Navigating the Future of Marketing: Is Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next Your Next Big Leap?

The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving, and so are the tools we use to connect with customers. Salesforce Marketing Cloud has long been a powerhouse, offering customer experience solutions tailored to diverse business needs. Now Salesforce has brought us a new set of tools called Marketing Cloud Next, which includes the new Marketing Cloud on Core (Growth/Advanced Editions). Is Marketing Cloud Next a good fit for your organization? Let’s dive in.

The Traditional Landscape: Tried & True Solutions 

Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE) (formerly known as Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC)) has traditionally been the enterprise-level solution. MCE is known for its flexibility and open data architecture (easily fit it into your MarTech stack), ability to adapt to various data models, strong marketing automation features, robust built-in content management capabilities, powerful AMPscript (proprietary coding language) for advanced personalization, and ability to execute across multiple channels (email, SMS, push, ads). This solution is known and trusted for some of the largest-volume email senders. Security, scalability, and uptime are all part of its reputation, for good reason.

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) (formerly known as Pardot) is known as the preferred B2B marketing automation solution. B2B marketing is simplified because in MCAE, the data model is Salesforce CRM. In addition, MCAE comes equipped with built-in lead scoring and strong capabilities for creating multi-touch drip campaigns using emails and landing pages.

While many businesses use these tools in the traditional sense (MCE for B2C and MCAE for B2B), there are certainly no set rules and the tools are versatile enough to fit many profiles. In fact, many companies have found it advantageous to use both solutions side by side.  

Enter the Next Generation: Marketing Cloud Next 

Salesforce has introduced a suite of tools under the umbrella name of Marketing Cloud Next. Why a new set of tools? Because marketers now have the opportunity to reimagine the way they do marketing from the ground up. Consider this: We have new solutions like CDPs and AI tools. Organizations have more consumer data than ever before. And, customer demands for seamless, cross-channel experiences are higher than ever before. Marketers can keep integrating with other systems, passing data back and forth, and crowding their MarTech stacks. Or, they can look to enterprise solutions like Marketing Cloud Next for a solution that is more streamlined and innovative. The name “Marketing Cloud Next” refers to the Next Generation – marketing tools that use one data set, allow one common workflow across departments, and come with built-in AI capabilities. 

Whether you’ve been using Salesforce marketing solutions or you are entirely new to them, how do you know whether to take the leap into the Next Generation tools? While we believe there are benefits for any organization, the following eight attributes are common for marketers who are finding great success in Marketing Cloud Next. 

1. Innovation is Your North Star

If your organization prides itself on innovative marketing and craves faster access to the latest innovations, Marketing Cloud Next is built with you in mind. Salesforce is likely to innovate faster on the roadmap for this new suite of tools compared to older technologies. 

2. You Want to Move Faster with Artificial Intelligence

For organizations that already leverage AI or are eager to adopt it into their marketing workflows, Marketing Cloud Next is optimal because AI enhancement opportunities are built into capabilities throughout the solutions.

3. Salesforce CRM Guides Much of Your Business 

If your organization does a significant amount of work within Salesforce CRM, Marketing Cloud Next will be an easier lift and a natural fit to your process, because CRM is the foundation. 

4. Salesforce Data Cloud is Your Identity Resolution Engine 

While Salesforce CRM is the foundation, Data Cloud is Marketing Cloud Next’s data backbone.

5. Cross-Channel Customer Experiences Are Critical 

If seamless, harmonized customer experiences across both online channels (email, SMS, push, ads) and offline interactions (sales, customer service, in-store) are critical to your business, Marketing Cloud Next can help you achieve this faster and easier. 

6. Your Organization is Looking to Streamline 

Perhaps you’re looking to streamline because your MarTech stack is unnecessarily complex or costly. Or, perhaps you can’t achieve real-time customer experiences because of data resolution timing lags across platforms. Marketing Cloud Next is entirely built on the CRM platform to help alleviate these common pain points. 

7. Your Creative Process is Template-Driven 

Marketing Cloud Next offers better creative scalability than legacy tools. A global CMS is embedded, and there are a number of ways to supplement the creative process with AI. If you’re already using a templated approach vs. full new creatives for every campaign, Marketing Cloud Next will be a natural extension. 

8. Your Organization Pioneers Technology 

Marketing Cloud Next is ideal for teams who are perennial voluntary beta testers and are open to experimenting with a new platform.  

Is It Time for Your Organization to Go “Next?” 

If even a few items on the above list resonate with you, talk to your Salesforce Account Executive about Marketing Cloud Next. Even customers of the legacy tools can have Marketing Cloud Next features provisioned to their accounts, so they can take advantage of innovations today. 

Additional resources to check out: 

1. The Salesforce Blog regularly publishes great content about the marketing technology landscape and their proprietary offerings. 

2. Trailblazer Community groups, with designations by Cloud, interest, or geography, are a great resource for connecting with colleagues and sharing knowledge. 

3. HowToSFMC is a fantastic community that runs a Slack channel (with job board) and very helpful YouTube videos. 

4. Nobuyuki Watanabe’s channel on Medium.com is full of great insider tips and tracks on Marketing Cloud Next.  

5. ListEngage is a Salesforce Professional Services partner with expertise in Marketing Cloud Next, CRM, Data Cloud, and AI. Reach out to us to discuss your marketing technology questions.