Sitecore integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud

This blog describes the high-level overview of ‘Saleforce Marketing Cloud’ and integration of Sitecore data (Content + xDB) using ‘Sitecore Connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud’ 

Saleforce Marketing Cloud 

• It is a CRM Platform for Marketers.

•  It allows marketers to create and manage marketing automations and campaigns with salesforce contacts.

•  It offers solutions for email, mobile, social media, personalization, advertising, content creation, customer journey management.

•  It includes solutions for data analysis and predictive analytics to take decisions on customer journey.

• This was earlier named as ExactTarget which was used to send bulk emails to Salesforce contacts. Using ExactTarget endpoints, we could push the email templates created in Sitecore into ExactTarget.

• As of now there is no free trail/developer edition of the ‘Salesforce Marketing Cloud’ is available, it is licensed.

Sitecore connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud

•  It integrates Sitecore content (Experience manager and Experience Platform) with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

• This connector is similar to MS dynamics connector (Same structure and concepts) but its one-way communication from Sitecore to Salesforce marketing cloud.

• This connector has 2 parts
o   Content Exchange: Synchronizes Sitecore content with Salesforce marketing cloud
o   Behavioural data Exchange: Synchronizes Sitecore behavioural data from xdb with Salesforce marketing cloud

• Salesforce marketing cloud has a Content Builder tool which synchronizes Sitecore data with easy drag and drop features to quickly create, edit emails, templates, apply automations on data etc.

• The connector is available for download at https://dev.sitecore.net/Downloads/Sitecore_Connect_software_for_Salesforce_Marketing_Cloud/1x/Sitecore_Connect_software_for_Salesforce_Marketing_Cloud_10.aspx

The main purpose behind this is to allow Marketers of Salesforce Marketing Cloud to have a single platform (Salesforce marketing Cloud) to build marketing activities by integrating Sitecore Content and xdb Analytics (user journeys) data.

The below diagram shows the high-level view of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Sitecore integration. It helps to visualize the Sitecore integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Happy Learning ☺