, you’re going to be stuck assigning permissions to access Campaign Flow.
- Complex Flows: Campaign Flows (point #3) can only do so much (plus, you don’t need to be a Flow expert to work in the remit of Marketing Cloud Growth). If you want to explore more complex automation, your Salesforce admin can build Flows that feed off/lead into one another.
- Data Cloud maintenance: Data Cloud can get complicated (nothing new here!). As more teams tap into Data Cloud, ensure that there is someone monitoring data streams, data modeling, and credit consumption on behalf of the whole organization – you don’t want to end up basing your segments on outdated or incomplete records.
Summary
By following these essential tips, your team will be well-prepared to harness the full potential of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition and elevate your marketing strategies.
Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below.