Elevating marketing automation efforts with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement requires careful planning and strategic execution. Business stakeholders aiming to create engaging email campaigns and landing pages while maximizing return on investment must consider several critical aspects before embarking on their Marketing Cloud Account Engagement journey. This guide provides practical advice and outlines essential pre-implementation steps.

Step 1: Goal-Setting: Laying the Foundation for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Success

Before exploring the features Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement offers, it is important to establish clear objectives. These objectives should align with business goals, whether the aim is to generate more qualified leads, streamline marketing efforts, or outperform competitors.  These objectives will serve as the foundation for your Marketing Cloud Account Engagement strategy and guide you through the Pardot implementation.  

How to Set Goals:

1. Gather the marketing team and key stakeholders to maximize adoption.
2. Brainstorm and identify top marketing challenges and aspirations.
3. Translate these into SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.
4. Prioritize goals based on their impact and alignment with the overall business strategy.
5. Document goals and share them with the team to ensure alignment.

Aligning goals with business objectives ensures that Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement supports organizational success, while prioritized goals help focus on the most impactful features and functionalities.

Examples:

• For increasing lead generation, focus on setting up lead capture forms, landing pages, and lead nurturing campaigns.
• To improve lead quality, configure the system to collect valuable data, score and grade leads based on fit and engagement, and automatically route the best leads to the sales team.

Step 2: Taking Inventory: Assessing Marketing Assets and Data

Prior to configuring Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, make sure to inventory existing marketing assets and data. Analyzing current marketing processes, evaluating email templates, and identifying prospect data for import ensures a smooth transition.

How to Take Inventory:

• Conduct a thorough audit of current marketing systems and data.
• Identify key data points and fields used for segmentation, personalization, and targeting.
• Assess the quality and completeness of existing data.
• Evaluate existing marketing assets, such as email templates, landing pages, and forms.
• Determine which assets can be migrated and which need to be recreated.

A comprehensive inventory ensures the necessary data and assets are available for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, while identifying data gaps and inconsistencies allows for planning data cleansing and enrichment.

Examples:

• To capture specific prospect information, create custom fields to collect this data, enabling more personalized marketing campaigns.
• If the inventory reveals many contacts have changed jobs or companies, updating the data ensures marketing efforts reach the right people.

Step 3: Lead Scoring and Grading: Playing the Matchmaker

Lead scoring and grading in Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement help identify the most compatible leads and prioritize marketing efforts. Defining key attributes and behaviors indicating a lead's engagement and qualification level is essential.

How to Set Up Lead Scoring and Grading:

• Define the ideal lead profile based on demographic, firmographic, and behavioral attributes.
• Assign point values to each attribute based on its importance and relevance.
• Determine the threshold for qualifying a lead as sales qualified (SQL).

Lead scoring and grading help prioritize and focus on the most promising leads. This data-driven process ensures that marketing efforts are directed toward the most viable prospects. Additionally, automated lead qualification saves time and improves the efficiency of marketing and sales. 

Examples:

• If leads who attend webinars are highly likely to convert into customers, set up lead scoring rules to automatically award points to prospects who register for and attend webinars.
• If significant success is seen in a particular industry or vertical, configure lead grading to assign higher grades to leads matching the ideal customer profile within that target market.

Step 4: Phased Approach: Breaking Down the Implementation into Manageable Stages

Implementing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a marathon, not a sprint. Breaking down the implementation into manageable stages allows for focusing on key milestones, prioritizing tasks, and gradually building upon the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement foundation.

How to Plan a Phased Approach:

• Identify the critical components and functionalities that align with goals.
• Prioritize the implementation of these components based on their impact and dependencies.
• Define clear milestones and deliverables for each phase.
• Allocate resources and assign responsibilities for each phase.
• Establish a timeline and communicate the phased approach to the team.

Gradual implementation allows for better adoption and refinement of features, ensuring a smoother transition and maximizing the platform's capabilities. A phased rollout enables the demonstration of quick wins, which can build momentum and enthusiasm within the team. This approach also helps in identifying areas for improvement and adjustments as the implementation progresses.

Examples:

• In the first phase, focus on setting up essential features like email templates, forms, and landing pages to establish a solid foundation.
• In a later phase, implement advanced functionalities like custom redirects, dynamic content, and A/B testing to optimize marketing efforts.

Optimize Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement with Kenway's Expertise

Successful implementation of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement hinges on careful planning, strategic goal-setting, thorough inventory of marketing assets and data, and a phased approach to rollout. By following these steps, businesses can ensure a smooth transition and fully leverage the platform's capabilities to enhance their marketing automation efforts.

Kenway Consulting specializes in guiding businesses through the intricacies of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement implementation. Our team of experts is dedicated to helping organizations achieve their marketing automation goals. For more information on how Kenway Consulting can support your Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement journey, please contact us.