Your decision to invest in Salesforce Marketing Cloud has proven to be very beneficial. The powerful platform offers enhanced opportunities for marketing improvement. Owning the tool does not automatically guarantee effective usage of the tool.
Numerous businesses hire the SFMC consultant space because they see it as a basic out-of-the-box solution. Any effort to use Salesforce Marketing Cloud without proper setup along with a clear strategy will lead to disorganized marketing operations. A significant portion of individuals struggle to succeed when they try exploring the platform by themselves without having professional experience in SFMC.
Let’s walk through the five biggest mistakes businesses make when they don’t bring in an SFMC consultant, and how you can avoid falling into the same traps.
1. Getting the Setup Wrong from the Start
A frequent error that businesses often make is diving into SFMC consulting without a solid strategy. They begin sending emails, creating lists, and experimenting with features without first considering how everything should be organized.
It’s a bit like trying to construct a house without any plans. You might begin hammering some boards together, but it likely won’t last very long.
Without a proper setup:
- Your data can become disorganized.
- Your campaigns may not link up as intended.
- You might find yourself needing to redo a lot of work down the line.
A Salesforce Marketing Cloud consultant assists you in laying the groundwork before you get started. They ensure your data is well-structured, your user roles are defined, and your account is configured to suit your business needs, not just for the present, but also as you expand.
2. Only Using the Basics
You’re not using all the good stuff SFMC consultants offer.
Many companies limit themselves to sending only simple emails. While email is a solid foundation, SFMC consultants provide a wealth of additional features and capabilities.
- Automated pathways
- Instant personalization
- Split testing
- Monitoring customer actions
- Forecasting insights
Why? Because without a consultant, most teams either don’t know what’s possible or don’t know how to use these tools properly.
A seasoned consultant can reveal what you might be overlooking. They’ll guide you in tapping into the features of SFMC consultants that can enhance your engagement, streamline your tasks, and produce tangible outcomes. You’ll transition from merely “sending emails” to “creating intelligent, impactful marketing.”
3. Struggling with Data
Let’s talk about data. It’s one of the most powerful parts of being an SFMC consultant , but also one of the trickiest.
Without the right strategy, your data might be
- Spread out across various systems
- Old or redundant
- Unlinked to your campaigns
It becomes challenging to craft specific, personalized messages, and that’s really the essence of marketing automation.
And worse, it could even open you up to data privacy issues.
A consultant assists you in tidying up your data, ensuring everything is integrated, and establishing a seamless connection from your CRM or other systems to SFMC. They’ll also guide you in setting up effective segmentation, allowing you to communicate with the right audience at the right moments, rather than sending generic messages to everyone.
4. Sending Mixed Signals to Customers
Ever get those emails from brands that seem completely out of the blue? One minute they’re welcoming you, and the next they’re trying to sell you something you’ve already purchased.
That’s what happens when your customer journeys aren’t mapped out properly.
The SFMC consultant offers a fantastic tool known as Journey Builder that allows you to lead individuals along a tailored and intelligent journey, starting from their initial interaction all the way to the final conversion. However, if you’re not familiar with how to use it effectively, it can be quite simple to:
- Flood people with excessive messages.
- Lose chances to reconnect
- Baffle your audience with inconsistent messaging.
A consultant assists you in designing straightforward and effective customer journeys.
5. Wasting Time and Budget
SFMC consultants are not cheap. And if you’re not using it well, you’re basically burning money.
Without someone guiding you, you might:
- Waste time trying to solve problems through guesswork
- Create campaigns that fall flat.
- Make tech blunders that cost both time and money to fix.
Having a SFMC Consultant removes organization-related pressure from your workload. The consultant helps increase the project speed and prevent standard mistakes while guiding you toward essential areas of focus. By working with a consultant, you can reduce expenses simultaneously while achieving results faster; at the same time, you save time.
The SFMC Consultant serves as your digital direction system, which works better than using basic paper navigation tools. Also consider that you will eventually reach your destination without professional help, yet the journey will be extended and filled with annoying obstacles.
So, what’s the bottom line?
If you’ve invested in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it only makes sense to get the most out of it. But doing that on your own?
Here’s a quick recap of the 5 mistakes to avoid:
- Diving into SFMC consulting without a proper foundation
- Relying solely on the basic tools and overlooking some amazing features
- Allowing your data to spiral out of control
- Sending mixed or inconsistent messages to your customers
- Wasting time and money on guesswork
All of these problems are fixable. And even better, they’re preventable when you have the right expert by your side.
No matter if you’re a newbie or have been using an SFMC consultant for some time, a consultant can boost your marketing skills.