Imagine you have a huge storeroom full of gold bars, but you can't quite figure out how to use them. This often happens when teams have heaps of data collected through varied sources, but don’t know how to turn it into something useful.

With new-age tools like Data Cloud (previously Salesforce Genie), businesses don’t have to worry about disconnected customer interactions as their data sits in silos. In this blog, we’ll share key insights on Data Cloud Salesforce, explore its key benefits, and discuss how it can help you connect all of your data, and discover insights — creating memorable customer experiences.

What is Salesforce Data Cloud?

Data Cloud is a robust platform that acts as a central hub for all your company's information. It unifies data from different sources and integrates seamlessly with Salesforce's very own Einstein platform, providing teams with a complete, 360-degree view of their customers.

This empowers Sales, Service, and Marketing to utilize automation, insightful analytics, personalized engagement strategies, and reliable AI – all within the familiar Salesforce environment.

Dashboard View in Salesforce Data Cloud (Source: Salesforce)

How Data Cloud Works: A Step-By-Step Explanation

Right from data ingestion to its analysis and beyond, data moves through several stages. Here is a flowchart to briefly explain this step-by-step workflow.

Step-by-Step Process in Salesforce Data Cloud (Source: Trailhead)

Now let’s check out the important steps one by one:

#1 Connect and Ingest Data

The first step in Data Cloud is to bring and connect all your enterprise data. This includes all of the Salesforce sources such as Sales, Service, Commerce, and Marketing Cloud Engagement connectors. Besides these, you can also connect external data sources such as Amazon S3, Google storage connectors, web and mobile connectors, and more.

#2 Transform and Model Data

The data you’ve captured and added may be partially accurate or wrongly formatted. Moreover, different teams may need different accessibility and views of your data. Data transformation using the platform’s low-code tools helps you transform and cleanse data in no time.

What’s more, you can also partition different spaces so that you have different business units working on different logical versions or partitions of that data. Once this data is cleansed and transformed, you can harmonize data from those different sources into a standard data model—the Customer 360 Data Model.

#3 Unify, Enhance and Analyze Your Data

Once the data is harmonized, there’s a need to unify it through identity resolution. So what is identity resolution and how does unification happen?

“Identity Resolution is a feature within Salesforce’s Data Cloud that helps you manage and unify customer data from various sources. It ensures that each individual’s information is accurately combined and represented in a single profile.”

Here are a few points to better understand this data unification:

Firstly, all person-related data (e.g., phone numbers, email addresses, device IDs) is mapped to the Individual Data Model Object (DMO) within the Customer 360 Data Model. This step ensures that disparate data points related to the same individual are linked together.
Once mapped, Identity Resolution (IR) uses rulesets to find matches, such as combining records with the same email address and name into one profile.
Data Cloud allows you to choose and reconcile which information is used in the unified profile for that customer.

With this unified, harmonized data, you can gain deeper insights and also leverage Einstein AI predictions for each of your profiles. From lookalike audiences for segmentation and predicting scoring to using Einstein and other AI systems such as Sagemaker, you can do a lot after you unify and harmonize data.

You can even go a step further and connect custom machine learning (ML) models with Data Cloud Salesforce to explore data and train models for better predictions and personalized insights.

#4 Act on Data

At the stage where most systems stop, the Data Cloud goes above and beyond by adding the ability to act on data in many ways. Data Cloud for Marketing, for instance, provides great opportunities for activating segmented, unified data to create personalized campaigns.

Data Cloud segments can also be activated to a rich ecosystem of advertising partners, including Facebook (Meta) and Google. Beyond marketing, Data Cloud data can be used to create experiences in Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud Personalization, and more.

Salesforce Data Cloud Benefits for Your Business

Now that you’ve understood how Data Cloud works, it is time to check the key benefits of this platform. Here’s what makes Data Cloud so beneficial for businesses:

1. Unified Customer View

Data that sits in silos delays decision-making and creates confusion among teams who hardly know what’s going on with their customers in real time. Data Cloud Salesforce overcomes that by centralizing all customer data into a single, accessible source. This empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions, personalize experiences, and boost return on investment (ROI) through smarter sales & marketing efforts.

2. Laser-Focused Targeting and Personalization

Data Cloud goes beyond basic demographics. It helps you understand customers on a deeper level by enriching profiles with behavioral data. By segmenting audiences with pinpoint accuracy, and crafting personalized recommendations and messaging, you can boost conversation rates and get the most out of their campaigns.

3. Sales and Marketing on Autopilot

Data Cloud allows you to unify data and utilize valuable insights into customer behavior, campaign performance, and high-value leads. With this, you get a better view of their customer interactions at various touch points based on which they can smartly allocate resources, optimize sales pipelines, and limit marketing spending.

4. Automate Your Way to Success

Data Cloud also frees you from the shackles of repetitive tasks. It automates data synchronization, updates, and reporting, saving you time and minimizing errors. This allows you to focus on more strategic activities, leading to increased operational efficiency and a positive impact on ROI.

5. See the Future, Shape Your Destiny

Data Cloud isn't just about the present; it's about the future. It equips you with predictive analytics that forecast trends, identify opportunities and risks, and empower proactive decision-making. By leveraging AI-powered insights, you can optimize inventory, anticipate customer needs, and take preemptive actions, ensuring you are always ahead of your customers.

Watch this video to better understand Data Cloud and what it brings to the table 👇

The Impact of Salesforce Data Cloud

Businesses of all sizes use Data Cloud to revolutionize their operations and redefine the capabilities of a Customer Data Platform (CDP). Here are three prominent examples showcasing the impact of Data Cloud:

#1 Mascoma Bank leverages the Financial Services Cloud integrated with Data Cloud to gain a holistic view of each customer's relationship with the bank. By consolidating all customer, account, and transaction data into a single source of truth, their bankers are better equipped to understand their clients' activities and assist them in achieving their financial wellness goals.

#2 Heathrow Airport utilizes Salesforce Data Cloud and Einstein AI to process real-time data from tens of millions of passenger records. This enables the airport to personalize interactions with travelers, ensuring the delivery of appropriate services at the right moments. Additionally, the data-driven and AI-powered approach allows Heathrow to anticipate passenger needs before their subsequent visits, enhancing overall customer experience.

#3 FedEx has enhanced its customer experience by investing in Salesforce Data Cloud. By integrating customer service, marketing, and sales data, FedEx provides customers with a more informed, efficient, and personalized experience. This integration streamlines processes and ensures that each customer interaction is tailored to their specific needs and preferences.

Use Cases: How Data Cloud Can be Used Across Industries?

Data Cloud finds its use across several industries. Let’s check out some use cases and see how Data Cloud can help businesses achieve marketing/operation goals:

1. Personalized E-commerce Recommendations (Retail Industry)

A clothing retailer can use Data Cloud to combine customer purchase history, website browsing behavior, and loyalty program data. This unified view will allow him/her to understand individual customer preferences. With Data Cloud, the retailer can target customers based on their past purchases and browsing patterns, increasing the likelihood of a sale and customer satisfaction.

2. Hyper-Targeted Marketing Campaigns (Financial Services)

Financial institutions can also leverage Data Cloud to segment their customer base with laser precision. They can combine demographic information with account activity and investment preferences and launch a targeted email campaign offering educational resources and personalized investment recommendations tailored to their risk tolerance and financial goals. This targeted approach is more likely to resonate with customers and lead to increased investment activity.

3. Streamlined Customer Service (Telecommunications Industry)

A telecom company can greatly benefit from Data Cloud use. With Data Cloud, they can unify customer service interactions across all channels (phone, email, social media), empowering service reps with a complete customer history at their fingertips.

So next time a customer calls with a billing question. The service rep can see past service interactions and account details within the Data Cloud platform and resolve the issue quickly and efficiently, leading to a more positive customer experience and reduced support resolution times.

Conclusion

From data silos to lack of insights, data management complexity to compliance concerns, Data Cloud Salesforce solves a wide range of challenges businesses face with data. If you are a digital business in 2024, it is a must-have tool you should have in armor. While the Data Cloud boasts unique features and transformative capabilities, its implementation needs a tailored approach.

By partnering with Concretio, you ensure that our Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultants can provide the expertise needed to optimize your data strategies. Our team works closely with you to understand your specific business needs and objectives, tailoring the Data Cloud implementation to maximize its impact on your marketing efforts. At Concretio, we can help you unleash the full potential of Data Cloud Salesforce so your team captures maximum insights from your data and targets customers better than ever.

FAQs

Salesforce Data Cloud, previously known as Salesforce Genie, is a robust platform that centralizes all of your company's data from various sources. It integrates seamlessly with Salesforce's Einstein platform, providing teams with a complete, 360-degree view of their customers.
Salesforce Data Cloud works through several key stages:
Connect and Ingest Data: It brings and connects all enterprise data from Salesforce sources (Sales, Service, Commerce, and Marketing Cloud) and external sources (Amazon S3, Google storage, web, and mobile connectors).
Transform and Model Data: The platform's low-code tools transform and cleanse data, ensuring accuracy and standardizing it into the Customer 360 Data Model.
Unify, Enhance, and Analyze Data: It unifies data through identity resolution, creating accurate and comprehensive customer profiles. These profiles can be analyzed to gain deeper insights and leverage AI predictions.
Act on Data: Data Cloud enables acting on data by creating personalized campaigns in Marketing Cloud and activating data segments across various platforms.
Salesforce Data Cloud addresses several challenges, including:
Data Silos and Fragmentation: Unifies data from different sources, providing a comprehensive view.
Data Quality and Consistency: Cleanses and standardizes data for accuracy.
Lack of Real-Time Insights: Provides real-time data processing and insights.
Inability to Personalize Customer Experiences: Creates detailed customer profiles for personalized interactions.
Complexity in Managing Large Volumes of Data: Offers scalable infrastructure for efficient data management.
Inefficient Marketing and Sales Operations: Integrates data across platforms for seamless collaboration.
Limited Analytical Capabilities: Integrates with AI tools for advanced analytics.
Compliance and Security Concerns: Provides robust security features and compliance tools.
At Concretio, we are a Salesforce-accredited Consulting, PDO, and ISV partner with a team of over 200+ certified professionals. We can guide your businesses through the implementation process, ensuring that you maximize the capabilities of Data Cloud to drive growth, efficiency, and exceptional customer experiences.

Let’s Talk!

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Subject

Message

Generating More Sales With Amazing Features Of Salesforce Data Cloud

What is Salesforce Data Cloud?