Why MarCloud Loves Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition

Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition isn’t just a powerful marketing automation tool; it’s a platform that opens up endless possibilities for creating personalised, data-driven customer journeys that can respond in real time.

As Founder of MarCloud, I’m excited to share what makes this edition our favourite yet. Advanced Edition offers a host of features that allow us to build campaigns with richer personalisation, smarter automation, and deeper insights than ever before. Here’s a closer look at why we love it and why it’s the top choice for any business looking to elevate its marketing game.

9 reasons to love Marketing Cloud Advanced

‘On-core’ structure

Unlike earlier Salesforce marketing tools like Marketing Cloud Engagement and Account Engagement, which were acquired and then adapted for Salesforce, Advanced was built from the ground up by Salesforce.

It’s seamlessly connected with other Salesforce tools and supports direct data integration with Data Cloud. This means that instead of wrestling with clunky connections, everything feels cohesive and easy to manage. 

For MarCloud, that’s a huge plus. It allows our clients to unify data and workflows, creating a truly streamlined experience across sales, service, and marketing.

Account Engagement Plus, Advanced, and Premium customers have access to Advanced features directly within their account.

Effortless data integration with cross-object references

One of the biggest challenges we faced with Account Engagement was working around data limitations, like including Opportunities as merge fields in campaign content. This has always required a lot of customisation and ‘hacking’ to implement.

With Advanced Edition, cross-object referencing is somewhat easy to do as we can lean on unified profiles in Data Cloud! Now, we can pull in data directly from different Salesforce objects (e.g., Opportunities) using a data graph. 

This simplifies how we create complex, personalised experiences and means no more frustrating workarounds. Our clients can leverage their data in powerful ways, connecting marketing and sales to create campaigns that align with actual business goals.

Advanced Dynamic content blocks for personalised experiences

Creating engaging, personalised content is what makes marketing memorable. Advanced Edition takes this to a whole new level with dynamic content blocks. 

Rather than personalising just a small part of an email, like a greeting, you can now personalise entire sections of content based on each customer’s data profile. This means we can easily swap out entire blocks of content based on the user’s interests, behaviour, or history with the brand. It’s intuitive and, frankly, a game-changer for brands wanting to deliver truly unique experiences.

Plus, dynamic content in Advanced Edition comes with the ability to add multiple criteria. In Account Engagement, it’s possible to dynamically insert content depending on a prospect’s location - such as the UK or the US - but you can’t add another layer, such as the prospect being in the UK and a Marketing Manager. With Marketing Cloud Advanced you get more advanced dynamic content logic like this.

Enhanced SMS capabilities with Einstein

With SMS being a popular communication channel, we’re thrilled about Advanced Edition’s enhanced SMS features. Not only does it support SMS merge fields, but it also integrates with Einstein, Salesforce’s AI tool, to help with SMS content creation. 

Imagine being able to craft highly targeted messages based on real-time data and behaviour, with Einstein suggesting optimisations along the way!

Two-way WhatsApp and WeChat are also on the roadmap, so soon, we’ll be able to create fully interactive mobile campaigns, giving customers a more engaging and personalised experience.

Message Series & Path Experimentation

Managing customer journeys is where Advanced Edition really shines. The platform includes Message Series via Flow, which is comparable to Engagement Studio or Journey Builder. We can build complex, automated journeys with an incredible level of detail. 

But what’s even better is Path Experimentation, allowing us to A/B test different paths within a single journey. This means you can try different approaches to see which one resonates most with your audience.

Another feature we love is Engagement Frequency and Send Time Optimization, which helps fine-tune when and how often messages are sent. This not only prevents oversaturation but ensures that communications are landing at the best possible times for engagement. It’s a massive advantage for keeping customers interested without overwhelming them.

Channel preference and response-driven automation

Advanced Edition also makes it easy to respect customers’ preferences. The ‘Check for channel preference’ node allows us to send messages based on opt-in preference, so if a customer prefers SMS over email, you can set up the path so they automatically receive an SMS. No manual intervention is needed. 

Additionally, Advanced includes an automated “wait step” feature that pauses a customer’s journey until they respond to an SMS before moving to the next step. This responsiveness ensures a seamless experience where the customer’s actions drive the journey.

Powerful reporting with Data Cloud-powered dashboards

Data is only as good as the insights you can derive from it, and the reporting capabilities in Advanced Edition are impressive. Powered by Data Cloud, the SMS and email engagement dashboards include contextual analytics, allowing you to see engagement data at the campaign level and even drill down into customer records. 

This enables us to make data-driven decisions without switching tools or leaving the dashboard, which is incredibly convenient. For example, if a customer’s engagement level changes mid-campaign, we can adjust the journey on the spot to maintain relevance.

New communication channels on the horizon

WhatsApp and WeChat will be added to the platform as communication channels within Flows. This means brands can engage customers on platforms they already use and trust, making campaigns even more effective. It’s especially exciting for businesses with audiences overseas, where SMS campaigns aren’t possible.

Independent consent model for better privacy management

Finally, it’s worth noting that Advanced Edition operates on a separate consent model from Salesforce’s main CRM. This is a significant advantage when managing customer privacy preferences because it allows for more flexibility in handling marketing consents without affecting core Salesforce settings.

For businesses juggling global data privacy regulations, this feature simplifies compliance and keeps the marketing team in control of consent preferences independently from sales and service teams.

Are you as excited as us?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition brings together everything we love: seamless data integration, advanced personalisation, intuitive automation, and powerful insights. 

For brands wanting to move beyond the basics and achieve a truly dynamic marketing strategy, Advanced Edition offers all the tools needed to make it happen. Its on-core build with Data Cloud means everything is tightly connected, making data-driven marketing simpler, smarter, and more efficient.

If you’re curious about how Advanced Edition could transform your marketing strategy, I invite you to join our upcoming webinar on Understanding Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced. You’ll see each platform’s capabilities firsthand and have the chance to ask questions. Register now.