Collecting data on leads, prospects, and customers doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, there are several powerful tools and software platforms that make the customer journey easy and exciting. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is one such platform that provides marketers with incredible data-based insights in addition to the tools needed to run effective campaigns.
If you already rely on web forms for digital marketing campaigns, you’re one step ahead of the game. In this post, we’ll explain what Salesforce Marketing Cloud is, how it can accelerate your existing efforts, and how you can integrate and import your current customer data.
What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a specialized marketing platform built on the Salesforce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. Marketing Cloud is a customer-centric, enterprise level tool that gives marketers ultimate control and insight into the customer journey.
Marketing Cloud’s 360-degree approach to customer relationships means that there are tools and services for nearly every need. Specialized features include:
- Email studio to build personalized messaging
- Journey builder to monitor customer interactions throughout each department
- Interaction studio for building valuable engagement
- Pardot for B2B marketing automation with sales teams
- Mobile studio to personalize SMS, push notifications, and chat messages
Why should you use Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Marketing Cloud is a natural fit for existing Salesforce users, especially those that want to make improvements to marketing strategy, tools, and analytics.
If you’re brand new to the Marketing Cloud platform, there are still plenty of convincing reasons to incorporate it into your workflow.
- Marketing Cloud helps you know your customers better. Imagine the way results can change once you have a grasp on detailed demographics, activity, and buyer behaviors.
- It empowers marketers to create personalized and engaging journeys. Does your team want to deliver the right piece of content at just the right time? Do you want to use targeted ads that resonate with the perfect audience? Marketing Cloud equips teams to do just that.
- Powerful analytics allow you to view your impact in real time. Hit KPIs more easily with a better understanding of spending, engagement, social impact, and more.
Who benefits from Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud isn’t just helpful for a single industry. Its uses and applications are beneficial for nearly any vertical, business, or organization that leverages customer insights. Additionally, organizations that regularly capture data on leads and prospects are the perfect fit.
For example, financial services companies that use lead routing and lead qualification can do so by setting up standard actions within Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This process ensures that a company devotes the appropriate amount of sales energy and assets into specific opportunities, based on the potential of those opportunities to convert into deals.
How to get data into Marketing Cloud
There are a few different options for syncing data with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but most users choose from one of two paths.
- Importing data. With Marketing Cloud, users can import existing data using flat files or spreadsheets. This is particularly helpful when adding new subscribers to email campaigns or marketing lists from a known database.
- Using an integration to sync live data. On the other hand, connecting to a live CRM integration is the fastest way to import data as it is submitted. In the case of FormAssembly and Salesforce, when users submit a web form with contact information, that data flows directly to Marketing Cloud through a connector. The data which is collected through a form or website is visible to everyone with access to Marketing Cloud, promoting greater transparency and action.
FormAssembly’s Marketing Cloud Connector
The FormAssembly Marketing Cloud Connector allows users to quickly create subscribers, assign new subscribers to lists, and send information to custom data extensions. The Marketing Cloud Connector is available to any user with a Premier, Enterprise, or Compliance Cloud plan.
Setting up the connector is fairly straightforward. Form builders simply need to set the connector timeline by navigating to the form’s Connectors page, and then manually configuring it by logging in using Marketing Cloud credentials.
If you’re a FormAssembly user hoping to connect data with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, our helpful Knowledge Base is the best resource for detailed instructions and how-to’s.
The current version of the Marketing Cloud Connector is up-to-date to accommodate Enhanced API updates from Salesforce.
Learn more about FormAssembly + Salesforce
Thousands of global organizations rely on the unparalleled potential of FormAssembly and Salesforce to raise the bar on marketing efforts. Will your organization be one of them? Discover our most popular Salesforce use cases, form features, security standards, and more.
