High-quality data is crucial for successful marketing. The way we collect, structure, and maintain this data directly impacts the effectiveness of our marketing strategies, particularly in automating customer journeys. Accurate and organised data allows marketers to engage with their audiences more effectively and tailor their messaging to meet specific needs.
Data collection is the first step, involving the systematic gathering of information from various sources, such as customer interactions, social media, and website analytics. Ensuring that this data is accurate and complete is vital; any discrepancies can lead to misguided marketing efforts.
As you may be aware, Data Cloud is a customer data platform (CDP) that serves as a single source of truth for your customer information. The profiles stored within Data Cloud are designed to be utilised across the entire organisation, encompassing sales, customer service, e-commerce, and more.
For marketers, Salesforce Data Cloud presents a unique opportunity to consolidate data from various sources into a unified platform, enhancing marketing strategies and tactics. One of the key advantages is its seamless integration with other Salesforce solutions, including Marketing Cloud Engagement, Account Engagement, and Sales Cloud.
While there are numerous benefits to highlight, here are the top five advantages of leveraging Salesforce Data Cloud.
1. Be Realtime with automated journeys
When prospects, leads, and customers interact with your website or engage with the marketing communications, your objective then, extends beyond merely tracking these actions for future marketing purposes; A marketing wiz should aim to respond promptly where appropriate.
This may involve initiating an automated journey based on a webpage view or email engagement, thereby facilitating immediate follow-up for further engagement or sales outreach. Alternatively, it may entail excluding prospects or customers from automated activities based on their behaviours, such as submitting a complaint to the customer service team.
In either scenario, marketers utilising Data Cloud can respond to customers in real time, as the data processed within Data Cloud is nearly instantaneous.
2. Better alignment with other Business units
There is little more frustrating for marketers and their audiences than the operation of businesses in siloed teams, which often leads to an overwhelming influx of emails and poorly informed communications that can alienate customers.
However, achieving alignment among teams to ensure that all members possess the same, up-to-date information regarding a contact presents a significant challenge for many organisations, particularly global enterprises. When configured appropriately, Salesforce Data Cloud can serve as a primary solution for dismantling these silos and fostering alignment among business teams.
3. Greater insights into the target audience
Enhanced visibility into customer interactions facilitates a deeper understanding of their behaviors and engagement. Instantly, you can access insights regarding how a customer has interacted with your business across various marketing channels, as well as any engagements with other departments or business functions.
For instance, if a customer has recently contacted the technical support line, this information will be readily available. Similarly, if a prospective university student has reached out to the admissions team, you will be able to view this interaction and promptly implement marketing strategies based on this information.
4. Effective Communication
Enhanced visibility and understanding of your audience hold little value if this information cannot be utilized to enhance marketing efforts. Salesforce Data Cloud integrates seamlessly with Salesforce marketing platforms, enabling not only the ingestion of data but also the effective application of this data in your marketing initiatives.
Whether utilising an Engagement Studio program within Account Engagement or a journey in Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder, you can trigger, pause, or update marketing campaigns based on the data stored in Data Cloud.
Last but probably the most impactful reason –
Personalisation is Paramount
One of the numerous ways Data Cloud enhances marketing efforts is by delivering near real-time data points that facilitate the personalisation of marketing communications. Effective personalisation in email marketing and social media advertising ensures that your messages resonate more profoundly with your audience, thereby improving engagement and overall campaign effectiveness.
Read more about why developers like Salesforce Data Cloud.
