Month: May 2018

REST -ing with Marketing Cloud in 30 Minutes

One of the great features of the Salesforce platform is most of the objects and capabilities are accessible through API, namely REST and SOAP. SalesForce Marketing Cloud is no exception, But though we know it supports API ,How do we do some quick checks to connect with REST, maybe get some details through GET or add some data through POST My hope is you should be all set to submit  GET and POST requests and get yourself familiar with the basic structure within 30 minutes if you follow this article.

Now let’s get cooking !!

Ingredients:

  • POSTMAN: A tool through which we will submit REST requests.
  • Marketing Cloud Account: You will need Administrative access

Step 1:

https://www.getpostman.com

Should be available for both Mac and Windows.

Screen Shot 2018-05-20 at 11.51.04 AM

Step 2:

Login to your Marketing Cloud Instance and click under your name and click on the Administration link.

 

Screen Shot 2018-05-20 at 11.35.05 AM

Step 3:

You need to create a newly installed package or add the component to an existing package. Assuming you are creating a new package, Once you create the package you will see an option to add component.

Screen Shot 2018-05-20 at 11.36.03 AM

Step 4 :

Once the component is created as API integration, You should get two strings known as ClientID and ClientSecret, Let’s hold on to them as we will use them later in our mix.

Step 5 :

Assuming you have installed POSTMAN, Let’s open it up. The first step in establishing a REST connection is to tell Marketing Cloud that you have the clientid and client secret and access a token which should be valid for 60 minutes.

In the POST URL provide the below URL and in the Body text put the text within {} and click Send. Don’t forget to select JSON.

You should get a value in quotes for an access token.

PostMan_GetAccessToken

Step 6:

Now with known endpoints you can submit POST and GET, Change the dropdown to select POST and REST as desired, provide the URL and provide the access token as Type Bearer Token in the Token Text box without quotes, The result should show up in the box below.

POSTMAN_REST_GET

 

You can import files to set up collection and environments and do a lot more, Hopefully these 6 steps would help you towards that Journey:).

10 Things to know about Salesforce Marketing Cloud

In my journey through Salesforce, I had picked a few things on SalesForce marketing Cloud which though simple were not apparent, and may help others better understand the platform. Please feel free to add to this list or share your experience.

10.ExactTarget is Marketing Cloud

ExactTarget was acquired by SalesForce in 2013 and the integrated marketing automation platform became SalesForce Marketing Cloud, That’s why a lot of the URL’s and API’s still referenced exact target in marketing cloud.

9.Not Org – enter BU

SalesForce Marketing cloud doesn’t have sandbox and production org based environment model as a service cloud and sales cloud do. Every instance behaves like a full-featured production instance, Key take away – Not an apple to apple mapping with SalesForce sales or service cloud-No change set based deployment. If testing in a separate environment is the must -multi BU enabled Enterprise 2.0 instance can be a solution.

8. I can’t find a single Object

In Marketing Cloud data is stored in Data Extension and Lists, Thumbrule more data, complex structure -use data extension-otherwise use list. Consider them as tables with data attributes, where you store records as rows.

7.Marketing Cloud Connect

Marketing Cloud can connect with sales cloud or service cloud and no coding necessary for that, Just need to install the marketing cloud connect package and some admin magic. Your email sends are now in sales or service cloud and you can send campaign emails from sales console.

6.IP needs to be warmed up

I have my marketing cloud and have the list of 30,000 users, let’s send that campaign promotion email. Surprise! You need to slowly warm up the IP meaning – ramping up email sends over a month or so-otherwise they will go to a place where no marketers want there email to go to -Junk.

5. Send SMS-But to hold on!

Sending SMS is fun and easy, but is your shortcode and long code set up, They may take some time to set up. Also, SMS sends are dependant on the aggregators which in turn talk with the telephone service providers, so be careful if you are expecting a specific SLA when you are sending out SMS.

4.Enhanced FTP

With Marketing cloud we can set up a set of import and export folders and can use them for inbound files and exports, really handy for bulk loads or quick data population.

3. It’s not  JavaScript-enter AmpScript

<% %> Marketing Cloud uses a scripting language very similar to JavaScript known as Ampscript, If you want to use email personalization, SMS manipulation, that’s the way to go.

2. Write SQL

I have my data in multiple data extension -or need to do a complex filter-All standard SQL will work with a bit of syntax check.

1.Beautiful API

Create a Journey-populate a data extension-update a Journey – pretty much all activities are supported through REST and SOAP. Not everyone needs to login to Marketing Cloud and go through the browser, You can have a light client and accomplish a lot.