Customer engagement is the holy grail of marketing. However, keeping your audience hooked with endless channels and fragmented data can seem an arduous task. This is where Marketing Cloud comes to the rescue.

This powerful platform isn’t just about blasting emails, juggling platforms, or scrambling to meet deadlines. It's an all-in-one platform to automate workflows, centralize marketing efforts, and personalize experiences, unique to every customer.

Curious how Marketing Cloud can transform your business? Dive into this blog to discover the top benefits that will have your audience raving (and your engagement metrics soaring).

Introducing Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is a digital marketing platform designed to streamline and automate marketing efforts across various channels. Think of it as a central hub that brings all your marketing tools together.

Here are some areas where Salesforce Marketing Cloud can help your business grow:

#1 Automation: Automate repetitive tasks like email marketing campaigns, social media scheduling, and lead nurturing. 

#2 Personalization: Craft targeted messages that resonate with each customer based on their interests and behavior. 

#3 Omnichannel Marketing: Manage your marketing efforts across email, social media, mobile apps, websites, and more – all from one platform.

#4 Behavior Understanding: Gain valuable insights into your customer data to understand their behavior and measure campaign performance.

#5 Segmentation and Targeting: Group customers based on demographics, behavior, and interests for laser-focused marketing campaigns

#6 Marketing Automation: Automate email sequences, abandoned cart reminders, lead nurturing programs, and more.

#7 Content Management: Create and personalize email templates, landing pages, and other marketing content.

#8 Omnichannel Marketing: Manage marketing campaigns across various channels like email, social media, and mobile apps.

#9 Data Analytics and Reporting: Track campaign performance, analyze customer behavior, and gain valuable insights with built-in analytics tools

#10 Integrations: Connect SFMC with your CRM, e-commerce platform, and other business tools for a unified marketing view.

💡Amplify your Marketing Cloud knowledge with our latest blog Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation: Key Features, Uses, and Best Practices.

Marketing Cloud Pricing

Before we go deeper into the blog, let’s take a quick look at different Marketing Cloud offerings. Currently, these are the Marketing Cloud solutions Salesforce offers to its customers:

-Marketing Cloud Engagement ( starts at $ 1,250 org/month)

-Marketing Cloud Account Engagement ( $ 1,250/month, save and monitor up to 10,000 contacts)

-Marketing Cloud Growth Edition ( $ 1,500/month)

-Marketing Cloud Personalization ( $ 1,08,000 org/year)

-Marketing Cloud Intelligence ($ 3,000 org/month)

You can find detailed Marketing Cloud pricing information and what each SFMC solution brings to the table here.

Benefits of Salesforce Marketing Cloud 

Now that you’ve got an idea about Salesforce Marketing Cloud, its core capabilities, and the pricing structure of SFMC offerings, let’s have a look at the main benefits you can achieve with this awesome marketing tool. 

1. Next Level Personalization

Salesforce Marketing Cloud has all the tools to defy marketers' personalization challenges. 

With powerful Marketing Cloud Engagement tools like Journey Builder, Email Studio, and Interaction Studio, users can create personalized journeys that deliver the right content at the right time. Not just that, there are several Einstein tools too to better personalize with prospects and customers.

Here’s how each of these tools empowers marketers in their quest for personalization:

Journey Builder: For Tailored Customer Experiences

Imagine a magic map that tracks every customer's move, from app downloads to store visits and triggers on any engagement. That's Journey Builder! It captures every interaction, letting you design personalized visual maps for each customer, whether simple or complex.

Speaking of interactions, here are the different interactions a customer can have with your brand at any point in the journey:

-Clicking on an ad

-Opening an email

-Buying a product or availing a service

-Returning a product

-Conversing with customer care reps

-Downloading a white paper

-Redeeming a coupon

Here’s what you can do in Journey Builder:

1. Devise cross-channel campaigns across Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Line Messages, Push Notifications, Advertising, Cloud Pages, or Apps.

2. Ability to build ad audiences and devise the paid ad campaign

3. Utilize the audiences available in native tools such as Service Cloud or Sales Cloud

4. View performance reviews and trend analysis on the dashboard

5. Add the flow based on the timeframe in between the campaign

6 Automatically update the contact based on user actions

However, note that, Journey Builder is not a standalone product, it must be integrated with other studios and builders to build and optimize customer journeys.

Journey Builder Canvas and its components (Source: Trailhead) 

Email Studio: Customizing Communication

Email Studio, another game-changer within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, lets you communicate with prospects through email campaigns and 1-1 messages. 

When used with Content Builder, Email Studio allows you to design responsive email templates that bring in engagement.

💌💡One of Email Studio’s groundbreaking features is Open-Time Email Personalization which delivers personalized content and product recommendations each time a recipient opens an email. 

Here’s what you can do with Email Studio: 

-Accelerated email creation with an interactive UI and drop-drop content blocks.

-Easily tag, search, and share content across email, social, and mobile channels using the content builder.

-No more email-sending jitters!  Test your emails and see exactly how they'll appear with real customer data in the preview window.

-Leverage Einstein AI to send highly personalized emails with product recommendations based on past customer behavior.

Email Studio Overview: See recent emails, templates, sends & access creation tools.

Source: Trailhead

Marketing Cloud Personalization: Real-Time Personalization at Scale

What if your website has the power to read your customers' minds?  That's the magic of Marketing Cloud Personalization (earlier Interaction Studio), a personalization powerhouse within Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Gone are the days of generic experiences. This tool lets you deliver real-time, one-on-one personalization across channels, using AI and real-time data, ensuring every interaction feels unique and engaging.

Here's how this Marketing Cloud Engagement tool works its magic:

• Smart Segmentation: Group your audience based on their interests and behavior, creating targeted experiences.

• Real-Time Triggers: React instantly to customer actions - like abandoned carts or product page visits - with personalized recommendations and offers.

• AI-Powered A/B Testing: Fine-tune your approach with the help of AI, testing different versions of content to see what resonates best.

• Dynamic Content: Watch your website transform! Interaction Studio uses customer data (like time on site and browsing behavior) to show relevant product suggestions and content the result? Higher engagement, increased traffic, and ultimately, more conversions. 

2. Streamlined Multi-Channel Campaigning

Executing multi-channel campaigns is crucial in today’s digital age to reach a wider audience base. Salesforce Marketing Cloud simplifies this process, providing unified messaging systems that allow for coherent follow-ups across emails, SMS, and push notifications.  

This coherence, facilitated by Marketing Cloud Engagement tools like Mobile Studio, Advertising Studio, and Social Studio, increases sales conversion rates, which is exactly what you want as a business. Here’s how each of these tools helps marketers best their campaign outcomes:

Mobile Studio: Engaging Customers on the Go

Forget chasing customers down with megaphones! Mobile Studio, the pocket rocket of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, lets you engage your audience on the go with personalized mobile messaging.

This isn't your average "text everyone" tool.  Mobile Studio lets you send targeted SMS blasts, personalized push notifications, and even group messages, ensuring your message reaches the right person at the right time.

Imagine this: a customer walks past your store, and bam! They get a notification with a special offer just for them.  That's the power of real-time, immediate engagement.

Check out this Mobile Studio features to create laser-focused campaigns:

-MobileConnect- Allows you to send and receive SMS messages and MMS text messages using templates and a drag-and-drop interface.

-MobilePush: Allows sending push notifications to your app users.

-GroupConnect- Create and send messages, manage contact subscriptions, and review messaging activities with GroupConnect.

To optimize multi-channel campaigning with Mobile Studio, ensure:

-Obtain subscriber's consent and allow for opt-outs.

-Personalize text and be responsive to messages.

-Keep messages short, try including a CTA in your messages.

Note: Before you can use MobileConnect, consider obtaining a mobile short code — a unique 5-6 number code provided by your mobile carrier company.

Advertising Studio: Your Secret Weapon for Targeted Ads (and Happy Customers!)

Advertising Studio within Salesforce Marketing Cloud is your secret weapon for laser-focused ad campaigns. This Marketing Cloud Engagement tool integrates seamlessly with your CRM data, letting you target the right customers with the right message at the right time. 

Key Capabilities of Advertising Studio:

• Data-Driven Targeting: Harness the power of your CRM data, including email engagement, mobile interactions, and site purchases, to target existing customers and find lookalike audiences who share the same traits. 

• Cross-Platform Power: Run targeted ads across all major digital platforms Facebook, Google, Instagram, and Twitter, ensuring your message reaches your audience wherever they roam.

• Performance Tracking: No more flying blind! Advertising Studio provides detailed analytics to track campaign performance and see what's working (and what's not). 

• Re-Engagement Magic: Keep those inactive customers from slipping away! Advertising Studio helps you re-engage them with targeted campaigns, reminding them why they fell in love with your brand in the first place.

3. Actionable Data for Decision-Making

Marketers today are bombarded with data from every direction. 

Website visits, social media interactions, purchase history – it's a treasure trove of information. Making decisions based on data can be very hectic if one has to go through each platform for insights.

This is where Salesforce Marketing Cloud aces the game. 

Its powerful analytics capabilities act as a searchlight, illuminating customer behavior patterns, campaign effectiveness, and hidden trends. No more flying blind – you'll see exactly what's working (and what's not) in your marketing efforts.

Take advantage of SFMC data tools such as Data Cloud and Salesforce DMP to gather data-rich audience insights, suitable for making crucial business decisions:

Data Studio: Harnessing Audience Insights

Ever wished you could see right into your customers' minds? 

Data Cloud is the next best thing. This innovative platform is a comprehensive X-ray machine for your customer data, revealing a complete picture of their journey across all your touchpoints.

Here's how Data Cloud empowers you:

-Gathers information from all corners of your organization, creating a 360-degree view of your customers.

-Understand your customers' preferences, buying behaviors, and potential areas for improvement.

-Personalize marketing messages, product recommendations, and website content for maximum engagement.

-Make informed decisions about your marketing strategies, product development, and customer service initiatives.

Salesforce DMP: Unifying Customer Data

DMP is your secret weapon for acquiring new customers and expanding your reach.

This powerful platform acts as your secret customer whisperer, gathering audience insights from various sources to help you target prospects practically begging for your products.

Here's how DMP fuels your marketing efforts:

-Build highly targeted audience segments based on demographics, online behavior, and interests.

DMP taps into a vast pool of third-party data, expanding your reach to new potential customers. 

-Optimize your marketing spend by targeting the right audience with the right message, maximizing the effectiveness of campaigns.

-Integrates seamlessly with other marketing tools, ensuring consistent messaging and a unified customer experience.

Together, Unstoppable!

Data Cloud and DMP work best when combined. Data Cloud provides the foundation – a deep understanding of your existing customers. DMP helps you discover new prospects with similar characteristics, taking your marketing efforts to a new level.

4. Business Growth with Marketing Automation

Growing a business is no small feat. 

It requires consistent efforts, the use of cutting-edge tools, and a bit of luck too. Thankfully with automation tools such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can grow your business faster than ever.

Through its commitment to regular updates and new features, Salesforce Marketing Cloud enables businesses to efficiently scale their marketing efforts without linearly increasing resources.

This is accomplished by two of the dedicated automation tools in the SFMC ecosystem - Automation Studio and Contact Builder.

Automation Studio: Efficient Workflow Management

Want to streamline repetitive tasks, personalize experiences, and optimize campaigns for maximum impact? Consider Automation Studio, Marketing Cloud’s automation champion.

Automation Studio is a Marketing Cloud application used to execute multi-step marketing and data management activities on an immediate, triggered, or scheduled basis. 

By automating repetitive tasks like data management and segmentation, Automation Studio frees up marketers, opening up room for strategy refinement.

Key Capabilities of Automation Studio

-It consists of a workflow canvas which is used to build simple or multi-step automation

-It even creates journey audiences and allows for complex segmentations using reason-based programming, all seamlessly integrating with Journey Builder for more impactful customer journeys.

-Marketers can effortlessly automate multi-step marketing campaigns with Automation Studio.

-If you’re looking to repeat an old journey at scale, you can easily replicate actions in Automation Studio.

 -Marketers can schedule emails, trigger actions based on customer behavior, and manage data – all in one powerful platform.

Contact Builder: Centralizing Customer Information

Tired of chasing customer data across disconnected systems? Contact Builder can be your hero. 

Contact Builder is a vital tool within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, enabling the development of a comprehensive view of the customer. If you are a marketer, use it to centralize information from all platforms - Marketing Cloud, ERPs, CRMs, or your POS systems.

This powerhouse doesn't just gather data, it organizes it for easy access. 

With a 360-degree view of all the interactions across channels from email to mobile, you can stay ahead of customers and engage them better with your personalized messages at scale.

Check out a few important tools provided by Contact Builder:

• Contacts Configuration: Set the rules for how Contact Builder handles incoming data to ensure everything stays organized.

• Data Designer: Define the information you collect about your customers and connect it all to their profiles.

• Data Extensions: Create custom storage units for specific data types.

• Imports: Build processes to seamlessly bring in new customer information.

• Data Sources: See where your data comes from and assign it the right role in your customer stories.

5. Enhancing Collaboration Between Marketing and Sales

Are you struggling with siloed data and disconnected teams?  It's time you integrate Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement with other Salesforce offerings such as Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, and Commerce Cloud. 

By integrating your key processes with Marketing Cloud, you’ll have a unified platform, keeping team members informed and aware of customers and prospects.

Result? Increased data visibility and faster deal/case closure.

Here are a few tools you can use to boost collaboration:

Marketing Cloud Connect: Integrating with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud

Marketing Cloud Connect is an API integration that connects Marketing Cloud with other Salesforce offerings such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.

Marketing Cloud Connect combines the digital marketing capabilities of Marketing Cloud with the data management, segmentation, and campaign management tools in Salesforce. 

By simply aligning sales and marketing funnels, for instance, teams can ensure smooth transitions of leads into the sales pipeline and minimize the risk of lead leakage.

Here’s what marketers can do with Marketing Cloud Connect:

-Automate marketing communications based on valuable data points from your Salesforce CRM.

-Gain a unified perspective of each customer, allowing you to deliver personalized content throughout their buying journey.

-Access powerful Marketing Cloud tools directly within Sales or Service Clouds. 

-Ensure a consistent branding and messaging experience, while engaging customers in relevant conversations, and ultimately driving more leads into Salesforce.

-Prevent bombarding customers with redundant messages by streamlining communication across teams.

Account Engagement: Nurturing Leads into Customers

Providing tools for effective lead generation, Account Engagement is designed specifically for ‘considered purchases’ that involve long sales cycles and multiple decision-makers. It streamlines marketing and sales tasks, reducing manual labor and speeding up sales.

Check out some key capabilities of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement:

-Sales and service teams can leverage Engagement History dashboards to gain valuable insights into customer interactions with marketing efforts. 

-Meaningful and targeted conversations with potential buyers, turning leads into customers and boosting business results.

Quick Tip: 

Marketing Cloud Connect is not available on Lightning. However, you can still utilize Marketing Cloud Connect features by switching to Salesforce Classic.

6. Elevating Loyalty Management with Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Long-term customer relationships highly depend on loyalty. 

Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s loyalty management software helps businesses foster these relationships through omnichannel loyalty programs, leveraging insights from Salesforce Customer 360.

With Salesforce Loyalty Management:

-Segment customers based on purchasing habits and demographic information and create tailored loyalty programs.

- Businesses have experienced up to 45% improvement in customer retention, a 60% increase in sales, and a 35% rise in customer satisfaction rates.

Note that, personalization is at the core of Loyalty Management. The better you personalize, the more likely you’ll gain recurring customers. 

Summary

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is an all-in-one digital marketing platform to bridge marketing gaps and achieve incremental business returns. Whether you want to enhance customer engagement, streamline marketing efforts, or foster long-term customer relationships, you can do it all with SFMC.

Concretio can help you ditch marketing gaps and leverage the all-in-one marketing solution -Salesforce Marketing Cloud to achieve incremental business returns. 

Book a free consultation with our experts today to get ahead of your customers!

Related Readings

1. Get Started with Journey Builder

2. Meet Marketing Cloud Personalization

3. Data Management Platform

4. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation: Key Features, Uses, and Best Practices

5. Top Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation Partners

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