DEV Community: Zuzanna Jarczynska

Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Zuzanna Jarczynska — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:30:44 +0000

Data Views are a powerful feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. They store subscriber information and the last six months of tracking data for your account. In this article, we will dive into Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, exploring their importance, functionality, and providing useful resources to help you get started.

What are Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Data Views are system-generated tables in Salesforce Marketing Cloud that provide marketers with valuable insights into the behavior and preferences of their subscribers. These tables contain a wealth of information on email sends, opens, clicks, bounces, and much more. By leveraging Data Views, marketers can better understand their audience, optimize their marketing efforts, and ultimately, drive better results.

Getting Started with Data Views

To access Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you will need to use SQL queries within the platform's Query Studio or Automation Studio. If you are new to SQL, don't worry! Salesforce provides ample resources to help you learn and develop your skills. You can start with this comprehensive SQL Guide for Marketing Cloud provided by Salesforce.

Exploring Different Types of Data Views

There are several types of Data Views available in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, each with its unique purpose and insights. Some of the most commonly used Data Views include:

Sent Data View: This Data View contains information about every email send, including details such as the send ID, job ID, and the number of successful deliveries. Learn more about the Send Data View here.

Open Data View: This Data View provides insights into email opens, including the subscriber key, email address, and the date and time of the open event. Explore the Open Data View in detail here.

Click Data View: This Data View offers information about email clicks, such as the URL clicked, subscriber key, and the date and time of the click event. Discover more about the Click Data View here.

Bounce Data View: This Data View gives you insight into email bounces, including the bounce category, bounce type, and the date and time of the bounce event. Find out more about the Bounce Data View here.

To learn about all available Data Views and their use cases, visit the official Salesforce Data Views documentation.

Benefits of Using Data Views

Data Views offer several advantages to marketers, including:

Improved segmentation: By leveraging the insights provided by Data Views, marketers can create highly targeted audience segments, resulting in more personalized and effective marketing campaigns.

Performance analysis: Data Views allow marketers to monitor the performance of their email campaigns, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their marketing strategies.

Automation: With the help of Automation Studio, marketers can use Data Views to automate tasks such as subscriber list maintenance and engagement scoring, saving time and resources.

Expanding Your Knowledge with Popular Resources and Blog Articles

To further deepen your understanding of Data Views and enhance your skills, it's crucial to explore a variety of resources and learn from experts in the field. Here are some popular resources and blog articles on Data Views:

dataviews.io: is a detailed guide to Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It includes an interactive visualization of all Data Views, and a detailed structure with descriptions, all conviniently served on one page.

SFMC System Data Views: Mateusz Dabrowski, a Salesforce Marketing Cloud expert, has compiled a comprehensive guide to Data Views, featuring a list of all Data Views available in Salesforce Marketing Cloud along with their descriptions. Explore his Salesforce Marketing Cloud System Data Views guide for an in-depth understanding of each Data View.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Data Views: Cameron Robert, a Salesforce Marketing Cloud expert, has created a video tutorial on Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. In this video, he walks you through the process of using Data Views to extract information about your subscribers.

What do you need to know to work with Data Views in SFMC: DESelect, a data extension filtering tool for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, has published a support article covering essential information you need to know to work with Data Views in SFMC. Visit their article for a concise yet informative overview.

By exploring these resources and blog articles, you'll gain a broader perspective on Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud and learn valuable tips from industry experts. Continuous learning is vital for staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, so be sure to stay informed and keep up with the latest best practices.

Data Views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud are a powerful tool that allows marketers to harness the wealth of data available to them. By understanding and utilizing Data Views, marketers can create highly targeted audience segments, monitor and optimize their campaigns, and automate essential tasks.

If you're interested in diving deeper into Data Views and harnessing their full potential, be sure to check out the resources I've provided throughout this article. As you become more familiar with Data Views and SQL, you'll be well on your way to unlocking the power of data-driven marketing in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Three Chrome extensions for Salesforce Marketing Cloud users and developers

Zuzanna Jarczynska — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 19:12:13 +0000

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a powerful platform for managing your marketing campaigns and automating your marketing processes. However, if you're a Marketing Cloud user or a developer, you know that sometimes you need a little extra help to streamline your workflow and boost your productivity. That's where Chrome extensions come in! In this article, we'll discuss three essential Chrome extensions for Salesforce Marketing Cloud users and developers.

DESelect Search in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Easily search for objects in SFMC: all Content Builder objects, data extensions, query activities, data filters, automations, ...
DESelect Search in SFMC - Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a free Chrome Extension that allows you to easily search for everything that’s traditionally hard to find in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Why you need this if you’re a Salesforce Marketing Cloud user?
Imagine looking for a data extension the name of which you partially know, but can’t recall which folder you saved it in.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s search functionality is limited as it only scans one selected folder at a time. SFMC Quick Search does this for all folders at once, even if you only know part of the file name.

SFMC Companion

This Extension is designed to support navigation and discovery in Marketing Cloud by creating connections between objects.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Companion Tool.

This tool allows you to quickly navigate through your Marketing Cloud objects (such as Automations, Queries, Data Extensions and more) to find where they are saved, what activities are using them, and what other objects they interact with.

For example:
By clicking on a Data Extension - you can see what Queries target that Data Extension, and what Queries reference that Data Extensions in their code!
By clicking on a Query - you can see a list of all the Data Extensions referenced in the Query, and the details of the target data extension; as well as all of the Automations that are using that Query!
By clicking on an Automation - you can see all of the activities exactly as you would in Automation Studio, and you can navigate to each of those activities to see their details.

At any time, you can click on the Blue Link box to be taken directly to that activity in Marketing Cloud!

The built-in Search function allows you to search every object by name so you can quickly find what you are looking for.

Object reporting gives users the ability to export detailed inventories of objects in their Marketing Cloud instance.

This extension is limited by the Marketing Cloud user's roles and permissions. Users will only be able to load and navigate objects that they have permission to access in Marketing Cloud.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Extension

This Chrome extension replaces standard code editor in Salesforce Marketing Cloud interface with IDE like editor. It's features include:

Code highlighting
Syntax error warning
Code auto-complete
HTML, SSJS and SQL Support

These three Chrome extensions are essential for Salesforce Marketing Cloud users and developers who want to streamline their workflow and boost their productivity. Whether you need to navigate the platform quickly, manage processes, content, or view and edit data, there is a Chrome extension out there that can help you. So why not give these extensions a try and see how they can improve your workday?

Five essential tools for AMPscript developers

Zuzanna Jarczynska — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 09:16:31 +0000

AMPscript is Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s proprietary scripting language. It’s fairly easy to learn and it provides a convenient way of adding personalization across all digital marketing channels: it can be embedded within HTML emails, text emails, landing pages, SMS messages or even push notifications. Surprisingly, Salesforce Marketing Cloud doesn’t offer any tools for editing AMPscript, neither inside nor outside of the user interface. This makes the script-writing experience very crude and error-prone.

Here’s a list of five tools (in no particular order) that will make your life as an AMPscript developer much easier.

#1 Visual Studio Code AMPscript plugin

While Visual Studio Code might seem a bit overwhelming for people who are new to coding, this plugin will definitely appeal to experienced developers who want to speed up their scripting process. The AMPscript VS Code extension not only enables syntax highlighting for AMPscript but also allows you to connect Visual Studio Code directly to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account and edit your assets directly from VS Code.

It also has built-in documentation for all AMPscript functions and pre-defined code snippets of language elements and functions. Using this plugin will significantly accelerate your AMPscript development process.

Get it here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sergey-agadzhanov.AMPscript

#2 ampscript.io

ampscript.io is a free, online AMPscript editor that enables easy AMPscript editing through syntax highlighting. It will also warn you about possible syntax errors in your code. While still under development, this app is already quite powerful and it’s the only application on the market capable of validating the syntax of your AMPscript code.

ampscript.io, AMPscript syntax validation and highlighting app
ampscript.io can be especially helpful for people who are new to AMPscript or in general new to coding, as the real-time syntax validation covers all the basics: It will, for example, check the opening and closing tags of AMPscript blocks and inline AMPscript, AMPscript function names used or the syntax within for loops and conditional (if/else) statements. Using ampscript.io will speed up your AMPscript debugging process and will help you learn the correct AMPscript syntax.

Access ampscript.io for free here: https://ampscript.io/

#3 Sublime Text AMPscript plugin

Sublime Text AMPscript Highlighter plugin will be perfect for those of you who prefer a desktop editor easier to handle than VS Code. The AMPscript Highlighter plugin provides simple syntax highlighting features for AMPscript keywords, functions, personalization strings, variables, etc.

It also has some snippets, for example, for completing AMPscript block tags. It can be used together with a Sublime Text HTML highlighting plugin, so it’s ideal for anyone who needs visual clarity, like people with dyslexia.

Get it here: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/AmpScript%20Highlighter

#4 Salesforce Marketing Cloud Chrome extension

This Google Chrome extension will add syntax highlighting capabilities directly to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud interface. It will replace the standard code editor in Salesforce Marketing Cloud interface with IDE-like editor and will enable code highlighting and code auto-complete.

It also supports HTML, SSJS and SQL and it’s perfect for those who seek visual clarity when editing AMPscript, without the need to copy and paste the code between editors.

Get it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/salesforce-marketing-clou/fkmojdpmdmdmeohmebiejjclmegkalli

#5 MC Snippets

MC Snippets allows Salesforce Marketing Cloud trailblazers to test, experiment and share AMPScript and Server Side Javascript snippets without having to login to a Salesforce Marketing Cloud account, create emails or data extensions.

It's currently available in Beta version, which allows you to use AMPScript and SSJS in the context of an email, but future versions will support other contexts.

Access MC Snippets for free here: https://mcsnippets.herokuapp.com/

#6 Bonus: The AMPscript Guide

Although not a tool per se, The AMPscrip Guide is a go-to source for all AMPscript functions and examples of their usage. A 12-month subscription costs $36 USD and it will give you access to the full documentation and supporting code examples for real-world scenarios. The free version doesn’t include that many code snippets but still allows you to browse through the full documentation of all 148 AMPscript functions.

Access The AMPscript Guide for free here: https://ampscript.guide/

Let me know in case I missed any other cool tools for AMPscript developers that you think are worth mentioning. If you enjoyed reading this article, be sure to check out my blog, http://sfmarketing.cloud/, where I’m regularly sharing my knowledge about AMPscript, SQL, Server-Side JavaScript, Marketing Cloud APIs and other technical aspects of working with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.