Product Note:Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced are editions of Marketing Cloud Next and have also been referred to as Agentforce Marketing.
One of my all time favorite hacks is using flow to generate consistent campaign names in Salesforce. With the release of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition and the move to a more campaign-centric model, I wondered if this old trick would still work. Like any good consultant, I created a demo org and did some testing. Stick around to find out what I learned.
Campaign-Centric Approach
If you have not played with Marketing Cloud Growth yet, let’s set the stage. Marketing Cloud Growth has a very campaign focused workflow for creating new marketing initiatives. I really like this structure as all components are visible and accessible in a single location. This includes the content (emails/SMS messages/landing pages), segment, and the flow (this is a big change too – flows are used to send messages).
Campaign Anatomy
Marketing Cloud Growth uses the standard Salesforce campaign object, but the look is different when accessed from the Marketing app. The campaign is divided into sections containing the flow, start trigger, and content. This makes it easy to access everything in one place.
When campaigns are created, content and flow names are derived from the campaign name. This is another great out-of-the-box feature designed to make reporting easier by relating linked assets. It’s this feature that inspired my test.
Campaign Types
Before we get too deep into testing, let’s consider the types of campaigns that we’ll be creating. Most of us are accustomed to using the default or customized version of the campaign type picklist on the campaign page layout.
Marketing Cloud Growth campaigns are used for emails and nurtures, but they are also used for forms. Based on this, you might want to consider adding some more values to your type picklist to mirror the templates.
Example Type Additions
Single Email
Message Series
Form
Single SMS Message
Let’s Get Testing!
Now that the baseline is set, let’s get testing. The goal of this test is to do the following:
Determine if flow can be used to update the campaign name in Marketing Cloud Growth based on a standardized naming convention.
Confirm that the standardized naming convention will also be applied to the campaign components (flows and content).
1 ) Determine Campaign Naming Convention
I’m keeping my convention pretty simple, but you can use whatever structure best suits the needs of your organization. My structure is as follows:
2) Update the Campaign Object
There are a few updates that need to be made to the campaign object. We’ll take them one by one.
1. Customize Type picklist values and update API names to 3-digit codes (these are what will be included in our campaign names)
2. Update page layouts to make needed fields required
3. Create a formula field on the campaign object to calculate the standardized campaign name
This a straightforward record-triggered flow based on the campaign object that updates the name field on the campaign with the value from the Campaign Name – Calculated field.
Start Element
Flow Canvas
Update Records Element
4) Activate and Test
Test 1: Signup Form
The campaign, landing page, form, and flow were all generated using the correct naming convention.
Test 2: Message Series
The campaign, emails, and flow were all generated using the correct naming convention.
Takeaways
Linking campaign names and components makes consistent naming conventions more important than ever. I’m excited that my favorite hack still works and will be even more valuable going forward.
Like all good things, there is one “gotcha” to watch out for. Whether using this solution or the default functionality, the names of campaign components are generated at creation and are not updated if the campaign name is later changed. My advice is to ensure you have the correct campaign name before choosing your campaign template (from the “Let’s build your campaign.” screen).
If you have any questions about Marketing Cloud Growth or this solution, feel free to reach out!
For fundraising-focused nonprofits, the challenge of tracking campaigns, engaging donors, and optimizing strategy can be overwhelming. Many nonprofits don’t realize that Salesforce Campaigns—often associated with marketing — are also one of the most powerful tools for fundraising.
In this post, we’ll explore how leveraging Salesforce Campaigns and a strategic Campaign Hierarchy can streamline your fundraising, improve constituent engagement, and enable data-driven decisions to maximize impact.
What are Salesforce campaigns, and why are they valuable for nonprofits?
Salesforce Campaigns are a versatile feature within the Salesforce Data Model, allowing organizations to track fundraising initiatives with the same level of detail that many associate with marketing. Campaigns are particularly useful for nonprofits because they allow organizations to organize, monitor, and analyze fundraising efforts.
Benefits of Using Salesforce Campaigns for Fundraising
Here’s how Salesforce campaigns can help with fundraising efforts for nonprofits.
Track Funds Raised Across Campaigns
By using Salesforce Campaigns, nonprofits can directly associate dollars raised with specific appeals, campaigns, or events.
Gain Insights into Donor Engagement
Salesforce Campaigns enable organizations to see which constituents engage with various fundraising efforts.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
With clear data on the effectiveness of each campaign, nonprofits can focus on the strategies that drive the best results.
Building a Campaign Hierarchy for Fundraising Success
A Campaign Hierarchy is like an organizational chart for your fundraising efforts. Each level represents different campaigns or appeals, structured in a way that allows you to aggregate or drill down into specific data based on need. This structure provides a “big picture” view and the flexibility to analyze campaign performance at granular levels.
Key Steps to Design Your Campaign Hierarchy
To create a Campaign Hierarchy that aligns with your fundraising goals, start by asking yourself these critical questions:
What Are Your Organization’s Recurring Fundraising Efforts? Identify consistent, repeating campaigns, like quarterly appeals or specific annual events. These will form the foundational tiers in your hierarchy.
What Is the Timing and Frequency of Each Effort? Consider how often each campaign or appeal occurs. For example, an annual fund may include multiple campaigns, such as end-of-year and quarterly appeals.
Do Certain Periods Include Multiple Campaigns? Some fundraising periods may include various appeals, each targeting different audiences or using different methods (e.g., direct mail, online ads). Structuring these as child campaigns under a “parent” campaign (like “Year-End Giving”) allows you to track each specific effort while also reviewing total results.
Who Are the Campaigns Targeting? Determine whether campaigns are reaching general audiences or specific segments, such as major donors. For general campaigns, you may skip campaign members, but for targeted campaigns, tracking engagement with specific constituent segments can provide valuable data on who responds to what.
Tips for Designing Your Campaign Hierarchy
Visualize your structure. Use tools like Lucidchart, a whiteboard, or even pen and paper to sketch your hierarchy before building it in Salesforce. Read Jenna Molby’s blog post on organizing Salesforce campaigns here.
Cross-check with stakeholders. Ensure your Campaign Hierarchy aligns with other departments’ needs for data reporting and access.
Steps to Set Up Your Campaign Hierarchy in Salesforce
Once you’ve mapped out a Campaign Hierarchy, it’s time to implement it in Salesforce. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Start with the top-level campaign. Begin with a broad, overarching campaign, such as a year-based or major donor-focused campaign, and then add more specific levels.
Add sub-campaigns for specific appeals. For instance, if you’re A/B testing different mailers, create individual campaigns for each version. Include Campaign Members to track the results for each segment.
Review and reassess annually. Your initial hierarchy may need adjustments as campaigns evolve. Plan to review your structure annually to ensure it still aligns with your fundraising goals and strategies.
Maintain and Optimize Your Campaign Hierarchy
To get the most out of your Campaign Hierarchy, schedule regular maintenance. After a year of active campaigns, sit down with your stakeholders to evaluate the performance and structure.
Are there campaigns to add or remove? Have certain appeals gained traction while others have not?
Use this time to update your hierarchy so it stays relevant and effective.
TIP: Check out this Salesforce Campaign Hierarchy Report blog post from Theron Troxel on how to create a Salesforce report to show the impact of related campaigns within a campaign hierarchy.
Get strategic with your fundraising campaigns
Salesforce Campaigns offer nonprofits an organized, data-driven way to approach fundraising. With a well-thought-out Campaign Hierarchy, your organization can see which campaigns resonate with donors, track funds raised, and make decisions based on real-time data.
Ready to create a streamlined, impactful fundraising strategy? Reach out to us at Sercante to discuss how we can help you set up or optimize your Salesforce Campaign Hierarchy!
Product Note:Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced are editions of Marketing Cloud Next and have also been referred to as Agentforce Marketing.
During the Marketing & Commerce Keynote at Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce announced the latest edition of Marketing Cloud built on Data Cloud — Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition! Expected to be released in November 2024, this new edition expands the features and functionalities of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition, released in February of this year.
What Comes with Advanced Edition?
Let’s dive into what Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition brings to the table.
Path Experiment
Path Experiment allows Marketers to maximize engagement with your audience through testing. This new feature allows marketers to test variations within marketing content, such as different subject lines, variations in channels, such as sending an SMS instead of an email, and even variations in cadence, such as sending an email in 3 days versus 1. Path experiment allows marketers to test up to 10 paths within a single experiment, customize the distribution percentage across the paths, and automatically randomize individuals between the paths to help ensure fair, unbiased results. There is no limit to the number of Path Experiments that can be included in one Flow.
Einstein Engagement Frequency
Einstein’s capabilities will also be expanded in Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition. First, we have Einstein Engagement Frequency which assists Marketers in sending the right number of messages to their audience. Einstein Engagement Frequency provides insights into the distribution of email sends and subscriber engagement, suggesting the optimal frequency to maximize engagement. This data can then be used to create segments, allowing marketers to suppress or target subscribers who are over or under-saturated.
Einstein Engagement Scoring
Next, we have Einstein Engagement Scoring, which helps predict how likely each subscriber is to open, click, and stay subscribed to an email communication. Einstein Engagement Scoring’s data can be used to create segments, send subscribers down different Flow paths, or even help personalize content more effectively.
Unified Conversations with SMS
With the new Digital Engagement add-on, Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition enables marketers to transform one-way promotions into a conversation with their audience. Marketers can respond to messages in real time using the unified customer data within Data Cloud and automate interactions with connected chatbots.
Looking Toward the Future
What other features and functionality would you like to see Salesforce bring to Marketing Cloud Growth or Advanced Edition? Let us know in the comments!
Product Note:Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced are editions of Marketing Cloud Next and have also been referred to as Agentforce Marketing.
Like many people in the Salesforce ecosystem, you may be intrigued by the announcement of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition — especially since access to the platform is available to current Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) users on the “Growth Edition” tier. However, a key differentiator between the platforms is that Growth Edition gives marketers access to Data Cloud credits.
In this post, we’ll explain how Account Engagement users can tap into those Data Cloud credits through Growth Edition, the differences between both platforms’ billing models, and strategies for marketers to follow while using Data Cloud credits.
Understanding the Consumption-Based Billing Model
Whether you’re a marketer, an operations manager, an admin, or something in between, there’s a lot to look forward to as functionality moves into Salesforce core. For example, consider the flexibility of segmentation with Data Cloud and leveraging Einstein AI to supercharge your campaigns.
As you start to explore this toolset and feature set, however, there is an important mindset shift in the structure of the product to be aware of.
Like Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud Growth Edition is a consumption-based toolset. That means your team’s feature usage within the platform determines how many credits are used and what your organization will pay each billing cycle.
Back up a second — Account Engagement has usage limits, too?
Yes, Account Engagement has certain feature limits. If you’re an admin, you’re probably familiar with navigating to the usage tab and checking your mailable prospect database or how many repeating engagement studios you have in play (if you’re not, check out our blog post on monitoring your mailable database).
How does the Account Engagement billing model differ from Growth Edition’s?
Outside of total mailable database count and feature limits based on your edition, segmentation and email sending are generally open season for users. Dynamic lists can be run and emails can be sent to your heart’s content.
The Einstein toolsets available in the more premium editions of the platform also generally run for the whole database and have no specific consumption considerations.
In comparison, Marketing Cloud Growth Edition is structured so there are credits for many of the core actions taken. This aligns with the structure of Data Cloud, which serves as the segmentation engine for Growth campaigns.
Marketing Cloud Growth Edition Standard Credits
For new setups of Growth Edition, these are the standard credits provisioned:
10K Marketing Unified Profiles
240K Data Cloud Credits
10K Segment and Activation Credits
1TB Data Cloud Storage
180K Emails/year
20K Einstein Co-Create Requests for email content generation
These numbers may depend on your edition and specific agreement with Salesforce, and all of these areas can be extended with additional credits.
Other business segments may have Data Cloud
Also worth considering — Data Cloud is not solely a marketing tool, and Data Cloud may already be in use by other divisions of your organization. But don’t fret, that’s a good thing!
A key benefit of the toolset and moving to Growth is gaining the ability to align customer experience processes across all departments.
Is there an easy way to monitor my consumption-based credits?
Glad you asked! Yes, Salesforce released a feature called Digital Wallet to help admins keep track of consumption-based tools.
The Consumption Card tab can be accessed by users with appropriate permissions and provides an overview page to monitor credit usage.
This page also includes access to insights that help you understand how usage is trending over time and where you might need to plan for expansion.
How do I go about strategically using these? What is a “credit” worth, anyways?
Different considerations are at play for different consumption metrics within Marketing Cloud Growth. Email send credits and Einstein Co-Create credits are relatively straightforward — the total number of emails launched and uses of AI copy generation for the content, respectively.
Where complexity lies is the data harmonization and segmentation process in Data Cloud and credits needed there — calculated based on rows in your database used and processed for different actions.
Data Cloud Credit Usage Examples for Growth Edition Marketers
In practice, these areas are likely where a marketer will consume Data Cloud credits.
Data Harmonization and Unified Individuals
Target Audience: As opposed to “prospects” within Account Engagement, users create segments in Data Cloud for Marketing Cloud Growth Edition campaigns via Unified Individual profiles.
Instead of 1:1 syncing with a lead or contact, these unified profiles can link multiple data sources to create a 360-degree view of the customer, with data from Salesforce and external data sources.
Identity Resolution: To make sure these unified profiles are accurate to your map of data, identity resolution rules are created in Data Cloud to join datasets by the relationships you define.
The harmonization process this executes does utilize Data Cloud credits, so data complexity here can affect the requirements for this process. Learn more about the process in this Trailhead!
Growth Edition also includes a set of features for incorporating consent per channel into this profile, determining whether the individual can be sent communications and helping you maintain privacy and compliance for your audience.
Pulling and Refreshing Segments
Segment Creation: When you create a new segment or modify an existing one, Data Cloud Credits are used to execute the data queries that define the segment criteria. This process involves filtering and aggregating large volumes of data to isolate specific audiences.
Segment Refresh: To keep your segments up-to-date, you’ll need to refresh them regularly. Each time you perform a refresh, credits are consumed as the system reprocesses the data to ensure the segment reflects the most current information.
Predictive Scoring: Einstein AI can analyze historical data and predict future behaviors. Utilizing predictive models or scoring capabilities consumes Data Cloud Credits based on the complexity and volume of data processed.
Recommendation Engines: Whether you want to personalize content or recommend products, Einstein’s recommendation engines leverage AI to analyze user behavior and preferences. This process also requires Data Cloud Credits, reflecting the computational resources needed for these advanced features.
Automated Insights: Einstein provides actionable insights and analytics by examining trends and patterns within your data. Accessing these insights involves credit consumption, especially when dealing with extensive datasets or detailed analyses.
How to make the most of your Data Cloud credits
To make sure you’re using Data Cloud as efficiently as possible, keep the following considerations in mind.
Efficient Querying: Optimize your segment queries to be as efficient as possible. Reducing the complexity of queries or breaking them into smaller, more manageable tasks can help conserve credits.
Scheduled Refreshes: Instead of frequent manual refreshes, schedule them during off-peak times or based on data needs. This reduces unnecessary credit usage while ensuring segments remain accurate.
Strategic AI Usage: Use Einstein’s AI capabilities strategically. Prioritize features that deliver the most value for your marketing goals and ensure that the credit expenditure aligns with your objectives.
AI Models Management: Regularly review and refine AI models to maintain their accuracy and relevance. Properly trained models can yield better insights, maximizing the return on your credit investment.
Take advantage of the consumption-based model to understand what you’ll need as you scale
Hopefully, this gave you a good introduction to the concepts needed to monitor and understand credit usage as you consider using Marketing Cloud Growth Edition and Data Cloud alongside Account Engagement.
Don’t let this scare you off — while there are new concepts to learn, the toolset opens possibilities for marketers ready to use data to create the best possible customer experience and segmentation.
As the “Growth” name implies, it sets your business up for cost-efficiency in the short term and scalability in the long term. As you continue to scale and incorporate new data sources and channels, there’s a more defined method to ingest this data, improve your personalization, and predict the impact to your costs over time.
As you explore more, please check out our FAQ article on Marketing Cloud Growth or send us a message if you have any other questions.
Product Note:Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced are editions of Marketing Cloud Next and have also been referred to as Agentforce Marketing.
I’m not going to be the guy who says “I told you so,” but Flow Builder has officially expanded from being an automation tool used exclusively by Salesforce Admins into the realm of marketing. Flow Builder is the engine used by Marketing Cloud Growth Edition to send emails and SMS messages and perform other automated tasks. If you’re not familiar with Flow, that’s OK. In this post, we’ll walk you through the process of building a message series with Flow in Marketing Cloud Growth Edition.
Getting Started
If you are new to flow, I would encourage you to take a moment to read Heather Rinke’s post An Introductory Guide to Salesforce Flow for Marketers before going any further. This is a great overview of flows and will provide context to the topics that we’ll be discussing.
If you have questions about Marketing Cloud Growth Edition, I’ve got you covered there too. Check out Erin Duncan’s post All the FAQs on Marketing Cloud Growth Edition for all your answers.
Building a Message Series
Confirm User Access
Marketing Cloud Growth (aka MCG) includes two permission sets out of the box. It also requires that users be added as a contributors to the CMS workspace and the Marketing Landing Pages site (see the Implementation Guide: Marketing Cloud Growth for more details).
Name
Description
Marketing Cloud Admin
Access to Salesforce Setup, Data Cloud Setup, and full control on campaigns, segments, and flows. Access to MCG’s setup assistant is also being added as part of the Winter ‘25 release.
Marketing Cloud Manager
Full control to manage campaigns, segments, and campaign (non-admin) flows.
One of the things that I really like about Marketing Cloud Growth is the campaign-centric approach. This is very logical and easy to use.
To get started navigate to the Campaigns tab in the Marketing App and click the New button. After completing the fields on the campaign page layout, you’ll be presented with the screen below. This is where the fun begins!
We’re going to select the Message Series option as that’s our goal for today.
Pro Tip: If you see this message when clicking one of the “Where do you want to start?” options, go back up and confirm your user access. Chances are you have not been added to the CMS as a contributor.
After selecting the Message Series option, you’ll notice that Marketing Cloud Growth has created your campaign, email templates, and a basic flow. This automation is a real time-saver and provides a great starting point for marketers.
Flow Access
You can access the pre-built flow by clicking the “Open Flow” button within the campaign or by searching for “flow” in the App Launcher. This is a basic Segment-Triggered flow that sends an initial email, waits a specified period, and then sends a follow-up message. It’s a good starting point, but you’ll likely need to customize it to meet your specific requirements.
Customizing Your Flow
Flow Capabilities
If you are a Salesforce Admin who has experience with flows, you’ll immediately notice that this is not the same version of flow that you are accustomed to. Marketing Cloud Growth uses a streamlined version of Flow Builder and different trigger methods (Segment-Triggered and Form-Triggered). Most elements are available, but there are some limitations. See Marketing Cloud Growth Campaign Flows vs. Salesforce Flows by Lucy Mazalon for a great overview. Some limitations that stood out to me were the inability to access the Toolbox or create formulas, but don’t stress too much as this is a new product and capabilities will be expanded in future releases.
Pro Tip: Marketing Cloud Managers can access and edit flows, but their permissions are limited compared to Marketing Cloud Admins. Key missing elements include assignment, get records, and loop functions.
Current Capabilities
Set Schedule
Unlike Record-Triggered flows, Segment-Triggered flows run on set schedules. This is due to the linkage with Data Cloud and its consumption-based pricing model. Credits are used when segments are processed so it’s recommended that segments only be refreshed prior to sending a communication or at intervals relevant to data updates (if data is added weekly, don’t refresh daily).
The schedule can be set by clicking + Set Schedule in the Start element. From there you’ll have the option to run once or set a recurring schedule.
Select Segment
Speaking of segments, they can be added to the flow from the Start element by clicking + Select Element or directly from the campaign page by clicking Select Segment. I prefer adding the segment from the flow start element as it provides some additional features that I find very handy.
After selecting a segment from the Segment dropdown, a summary of the segment is provided. The population, description, last publish date, and publish schedule are also displayed. If the segment population seems too large or too small, you can access and edit the segment rules. Keep in mind, any edits to the segment will be applied wherever the segment is used.
The final consideration is the republishing schedule. You can immediately publish the segment before running the flow (to make sure the most recently added individuals are included) or default to the publishing schedule defined in the segment. The interface design helps make the decision very easy by clearly displaying the segment publish schedule so you can make an informed decision.
Pro Tip: If you see that your segment is not set to refresh, it’s important that you select the “immediately before running the flow” option. If this option is not selected, you risk missing newly added individuals.
Update Wait Elements
Flow includes three wait elements that provide a lot of flexibility. These elements can easily be added to your flow by hovering over the circle between elements, clicking the + sign, and then entering “Wait” as the search criteria.
One big advantage over Account Engagement’s Engagement Studio is the ability to have wait times down to the minute in the Wait for Amount of Time and Wait Until Event elements.
Apply Branch Logic
Branch logic can be added using the Wait Until Event or a Decision element. Let’s look at both.
Wait Until Event
This element allows you to monitor for an action in the flow and then branch based on the engagement. As an example, you could monitor for individuals who clicked a link (and link or a specific link) in the first email in your series and then branch based on the interaction (or lack thereof). This can also be applied to SMS messages.
Decision Element
This decision element is another way to apply branch logic by specifying criteria for outcomes. The cool thing here is that you are not limited to two branches, additional outcomes can be added as needed creating multiple branches.
The actual resource fields accessible in decision elements are somewhat limited right now. This is certainly an area to keep an eye on as it will become even more valuable in future releases.
Vary Communication Methods
Another great thing about Marketing Cloud Growth is the ability to easily integrate SMS messages into flow. This is a great way to try a different outreach method if individuals don’t respond or to customize nurtures based on individual preferences.
In the example below, the intent is to get individuals to engage (click). After sending two emails and not getting a response, an SMS message is sent to see if a different communication method gets the desired interaction.
Learn More About Marketing Cloud Growth Edition & Flow
Marketing Cloud Growth is an exciting new offering from Salesforce and it’s only going to get better with each release. If you would like to learn more about this product, be sure to check out our Marketing Cloud Growth Edition Bootcamp.
Getting hands-on with flow is something that I highly recommend. Fortunately, Trailhead has a wealth of flow-related training available for free. Here are a couple of recommendations to help get you started.
Finally, Data Cloud is at the core of segmentation in Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. The Data Cloud Basics for Marketers trail is a great way to learn some of the benefits and key terms of Data Cloud that you will run across.
Event marketing is a fantastic way to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and generate leads. However, managing event marketing activities can take time and effort. That’s where Account Engagement can help — in more ways than you probably thought!
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (f.k.a. Pardot) can streamline your event marketing efforts from initial promotions and registrations to post-event follow-up and nurturing. In this post, we’ll explore how you can use Account Engagement for event marketing to ensure a seamless and impactful experience. We’ll show you which out-of-the-box tool(s)we recommend using at what time during the event process so you can maximize your efforts.
Using Account Engagement for Event Marketing: Planning and Promotion
A marketing event is only as good as the planning that goes into it. Ensuring you have your campaigns and other assets created in advance with a clear goal and structure in mind will dramatically improve the organization of your initiatives and enable consistent reporting down the road.
Here’s how to do that.
Set Up Your Event in Account Engagement (Pardot)
If you’re using Connected Campaigns, start by creating a campaign (or hierarchy of campaigns) in Salesforce for your event. This will help you track all marketing activities and ROI related to the event. You’ll then associate all your event assets (emails, landing pages, forms) with these campaigns later.
If you’re not using Connected Campaigns, then we highly recommend you read this blog post to understand the advantages of Connected Campaigns and how to enable the feature. Then, reach out to Sercante if you’re unsure of your next steps.
Create Your Campaign Structure
These are the steps to create your campaign structure:
Navigate to Campaigns and click on + Add Campaign.
Name your campaign using your organization’s standard naming conventions.
Set default and/or custom fields, like cost, start/end date, and type.
If it is a child campaign, select the appropriate parent to create your hierarchy
Ensure your campaign is marked “Active” so it can sync with Account Engagement via Connected Campaigns.
Design Event Registration Forms
Now it’s time to design your forms to collect attendee information such as name, email, job title, and company.
Under Content > Forms, click + Add Form.
Ensure your form includes fields that are crucial for segmenting and personalizing follow-up communications.
Develop Event-Specific Landing Pages
Create engaging landing pages to capture registrations. These pages should highlight the event’s benefits, speakers, and agenda, and include a clear call-to-action (CTA).
Navigate to Content > Landing Pages and click on + Add Landing Page.
Choose a layout template that fits your event’s branding.
Customize the page with relevant content and images.
When prompted, select the form you created in the previous step.
Promoting Your Event
Develop Email Marketing Campaigns
After all, Account Engagement is an email marketing platform! Let’s use that core functionality to promote our event. Next, you’ll create a series of emails to promote your event.
Your campaign will include some form of the following emails:
Invitations
Reminders
Last-chance registration prompts
Follow-up correspondence with attendees
Some emails may be used as List Emails, while others may be automated sends using email templates.
I always recommend my clients have a comprehensive, universal email template on hand in their org. What I mean by that is a repeatable template that has lots of different sections for all types of emails. You’d clone this template, remove the sections you don’t need, and save.
On the right is an example of a Sercante Ultimate Email Template the team built for The Spot. It’s a common request our clients bring to us, so drop us a message if you don’t have a universal email template and want to get one.
Sending One-Off List Emails
If you’re sending a one-off List Email, follow these basic steps:
Navigate to Account Engagement Email > List Emails and choose one of your published Email Templates.
Modify your sections accordingly, while keeping consistent branding.
Craft compelling subject lines and body content that convey the value of attending your event.
Include a call to action, depending on the needs of the event.
Make sure to always test before you schedule or send your emails. There’s a handy QA checklist in this blog post so you can hit the send button confidently.
Go to Prospects > Segmentation Lists and create lists based on criteria such as past event attendance, industry, or engagement level.
Use dynamic lists for criteria-based segmentation (i.e. location, job title, CRM status).
Use static lists for manual segmentation (i.e. adding individual prospects to an invitation list).
Want to go a step further? Use social media connectors
Tap Account Engagement’s social posting capabilities to promote your event on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. You’ll need to set up your social media connectors under Account Engagement Settings > Connectors and log in to connect your social media accounts with Account Engagement.
Under Content > Social, you can create, manage, and schedule social posts. To complete the circle, you can insert CTAs in your posts that link back to your event landing page.
Managing Marketing Event Registrations with Account Engagement
Tracking Registrations
Forms
Use Forms to ensure all data flows into Account Engagement seamlessly. There’s a handy form style generator here you can use to customize your forms to match your branding.
Navigate to Content > Forms and click + Add Form (or clone one you already have!)
Map your fields to capture all necessary registration information.
Ensure you customize your Completion Actions for autoresponders, assignments, campaign membership, etc.
Automation Rules for Registration Management
If Completion Actions don’t offer the functionality you’re looking for, consider creating Automation Rules to manage registrants.
Automation Rules allow you to automate actions such as adding them to a list, sending confirmation emails, or notifying your sales team when hot prospects or accounts are actively engaging.
Go to Automations > Automation Rules and click + Add Automation Rule.
Set criteria (i.e. form completion) and corresponding actions (ie. add to list, send email, update campaign member status).
Once you’re ready to run it, make sure you “unpause” the automation rule.
Confirmation and Reminder Emails
For this, we highly recommend using Account Engagement’s automated nurture engine: Engagement Studio. This powerful tool comes out of the box with all MCAE editions.
Under Automations > Engagement Studio, you can create intelligent nurture programs to automate follow-up, update records and act immediately on interactions with your prospects.
Sending Confirmation Emails
Ensure that every registrant receives an immediate confirmation email with event details.
Reminder Emails
Schedule reminder emails leading up to the event to keep registrants engaged and reduce no-shows. Create a series of reminders — starting a week before the event, a day before, and a few hours before the start.
Event Marketing Doesn’t End There. Keep it Going!
You’ve made it to the day of your event! While your pre-event promotion is over, and your email invitations and reminders have all been sent, you can still use Account Engagement to engage with your prospects during and after the event, and throughout the sales process.
During the Event
Engaging Attendees with Personalized Content
Use Account Engagement’s dynamic content features to personalize the content displayed to attendees based on their profiles.
Navigate to Content > Dynamic Content and create content blocks that change based on prospect data (i.e. industry, job title, location).
Real-Time Data Collection
Use Account Engagement’s tracking capabilities to monitor attendee interactions during the event, such as session attendance and engagement with event content. You can also implement tracking codes on event-related pages and materials to capture real-time data.
Feedback Forms
Create and send feedback forms immediately after each session to gather attendee insights and improve future events. This is a crucial step that will help your team continuously improve and build stronger relationships with your audience.
Post-Event Follow-Up
Analyzing Event Performance
Generating Reports
Use Account Engagement’s reporting features to analyze event performance, including registration numbers, attendance rates, and engagement metrics.
Navigate to Account Engagement Reports to view detailed reports on your event’s asset performance (forms, landing pages, emails, etc.).
You can filter and export data, or use other tools like Salesforce Lightning Reports or B2B Marketing Analytics for more advanced reporting and data visualization.
ROI Analysis
Calculate the ROI of your event by comparing the costs associated with the event to the revenue generated from leads and opportunities.
Use Account Engagement’s ROI reporting tools under Reports > Marketing Assets.
Nurturing Leads
Follow-Up Emails
Create a series of follow-up emails to thank attendees, share event highlights, and provide additional resources. Use Engagement Studio to automate these follow-up emails for timely and relevant communication.
Lead Scoring and Grading
Update lead scoring and grading models based on attendees’ behaviors during the event.
Go to Account Engagement Settings > Scoring to adjust scoring rules, and use this updated data to prioritize leads for sales follow-up.
Re-Engaging Non-Attendees
Post-Event Outreach
Don’t forget about those who registered but didn’t attend. Reach out with recorded sessions, summaries, and key takeaways to keep them engaged. Use segmentation lists to identify non-attendees and create a specific follow-up campaign for them.
Surveys and Feedback
Send a survey to non-attendees to understand why they couldn’t attend and gather insights to improve future events.
Use Forms to create and distribute these surveys, and analyze responses to enhance your event strategy.
Planning Future Events
Reviewing Your Feedback
Incorporate feedback from attendees and non-attendees into your planning for future events to continuously improve the experience.
Use Account Engagement Reports > Forms to analyze the feedback forms you’ve sent after previous events, and make data-driven decisions and adjustments to your approach.
Early Bird Promotions
Start promoting your next event early with exclusive offers and early bird discounts to previous attendees.
Use Account Engagement Email to create and send promotional emails, and leverage Dynamic Content for personalized offers.
Now you’re an Account Engagement event marketing pro!
Using Account Engagement’s powerful features and capabilities, you can streamline every aspect of your event marketing activities, from initial planning and promotion to post-event follow-up and long-term nurturing. This ensures a seamless and impactful event experience and maximizes your marketing ROI and strengthens your relationships with prospects and customers.
Utilizing Account Engagement for event marketing can lead to more organized, efficient, and successful events, ultimately driving more meaningful interactions with your customers.
