As Salesforce rolls out a new Marketing Cloud release full of exciting developments and features, here at EMPAUA we've gone through the release and pulled out the most exciting bits, so you don't have to.
Content & Email
Litmus preview integration
Your subscribers open your emails via a wide range of apps, with the new Litmus preview integration, you can preview your emails in across over 90 apps and email providers. The "Preview & Test" feature in Content Builder didn't have the functionality which allowed you to view emails from different email providers. You can easily connect with your litmus account and click on the icon to generate the preview.
Sitecore content integration
If you're using the Sitecore CMS, gone are the days of manually uploading creatives to the platform - you can now use the connector to sync all your assets (images, documents...).The assets from Sitecore are uploaded in Sitecore and the connector will bring the images into Content Builder in a read only mode.
Domain Verification & From Address Management
In the Admin tab you can now access From Address Management. From Address Management is used with Domain Verification in Email Studio to search, filter, add, and start the verification email process for from addresses used for sending.
The Data extension will need to have a phone and local fields type to be choosen as a SMS audience.
You will be able to use the data extension fields as personnalisation
AMPscript simplification
Mobile Connect is adding a ContactKey string for AMPscript. This will simplify the SMS personnalisation through your data extensions, and other data modeling elements.The %%ContactKey%% ampscript system variable
Send logging - You can now create a ticket to the Salesforce Support team to enable the SEND_LOGGING business rule to make this feature available.Here are the fields available in the send log data extension :
PushJobID: The ID of the job, or bundle of sends, that included the push notification
PushBatchID: The ID of the batch, or bundle of jobs, for batched sends
SubID: The ID of the subscriber to whom the message was sent
DeviceId: The ID of the device that received the push notification
AppId: The ID of the app that received the push notification
LogDate: The date that this data was written to the send log
SDK improvements and fixes
Important highlight: Inbox updated when app is in foreground for the Android SDK
This validation will help you finding errors in your email prior to the journey activation
This tool will evaluate the following:
Basic email validation, including subject line, address, opt-outs, and more
Basic personalization
AMPscript validation
Audience validation, including data extensions, exclusion lists, suppression lists, and more
Email approval status
Job creation errors
Automation Studio
Interaction Studio DataSalesforce Interaction Studio empowers marketers to visualize real time journey analytics and personalize the consumer experience at scale on all owned channels, both online and offline. With Lifecycle Insights brands can view the macro consumer-led journey and drill-down into touchpoints for deeper touchpoint analysis to see what is working and what needs improvement. Real-time offer management allows marketers to deliver the most valuable consumer offer, content or message when it matters most to the consumer...immediately. Campaign Orchestration connects messaging and next best actions across all touchpoints and while allowing brands to amplified critical messages by pausing less relevant offers, messages and journeys.
Check here before upgrading to the latest version of the connector
WSDL/API Version Update in Marketing Cloud ConnectThis latest version enables Synchronized Data Sources to stream newer, replicable objects to Marketing Cloud.
A/B TestingYou can now select Salesforce data extensions as A/B testing recipients.
Social & Ads
Advertising Studio : Linkedin support
You can now connect your company Linkedin account with Advertising Studio, allowing you to push Ads directly to Linkedin. Great for Lead Nurturing!
Apply Instagram Business Features Across Social Studio, Social Studio Automate and Command CenterConvert your current personal Instagram account into a business account. This will allow you to access those Instagram advanced features into Social Studio; access broader published post metrics, import carousel posts, and tag other Instagram users in photos.
Tag Users, Business Profiles, or Locations in an Instagram Post Image in Social StudioTag users, business profiles, and locations in images added to an Instagram post. This will bring attention and engagement from your followers.
New Engagement Summary Dashboards in Social Studio Analyze
You can create an engagement dashboard using the Engagement summary template. Its cards will display the following: