Monthly Archives: December 2018

Salesforce Study Guide

Marketing Cloud Email Specialist

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Breakdown of Question
65% to pass / 39 Correct Answer

ContentPercentageActual Question
Email Marketing Best Practices
15%9
Email Message Design
13%8
Content Creation and Delivery
18%11
Marketing Automation
19%11
Subscriber and Data Management
29%17
Tracking and Report 6%4

EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

Given a customer scenario, evaluate the elements and techniques of email marketing to design an effective email campaign.

Given a customer scenario, recognize situations where legal compliance may be an issue during an email campaign.

Given a customer scenario, differentiate elements of an email that can impact message deliverability.

  • https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000231368&type=1
  • Permission is king. Your list should only include those individuals who have opted in
  • Consider authentication. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers a Sender Authentication Package that ties your reputation to a private IP and sub-domain.
  • Consider double opt-in. Double opt-in is where a user must take an action with an email – typically clicking a link – in order to be included on your mailing list.
  • Remove unengaged subscribers from your list.
  • Have a subscription/unsubscribe page.
  • Warm new IP addresses. 
  • Deal With Bounce Rates Greater Than 20%.
  • Don’t buy list or use 3rd party data.

Given a customer scenario,demonstrate appropriate and effective subscriber acquisition methodologies.

Given a customer scenario, apply best practices of communicating with a population.

  • https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000231369&type=1
  • Email Marketing Deliverability
    • Play by the Rules of ISPs and Filtering Companies
    • Reduce SPAM Blocking with Permission-Based Email Marketing
    • Use Double Opt-in to Avoid Getting Blacklisted
    • Maintain a Consistent From Address and Subject Line Recognition
  • Optimize Your Email Design
    • Email design is vital to the success of your email marketing program
  • Grow Your List
    • Important to ensure the subscribers that you acquire are quality subscribers – the engaged subscribers who want to be on your list.
    • Organic growth
      • Give your customers every opportunity to opt-in to your list after they’ve initiated contact with your brand
    • Sell Value
      • Successful email list growth begins with gaining permission from your subscribers. But you want your subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up without feeling coerced or trapped.
      • Clearly articulate the value of your one-to-one program
    • Diversify, track, and evaluate
      • Don’t rely on a single technique to grow your list. Employ multiple email list growth strategies and closely track and monitor all of your list sources to determine your most successful tactic.
    • Don’t look for a silver bullet.
      • Many marketers gravitate toward email list growth tactics that promise quick results. However, these tactics don’t necessarily bring quality results. And the quality of, not the quantity of, your subscribers should always be your end goal.
    • Use Technology.
      • Take advantage of Salesforce Marketing Cloud social products to grow your list via social networks and word-of-mouth. Or try using a mobile text capture campaign to attract subscribers who prefer mobile interactions.
  • Subject Lines
    • Keep it short and sweet.
      • Shorter subject lines generally have higher open rates than long ones
    • Show your style
      • Subject lines are meant to be persuasive, so don’t settle for a boring message. Instead, make it personal and infuse your brand style into the one-liner
    • Test, test, and test again
      • The best way to find out which subject lines resonate with your audience is to regularly test different variations
      • Be sure to test various lengths, personalization, and styles to determine what motivates your readers.
      • Test the following items:
        • Front-loading your brand name
        • Front-loading your keywords
        • Subject line length
        • Calls to action
        • Styles
        • Personalization
      • Avoid spam filters by not including the following characters and terms:
        • RE:
        • FW:
        • Text in all caps
        • Hello
        • Exclamation points
        • Special Offer

EMAIL MESSAGE DESIGN

Given a customer scenario, recommend email design best practices to implement.

Given the desired output functionality, recommend methods for creating responsive emails.

  • When coding a responsive design for email, @media queries are used to activate the mobile version of the email.
  • Generally controlled by CSS.
  • Classes are used to adjust, hide, or introduce elements of the email on mobile.
  • Mobile email apps (like Gmail and Outlook.com) as well as native email apps (like iOS Mail and Android email) behave differently.
  • For some techniques, responsive code must be placed in <style type=”text/css”> as well as inline.

Given the desired output requirements, recommend strategies to A/B test email elements.

  • https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=mc_es_ab_testing.htm&type=5
  • A/B testing is a method of market testing in which you send two versions (Condition A and Condition B) of your communication to two test audiences from your subscriber list
  • Things that are generally tested:
    • Subject Lines:  See what really catches your subscribers’ attention
    • From Names: Maybe your subscribers are more likely to open an email from a specific person or department, rather than your company
    • Send dates and times: Depending on your industry, your audience may open their emails first thing in the morning, or later in the day
    • Variable content areas within your email: This is an ideal way to test the best location for your call to action.
    • Two entirely different emails:  This is how you can test different designs and layouts, to see what works best for your audience
    • Preheaders
  • Wait at least 24 hours before declaring a winner of your A/B Test.
  • After 24 hours, you see that Email A’s click-through rate was higher than Email B’s, making Email A the winner. Then you send Email A to your remaining subscribers and pat yourself on the back, knowing that you sent out a more effective email than if you had not performed the A/B Test.

Given a desired sending process, recommend Marketing Cloud tools to use when preparing an email for send.

  • https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000205621&type=2
    • Upload Content to Your Portfolio
      • Upload images and other content
      • Upload single or multiple files using the uploader Create an email via Template Editor:
    • Create a Template
      • A template controls the header, background color, borders, and layout of an email. You can use the same template as the basis of multiple emails. It contains your brand and the layout of information.
      • Standard Template Editor
        • The standard template editor provides you with seven predefined layout options and includes the following required information:
          • “sent by” identification and links to your privacy policy
          • subscription management center
          • profile management center
          • unsubscribe center
      • HTML Paste
        • Another option is to create templates by pasting in your HTML code. If you’re experienced with HTML, you can create templates by pasting in HTML code that you’ve built outside the application.
      • Save Email as Template
        • If you create an email and you’d like to use that email in the future as a template, you can save that email as a template for future use. You can define which regions are editable and which should remain static.
  • Insert Content into Email
    • Choose the template you’d like to use for your email and then simply modify each content area to pull in the appropriate content from your Portfolio. Or bring in content using the HTML Paste editor.
  • Email Validate
    • checks for
      • the presence of an unsubscribe link
      • the presence of a physical mailing address
      • the correct syntax for attributes used as personalization strings
      • the existence of any content areas defined in the dynamic content rules
  • Send Preview
    • A rendering of an email as it will be sent to a recipient. After the initial preview, you can proceed through the rest of the recipients on the list to see the preview for each.
  • Inbox Preview
    • Use inbox preview to optimize your emails to appear how you want them to in each of your targeted email clients
  • Test Send
    • Make sure you send a test of your email to yourself before sending it to subscribers. This allows you to see a sample of your email in your own inbox to get an idea of what your subscribers will receive.
  • Send Email
    • The email send wizard makes it easy to choose the list of subscribers you want to send to and schedule your emails to go out immediately or at a later day and time

Given an email message design, determine the correct use of Approvals.

  • https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=mc_ceb_get_started_with_approvals.htm&type=5
  • You can configure your account to require an approver to approve an email before that email can be sent to an audience.
  • Workflow
    • A user creates an email message.
    • That user submits the email to a specific approver for approval (that approver receives a notification to approve the message, but any approver can ultimately approve the message).
    • Before an approver approves the email message, the user can conduct test sends.
    • The approver receives notification of the request for approval.
    • The approver reviews the email message and either approves or declines the email message.
    • If the approver approves the email message, the user can send the message to any audience in the accounts.
    • If the approver declines the email message, the user must edit and resubmit the email message until the approver finally approves the message.

CONTENT CREATION AND DELIVERY

Given a scenario, create and customize an email message to meet a customer’s need.

  • Content Builder: Choose this option if you have access to Content Canvas and Content Builder. Contact your relationship manager for more information on Content Canvas and Content Builder.
  • Template Based: Choose this option if you already have a template that you’ll be using for this email.
  • HTML Paste: Choose this option to type or paste HTML code for an email into the editor.
  • Text Only: (This option may not be enabled in your account. To enable Text Only Email Creation, contact your representative.) Choose this option if you want to create an email that will display as text only in your subscribers’ inbox regardless of their display preferences. Opens data is never reported for text-only emails.
  • Unprocessed HTML Paste: (This option may not be enabled in your account. To enable this feature, contact your representative.) Choose this option if you want to create an HTML-based email that you do not want affected by the application. No validation, personalization strings, or other manipulations are done to the email’s content.
  • Unprocessed Text Only: (This option may not be enabled in your account. To enable this feature, contact your representative.) Choose this option if you want to create a text-only email that that you do not want affected by the application. No validation, personalization strings, or other manipulations are done to the email’s content.
  • Simple Automated Email: Choose this option if you want to create an email you send based on a date attribute. For example, if you want to send your subscribers an email on their birthday, you can create an automated email.
    • Note: For Enterprise accounts, once you’ve created an email you can publish it to your Lock & Publish channel members or send it (immediately or on a schedule)

Given a scenario, send and deploy an email campaign to meet the customer requirement.

Given a scenario, know how to manage content needed to deploy a customer’s email campaign.

  • An email message is a type of message delivered to your subscriber’s’ email client. You can create user-initiated and triggered email interaction. Email message interactions are also referred to as Send Definitions
  • You can send the email by using a:
    • triggered send
    • data extension
    • scheduled send

Describe various send capabilities in the Email application.

  • Send Flow
    • Send Flow replaces Guided Send for Content Builder emails and guides you through the necessary steps to send your email. Subscriber Preview and Test Send
    • Subscriber Preview is a rendering of an email as it will be viewed by a recipient. After the initial subscriber preview, you can proceed through the rest of the recipients to see previews for each subscriber and send a test.
  • User Initiated Send
    • User-Initiated Send sends your email as part of a program.
  • Simple Automated Send
    • Email is scheduled to be sent at a set time and date
  • Simple Send
    • Execute an email send via pushing a button
  • Guided Send
    • The Guided Send is a program in the application that guides you through necessary steps to send your email.
  • Test Send
    • Subscriber Preview is a rendering of an email as a recipient will view it.
    • After the initial subscriber preview, you can proceed through the rest of the recipients to see previews for each subscriber.
    • The preview feature does not display in a particular operating system or email client.
  • Email Deliverability:
  • Content Detective
    • Checks for spam
  • Send Preview
    • A rendering of an email as it will be sent to a recipient.
  • Inbox Preview
    • Optimize your emails to appear how you want them to in each of your targeted email clients
  • Validation Tool
    • the presence of an unsubscribe link
    • the presence of a physical mailing address
    • correct syntax for attributes used as personalization strings (eg %%FIELDNAME%%)
    • the existence of any content areas defined in the dynamic content rules.
  • Test Send
    • Previewing the HTML and text versions of the email: Use the View HTML Version and Edit Text Version tabs of your email editor workspace.
    • Previewing the dynamic content (if used) for attributes: Use the Preview button in your dynamic content boxes.
    • Previewing the email for a subscriber: Use the Inbox Preview feature.
    • Delivering the email to a test email address:
      • Test send: See How To Send an Email Using Test Send.
      • Test list: Set up a list that consists only of test email addresses. If you’re the sole tester of the email, then set up a list consisting only of yourself. When you use Guided Send, select this list only as the recipient so that the email is generated for just the test email address(es).
      • Suppress this send from Reports: This feature allows you to send the email to all subscribers on the designated list.
      • Redirect all emails to a single email address:
        • an email is generated for each subscriber in the lists and groups that you select in the wizard, but each of those emails are delivered to a single test address that you specify.

MARKETING AUTOMATION

Given a customer scenario, recommend the appropriate marketing automation solution

Given a scenario to manage customer data, configure the appropriate marketing automation tools.

  • Activities:
    • Data Extract – Use this activity to create a file of information for you to use outside of the application. This activity can also be used to transform an XML file to a comma-delimited, tab-delimited, or pipe-delimited file for import into your account.
    • Filter – Use this activity to apply the logic of a data filter you select to create a group or data extension containing records that meet the data filter criteria. Provide a name, external key, and description to identify and describe the activity.
    • Import File – Use this activity to use the information from an outside file to update a subscriber list or data extension. You provide information that the activity uses each time it runs, which gives the specifics of the file to import and the import activity’s behavior while running.
    • Refresh Group – Use this activity to re-apply the rules in a group definition to create a subset of subscribers in a list. Before you can use a group refresh activity, you must create a group definition.
    • Report Definition – Use this activity to define the parameters for running a report once to be used every time the report is run using the activity. You can create a report activity to run every standard report available in the application, as well as custom reports in your account.
    • SQL Query –  Use this activity to retrieve data extension or data view information that matches your criteria and include that information in a data extension. You use SQL to create the query you use in the query activity. You provide name, external key, and description to identify and describe the activity.
    • Send Email – Use this activity to initiate an email message. You can send the email in an automation alone, or put it in sequence with other activities and schedule it for a particular date and time.
    • Transfer File – Use this activity to upload a file to or download a file from a transfer location that you specify. The file transfer activity transfers files securely and can also unencrypt or uncompress a file.
    • Wait – Use this activity to cause the automation to wait for a specific period of time before performing the next step.

SUBSCRIBER AND DATA MANAGEMENT

Given the desired output requirements, setup Subscriber Lists and Data Extensions in the Marketing Cloud.

  • Usually, the data you keep in a data extension relates to a subscriber but does not fit in the subscriber profile and preference attributes for one of the following reasons:
    • A subscriber can have varying numbers of values. For example, a subscriber’s first name fits as a subscriber attribute because you will probably refer to a subscriber by only one first name. On the other hand, a list of the subscriber’s transactions in the last month might not fit well because it is difficult to predict how many transactions a subscriber will have completed in the last month.
    • The information is related to the subscriber through a third piece of information. For example, you maintain the subscriber’s preferred airport code as a subscriber attribute, but maintain the name of the airport in a data extension.
  • List
    • your lists contain 500,000 subscribers or less long term
    • you prefer simplicity over performance
    • you do not require fast import speed
    • you plan to use a limited number of subscriber attributes
    • you use the XML API
  • Data Extension
    • your lists are going to be greater than 500,000 subscribers
    • you support multiple subscriber data sets, with separate definitions
    • you send global messages
    • you require fast import speeds
    • you implement triggered sends
    • you use the SOAP or REST APIs
    • you prefer a flexible subscription mode
  • Subscriber Key
    • A unique identifier for contacts and has a 1:1 relationship
  • Subscriber ID
    • A system identifier and is only accessible via API or Query

Given a customer’s business requirements, determine how to import data into Marketing Cloud as per best practices.

  • Import Wizard
    • Your account must be configured to use enhanced FTP in order to use the Data Extension import wizard
    • Before you can import a file, you must create a data extension and create the import file
    • Your import file must contain a header row and at least one row of data.
    • Your import file must be a comma, tab or other delimited files. You can use the import activity or the import wizard to populate your data extension.
  • Import Activity
    • An import is an activity to use the information from an outside file to update a subscriber list or data extension
    • You can start an import activity each time you want to import a file, or you can include the import activity in a scheduled program to cause it to import a file at recurring intervals.
    • If your account is integrated with a Salesforce account, you can use an import activity to create and populate a data extension with the data from a Salesforce object or report.
    • If you import to a list using the import activity, the system uses the List Detective tool to prevent bad email addresses from being imported.
    • If the file you are importing is encrypted or compressed, you can create a file transfer activity to prepare the file for import.
  • API
    • You can use the web service API to automate the addition of subscribers to your ExactTarget account as part of activities performed outside the application’s user

Given a customer’s business requirements, configure segmentation tools to accurately model subscribers and data.

  • A group is a subset of subscribers. There are two types of groups:
    • Filtered Group
      • A filtered group is generated by filtering subscribers by profile attributes, preference attributes, filters, and measures.
      • Doesn’t refreshes automatically with new data.
    • Random Group
      • A random group splits up subscribers from a selected list and places the subscribers into groups.
  • Measures:
    • Use subscriber behavior to segment your subscriber base through Marketing Cloud measures. For example, you can find all subscribers who have opened an email within the last 3 months.
  • Data Filters:
    • A Data Filter is similar to a group, except that data filters can be applied to Data Extensions and can include and/or statements. A data filter will segment your subscribers on a list or a data extension, according to the criteria you set. For example, you could use a Data Filter to find all of your subscribers on a particular list who own a car OR a motorcycle AND live in the state of Indiana OR Ohio.
    • When sending to a data filter, segmentation is performed at sending. The send process may take longer because of it.
    • Doesn’t refreshes automatically with new data.
  • Query Activity:
    • You can use a Query Activity to retrieve Data Extension data or view information that matches your criteria and use that information to populate a Data Extension. A query activity uses SQL and AMPscript.
    • No more than 20 queries in single automation.
  • You can create more narrowly defined Data Extensions based on other Data Extensions

Given a customer scenario, recommend the marketing unsubscribe subscription management solution that meets the requirement based on customer frequency, permission, and preferences.

  • Send Classifications
    • A send classification lets you define parameters for an email job in a central location and reuse those parameters for multiple email send definitions
    • A send classification is made up of a delivery and sender profile
    • You create the delivery profile and sender profile separately before you create the send classification
    • When you create a send classification you specify the following information:
      • Delivery Profile (see below)
      • Sender Profile (see below)
      • CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) classification
        • Commercial
          • any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.”
        • Transactional
          • facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender
  • Sender Profile
    • A sender profile is a record where you specify the from information for a message send in a central location and reuse that from information across multiple message sends without having to select the information each time.
    • You select a sender profile when you create a send classification. You can override the sender profile on the send classification when you include the send classification in a message interaction.
      • Subscriber-Specific From Name
        • If you have the Reply Mail Management feature enabled for your account, you can use a sender profile to include subscriber-specific From information in the email. For example, an email could appear to be from each subscriber’s account representative.
        • You must have created a subscriber attribute or data extension to contain the subscriber-specific from information before you perform this procedure
    • The sender profile will contain the name and address that the message appears to be from in the subscriber’s email client.
  • Delivery Profile
    • A delivery profile is a record where you can specify the delivery information for a message in a central location and reuse that information across multiple message sends without having to select the information each time.
    • You select a delivery profile when you create a send classification. You can override the delivery profile on the send classification when you include the send classification in a message interaction.
    • When you create a delivery profile, you specify the IP address to use. If you do not use a private domain, you select the account default. If you use one or more private domains, you can select the private domain to use here.
    • You choose the header and footer to use on the delivery profile:
      • Header in the delivery profile refers to the text at the very beginning of the document that, by default, provides a link to the email as a webpage. It does not include the header graphic that you specify in a template.
      • Footer in the delivery profile refers to the text at the very end of a document that contains your physical mailing address and unsubscribe link.
  • Subscription Centre – only allow List
  • A profile attribute contains information to characterize a subscriber profile. For example, each subscriber may be asked to provide their gender, birthdate, and email address. By default, every account has three profile attributes: Full Name, Email, and User Defined (which is intended as a generic attribute that you can use as needed). You cannot modify these attributes.
  • A preference attribute characterizes how a subscriber prefers to receive email. These are specified as “yes or no” choices to a declarative statement. For example: “The subscriber prefers to receive email as HTML.”
  • Use a profile attribute to store information that is important to segregating your subscribers into lists or groups.
  • Use preference attributes to specify preferences for your subscribers. Once specified, you may build lists and groups based on these preferences.
  • The profile center is a webpage where subscribers can enter and maintain the personal information that you keep about them.
    • In the profile/preference management toolbar, click Preview Profile Center, which opens the web page that subscribers see.
  • When you import a list, you can import attribute values for your subscribers that appear when a subscriber visits the profile center. The subscriber can update their information on this page and provide additional information. Your subscribers can view their data and their subscriptions to your communications.
  • In the Profile Center, subscribers see all of the attributes that are defined in your account that you don’t mark as hidden. If the attribute is set up as read-only, the subscriber can see his or her value for that attribute but cannot change it. In compliance with the latest  CAN-SPAM laws, every Profile Center page now includes a global opt-out option.
  • A master unsubscribe is when a subscriber chooses to unsubscribe from every email sent from your company. When a subscriber master unsubscribes, their status is set to Unsubscribed on all your lists as well as your master list.
    • For example, if a subscriber is on three of your lists and master unsubscribes from one of your emails, they’ll appear Unsubscribed on all your lists.
  • A global unsubscribe is an event that occurs when a subscriber chooses to unsubscribe from every email sent from the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  • The Salesforce Marketing Cloud manages this list, so if someone globally unsubscribes, their status is changed to Unsubscribed on a global list. This means that none of Salesforce clients can email that subscriber, regardless from what email send they clicked the unsubscribe link.

TRACKING AND REPORTING

Given a customer scenario, explain the different metrics available for email campaigns and what each one means.

  • You run a report from the Tracking tab in your user interface.
  • You can run reports asynchronously, meaning that you can continue working while the report runs off-screen.
  • Reports that you run asynchronously are delivered to your email inbox or FTP server. For some reports, you can also choose to run the report inline and have the results appear on your screen.
  • You can use the Report Status and History screen to view a list of reports that have been requested in your account
  • If you use the interactions feature, you can run a report as an activity
  • When you run a report, you specify the following information:
    • Report Parameters
    • Report Results Delivery
    • Results File Format
    • Run the Report
  • Report file formats:
    • Data File (.csv)
    • Excel spreadsheet (.xls)
    • TIFF Image (.tif)
    • Adobe (.pdf)
    • XML (.xml)
    • Web Archive (.mht)
  • Reports can be delivered to:
    • FTP Folder
    • Email the Report results
    • Display Report Results On Screen
  • Relative date ranges are defined as follows:
    • The last full Week
    • The last full Month
    • The last full Quarter
    • The last full Day

Given an email campaign, describe the steps involved to analyze the performance results.

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=mc_re_email_studio_reports.htm&type=5

Given a need to run reports, configure and run Marketing Cloud adhoc and automated reports

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=mc_re_email_studio_reports.htm&type=5