Marketing Cloud: Spring 2022 Release Updates

Speaker 1: Welcome to the, In The Clouds podcast. In The Clouds is a Marketing Cloud podcast powered by Lev, the most influential marketing- focused Salesforce consultancy in the world. Lev is customer experienced- obsessed, and podcast hosts, Bobby Tichy and Cole Fisher have partnered with some of the world's most well- known brands to help them master meaningful one- on- one connections with their customers. In this podcast, they'll combine strategy and deep technical expertise to share best practices, how- to's, and real life use cases and solutions for the world's top brands using Salesforce products today.

Bobby Tichy: So I already texted you this morning, but I feel like it's... And we'll leave the provider out of it, but I thought this was pretty great. Because I feel like as MarTech continues to get more and more platforms and vendors, and people just come up with different ways to say things that are already available. So again, we'll leave the vendor out of this, but vendor announced, this came out today, vendor announced a bundle of new mobile personalization capabilities in its orchestration application, including several powered by realtime updated profiles in their CDP. New options include, and again, they're focusing on new options here. Location aware triggers, such as messages sent when a customer enters a store, personalized text messages within the campaign, and in- app messages based on customer information. Aren't these all things that people were doing 10 years ago,

Cole Fisher: I feel like development itself sometimes becomes so daunting that you just want to use like old headlines to make it seem like you're still releasing features. We joked around about like, oh, you can also have it like electronic mail reporting and analytics on your www Google machine website.

Bobby Tichy: But do you think the jokes on us? Do you think that this provider, their PR team just was like," You know what? Let's put this out, see if anybody catches on to what we're doing here."

Cole Fisher: See if other vendors will start clamoring to do the same thing.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah. They're just doing it for publicity, like when IHOP changed their name to IHOb a few years ago,

Cole Fisher: I was just thinking about that campaign, that was... Was that like-

Bobby Tichy: They got me. I totally thought they were changing their name to international house of burgers.

Cole Fisher: Fake news.

Bobby Tichy: Speaking of fake news, Nick Burggraf's on the podcast. Hi Nick.

Nick Burggraf: Hey, thanks for having me today.

Bobby Tichy: Nick did a ton of prep for this podcast, so he's ready to wow us. He told us when we were prepping that this was going to be his best podcast appearance.

Nick Burggraf: And could also be my last.

Bobby Tichy: Oh, it could always be your last. But today, we're talking about the Spring'22 release highlights, which just got delayed. It was supposed to come out February 12th, but now it's going to be released February 19th. So that probably doesn't help you with when this podcast will be released, but just for posterity, when it's happening, Nick, we'll start with you, what do you got for us?

Nick Burggraf: First focus is on some mobile updates and marketing cloud... Nice thing here is we all know about the mobile SDK and how Mobile Studio works within Marketing Cloud. One of the updates here is just the way that they do essentially feedback loop for in- app and push messages. So thinking about this before the context of the release, which obviously hasn't happened yet, that it's coming, is providing that feedback loop to say, hey, based on the same way we would look at like email opens and clicks interaction within the email channel, now have the capacity or the ability to look at that feedback loop within the mobile SDK. So nice part about this, I think the biggest value add is associated to actually knowing it's not just a black box, when you go and send an in- app message or a push message in an app environment, you actually can see, hey, where in the life cycle are we interacting with this thing, and then go and decision off of that. So think of that in the context of Journey Builder, making those decisions there.

Bobby Tichy: That's nice, especially considering a lot of customers that we have been using other providers for this type of engagement, and they've been asking Marketing Cloud for this type of feature enhancement for a long time.

Nick Burggraf: Yeah. There's a ton of them out there too, but I know a lot of customers use vendors like Urban Airship because they have provided that feedback loop. So this is just another good enhancement for that mobile... Well, specifically the app experience. The other one that I'll call out to is the, so Salesforce CDP, formally C360 audiences, they returned it sometime last year, I can't remember exactly when. But it's called CDP now, and it has the CDP functions that you would naturally think of. It continues to get better because it's relatively new in the grand scheme in the market for CDPs, but it's all super integrated to the Salesforce platforms. All that to say, partner apps are now a thing. So when we think of the app exchange for Marketing Cloud or any other Salesforce tech, there's a bunch of different vendors that are providing enhancements to that platform, such as managed packages. They're opening that ecosystem to partner apps and allowing partner apps to go and develop on CDP, which is a hyper force, and not to get too in detail of what is built on, but it's providing a lot of additional use cases that are potentially industry or sector specific. Think of healthcare or finance, things like that nature that will now have the opportunity to be enhanced by third party apps.

Cole Fisher: I feel like next release is going to have like a dozen new apps developed that we're going to have to talk about.

Nick Burggraf: Yeah. I'm curious to see what gets launched in there and how quickly it does, because then we can start to go and look at the cool ones.

Bobby Tichy: I think that what we're really missing in the market is an app or a provider that sends some kind of mail electronically as well as is able to track people on websites. I think that would really be a game changer.

Cole Fisher: What if they released something like geofencing, like crosstalk targeted messages in- app.

Bobby Tichy: That's blasphemous.

Nick Burggraf: Don't track me.

Cole Fisher: Well, I think if you felt like you need a seatbelt for Nick's updates, you're going to need a helmet for the Datorama updates.

Bobby Tichy: Nick is prone to falling down.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. So just real quick, it sounds like Datorama's going to have a number of sales and e- commerce focused updates. So first off they've established a new e- commerce data model, which would just be basically an out the box data model that is a little more convenient to set up for organizing e- commerce data from any other platforms, any other e- com platforms. Just in prep for analysis harmonization within Datorama. And with that included actually, a now native connector for Salesforce order management system, the OMS system through Salesforce. So that'll just be a native connection. And then actually two other connectors are Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central inventory. So this will just be connectors for optimizing marketing and commerce performance on sales and orders conducted through Amazon platforms.

Bobby Tichy: I feel like Datorama's pretty easy to set up to begin with. Not easy, I don't want to say that, but it's... All the connectors that are already in place, but you've got to kind of manipulate all those different data models from each of those different connections that you're putting in there. So it's nice that you've got more kind of a predetermined data model to start from if you want to go that route.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. And it sounds like it's supposed to lend itself a little more fluidly to some of the Einstein features in Datorama as well, specific to e- commerce. So I don't think there're going to be new features necessarily, but at least the implementation of the data model will be a little more easily lending itself to those taking advantage of those features. I think the other cool thing though in Datorama, is that they're just adding on new fields for dimensions and measurements within Datorama reports. So I think this probably especially peaks the interests of marketers that are looking to account for or better understand things like iOS 15 users with that ability to suppress reporting on the user level. So if you wanted to break out campaign performance by actual device type or something like that, you can do that now out of the box. So I would imagine that anybody who wants to revisit some of their old dashboards will probably have a couple of new dimensions that they can look at through this.

Bobby Tichy: Unbelievable that Albert Einstein, brilliant mathematician, but can't believe he switched to software and he's still pumping out new features. It's unbelievable.

Cole Fisher: He just never gives up. He never gives up. Actually well, one thing while I'm thinking of it is if there's anybody that still hasn't migrated Discover reports to Datorama reports, that end of life is coming up April 1st, on April fool's day of this year, 2022. So-

Bobby Tichy: Not a joke.

Cole Fisher: Maybe get on that. Crosstalk

Nick Burggraf: What we're saying is we don't know whether they're going to do it or not.

Bobby Tichy: Salesforce is so funny. Speaking of Datorama and Einstein, we've got a new feature called Einstein budget recommendations and that's within the media planning center feature of Datorama. It is in Upsert also, if you've just got the standard licensing or standard SKU for Datorama you won't see it. But media planning center allows you to tie budget to the different campaigns that you're running. And the Einstein budget recommendations allows you to optimize your media plan based on all the budget allocations you've previously entered into Datorama. So clicking a button within that feature, forecast the allocation of your budget using your historical spend and your historical goals. And then you can toggle to another tab that shows you a simulation of the Einstein budget recommendations versus your own. So you can see how that correlates to one another, and then you can also configure the Einstein budget recommendations. So that way, if you don't want it to deviate too much from your original plan, you can add some configuration there. So they give you a little bit of ability to adjust that. Last thing on Einstein is there's the send time optimization feature that's available on Journey Builder, it's now available in Automation Studio. So if you're doing batch sends or automated sends through Automation Studio, you can now leverage that send time optimization, where you can configure over what period, like an eight hour period, you want that email to go out, and for Einstein to optimize when it should be sent. A couple other things that set out, orchestrate journeys based on user behavior with a mobile app event. So you can leverage your mobile app to deliver more contextual experiences for your customers. So now instead of having to kind of go through the previously connected data model, you can just use the mobile app and the SDK to inject folks directly into a journey based on real time behavior. And then based off of that, you can then in real time go send folks a push notification or in- app message, but you can also send customers updates or different journey flows, or realtime messaging based on how they interact with those push notifications and in- app messages. So kind of like what we were talking about before, where you've got the Urban Airships of the world, the Brazes of the world that have had this type of functionality for a while, Marketing Cloud, it's seems like is really investing quite a bit on the mobile studio front to increase the mobile component of their platform. So that's all we got. Cole, Nick, anything else

Cole Fisher: Does that latest mobile update also include geofencing capabilities.

Bobby Tichy: Geofencing? I'm not familiar with that term. Can you explain that? Is that similar to an electric fence?

Cole Fisher: Basically. It's a new thing, I just came up with it. It's not an inaudible.

Nick Burggraf: And we started this podcast, when I say we, I mean you, started this podcast more than two years ago, because then we could like go back and reference the geofencing update from Marketing Cloud back in 2016 or whenever it was.

Bobby Tichy: When did podcasts really start to get popular?

Cole Fisher: I don't think ours ever did.

Bobby Tichy: Oh, no. Ours definitely did not. But I was just thinking like back in 2011, were there podcasts yet? I'm sure there were.

Nick Burggraf: Yeah, it was called the radio.

Bobby Tichy: Ultraviolet is back. Lev's annual conference, Ultraviolet is now open for registration, it'll be returning virtually April 12th and 13th. And based on the fact that both Cole and I did sessions last year, which I think it was pretty clear that ours were one and two, we just kept going back and forth, which one's going to listen to the most.

Cole Fisher: Obviously.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah. But we've got dozens of sessions. It really showcases the best thought leadership from Lev, our customers, as well as our partners, including Salesforce, with a combination of marketing strategy and technical skills. And so there's dozens of sessions, things diving into AMPscript, diving into data modeling within Marketing Cloud, but also journey strategy. Help some of our customers and Salesforce customers are building out their MarTech approach. So you won't want to miss it. You can register and learn more ultravioletconference. com, and we'll also put a link into the podcast on this. Well, shifting to completely unrelated. Since we've got Nick on, and for those of you who haven't listened in the past, Nick Burggraf, he works with Cole and I, also known as the resident punching bag here at Lev. So Cole, you go first, least favorite feature of Nick.

Cole Fisher: I'd hate to sound cliche because I feel like this is everyone's response, but really all the features. Like it's hard to narrow down. In this case, I got to be one of those, like all of the above. Whether it's looking at his face or hearing his voice. Really, I mean, it's just hard to stop when you describe-

Bobby Tichy: So it's like when someone asks what do you love most about your wife? And you just say everything. It's kind of the same thing in this scenario. What do you hate most about Nick? It's everything.

Cole Fisher: I mean, they all lean themselves to something super hateable, am I right?

Nick Burggraf: I'm the whole package.

Cole Fisher: Well rounded, he's well rounded folks.

Bobby Tichy: Nick, what do you hate most about yourself?

Nick Burggraf: Well, I'd like to kind of change the context of the question and make it the most favorite thing, and building off what Cole said, I think pretty much everything about myself I like.

Cole Fisher: This is why we hate him so much.

Bobby Tichy: If you could just narrow it down to three things that you love about yourself.

Nick Burggraf: That I love or that I hate about myself? I'm going to say my hairline, because I think it's receding. I'm getting to that age.

Bobby Tichy: So you love that?

Nick Burggraf: No, no, that's the part I hate.

Bobby Tichy: Oh, okay.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. I hate bald people, just so you know, Nick.

Nick Burggraf: It's a good thing this isn't a video podcast.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. Because then everybody would see that I'm completely bald. What about you Bobby?

Nick Burggraf: Bobby, what about you?

Bobby Tichy: No, I'm still waiting for the three things you love most about yourself.

Cole Fisher: Oh, that's going to take forever.

Bobby Tichy: Oh boy. Are we doing love or hate? We'll do hate. I hate the way Nick tells stories. Nick tells stories like you've got nothing to do all day and you're just so excited to listen to this story. He gives you every tiny detail, no matter how insignificant, and it does not matter to the story whatsoever.

Cole Fisher: He'll start describing like how much dew was on the ground of the morning, that he's taking a walk. And you're like, you know this is only like a one hour call. Like we have to go to other meetings today.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah. Well, the story that always comes to mind or really kind of started this whole understanding of how poor Nick is at storytelling, which I feel bad for his kids that he's going to have to tell them night or bedtime stories as they get older. But he was telling us a story about how his dog jumped into a river and he had to jump in and save him. But before then, for like 10 minutes prior, he's telling us about how he and his wife and his daughter were out in a walk with their dog, it was a cold morning, there was dew on the ground, and it was foggy. Like there's this 10 minute lead up to just, yeah, Lou jumped in the river and I had to go get him.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. Whatever you're going to say, like maybe that old expression, cut it in half and then cut it in half again, I just want cliff notes for whatever story Nicks about to tell.

Bobby Tichy: But even if Nick cut in half then cut it in half again, it would still be an eight minute story when it should be an eight second story.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. Nick, eight words at most, go.

Nick Burggraf: That reminds me of something that happened last week.

Cole Fisher: Oh, great. Hurry, cut this thing off.

Bobby Tichy: Well, please email us. Please email us with content ideas and questions, intheclouds @ levdigital. com. We're running out. We got nothing else to talk about.

Cole Fisher: Yeah. Otherwise, we're going to start having Nick's story hour.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah. That's a good idea.

Cole Fisher: So save yourselves.

Bobby Tichy: Save yourselves.

Nick Burggraf: Yeah, the podcast takeover. I'll tell you one story in an hour.

Cole Fisher: Yeah.

Bobby Tichy: Well, thanks Nick for joining. Thanks to mom for listening. I'm just kidding, my mom doesn't listen. But thanks to Cole's mom for listening. And we'll see you next time.