Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant credential is designed for those who can set up and implement the Salesforce Marketing Cloud email application tools, providing solutions to execute both tactical and strategic email campaigns.
Levels of Content Complexity based on Content Builder Email – Static, Simple, Moderate & Advanced
A Marketing Cloud account can support multiple dedicated IP addresses
Phishing – impersonating a trustworthy source to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details
Spoofing – falsifying information in an email message; for example, using a fake “From” address
Email authentication – process that confirms an email is not forged and is from the organization who owns the provided domain name. This process allows an ISP to block known spammers as well as to approve email from reputable domains. This process varies by ISP, with some ISPs being stricter than others
Use JSON for request and response bodies and resource endpoints
Most REST calls are synchronous
Timeout: 120 seconds for non-tracking and 300 seconds for tracking and data retrieve
Maximum payload: 4MB
Marketing Cloud REST API can be used for
Content Builder
Event Notification Service
Journey Builder
GroupConnect Chat Messaging
MobileConnect API
Personalization Builder
Transactional Messaging
Marketing Cloud SOAP API (use only XML) can be used for
Send Email
Tracking
Subscribers and Lists
Automations
Triggered Sends
Popular Salesforce Certification Guides
Marketing Cloud offers platform SDKs for C#, Java, Node, PHP, and Ruby
Marketing Cloud Programming Languages
AMPScript – Marketing Cloud processes the AMPscript calls at the time of send
Servicer Side JavaScript (SSJS) – SSJS does not work with external JavaScript libraries and you can’t work with the DOM
Guide Template Language (GTL)
SSJS also offers personalization strings to insert values from several different sources
ctrl:field—Subscriber and system attributes from lists and sendable data extensions
ctrl:var—Variables
ctrl:eval—Functions and SSJS code expressions
SSJS Libraries
Platform library – including SSJS in email or SMS messages
Core library – building landing pages or applications
The NotSent tracking extract provides information on email messages that didn’t send, including detailed reasons for the causes that prevented the send
Subscribers Not Sent To report shows a list of emails for subscribers who weren’t included in a send during a selected time frame
Use the Event Notification Service (ENS) to receive notifications for your own system when certain events occur in Marketing Cloud. You can be notified when customers request password resets, get order confirmations, log in using multi-factor authentication (MFA), and other events. You can also subscribe to email engagement events, such as opens, clicks, and unsubscribes
Marketing Cloud Connect only recognizes subscribers that use the contact/lead ID as their subscriber key in Marketing Cloud
Integrated users(Marketing Cloud Connect System users)
Marketing Cloud Connect API user
CRM API user
Marketing Cloud Connect Users
Marketing Cloud Connect API user – completes the account-level connection between Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud or Service Cloud.
At least one user in the Salesforce CRM org needs access to configure Marketing Cloud Connect inside the CRM environment
CRM API user – required to complete the connection between the CRM account and Marketing Cloud.
Has full Marketing Cloud Connect functionality, including the ability to send to Salesforce reports and campaigns from Marketing Cloud and have full access to the email page layout in CRM
CRM user – A Salesforce CRM user who does not have a Marketing Cloud account
Can view the email related list on the contact and lead page layouts if the admin has added them to the layout
Can’t send any emails using MC Connect
Marketing Cloud user – A Marketing Cloud user who does not have a CRM account
Can view and send using Salesforce data extensions in Marketing Cloud
Can’t send to a Salesforce report or campaign
Marketing Cloud Connect Admin – The person who manages the daily use and setup of Marketing Cloud Connect within Sales Cloud or Service Cloud
Importance of ‘Scope by User’ setting when configuring Marketing Cloud Connect
How to send an email as Record Owner from Sales or Service Cloud
Push tracking data from the Marketing Cloud back to your Sales or Service Cloud orgs using Salesforce data extensions (SFDEs)
Steps to refresh an integrated sandbox org:
Disconnect the integration
Refresh the sandbox
Reconnect the accounts
Complete Connected App authentication setup
Synchronize data sources
Connected App Authentication prevents SOAP and REST API calls made by Marketing Cloud Connect from counting against your rolling 24-hour limit. It only excludes SOAP and REST API calls made by Marketing Cloud Connect. BULK and Login calls count against your rolling 24-hour limit. Concurrent API request limits are still enforced. Most calls made by Marketing Cloud Connect are SOAP and REST. BULK API calls are only used by individual email results and individual link details for tracking
Following send flows will result in synchronization of tracking data from Marketing Cloud to CRM via Marketing Cloud Connect
Send from Marketing Cloud to Salesforce report or campaign
Send from Salesforce CRM to Salesforce report or campaign
Send from Marketing Cloud to a Salesforce data extension
Customer data platform (CDP) is a place where a company collects and stores data about its customers
Cloud Information Model (CIM) – is a schema used to communicate between connected data sources with different data structures and formats. It uses APIs and other mappings to connect applications and data. It is an open source data model that standardizes data formatting across applications
First-party data: Your customer data that you own and manage
Second-party data: Someone else’s data that you purchased from another company or source
Third-party data: A collection of data from many sources (often behavioral or demographic data)
Salesforce CDP – Salesforce CDP is a self-service customer data platform, CDP can be used to achieve a single, actionable view of customer
Available CDP Connectors
Cloud Storage Connector
Commerce Cloud Connector
Interaction Studio Connector
Marketing Cloud Data Sources and Connector
Salesforce CRM Connector
Web and Mobile Application Connector
One Enterprise ID in Marketing Cloud can an have multiple business units (each with separate MIDs)
Each CDP instance is allowed to be connected to one enterprise Marketing Cloud instance or a single EID with all associated business units
CIM Subject Areas
Party data model provides information about trading relationships, such as customer and supplier information
Product data model provides information on a product available for sale or service
Sales Order data model provides information on future revenue or quantity for an opportunity, including product family, territory, and other information
Engagement data model provides information on interactions with a specific party, such as an email message or telephone call
Software Application data model provides information, programs, or apps designed for an end user
Case data model provides information on any recorded issue, such as a mobile phone repair problem
Journey data model provides information on the complete set of experiences for a party when they interact with your company
Advertising Studio supports Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat. You can also use partner networks, such as Audience Studio, LiveRamp, LiveIntent, Viant, and Neustar
Lookalikes can only be created in Advertising Studio for Facebook. Lookalikes can be created directly in Google and Twitter
Advertising Studio uses CRM data to personalize digital advertising, creating one-to-one customer experiences. Ad Studio can be used to:
Deliver personalized, cross-channel customer experiences by connecting digital advertising with CRM data and securely connecting that data to advertising
Coordinate digital advertising across marketing, sales, and service
Increase return on ad spend (ROAS)
Boost customer satisfaction scores
Decrease wasted advertising spend and employee operating time
Advertising Studio Capabilities
Harness customer data – Uses first-party data available in Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Pardot, and Service Cloud to help shape and guide digital advertising
Connect channels – Finds new customers with lookalikes, aligns email and ad campaigns, and reach customers on any advertising channel with ease
Generate more leads – Connects with Pardot and Sales Cloud, automates leads from social channels, creates ad campaigns in Journey Builder, and optimize Google Search
Interaction Studio is a real-time personalization and interaction management solution. Combining data-based behavioral analytics and advanced machine learning, Interaction Studio helps you gain a comprehensive view of each and every customer and prospect. You can then use that data to deliver relevant, individualized experiences that test and ultimately improve a customer’s journey with your brand.
Interaction Studio helps you
Listen to how customers interact with your brand across channels
Understand what to do next based on rules set by the business
Act on insights gathered to provide customers with the best experience
Interaction Studio Key Terms:
Catalog – Collection of Product and Content as well as related categories and tags
Dimensions – A way of organizing catalog content like shoe style
Affinity – A customer’s preference for a specific category that is relevant to your company like hiking shoes
Promotions – web or email offers
Einstein Personalization Decisions – AI powered predictions that determine which promotion will yield most customer interaction
Algorithm – A set of rules that allow AI to solve a problem
Einstein Personalization Recipes – AI powered algorithms that suggest content and product to individual visitors
Ingredients – The building block of Einstein Personalization Recipe
Interaction Studio Key Features:
Capture individual insights with data
Personalize experience
Coordinate engagement across channels
Test and analyze experiences
Interaction Studio uses datasets to control access to data using roles
To begin using Interaction Studio on your website, you need to place a line of JavaScript (called the Interaction Studio web SDK) in the header of your website, web application, or within your tag management solution.
Social Studio – helps you manage your social account posts. It connects your in-house marketing, sales, and services teams to your customers through popular social channels
Social Studio User Roles
Admin Only User
Super User
Full User
Basic User
Social Studio Workspace Member Role
Admin
Contributor
Limited Member
Social Studio Plays
Social Customer Service – create case from social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Social Listening – Identify and analyze behavior of social audience personas
Social Insights – unify Social Studio insights with marketing data
Social Studio uses topic profiles for monitoring the discussions of your company’s social accounts and broader conversations. A topic profile includes three main components:
Keyword Groups – keywords used in social posts
Filter – languages, media types, and regions
Source Groups – an RSS feed, Twitter handle, or URL
Sentiment analysis, the process of categorizing words in posts, can help you understand public sentiment. Social Studio has a scoring algorithm that processes posts to determine the overall sentiment
Web Analytics Connector – tag links in your emails by automatically including specific variables in the target URLs. The analytics tool then tracks those URLs back to the email
Account-Level Data – Set up a variable with a personalization string that is unique to your account. For example: src=MC_%%memberid%%
Email-Level Data – Use email-level data, such as a campaign code, to identify link activity from email messages and track campaign effectiveness.
Subscriber-Level Data – Include the Subscriber ID in links and identify subscribers who click links
Link-Level Data – Include personalization strings. For example: content=%%linkname%%
Deployment Manager for Marketing Cloud AppExchange App can be used to Import and Export Marketing Cloud Configuration to easily distribute campaign configuration to other Marketing Cloud Enterprises and Business Units
5.3 Account Configuration: 12% (7 Questions)
Marketing Cloud Setup
Account hierarchy
Reply Mail Management – automatically manages replies, including replies from auto-responders, and leave or unsubscribe requests received in response to your emails
For RMM activation a reply subdmain and domain name system (DNS) record redirect to Marketing Cloud is required
For Unsubscribe using RMM:
Unsubscribe Manual Requests should be Yes
Select the unsubscribe terms that cause RMM to unsubscribe the email address
If you configure Reply Mail Management to automatically forward an email message to an email address, that email address becomes the From address for the automatic reply
Sender Authentication Package (SAP)
Add on service includes a private domain with link and image wrapping, a dedicated IP address, and reply mail management (RMM).
Single Marketing Cloud account number (each MID) can support only one SAP, but can have many private domains on a single account
Multiple IPs per Account allowed but only one SAP per Account
Three components of Mobile Studio
MobileConnect – Send targeted mobile marketing offers with personalized SMS and MMS messages
MobilePush – Manage mobile messages across iOS and Android mobile apps, and targeting based on geolocation and beacon technology
GroupConnect – Engage in personalized conversations using text, stickers, and rich messages on group messaging apps like LINE
Data extensions appear in MobileConnect only if they meet these criteria:
Marked as sendable
Contain only one phone field
Contain only one locale field (five-character locales)
Subscriber key, not subscriber ID, is used for the send relationship
Four Pillars of Mobile Messaging
Audience
Data
Content
Channel
SMS Code Types
Short Code – A short code (typically 5 to 6 digits long) is used in one country or market. Two-way support
Long Code – A long code (typically 11 to 13 digits long) is used in multiple countries and includes a country code prefix. One-way support
Private or Dedicated Code – A code assigned to your company for a specific purpose
Shared Code – A code that is shared across multiple clients from different verticals, not available in USA
MobileConnect can manage multiple short and long codes in the same account
A mobile subscriber opts out of a single code (not a keyword). If you have multiple brands, it may be best to have a code per brand or per business unit, as subscription is managed at the code and business unit level
Opt-in Types
Single Opt-in
Double Opt-in
Age Validation
SMS messages are 160 characters and any messages over 160 characters count as two messages
One SMS is equal to 10 super messages in US. Each country has a different super message multiplier ranging from 10 to 95
STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, END, and UNSUBSCRIBE are considered global STOP keywords
A message is designated undeliverable after 48 hours of attempting to deliver the message and failing
MobileConnect Message Template Types
Template
Description
Outbound Message
Send an SMS to your subscribers
Outbound Media
Send an MMS to your subscribers
Mobile Opt-in
Invite people to subscribe to your SMS or MMS messages
Email Opt-in
Invite people to subscribe to your emails
Send Email
Invite people to receive a triggered email
Vote/Survey
Invite recipients to vote or respond to a survey
Text Response
Create an automatic SMS response to incoming messages
Media Response
Create an automatic MMS response to incoming messages
SMS Keyword Opt-out
Unsubscribe people from receiving SMS messages based on a single keyword
Info Capture
Prompt recipients to provide information to store as contact attributes
MobileConnect Message Template Types
MobileConnect OOB Reports
SMS Account Summary
SMS Message Detail Report
SMS Message Summary
MobilePush Templates
Outbound – Send a message to mobile device via your app
Location Entry – Trigger a message send when a mobile device enters a geofenced location
Location Exit – Trigger a message send when a mobile device exits a geofenced location
Beacon – Trigger a message send when a mobile device enters the proximity of a Bluetooth Beacon
Inbox – Send a push message that persists
Send Methods
Schedule – Send personalized messages either immediately or at a specified time in the future
API Triggered – Send messages in real time via REST AP
Outbound Automation – Send large campaigns as part of an automation in Automation Studio
MobilePush Push Methods
Alert – Send a text only alert to mobile app
Alert + Cloud Page – Send an alert that directs the consumer to a mobile-optimized site
MobilePush can send three types of messages
Push
In-app
Inbox
MobilePush Audience
List
Data Extension
MobilePush OOB Reports in Analytics Builder
Push Account Summary – Displays an account summary of MobilePush messages
Push Message Detail – Includes detailed tracking information for all push messages sent from a MobilePush account
Push Message Summary – Includes the content and overall tracking information for all push messages sent through a specific app
Mobile Push Detail Extract Report – Run report on the status and response of your message. After completion, the data extract places a ZIP file with the analytics information on an FTP site
Automation Studio – application used to execute multi-step marketing and data management activities on an immediate, triggered, or scheduled basis
Safehouse – Marketing Cloud’s secure file transfer location
Automation Studio Starting Sources
Schedule
File Drop
Automation Studio Activities (imp for cert)
Data Extract
File Transfer – to move, unzip, encrypt, or decrypt a file
Filter
Import File
SQL Query
Send SMS
Send Push
Wait – Duration or Specific Time
File Drop Automation File Naming Pattern: %%BASEFILENAME_FROM_TRIGGER%%
How can a Marketing Cloud SFTP user be exempt from Password Expiration? Update FTP User Expiration Policy using Security Settings -> Exclude FTP Users from Password Expiration
Journey Builder – is a campaign planning tool that enables you to design and automate campaigns that guide customers through their journey with a brand
Journey Types
Multi-Step Journey – Build a journey that sends messages across any channel based on marketing logic and audience behavior
Single Send Journey – Quickly build and send a single personalized message in any available channel
Transactional Send Journey – Instantly send messages once an event occurs. Trigger personalized transactional messages with an API event
5.5 Data Modeling and Management: 21% (12 Questions)
Contact Builder – Marketing Cloud app which lets you access, manage, organize, link, and view contact data from all Marketing Cloud applications and channels
A contact is a person you send messages to through any marketing channel. A contact typically appears in the All Contacts section, but a contact record can also appear in other locations
A subscriber is a person who opted to receive communications or belongs to a particular channel. A subscriber lives in the individual studios. Subscribers can be imported or created manually and are stored in data extensions
All subscribers are contacts, but not all contacts are subscribers
Contact information synchronized from Sales or Service Cloud appears in All Contacts, even if you don’t send a message to them
Identifiers
Contact Key – The Contact Key is a unique identifier that you assign to a contact, Contact Key is the same no matter what channel is used to send messages
Contact ID – The Contact ID is a number Salesforce uses to uniquely identify a contact on the backend. Salesforce uses the Contact ID to identify a contact in various channels.
Subscriber Key – In Email Studio, contacts are identified by the Subscriber Key, which becomes the Contact Key in Contact Builder
Avoid using Email Address, SMS number, or Mobile Device ID as the contact key in Marketing Cloud.
Attributes – represent a single piece of information about a contact
Profile attributes describe who the contact is, e.g. age
Behavioral attributes describe what the contact has done, e.g. click links in an email
Attribute groups are data sources that are logically grouped together, and they allow you to organize data and configure relationships in Contact Builder
Attribute groups collect several data extensions into a single entity. Attribute groups can link to contact record or other data extensions
Attribute groups can be created using a template
Populations are used to categorize distinct subgroups of contacts, a subset of the master list of people who could enter a journey
Contacts Count Report in Analytics Builder – The Contact Count report contains information on the total number of contacts in an account, and it runs weekly. The report also shows the Month End Report that runs on the last day of the month
Data views – Store up to six months of Marketing Cloud subscriber and journey information, can be queried using Automation Studio
Some of the Data view are listed below:
Data View
Description
_bounce
View Bounce data for emails for your account
_BusinessUnitUnsubscribes
Find subscribers in your account and their child business unit unsubscribe data. You can only run the data view on the parent account and not on child business units
_Click
View click data for emails for your account
_Complaint
View data regarding spam complaints from subscribers about email sends
_Unsubscribe
View unsubscribes from email lists in your account
_Journey
View data about your Journey Builder journeys
_Job
View email send jobs from your account
Popular Interview Questions
Tracking extracts
List
All Subscribers List is considered the master list of records for the Marketing Cloud Email Studio account. Every subscriber in your account appears in the All Subscribers list. Subscribers added to a subscriber list join the All Subscribers list at the same time. Subscribers stored on data extensions join the All Subscribers list when you send your first message to that subscriber
Exclusion List is any list, group, or data extension you create in the application that at the time of send you select to exclude from the send. If your Email Studio account has subscriber key enabled, the system excludes using the subscriber key value. If your account does not have subscriber key enabled, the system excludes using email address
Publication List helps you manage how subscribers receive several different categories of emails or SMS messages. For example, send newsletters, advertisements, and alerts. Each of these is a different category, so create a separate publication list for each category. When you send a newsletter, associate the send with the newsletter publication list to identify to the system what kind of content is inside the publication
Suppression Lists help you manage subscribers’ unsubscribe or opt-out actions. Remember that a single public suppression list affects the subscription center. Use a suppression list to:
Filter the audience of an email send, which ensures your publications are sent to the subscribers who want to see them.
Show and adhere to regulatory compliance to CAN-SPAM laws.
Control who receives particular communications from a company. In Enterprise 2.0, suppression lists can be shared between parent and child business units.
Auto-Suppression Lists – typically include addresses with a history of spam complaints, unsubscribe lists from previous providers or advertisers, addresses of your competitors, and canceled customers
Data Extension – a table with fields of data about your contacts. Three type of DE
Standard data extensions are used for building a custom set of fields
Filtered data extensions are used to create a subset/segment from an existing data extension
Random data extensions allow you to randomly select subscribers from a source data extension
All data extensions are either sendable (have a send relationship and map to a subscriber) or nonsendable
DE can be shared with other BU by storing them in shared DE folder
Data Extension Data Types
TEXT
Alpha-numeric characters, including whitespaces, up to 4000 characters
NUMBER
Integer, no decimals or parenthesis
DATE
One of the locale-supported dates or ISO (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss). System date is generated in CST (UTC-06:00).
BOOLEAN
Boolean logic values (true/false) true = 1, Y, Yes, TRUE false = 0, N, No, FALSE
EMAIL
Verified for the “@” character and overall domain format, up to 254 characters long
DECIMAL
Numbers with decimal points. Defines total length + digits after decimal point, e.g. 4,2 = up to 4 digits in total (12.34 but not 1234.56)
PHONE
String with 15 characters, strips out non-digits
LOCALE
ISO Language and country, 2-5 characters (e.g AU or EN-US)
Data Extension Data Types
Send Log – used to capture send data across SMS, Push and Email
A Business Unit can support only one Send Log
Send Log Data is not available using Standard Report or Standard View
Send Log can be accessed via Query Activities
Send Log can be included in Measures and Filters
Audience Studio – allows you to capture, unify, and activate your data to strengthen consumer relationships across every touchpoint with a powerful data management platform. Salesforce Audience Studio lets you:
Create complete data profiles – Combine all your data from any source to deliver more relevant marketing experience.
Discover new insights – Respond to new data signals and sources to identify new audiences.
Access premium data sources – Use the most trusted second- and third-party data sources to build and scale your audiences.
Data Studio, or data sharing – Solution for audience discovery, data acquisition, and data provisioning — featuring the world’s largest premium data ecosystem. Data Studio lets you:
Create richer audiences for Marketers – Discover high-quality audiences at scale
Increase revenue for data owners – Monetize your data with full transparency and control
Take control of your data – Protect your data and provision it at scale to trusted partners with data governance
5.6 Messaging: 11% (7 Questions)
AmpScript
Use %%view_email_url%% to view web page version of email
Interactive Email Forms
Einstein Content Selection
Send Email Activity – Choose and configure an email message to be sent on its own or as part of one or more automations. You can put it in sequence with other Automation Studio activities and schedule it for a particular date and time
Send Flow – Use Send Flow to send Content Builder emails in Email Studio.
Clicking on Validate validates your Send Email activity configuration and view validation messages for these categories:
Basic email validation, including subject line, address, opt-outs, and more
Basic personalization
AMPscript validation
Audience validation, including data extensions, exclusion lists, suppression lists, and more
Create triggered sends on objects with a lookup to a Contact ID or Lead ID, or to an Account object if person accounts are enabled
Set up send classifications in Marketing Cloud for triggered sends
Triggered sends only work with events that occur after updates and inserts
Triggered sends do not support bulk updates or inserts
In CRM Create Trigger and Enable the object for Triggered Send in Marketing Cloud Connect
Create a Salesforce Triggered Send in Marketing Cloud tab in Sales or Service Cloud
Triggered sends created in the Sales or Service Cloud return tracking from the Marketing Cloud to the Sales or Service Cloud. Triggered sends created in the Marketing Cloud do not return tracking to the Sales or Service Cloud
Triggered sends are listed in multiple places within the Sales or Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud Connect for tracking
Individual Email Result related list on the contact or lead record of the Sales or Service Cloud
Individual Email Result and Aggregate Link Level Details related lists on the Triggered Send Definition
I narrowly failed the consultant exam today. I only found this guide after but I can say this exam guide is excellent and covers a lot of the details other guides don’t which came up in the real exam in 2022
good collection of important aspects for Consultant Certification
I narrowly failed the consultant exam today. I only found this guide after but I can say this exam guide is excellent and covers a lot of the details other guides don’t which came up in the real exam in 2022
Thank you! All the best for you certification preparation!