Top Takeaways from London’s Calling 2024

For those in the Salesforce community who weren’t able to attend London’s Calling 2024, it only seems fair to share a handful of key takeaways from the day.

As a marketer-turned-consultant who specialises in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE/Pardot), I have to admit, that when I attended my first London’s Calling several years ago, there weren’t many sessions focused on martech. However, that has changed and this year, I could easily fill my day with relevant sessions. 

As much as I’d love to write about all the talks I attended (and may do in the future!) for now, I am going to share the most valuable takeaways from three of them.

London’s Calling takeaways

The below sessions stood out as being entirely relevant to the types of clients we work with at MarCloud. We often receive enquiries from marketers venturing into the world of Data Cloud, working with Flow, or inheriting and wrestling with an unruly or broken Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) account.

Here’s what to know if any of those scenarios ring true for you.

During this session, attendees had the pleasure of hearing from Nikki Iverson (Lead Solution Engineer, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) and Ali Travers (Solution Engineer, Data Cloud) on what businesses can expect their futures to be like with Data Cloud. And more importantly, how to prepare for it! 

They broke the Data Cloud implementation process into four steps:

1. Prepare your data

2. Prepare your org

3. Prepare your martech stack

4. Prepare your team

To start with preparing your data feels like a no-brainer, right? But I’ve seen first-hand how companies will try to fly before they can walk. 

Data Cloud pricing is based on a consumption model, which means cleaning and organising your data is definitely not a step to skip. Their advice was to “think big, start small”. Meaning, it’s fine to list out all the data-driven scenarios you want as a business but which are the ones that will give you the most value? Which are the ones making good quality data immediately available?

Next, preparing your organisation. This is all about positioning marketing operations as the leader of AI adoption for sales and marketing. This role includes creating an AI policy, aligning AI with business objectives, and figuring out the most impactful use cases to tackle first.

When prepping your martech stack, you will need to evaluate your existing technologies and their compatibility with AI. Don’t just think about what you already have, either. Be sure to apply this to any future technologies you may use.

Now, preparing the team essentially means doing all of the above. By going through the steps to get your data and company ready for Data Cloud and AI, you will be in a better position to leverage these effectively.

Generally, when it comes to starting with any piece of technology, I truly believe in the “think big, start small” approach - otherwise it can feel overwhelming. Unrealistic goals are set and then teams get frustrated when that tech isn’t delivering any ROI.

If you are considering Data Cloud for your business, the MarCloud team is happy to play both a consultative and practical role in ensuring its solutions are appropriate for your business and how best to get started. Get in touch if you have any questions.

I’m not a Flow admin but this session felt like it could be relevant for having a broader understanding of how Data Cloud will impact various areas of Sales Cloud. 

I must admit this talk was a whirlwind of information and I could barely type fast enough to keep up! The speaker, Mark Ross (Flow content writer for Trailhead), shared valuable insights not only in regards to Flow admins, but on Data Cloud in general. 

1. Data Cloud is a place to store and interrogate data. It doesn’t import it for you. It’s basically a CDP (customer data platform) built to easily access Sales Cloud and other data sources.

2. The way data starts out, is as if it’s a pile of random LEGO pieces. Initially, Data Cloud won’t know which bit connects to another. You have to set up Data Streams (like a funnel), and then configure the mapping (like LEGO instructions) to get the end result of a ‘Model Object’ which is your usable, transformed data.

3. Data Cloud is its own Lightning App, and the UI and setup are quite different from what a Sales Cloud admin is going to be used to, so it will be worth going through Trailheads and any other available training. 

4. Data Cloud can service a variety of use cases, such as general data transformation, segmentation/activation (marketing!), and creating reports and dashboards. Again, you need to understand its capabilities and know your business’ use cases (circling back to the talk above) before you go dashing to your Salesforce AE and signing up.

5. In regards to Flow, you can use this to retrieve data from Data Cloud, or even trigger flows from changes in Data Cloud. Imagine you manage a series of hotel chains and Data Cloud has been set up to retrieve data from your external reservation system. If that reservation gets cancelled, and that data updates in Data Cloud, this can trigger a Flow, which will execute whatever steps are necessary in Sales Cloud (updating records, notifying sales, etc).

The ultimate takeaway for me was that Data Cloud is very much its own beast, so admins will need to spend time upskilling and businesses should allow time for this.

A good starting point for upskilling is the “Unlock your data with Data Cloud” Trailmix.

This talk was geared towards those who are very unfamiliar with Account Engagement (MCAE) and particularly the scenario of having an account land in their lap and needing to know what to do with it. 

Vicki Moritz-Henry (Solution Architect, SAMA) and Abigail Julian (System Admin at Advice UK) shared their top 10 tips. I won’t list all of them but I will highlight the ones that stood out for me:

1. What have I got?

First, you need to understand what you are working with; your version of MCAE, and what that implies for features and functions. 

Find this information under the Account Engagement Settings tab.

• Select ‘Account Settings’ from the left-hand menu (Lightning UI).

• View your org edition (called Account Type) and other basic information. 

• Click into the ‘Usage and Limits’ tab, where you’ll find the good stuff; all the features and functions available to you, whether there are any limits, and how close you are to that limit threshold. If you have items where the utilisation bar is orange or red, those are top priorities to address.

2. Sync errors

Sync errors are slightly tucked away but important to understand because if you expect your prospects to be syncing with Salesforce and they aren’t, then soon you will have two systems with misaligned data. Not good! 

In most cases, sync errors are a result of a Salesforce restriction. A common one is a restricted picklist field, which has been mapped to MCAE but then someone has attempted to add extra values on the MCAE side, without checking that Salesforce will allow them. So, it’s a good opportunity to make friends with your Salesforce admin.

Find sync errors by:

• Heading to the Account Engagement Settings tabs

• Clicking ‘Connectors’ in the left-hand menu click.

• Find the one called ‘Salesforce’ and select the gear icon under ‘Actions’.

• You will see any sync errors, which you can click for further details.

3. Salesforce sync and config

Nicely related to the above, is ensuring you understand how the Salesforce-MCAE sync works. Check how your connector is set up in terms of whether it allows data to flow in both directors or only one. 

Also, check your MCAE objects (Prospects, Accounts, and Opportunities) to see if custom fields have been added and whether they are mapped to Salesforce. Are you missing any important for being able to segment and report? This is another good task to work on with your Salesforce admin.

• Following the steps in the previous tip to navigate to ‘Connectors’

• Next to ‘Salesforce’, click ‘Edit Settings’ from the gear icon 

For looking at the setup of MCAE objects, choose the option just above ‘Connectors’ in that left-hand menu.

4. Deliverability 

Understanding deliverability means delving into your prospect database and seeing how many are mailable (different from “All Prospects” as this number contains both mailable and unmailable people). 

It’s also taking a look at past email bounce rates and deciding whether there is a portion of your data that is bad/old and needs to be culled from the platform.

The best way to view this data is to select the ‘Prospect’ tab in the top nav of MCAE, then go through the different ‘View’ options available in the dropdown on the main screen. You’ll have options for mailable prospects, unmailable, unsubscribed, etc.

5. Conflicting automations

I’ve seen this quite a few times. Teams who start using MCAE previously run by another team, are unaware of all the automations in play and are then left wondering “Why is my VP of Sales getting all these prospect notifications?”. Or, “Why are these unsubscribed prospects being re-subscribed?”. 

MCAE has key areas where automated tasks can occur:

• Engagement Studio

• Automation Rules

• Form completion actions

• Custom redirect completion actions

• Page/File completion actions

Take the time to review each of these and certainly document the ones that are part of an established business process. Then you can decide whether any need tweaking. 

You’ll need to navigate to each of the above features individually to view any ‘actions’.

If you are brand new to MCAE, or even if you have been using it for a while but feel you aren’t maximising its capabilities, our team can help. Send us a message to discuss a one-off project or ongoing support with any Marketing Cloud, Data Cloud, or Sales Cloud account.