Campaign Audience Builder: A Solution to Harness your Salesforce Data Now

Before the advent of Data Cloud and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), businesses strived to integrate their data into their CRM to obtain a holistic view. If you’re considering another expansive platform, there’s an excellent interim solution to consider: the Campaign Audience Builder (CAB).

Where to get Campaign Audience Builder

The Campaign Audience Builder is a package on the Salesforce AppExchange developed by Lightblaze. Known for its user-friendly interface, CAB allows you to create audience segments using your Salesforce data, making it an efficient substitute or preliminary step towards a full-scale CDP solution.

Campaign Audience Builder Ease of Use

Campaign Audience Builder has a simple point-and-click interface that allows you to navigate and filter data related to the people you are trying to add to an audience.  It simply gets installed alongside your data and has a very short implementation time (I was up and running in 10 minutes).

Once installed, it really is a 3-step process of getting your first audience created and usable:

  1. Define the Criteria: as a techie myself, this was really the fun part. Connecting data and filtering the right records feels natural and familiar.
  2. Generate the Audience: This is basically running the process based on all the work you did in the previous step to see who matches. As always, it’s a great idea to spot-check that some people you expected to appear were successfully matched!
  3. Populate the Campaign: you have your list of people, it is time to put them somewhere that you can act on. This is when you choose which Campaign to use, how often the audience should be evaluated, and if people should be removed should they no longer meet your criteria.

Unlike CDPs and other types of data platforms, which require accommodating complex data relationships and aren’t always user-friendly, CAB offers a seamless alternative.

Advanced Segmentation Features in Campaign Audience Builder

Looking for Contacts that have Closed Won Opportunities with Products in a certain Product Family? Yep, Campaign Audience Builder can do that. 

Do you also want to ensure those same people don’t have a Case?  Yep, you can do that too. 

While not unlimited in its power, there’s no data scenario that you cannot segment with CAB (compared to report builder or segmentation in Account Engagement).

CAB allows you to select either a Lead or Contact as your audience driver and connect it with any related object. After defining your audience, you can populate a Campaign by creating CampaignMember records. CAB also provides controls on how frequently your audience should be evaluated and whether it should clean records that no longer meet your criteria.

With your audience defined, you can now use that information to populate a Campaign by creating CampaignMember records. You have some controls on how often CAB should be building your audience and if it should clean CampaignMember records that no longer meet the criteria.

Integration and Data Security

CAB stands out with its ability to directly publish the audience into Account Engagement (Pardot) into a static list. This feature eliminates the need to clumsily attach data to the Lead/Contact records for list population.

A key feature of CDPs is the ability to “act” on the new audience that you’ve created in downstream systems. While CAB doesn’t really integrate with a bunch of other third-party tools, it can call APEX/Flows (where you can do almost anything integration-wise).

Data security is paramount for Salesforce organizations. Moving data into other systems like data platforms or CDPs can potentially jeopardize these security controls. Since CAB operates within your Salesforce organization, it only accesses the data you can, thereby ensuring data security.

CAB may be the stepping stone you seek

In summary, the Campaign Audience Builder (CAB) offers a user-friendly, efficient, and secure way to handle your Salesforce data. It’s a practical stepping stone if you’re considering a more complex Customer Data Platform (CDP) solution. 

With its easy setup, advanced features, and commitment to data security, CAB is a smart choice for businesses looking to maximize their data management and audience segmentation without taking on a full CDP solution just yet.

Thinking about implementing CAB in your org? Contact the team at Sercante to learn more about the tool and how it will work with your overall technology strategy.

Original article: Campaign Audience Builder: A Solution to Harness your Salesforce Data Now

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post Campaign Audience Builder: A Solution to Harness your Salesforce Data Now appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-06-29T17:38:06+00:00June 29th, 2023|Categories: API & Integration, Data Management, Pro Tips, revive, Strategy|
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How the Salesforce Integration User Saves Licenses for Real Humans

Salesforce is introducing something pretty exciting for orgs that have little wiggle room while assigning licenses to Salesforce users. A new type of license called “Salesforce Integration User” is available now, and it’ll help you to save your user licenses for actual humans.

The Salesforce Integration User was introduced to facilitate best practices of using a separate license for any integrations that require an integration license to integrate with Salesforce. That includes integrations like Docusign and MuleSoft.

This license is specifically designed for System-to-System Integration types and provides the user with API Access Only.

How many Salesforce Integration User Licenses Do We Get?

All orgs will have 5 free Salesforce Integration User Licenses available to them, and additional licenses are available to purchase for about $10 each (customers should speak to their AEs regarding the purchase of additional licenses).

Salesforce Integration User License Setup

You can verify the number of integration user licenses available to you under Company Information > Setup.

In addition to the new licenses, a new standard profile called ‘Salesforce API Only System Integrations‘.

NOTE: When creating a new user with the Salesforce Integration User License, this will be the only profile available.

Creating a Custom Profile for the API Only System Integration User (System Permissions)

Since the new ‘Salesforce API Only System Integrations’ profile is a standard profile and therefore can’t be updated, it is recommended that you create a new profile by cloning the Salesforce API Only System Integrations (not System Administrator) for integration users in order to customize the permissions:

  1. Go to Setup > Profiles
  2. Locate the ‘Salesforce API Only System Integrations’ profile and click Clone.
  3. In the Permission set, go to System Permissions
  4. Enable the following permissions:
    • Password never expires – doing this prevents the password from expiring while someone is out of the office with no one available to update it across integrations
    • API Enabled
    • Api Only User
    • Chatter Internal User (optional)
  5. (Still under System Permissions) Make sure ‘Multi-Factor Authentication Login Requirements for API Access’ is not enabled

Create a Custom Permission Set for the Integration (Object Access)

  1. Go to Setup > (Quickfind) Permission Sets
  2. Create a new permission set
  3. Name your permission set to reflect the permission for this integration. For example “Integration – ZoomInfo”
  4. Leave the License Type empty “–None–”
  5. Add the following to the Object Settings for each object the integration needs access to:
    1. Object CRUD access (Create/Read/Update/Delete/View All/Modify All)
      • This example is for adding access to just the Account object to the Integration User.
    2. Field-level access (Read/Edit) for each field on the object
    3. Remember the principle of least privilege – we want to grant access only for the actions that the integration needs.
      • In particular, keep in mind custom record types that are deployed by integrations’ own packages

Creating an Integration User

To use one of these licenses, it is recommended to:

  • Create a new user for each specific integration (if there is not a dedicated license already)
  • Assign the Salesforce Integration license (or you can change the license or if you already have a dedicated user for the integration)
  • Give the user the Salesforce Integration API permission set license.
  • Add the custom permission set you created above.

Validate

Once your user is set up:

  • Add the new integration user credentials in the integration platform (the steps may vary based on the integration)
  • Test the integration to confirm the integration is working the way it should.
    • For example, are records being updated as expected?

Considerations

  • The Salesforce Integration user license is API Access Only, meaning that it is not suitable for non System to System integration uses. Users with this license will not have access to the direct user login or access the org through the UI.
  • With the new licenses, it is still recommended to use one integration user per integration to ensure traceability of the transactions that the integration has within Salesforce.
  • If you are moving an existing user to the integration user license, the new ‘Salesforce API Only System Integrations’ profile, may not have all the object permissions needed. Any specific permissions needed may need to be assigned using permission sets.
  • Pardot API users are usually better met with the Identity User License, but if there are reasons to use this license (Oath2 Client Credentials) the Integration Connector User permission set is what will need to be applied to grant Pardot record access. Users using this license may not appear in User Sync until after you manually create and connect a Pardot user.
  • A custom permission set granting object and field access is preferred over doing this in the profile as permissions in profiles is scheduled to be sunset Spring of ’26.

Additional Resources

Original article: How the Salesforce Integration User Saves Licenses for Real Humans

©2023 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post How the Salesforce Integration User Saves Licenses for Real Humans appeared first on The Spot.

By |2023-05-17T16:28:43+00:00May 17th, 2023|Categories: API & Integration, New Features, Release Notes, revive|
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MarDreamin’ 2022 Demo Jam Recap: Products to Extend Salesforce

The final day of MarDreamin’ 2022 kicked off with the third-annual Demo Jam, which is like speed dating for SaaS/technology product solutions. Each participant shows the audience what there is to love about the products they’re selling, and then the audience votes to select a winner.

MarDreamin’ is a Salesforce community conference for the marketer. So, this Demo Jam’s focus was on products that play nice with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement and Account Engagement (Pardot).

Each participant had three minutes to present their product demo. Then, demo jam attendees weighed in with their votes after all company representatives finished their presentations. We crowned the MarDreamin’ Demo Jam Champion at the end thanks to everyone’s votes.

2022 MarDreamin’ Demo Jam Winners

This year, we had a tie and named two MarDreamin’ Demo Jam winners. The two winners are Stensul and Sercante Labs. 

Both Sercante Labs and Stensul were neck-and-neck in the end, and the hosts had to call it a tie when a few last-minute votes left both companies with the same number of votes at the end.

MarDreamin’ Demo Jam rules

Each participant had 3 minutes to demo their product and wow the audience. Then at the end of the Demo Jam, the audience voted for their favorite product through an online poll.

2021 MarDreamin’ Demo Jam participants

Richard Feist and Angelica Cabral from Sercante shared Demo Jam hosting duties and provided welcome comic relief while giving away swag to attendees throughout the competition. 

Here’s who presented their products to compete for the best Salesforce Marketing Cloud-integrated  solution:

How the products from the Demo Jam can make your life easier

Each of the presentations at the MarDreamin’ Demo Jam included demonstrations of products that ease pain points for people who work in marketing roles and use Salesforce. 

Here’s a summary of each one and a replay of each demo:

LeanData

Standing at the center of Salesforce CRM, LeanData’s family of solutions orchestrate and automate the go-to-market process to help revenue teams close more deals and drive more revenue, faster.

Click here to request a demo from LeanData’s suite of products.

Sercante Labs

Sercante has grown and built a reputation for helping marketers succeed on the Salesforce platform. We do that through our consulting services, topical training, and by sharing thought leadership content. With Sercante Labs, we take that one step further and aim to build products, wizards, and tools that help marketing & sales pros kick ass.

Sercante Labs products are born out of challenges we see our customers routinely facing and usually start with an idea submission from our team or someone in the community. If you have a request or a “wouldn’t it be nice if…” idea, let’s chat!

Click here to chat with a Sercante Labs expert.

Stensul

The Stensul™ email creation platform dramatically reduces email creation time — by up to 90% — so teams can better focus on improving email performance. Stensul streamlines collaboration and simplifies the creation process for all marketers, so they can create emails that drive stronger results. 

Stensul integrates with all leading ESPs/MAPs as well as workflow platforms, image libraries, live content, link tracking, and messaging platforms. Top brands that trust Stensul to solve their most demanding email problems include Accolade, BMW, Cisco, Codecademy, Electric, Equifax, Lucidworks, MURAL, and Yahoo.

Click here to get an email efficiency analysis from Stensul.

Stack Moxie

Anyone who has managed a complex tech stack has experienced how minor inconsistencies can wreak havoc across integrated systems.

Typos, spelling errors, permission sets, and other simple problems can break systems sync, preventing proper lead routing, which stops the sales team from knowing when great leads are interested in your company.

Stack Moxie’s army of robots work on your behalf to make sure each lead promptly reaches its destination as expected. If errors arise, the robots proactively notify you so problems can be mitigated quickly.

Click here to request a personalized demo.

DESelect

DESelect helps marketers unlock the full power of Salesforce Marketing Cloud without needing to write SQL. Using DESelect’s simple drag-and-drop solutions, users can create complex audience segments quickly, easily integrate new data sources, accelerate campaign execution, and reduce costs by ending technical dependencies. 

Since launching in 2019, DESelect has raised $5.5+ million, built an international team, and helped customers like T-Mobile, Volvo, Cazoo, Emerald, and Merlin.

Click here to book a demo.

Tray.io

Tray.io is a low-code automation platform that can easily turn unique business processes into repeatable and scalable workflows that evolve whenever business needs change. Powering RevOps at Mixpanel, AdRoll and other industry leading enterprises, Tray helps you accelerate revenue and win more deals.

Click here to start your trial.

Why were these companies’ products featured?

The companies featured in the MarDreamin’ Demo Jam are all essential to the success of this conference each year. That’s because they are companies that sponsor the conference. 

The MarDreamin’ team can’t bring all this free content to you without the help of these sponsors. So, be sure to check them out using the links above as a ‘thank you’ to them for their sponsorship.

How to join next year’s Demo Jam

Hey, product marketing friends — you’re probably  kicking yourself and wishing you could have had your company’s tools featured in the Demo Jam. 

It’s all good. You can get ahead and reach out to the MarDreamin’ team now by clicking on this link. Complete the form on that page so you can lock in your sponsorship for 2023.

Learn more about extending Salesforce

We hope you’ve found something helpful through the demos or have sparked ideas to implement integrations in your tech stack. Remember to watch the 2021 Demo Jam Replay and read the 2021 Demo Jam Recap to see the demos from last year and keep it going. The 2020 Demo Jam Replay is also available here.

Have something in mind that you wish Salesforce could do but you haven’t found the solution yet? Tell us about it in the comments below or reach out to Sercante Labs to see if we can help. And remember to check out each of the Demo Jam participating companies!

Original article: MarDreamin’ 2022 Demo Jam Recap: Products to Extend Salesforce

©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post MarDreamin’ 2022 Demo Jam Recap: Products to Extend Salesforce appeared first on The Spot.

By |2022-11-09T22:43:00+00:00November 9th, 2022|Categories: API & Integration, Community, Events|
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External Actions: The Long-Awaited Pardot Feature

Alas, Salesforce External Actions for Pardot is finally here.

Until now, our options to have Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) trigger a third-party system have been limited to either: pre-existing connectors or syncing to Salesforce and relying on a Salesforce-side integration. 

With the Salesforce Winter ‘23 release, External Actions gives us the capability to integrate into any third-party system and do cool things. It’s a far cry from having true webhooks. Though, it is a step in the right direction. 

(We’ve built something to fill in the gap. Drop us a line — we’re happy to talk details with you).

Note: This feature is available to Plus, Advanced, and Premium editions of Pardot.

The Lowdown on External Actions for Pardot

External Action allows Pardot to do things like: 

  • Send an SMS message via Twilio or MogliSMS
  • Create a new Salesforce record (such as Lead, Opportunity, any Object!)
  • Send information to your favorite Star Wars API
  • Register a Prospect in another system
  • and whatever else you dream up! 

While there are some considerations (detailed later in this post), External Actions are a great way to plow through the barriers that have prevented you from automating your entire workflow. 

It’s important to note that there’s a similarly named feature called External Activities.  With Pardot External Activities, you can receive data from third-party systems to use in Pardot. With External Actions, you can send data to third-party systems so they can do cool things.

How does a Pardot External Action work?

Once an External Action is built, it will appear as an Action option in an Engagement Studio Program. Depending on the action, you may need to provide additional information through text inputs. You can use HML Merge Tags here, too!

When the Engagement Studio Program is running and hits your action, Pardot will call into Salesforce (via API behind the scenes), and call the functionality.  It does this in a “fire and forget” manner, so there’s no error handling inside your Engagement Studio Program. It is also not “bulkified,” meaning it will make an API call for EACH Prospect. So, you may need to take the API limits of Salesforce AND your external system into consideration.

For this blog post, we built an External Action that tracks Favorite Color. 

Once you pick “Track Favorite Color” you have the ability to provide a value. In the screenshot below, we are using HML to pull this value from a Prospect’s record, though you can also provide static text if you want to say everyone’s favorite color is Sercante Green.

How can I set up a Pardot External Action?

To set up an External Action, there are 2 key pieces:

  1. You need something in Salesforce that can “do the thing” you want. It can be any of the following:
    • Autolaunched Flow
    • External Service
    • APEX InvocableMethod
  2. Marketing App Extensions have been configured inside Salesforce Setup

No-code options to configure Pardot External Actions

If you are looking to integrate with a third-party system, you might luck out on #1 and be able to leverage something built by that third-party in their Salesforce package. This could be your quickest way to being able to use an External Action.

If this isn’t available for you, first look at seeing if you can make an Autolaunched Flow that can meet your needs. This option is also great for creating Salesforce Records of any object type (keeping in mind you are limited to text input types in Pardot).

When working with another API, and if that API supports the OpenAPI protocol, you can use Salesforce External Services to hook things up. That will give you everything you need.

 The Trailhead Module on External Services is a great way to learn how to get started.

Code option to get started with Pardot External Actions

If the above aren’t an option, it’s time to break out your development skills (or work with someone who has them). We’ve got a sample APEX class here that gives you all the structural ingredients you need to make this work, you just have to fill in what you want it to actually do.

public class MyNewExternalAction {

    // Classes to be used by the Flow Designer
    public class FlowRequest {
        @InvocableVariable(label='Prospect Email')
        public String email;
        @InvocableVariable(label='Favorite Color')
        public String favColor;
        // add any other String or number-based attributes you need
    }

    // If you are calling an External API, this would be a great
    // place to put Classes to represent the response
    public class ApiResponse {

    }
    
    @InvocableMethod(callout=true label='My New External Action')
    public static void performActions(List<FlowRequest> flowRequests) {
        System.debug('Start performActions');
        // at time of writing, Pardot DOES NOT BATCH these, it's always 1
        // per batch
        FlowRequest flowRequest = flowRequests.get(0);
        System.Http http = new System.Http();

        try {
            // This is where you put what you want to do!
            // you can call another API, call other APEX
            // read & write Salesforce Objects.. Whatever you want

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.debug('There was an issue executing the request');
            System.debug(e.getMessage());
            throw e;
        }
        System.debug('Done performActions');
    }
}

Once you have the functionality ready, you need to tell Pardot about it. This is done by configuring Marketing App Extensions inside Salesforce Setup.

Configuring the Marketing App Extensions

This is the “glue” that ties everything together and makes External Actions usable by Pardot. There are a few easy things to configure to make this “glue” work.

First, we need the Top-Level Marketing App Extension. Be careful with these, as you cannot delete them once created (so don’t go making a bunch of test records!).

  1. In Salesforce Setup, search for Marketing App Extensions
  2. If you don’t have one, create New
    • Provide an Extension Name and an API Name, as well as check “Active in Automations”
    • Click Save

Next, we need to enable this for Business Unit(s).

  1. With the Extension still open, go to the Related tab
  2. Click New beside Business Unit Assignments
  3. Add an assignment for each Business Unit you want this extension to be available for

Now we can create the External Action.

  1. With the Extension still open, go to the Related tab
  2. Click New beside Actions
  3. Provide an Action Name (this will be the name visible when selecting it from Engagement Studio)
  4. Provide an API Name (this does not auto-fill like you may be used to)
  5. (Recommended) Provide a description of what this Action does, since you might not remember in three months
  6. Search for your functionality. Once selected, the Action Schema will auto fill with JSON that you need to review and likely modify
  7. Review & Modify the Action Schema
    • Properties – this contains details about the parameters/values that you want to provide to the Automation.
      • type:  currently can only be “string” and “number”
      • title: the Label of the input when viewing in Engagement Studio
      • value: Allows you to provide a default value. You can use HML merge tags here!
      • Note: Sometimes when working with Flows, you might have properties that are not relevant (like flow interview id). You should remove them from Properties (assuming they aren’t an input variable that your flow requires to function)
    • View Components – this allows you to specify which properties you want to provide inputs for in Engagement Studio. Currently, definition should always be “lightning/control” and “scope” should always point to one of the properties
    • Required – a list of properties that would be required from within Engagement Studio
  8. Action Params auto fills, no changes needed
  9. When you are ready to have this available in Pardot, check the Active in Automations box.

Here’s what it would look like for our sample APEX class above. Note that we’ve chosen to only display the favorite color field in the Engagement Studio, though we are passing the Prospect’s email behind the scenes.

Save the Action and, after a few moments, it will be available for testing!

Can I use an External Action to do things in Pardot?

Imagine being able to take action on another Prospect record from an Engagement Studio Program! While not natively available within the platform, you could build this when combining External Actions with our Free package Flow Actions for Pardot. After setting up the package, you would only need to configure the Marketing App Extension to have any of our Flow Actions available as an External Action.

Create Unified Experiences with Pardot External Activities

External Actions are available with the Winter ‘23 release. These Actions, as well as External Activities, allow Marketers to automate across platforms for a more unified experience. 

How do you plan on using these features to better automate your processes? Tell us in the comments!

Original article: External Actions: The Long-Awaited Pardot Feature

©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post External Actions: The Long-Awaited Pardot Feature appeared first on The Spot.

By |2022-10-13T14:36:51+00:00October 13th, 2022|Categories: API & Integration, Automations, New Features, Release Notes|
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When Does Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) Sync with Salesforce?

Knowing the who, what, when, and how of Salesforce and Account Engagement (Pardot) sync behavior is key to understanding how you can use the integration to your advantage.

If you’re a newbie to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement/MCAE (formerly known as Pardot), then you may be wondering how in the world this system communicates with the main workhorse of Sales Cloud (Salesforce). 

Well, follow me my little pretties, as we look behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz to find out how it really all works.  

The Who: Identifying the Wizard 

Unmasking the culprit behind the smoke and mirrors of the sync magic is not a difficult path to take. Just follow the yellow brick road to your MCAE/Pardot Settings tab, and hang a left at the Connectors intersection. 

Here you will find the wicked witch (but wicked in a gnarly way) who’s behind all of the shenanigans.

Enter the B2BMA Integration user. 

B2BMA Integration User controls Sales Cloud and Pardot Sync behavior

You can find the B2BMA Integration user in your Salesforce setup with the username similar to the following: [email protected] (see below).

This user comes out of the box with the installation of any new v2 MCAE/Pardot instance purchased after February 11, 2019. It’s a free Salesforce licensed user that serves as the handshake between both MCAE/Pardot and Salesforce (Sales Cloud). 

Chances are, you have this user available to you. If not, you likely have a custom connector user that’s tied to a company-specific/unique Salesforce username (and license) that’s in its place. 

Whichever username you have, the underlying matter is that this is the who the system looks to for direction and instruction on what will sync when the sync occurs. Whatever this user can see, will be what the system will sync when the sync takes place.

The What: Granting the Fairy Wish

(Enter Stage Right) Dorothy: “So what do you mean by whatever this user can see Glinda?” 

(Suddenly appears from the Marketing Clouds) Glinda the Good Witch: “Well my dear, I’m glad you asked.”

I’m sorry, I know these cheese-filled references of this 1939 musical may be getting to you but I just can’t resist. I’ll digress to spare you any more pain.

Connector user access determines what will sync to Salesforce

To understand what will sync when the sync occurs, you first have to understand the fabric of the connector user. This user is special… no this user is magical. Whatever this user can see — a la whatever visibility to record data this user has access to will be what is included when the Salesforce-MCAE/Pardot sync transpires.  

Heads up — Salesforce connector user gotchas

As a quick reminder, there are four out-of-the-box standard objects that the connector user can communicate with in Salesforce; that’s the Lead, Contact, Account, and Opportunity objects. The Account and Opportunity objects/fields have a read-only relationship and the Lead and Contact objects/fields have a read/write relationship. 

Your connector user (B2BMA Integration User or Custom Connector User) will determine what set of records will be included in the sync between both systems. The out-of-the-box B2BMA Integration User has View All/Modify All permissions for all lead and contact records that exist in Salesforce. Therefore, if this user is the selected user, then all records will have the capability to sync between both systems. 

If your MCAE/Pardot system has a different user (i.e. Custom Connector User) with sharing rules set up to only have access to certain lead/contact records, or if you are using Marketing Data Sharing (Advanced and Premium editions only), then those records will be the only ones that will be synced when the sync ensues. 

The When: Toto’s Command

Once the connector user has been set up and is in “play mode” (see below green ticker), watch the wizardry transpire.

The smoke machine behind the curtain is powered by a native feature that automagically syncs record and field data every 2-4 minutes.  Certain changes to prospect or lead/contact records will be pushed to Salesforce and certain information that is updated on Salesforce records, that have a matching MCAE/Pardot record, will be pulled into the corresponding prospect record.  

All Salesforce record changes are not created equal 

It is tempting to say that any changes to records will trigger a sync. However, this is not the case. 

The Salesforce connector user will only recognize certain “activities” when it’s ready to perform its regularly scheduled automated sync. Such changes to prospect records can be classified by the three types of activities: 

  1. System
  2. User
  3. Prospect

The following is a breakdown of each type of action that can cause a prospect record to queue for syncing.

System activities:

  • Any record changes to field values that occur because of an automation rule or completion action
  • Using the “Add to Salesforce campaign” in an automation rule, segmentation rule, completion action, or Engagement Program action
  • Changing/updating a Salesforce campaign status via automation rule, segmentation rule, completion action, or Engagement Program action

User activities: 

  • Performing a prospect import
  • Changing any prospect fields (including opting out prospects via import or manually)
  • Making changes to a Pardot campaign (for those who do not have Connected Campaigns)
  • Making changes to a prospects’ assigned user
  • Manually syncing from the prospect record (yes you can go the good ole fashioned route and manually sync an individual prospect record by pressing the “Sync with CRM” button on the Prospect record)

Prospect activities:

  • When a new or existing prospects submits a MCAE/Pardot form 
  • When a new or existing prospects submits on a MCAE/Pardot form handler 
  • When a new or existing prospects submits on a MCAE/Pardot landing page form
  • When an existing prospect unsubscribes (globally opts out)

But wait… there’s more

While there are qualified activities that can cause a sync to trigger from MCAE/Pardot to Salesforce, there are equally a few activities that can trigger a sync from Salesforce to Pardot. 

The following is a breakdown of each type of action that can cause a prospect record to queue for syncing.

  • Updating the Last Modified timestamp triggers a sync to Pardot for existing prospects
  • Updating a lead or contact email address
  • Updating the assigned user (owner) for the lead or contact record
  • Making field changes to a lead or contact record (Check the Sync Behavior setting on the MCAE/Pardot field to determine whether this value will “win” out when the sync occurs)
  • Updating a related account record in Salesforce for a lead or contact who is associated to a Pardot prospect.

And of course, i’ll queue up the trusty Salesforce knowledge article disclaimer/recommendation below:

The How: Follow the Yellow Brick Road (Again)

More from Dorothy: “That’s nice Toto. But how will we ever get there?”

Okay, I’m sorry I promised no more puns and fun with the throwback references. So, we’ll stick to the script here (get it… script… movie… okay I’m done).

Each MCAE/Pardot account comes with two key customizable connector preferences that determine how the sync will follow suit:

  • Automatically create prospects in Pardot if they are created as a Lead or Contact in Salesforce

and

  • If records do not have a CRM ID to match when syncing, use email address to match.

The first setting has to do with record creation from Salesforce to MCAE/Pardot and the second setting relates to the overall sync logic. 

With the first setting enabled (turned on/selected), the connector user will check every 2-4 minutes to see if a new lead or contact record with an email address has been created in Salesforce that does not currently exist in MCAE/Pardot. If found, that record will be swooped up by the connector user, scanned and copied over to MCAE/Pardot as a new prospect record with the corresponding record data accompanying it. 

Recommendations for enabling this setting for your system are on a case-by-case basis depending on your mailable database limits and overall internal operational workflow/strategy. 

The second connector preference setting relates to how the system performs its hierarchical sync logic when a sync commences. It is highly recommended (best practice) to enable and keep this setting checked on your connector due to its native sync logic behavior as shown in the below diagram:

Salesforce and Pardot Sync Logic

Essentially, what this outlines is that when the connector user performs the sync, it will first check for a matching CRM ID at the lead or contact level. If no matching record is found for the existing MCAE/Pardot record, it will then check for a matching email address first at the Contact level then down at the Lead level. If neither a matching CRM ID or email address has been located for the MCAE/Pardot prospect record, that record will remain in MCAE/Pardot until the record is assigned (either to a user, a queue or via any active assignment rule).

Now you’re a Salesforce sync Wizard

So, now that you are armed with the who, what, when and how MCAE/Pardot syncs with Salesforce, it’s time to lock arms with the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion to ease on down the road to Oz. 

If you’re still feeling a little “cowardly” or “scarecrowy” (yeah totally not a word), then let the Sercante Munchkins escort you along the way! 

Original article: When Does Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) Sync with Salesforce?

©2022 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post When Does Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) Sync with Salesforce? appeared first on The Spot.

By |2022-05-13T19:38:00+00:00May 13th, 2022|Categories: API & Integration, Data Management, Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|
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Salesforce Spring ’22 Release: Platform Highlights for Marketers

The Salesforce Spring ‘22 Release has been out for nearly a month now, and it included important features for marketers who are on the Salesforce platform.  

We get three major releases from Salesforce each year — Spring, Summer and Winter. Each Salesforce release includes upgrades and enhancements that affect Salesforce orgs in different ways. 

So, if you’re using and managing marketing operations for your company or organization and want to know more about Salesforce, then you’re in the right place. We’re going to cover everything you need to know about the Salesforce Spring ‘22 Release if you’re a marketer who uses Salesforce.

Salesforce Spring ’22 Release: Highlights for Marketers

Marketers who use the Salesforce platform are getting lots of attention from the Salesforce Spring ‘22 Release. 

Some updates are changing the way we work to meet evolving technology demands. Others are saving us time by connecting the dots in a logical way. 

All we know is, this release includes big updates for people in the marketing world.

Highlight #1: Salesforce CMS Name Change to Digital Experiences

If you’ve enabled the new Pardot Lightning Email Builder or Lightning Landing Page Builder already, then you’ve heard of Salesforce CMS. 

Salesforce CMS was a tool within Lightning Experience that provides the ability to curate and share content, manage multiple languages, and control who can create what content. However, along with a slew of Salesforce product name changes, Salesforce renamed the tool Digital Experiences to stay consistent with the former Community Cloud change to Experience Cloud. 

There are no changes to the features that were available with Salesforce CMS, and Salesforce even allows users to type Salesforce CMS in the App Launcher to reach Digital Experiences.

Image Credit: Salesforce

Highlight #2: Salesforce Reporting Updates

Marketers on Salesforce have so many options when it comes to viewing marketing reporting metrics. Every tool in your tech stack has some sort of native reporting tools. But that data is limited to the tool.

Feeding that data into your marketing automation platform (MAP) gives you access to more insights when you can combine datasets. But you’re still limited.

But connecting your MAP to Salesforce platform reporting tools unlocks a whole world of data insights. We’re talking about sharing data from Pardot and Marketing Cloud with Salesforce Reports and Analytics Studio (Tableau CRM). 

Here are the reporting updates marketers on Salesforce will want to know about.

Improvement #1: Easily Find the Right Report Type for New Reports (Beta)

Building reports in Salesforce can be very confusing at first if you don’t know what report type to look for. So, this improvement is definitely an exciting one. 

With the new enhanced report type selector, users can view their most recently used report types and see if a report type is standard or custom.

Image Credit: Salesforce

Another feature provided in this update is the ability to view the objects and fields available with the report type. And you can also see what reports have been created by yourself and other users using the report type.

Image Credit: Salesforce

Improvement #2: Edit Multiple Fields Inline on the Report Run Page (Beta)

Salesforce users and marketers both have a need to update information on the fly while viewing a report in Salesforce. This new feature provides the ability to edit fields within your report on multiple records. 

You can make as many changes as you want, as long as the field is not locked, and then save all of the changes at once without rerunning the report. Fields that are related to other fields within that same record will update those additional fields as well once you save your changes within the report. 

The example below is a preview of what happens when the Account on an Opportunity is updated and the Employees field shows as pending. Seeing this screen means the field will update as well once the record is saved.

Improvement #3: ​​Automatically Tune Your Dashboards to Your Business Goals with Dynamic Gauge Charts (GA)

If you have ever used a Salesforce Dashboard to track your campaign metrics, then you might have used a Gauge Report chart before. 

Gauge charts typically track performance toward a certain goal that you set in place when the dashboard was created. This new feature will provide you with the ability to track your performance dynamically instead of setting a singular goal for the year. 

This means Salesforce will use your report metrics and dynamically update your goal as it responds to your business and performance whether it is a positive or negative change.

Improvement #4: Personal Information Security Updates

Marketers should always ensure that their customer data is compliant and respects the customer’s personal preferences. With that in mind, Salesforce has released a new update to help hide customer’s personal data from other customers who are in the same portal or community. 

Enabling Enhanced Personal Information Management will replace the current Hide Personal Information setting available in Setup and will secure even more PII data on the User record. The new feature provides the ability to select which standard and custom fields are considered PII in your Salesforce org.

Companies should be aware that customers will no longer have access to their own personal data in the community or portal for the fields you select to hide on the User record. This feature will become enforced in all Salesforce organizations during the Winter ‘23 release.

Salesforce is getting bigger and better all the time

B2B marketers who come to Salesforce are usually looking to scale their efforts and grow in a way that makes sense. These latest enhancements from the Salesforce Spring ‘22 Release get marketers closer to those goals by saving them time and resources. 

Contact the team at Sercante to get help implementing these enhancements in your Salesforce org. And leave us a comment below to let us know what you think about the Spring ‘22 Release.

The post Salesforce Spring ’22 Release: Platform Highlights for Marketers appeared first on The Spot for Pardot.

By |2022-03-22T20:47:09+00:00March 22nd, 2022|Categories: API & Integration, Data Management, New Features, Release Notes|
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