We use Salesforce Marketing Cloud for marketing sequences and sending regular email communication. It has two types of email communication. One is transactional emails, which are based on your purchases' history. The solution analyzes your data, including what kind of purchases you've made in the past and what could be your next purchases. Based on this data analysis, it sends you sequences of promotional emails.
The solution creates an entire portfolio of customers, from their first order to the last and potential orders. According to that portfolio, related products and promotions are marketed to customers.
Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics. It identifies what kind of purchases you've made in the past and what potential products you could be buying in the future. We then target those products for marketing purposes.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud should include more point-and-click functionality. Currently, you need help from a technical developer to design email templates. Most people using Salesforce Marketing Cloud prefer to have drag-and-drop and point-and-click functionalities to make their lives easier.
I have been using Salesforce Marketing Cloud for four years.
Around 200 users are using the solution in our organization.
The solution's initial setup is easy. It's like an online portal. You just have to sign up and start using it, and there is no installation.
With the solution's Email Studio feature, you can design your email templates and design promotional and transactional emails. You might need a developer's help designing those emails.
I have integrated Salesforce Marketing Cloud with WordPress. The main strength of Marketing Cloud is that it connects to Salesforce easily and with other platforms like WordPress. It also has the capacity to work independently, but you'll not be able to get data insights about what exactly happened with the orders. You'll get limited features because you opted for limited third-party apps or integrations.
I'll ask a potential user whether they are running any email campaigns and which system they are running them on. They should have all their data ready, which they will put in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. All their email templates and sequences have to be designed before they can start using the solution. They have to push the data inside Salesforce Marketing Cloud and start using it. The Journey Builder in the solution is very efficient and used by 60% to 70% of people.
It is not that easy for a beginner to learn to use Salesforce Marketing Cloud for the first time. You should at least have some experience with email sequencing and email-sending tools like Mailchimp.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.