Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a powerful tool for digital marketing automation that has become increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes. As a Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant, you can help organizations optimize their marketing campaigns by leveraging the full potential of this platform. To become a certified Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant, you need to pass the certification exam, which requires a deep understanding of the platform’s functionalities, features, and best practices.
In this blog, we will provide you with useful tips and insights on how to prepare for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam and increase your chances of passing it on the first attempt. Whether you are a seasoned marketing professional or just starting with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, this guide will help you navigate through the exam preparation process and ace the certification exam.
About the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant program
The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant is able to meet customer business requirements that are maintainable, scalable, and contribute to long-term customer success. He/She has experience using Marketing Cloud tools in executing both tactical and strategic email campaigns. The consultant knows how to build email marketing campaigns while incorporating different tools such as the content system, segmentation, automation, tracking, and analytics in order to make data-driven decisions with a motive to optimize customer email campaigns. The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant is also able to troubleshoot and solve platform issues.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant Glossary
Here are some common terms and phrases used in Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
- Email Studio: A tool in Salesforce Marketing Cloud that enables users to create, send and track email campaigns.
- Journey Builder: A visual tool for creating and automating customer journeys across multiple channels, including email, SMS, social media, and advertising.
- Data Extensions: A database table in Salesforce Marketing Cloud that holds information about your subscribers or customers.
- Automation Studio: A tool that enables users to automate various marketing processes, including sending emails, updating data extensions, and scheduling social media posts.
- Subscriber: An individual who has opted in to receive communication from your organization.
- Subscriber Key: A unique identifier assigned to each subscriber in a data extension.
- Triggered Sends: An email send that is triggered by a subscriber action, such as a sign-up or purchase.
- Journey: A series of automated marketing messages sent to a subscriber based on their behavior or actions.
- Personalization: The process of customizing email content for individual subscribers based on their preferences or behavior.
- Dynamic Content: Content within an email that changes based on specific data or subscriber behavior.
- Sender Profile: A configuration that specifies the sender’s name, email address, and reply-to email address for an email send.
- Sender Authentication Package: A collection of email authentication protocols that help to ensure email deliverability and prevent spam.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of email recipients who click on a link within an email.
- Open Rate: The percentage of email recipients who open an email.
- Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of email recipients who unsubscribe from future email communication.
- A/B Testing: The process of testing two variations of an email or landing page to determine which performs better.
- Lead Scoring: The process of assigning a score to a subscriber based on their behavior or actions, indicating their level of interest in your product or service.
- Marketing Cloud Connect: A tool that integrates Salesforce Marketing Cloud with Salesforce Sales Cloud or Service Cloud, allowing marketers to access customer data from both systems.
- Social Studio: A tool that enables marketers to manage and publish social media content, monitor social media activity, and track social media performance.
- Journey Analytics: A tool that provides insights into the effectiveness of your customer journeys, allowing you to optimize and improve your marketing efforts.
Expert tips to pass the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam
Here are some expert tips to help you pass the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam:
- Study the official exam study guide: The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam study guide is a comprehensive resource that outlines all the topics covered in the exam. It is essential to read and understand the guide before taking the exam.
- Gain hands-on experience: One of the best ways to prepare for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam is to gain hands-on experience with the platform. Practice building campaigns, creating automation workflows, and working with data extensions to get familiar with the platform.
- Understand the exam format: The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam is a multiple-choice exam consisting of 60 questions. You will have 105 minutes to complete the exam, and you need to score 67% or higher to pass.
- Focus on the key areas: The exam covers various topics, but some areas are more critical than others. For example, understanding data architecture and data management is essential for the exam. Ensure you have a clear understanding of key concepts such as data relationships, data extensions, and data retention policies.
- Take practice exams: There are several practice exams available online that can help you prepare for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam. Taking these exams will give you a good idea of what to expect on the actual exam and help you identify areas where you need to improve.
- Attend training sessions: Salesforce offers several training sessions for the Marketing Cloud Consultant exam. Attending these sessions can be helpful in understanding the key concepts and preparing for the exam.
- Join the Salesforce Community: Joining the Salesforce Community can be a valuable resource for exam preparation. You can connect with other Salesforce professionals, ask questions, and get advice on how to prepare for the exam.
- Stay updated: The Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform is continually evolving, and it’s essential to stay updated on the latest changes and updates. Subscribe to relevant blogs, attend webinars, and participate in forums to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and updates.
By following these tips and putting in the time and effort, you can increase your chances of passing the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam.
Who all are eligible for the certification exam?
This certification exam is targeted towards the Salesforce consultant or partner who has mastered the implementation of Marketing Cloud by demonstrating design best practices, executing deployment of campaigns, and finalizing custom solutions for customers. Candidates should possess broad knowledge of customizing Salesforce, regularly configuring the platform, managing users, and looking for ways to get even more out of its features and capabilities.
Exam Pre-requisites
Before you begin your preparation for the exam, you must be aware of whether there are any prerequisites to the exam or not. This is basically a prior condition that needs to be fulfilled before you began the next step.
The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant generally has six or more months of implementation experience and/or at least five implementation projects with hands-on experience as a Salesforce Marketing Cloud Solutions Architect or similar expertise implementing Marketing Cloud and associated tools. The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant possesses facilitation and consultative skills at a technical level.
You can refer to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant online tutorial on the same for more information.
Skills and Knowledge Required
The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant candidate has the experience, skills, knowledge, and ability to:
- Incorporate different tools such as segmentation, automation, tracking, and analytics to make data-driven decisions to optimize email campaigns.
- Troubleshoot and solve basic platform issues.
- Then, write basic SQL, including join statements.
- Utilize scripting for use in messaging and CloudPages (AMPscript, Guide Template Language, Server-Side Javascript).
- Configure account setup and administration (BUs, roles and permissions, profiles, SAP, RMM, Users, subscriber filters, SFTP).
- Likewise, configure data (data extensions, Contact Builder).
- Also, manage unsubscribes (custom Preference Center).
- Define and execute email data interactions (import, data extracts, file transfers).
- Configure automation.
- Understand Web Service offerings.
- Then, manage and troubleshoot Marketing Cloud Connect.
- Configure Distributed Marketing.
- Understand the Contact Delete process.
- Lastly, Invest time in studying the resources listed in this exam guide and the additional required study materials provided by Salesforce.
A candidate for this exam is not expected to know Social Studio, Audience Builder, or Pardot. Also, below mentioned are some of the recommended prerequistes that are not complusory but one can definitely consider them:
- Firstly, Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
- Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Developer
Learning Objectives
The Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant exam measures a candidate’s knowledge and skills related to the following objectives. A candidate should have hands-on experience with administering and configuring Marketing Cloud and demonstrate the knowledge and expertise in each of the areas below.
- Firstly, Discovery and Architecture (16%)
- Secondly, Integration (20%)
- Thirdly, Account Configuration (12%))
- Fourthly, Automation (20%)
- Then, Data Modeling and Management (21%)
- And lastly, Messaging (11%)
How to prepare for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant exam?
Visit and refer to the official and authentic resource
In order to prepare for any Salesforce certification exam, firstly visit the Certifications page and navigate to the certification you wish to earn, organized by role. Visiting and referring to the official website, should be the first step when you start to prepare for the certification examination. It will help you to be updated about all sorts of information about the exam.
Exam guide
The next step should be to thoroughly refer to the exam guide. Your guide to completing the exam includes everything from exam overview, exam format & pattern to the recommended preparation solutions. You can find the exam guides on every credential page of the official examination page.
Trailmix
Get exam ready with a specially curated trailmix for the certification. To continue developing your Salesforce skillset, visit Trailhead Academy to enroll in expert-led courses.
Online Training
Learn from our expert instructors and gain hands-on experience.
The courses recommended for this exam include:
- Link Your Salesforce Data using Marketing Cloud Connect (MCC201)
- Prepare for your Marketing Cloud Consultant Exam (CRT-550)
Connect with the Community
Collaborate and study with fellow Trailblazers in the Trailblazer Community
To access the most comprehensive exam prep list, including exam guides, class information, and Trailhead content, download our Salesforce Guide to Certification.
Maintaining Your Salesforce Certification
One of the benefits of holding a Salesforce credential is always being up-to-date on new product releases (updates). As such, you will be required to complete the Marketing Cloud Administrator certification maintenance module on Trailhead one time a year.
Don’t let your hard-earned credential expire! If you do not complete all maintenance requirements by the due date, your credential will expire.
Bookmark these useful resources for maintaining your credentials:
- Firstly, Overall Maintenance Requirements
- Secondly, Maintenance Module Due Dates
- Thirdly, Verify Your Certification Status
- And lastly, Certification Expiration Details
