Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is a powerful tool for simplifying marketing automation and improving customer engagement. We’ve been working on the system for many years – in fact well before it was acquired by Exact Target and then Salesforce in 2012. Although this seems a long time ago to me, my boss Mike seems to believe that it was just yesterday (even though it was about 13 years ago)!
We’ve gathered 15 practical tips that will save you time, improve your campaigns, and in turn, maximise results.
1. Use a Clear Naming Convention for Everything
A consistent naming convention is essential for organising materials such as campaigns, email templates, and lists. This ensures your team can quickly locate and work on resources.
If you’re setting up your marketing automation platform, think carefully about creating a structure that will grow with your campaigns over time. However, if your current setup lacks organisation, it’s never too late to implement a new naming convention. Introducing a structure can significantly improve efficiency.
Tip: Use a structure that includes campaign names, date and the version (e.g., BU_Year_Month_CampaignName_Type_Version) for easy identification.
2. Create Folders and Maintain a Clear Structure
Creating an organised folder system may seem obvious, but it’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve efficiency. Without an organised folder system, files can become difficult to find, leading to unnecessary confusion and wasted time. To ensure everything is easily accessible, structure your workspace.
A well thought out folder system ensures that everyone knows exactly where to find materials, whether they’re working on campaigns, accessing client work, or collaborating across departments. Maintaining consistency in folder organisation is especially crucial as your team grows.
Tip: Use a structured approach like Year > Business Unit > Month (if applicable) > Campaign Name. For example: 2025 > EMEA > 02_February > ProductLaunch_Campaign
A structured system saves time and makes collaboration more seamless.
3. Use SFMC’s Automation to Simplify Processes
SFMC’s automation features, like Engagement Studio, allow you to create workflows that trigger specific actions based on user behaviour. These automations save time and increase efficiency when managing campaigns.
To use Engagement Studio effectively, start by mapping out your workflow before building it in Marketing Cloud. Define your campaign goals and outline the key steps you want to automate, such as nurturing leads with a series of emails or adjusting scores based on engagement. A clear plan helps you design workflows that align with your objectives and avoid unnecessary complexity.
Tip: Start with simple automations, like assigning leads to sales based on activity, and test them to ensure they work as expected. For actions like sending a thank-you email after a form submission, use the Form Completion Action. Regularly review and adjust your workflows based on performance data to improve results.
4. Set Up Engagement Programs for Nurturing Leads
Engagement programs let you automate lead nurturing by delivering relevant content over time. This keeps your brand top of mind as prospects move through the sales funnel and helps build stronger relationships with your audience.
Example: If a prospect downloads an eBook, you can add them to a nurture flow that shares additional content related to the eBook topic. Over time, they might receive a series of emails with blog posts, case studies, or webinars that dive deeper into the subject.
Tip: Set clear goals for each engagement program, such as driving webinar registrations or converting leads into customers, and ensure the program aligns with your overall marketing strategy.
5. Use SFMC’s Scoring and Grading System for Lead Qualification
SFMC’s lead scoring and grading features help you prioritise high quality leads, by evaluating both their level of engagement and their fit with your ideal customer profile. Lead scoring and grading work together to give your team a clear picture of which prospects are most likely to convert.
Lead scoring assigns points to prospects based on their interactions with your content, such as opening emails, clicking links, visiting landing pages, or downloading resources. The more a prospect interacts with your content, the higher their score, indicating a stronger interest in your brand.
By combining scores and grades, you can prioritise leads who are both highly engaged and a good fit for your business. For instance, a lead with a high score but a low grade may not be worth pursuing, while a lead with both a high score and grade should be a top priority.
Tip: Regularly review and adjust your scoring and grading criteria based on past data to improve accuracy.
6. Segment Your Audience for Maximum Relevance
Segmentation is key to delivering the right message to the right audience. SFMC allows you to create segmented lists based on user behaviours, demographics and interactions. By creating segments based on customer behaviour or demographics, you can adjust your messaging and improve engagement.
Example: You can create a segment of users who have downloaded eBooks on specific topics. This allows you to send highly targeted follow up emails, offering related resources like webinars or case studies.
Tip: Use dynamic lists to automatically update segments as users engage with your campaigns. This ensures your messages remain relevant without manual intervention.
7. Use A/B Testing to Optimise Campaigns
A/B testing can boost engagement and conversion rates by helping you understand what resonates best with your audience. Experiment with different subject lines, email copy, CTA buttons, and visual elements. By testing variations, you can improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Example: You could run an A/B test on an email subject line by comparing one that’s more straightforward, such as “Exclusive Offer Inside” versus one that creates more curiosity, like “You Won’t Believe This Special Offer”. Then, you can analyse how each version performs in terms of open rates and click-through rates.
Tip: Run A/B tests and analyse the data to refine your approach:
- Open Rates – Compare subject lines to see which one gets more attention.
- Click Through Rates – Check which version of your email leads to more clicks to your landing page.
- Conversion Rates – Determine which email leads to more conversions, such as form submissions or downloads.
- Bounce Rates – Check if one version has higher bounce rates, which might indicate deliverability or issues with the content.
- Engagement Metrics – Look at how long recipients spend reading your email.
8. Personalise Email Content for Better Engagement
Personalisation is key to grabbing attention and boosting conversions. Using the recipient’s name or company name can make your emails feel more relevant, but only if your data is accurate. If your database contains incomplete or inconsistent entries, personalisation can have the opposite effect.
Tip: Use merge fields to automatically insert personalised details and create more engaging, targeted messages efficiently. However, always have a backup option (e.g., “Dear Customer”) in case the data is incomplete. Regularly check and clean your database to ensure accuracy and improve personalisation effectiveness.
9. Keep Contact Data Accurate for Successful Personalisation
To make your personalised emails more effective, it’s essential to keep your contact data up to date. Instead of relying on static information, you can use progressive profiling to gather more details over time as contacts interact with your forms.
Example: Each time a contact downloads a resource or fills out a form, you can ask for additional details, starting with basic information like name and email, then gradually collecting additional data like job title, company size, or industry. This allows you to build a more complete profile without overwhelming users with lengthy forms.
By using progressive profiling, you ensure your database remains current, helping you refine segmentation and tailor your messaging more effectively.
Tip: Use progressive profiling to update contact records gradually but focus on collecting information that directly improves your ability to deliver relevant content. Regularly review the data to guarantee it aligns with your personalisation strategy.
10. Monitor Email Deliverability and Engagement Metrics
Tracking email performance metrics like open rates, click through rates and bounce rates is key for campaign success. Keeping a close eye on these metrics helps you identify issues early and improve overall performance.
Tip: Set up alerts for key metrics, such as high bounce rates, so you can quickly address issues. But, keep in mind, access to these alerts may depend on user permissions within your platform.
By setting up alerts for important metrics, you can stay ahead of issues and ensure your emails are making an impact.
11. Regularly Clean Your Lists for Accuracy
A clean email list reduces bounce rates and ensures your campaigns reach active, engaged users. Over time, inactive contacts can negatively affect your deliverability and overall email performance. Regular list cleaning helps keep your audience relevant and engaged.
Example: Removing inactive users who haven’t engaged with your emails in the past 6-12 months can improve your sender reputation and boost open rates.
Tip: Use SFMC’s list management tools to regularly find and remove inactive users from your list.
By using SFMC’s list management tools, you can keep your email list accurate and effective, ensuring your campaigns consistently reach engaged and interested recipients.
12. Test Emails Across Different Devices
Emails don’t look the same on every device. With over 46% of email opens happening on mobile devices, ensuring your emails are responsive and display properly for all recipients is essential. A poor user experience can lead to decreased engagement and higher unsubscribe rates.
You may have a well-designed email that looks good on a desktop but displays poorly on mobile, this could result in a missed opportunity to connect with nearly half of your audience. Testing ensures your messages are responsive and display properly for all recipients.
Tip: Use SFMC’s email preview tools to test your designs across a variety of devices before sending.
13. Use Email Metrics for Insights into User Behaviour
SFMC’s email reporting features allow you to see who opens, clicks, and interacts with your content. This helps you gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences, so you can refine your marketing strategies.
Example: If a particular email campaign has a high open rate but low click-through rate, it might indicate that your subject line is effective, but the content or call-to-action needs improvement. Tracking opens and clicks helps you understand which parts of your email resonate and which need adjustment.
These insights can help you make more informed decisions on messaging, timing, and segmentation, driving better results and engaging your audience more effectively. Tracking this data also allows you to identify disengaged segments, giving you an opportunity to re-engage them with tailored content.
Tip: Use SFMC’s email reporting tools to track opens, clicks, and other engagement metrics for a better understanding of how your audience interacts with your emails.
14. Manage Gmail Submissions to Improve Data Quality and Deliverability
When designing forms, it’s important to consider Gmail addresses in your submission process. While excluding them entirely can help reduce spam risks and prevent deliverability issues (since Gmail tends to flag embedded or linked forms as spam), it can also lower lead volume and deter genuine prospects. Instead of completely blocking Gmail users, consider a balanced approach to manage them effectively.
Tip: Use progressive profiling to gather additional information, such as a business email, from Gmail users. Alternatively, set up an automation rule to move Gmail addresses into a separate list, where you can offer lower-funnel content and gather more data. This approach allows you to gradually collect more insights before offering high-value assets.
15. Partner with Experts to Maximise Marketing Automation Success
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers a powerful suite of tools to drive marketing success, but navigating its full potential can be challenging. Working with experts ensures you’re getting the most out of the platform.
Tip: Engage marketing automation specialists, like Napier, to unlock SFMC’s full capabilities. Our digital team can help with everything from strategy and implementation to campaign optimisation, allowing you to focus on achieving your business goals while they handle the technical details. Our knowledge and experience can improve campaign results, and ensure you stay ahead in a competitive market. Get in touch today!
