What

is Marketing Cloud and why you should be using it

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in programming merchants racing to offer
advanced marketers a one-stop answer for creating, distributing, managing content, overseeing
substance and measuring the execution of their online networking properties.

And we can see why such marketing innovation is so popular in the enterprise software market.

It is said that organizations that consolidate both strategic visions and digital marketing perform 26%
better than their industry peers and hence the term ‘Marketing Cloud’ has since been receiving a great
deal of recognition because of the success stories of these organizations that has adopted it.

However, as good as it sounds, what exactly is Marketing Cloud?

According to Salesforce, they define Marketing Cloud as “the platform for delivering relevant,
personalized journeys across channels and devices — enabling marketers to deliver the right message at
the right time throughout all phases of the relationship.”

Big words within a long sentence making you more confused? We will redefine it for you.

Marketing Cloud is actually nothing more than an integrated suite of marketing tools which can be used
to manage customer data and automate tedious processes.

These marketing tools are web-based services that are offered by a software vendor. It is normally
described as “an arrangement of instructions” that allows marketers to accomplish a wide range of tasks
amongst all stages of the client’s journey.

So, why should you use Marketing Cloud as compared to traditional marketing automation tools?

According to Pete Markey, Director of Brand Communications & Marketing for Aviva, “The right use of
cloud technologies can transform capabilities in the marketing team. These tools help you get activity
out faster and it changes the nature of people’s jobs. You spend a lot less time on grunt work so you can
get on and make the most of your skill set.”

Marketing Cloud delivers data and application through the web, wherever you are, instead of having
them lodged in an individual’s electronic device.

Take this for an example: instead of downloading Office365 to utilise Microsoft Words, Excel or
Powerpoint, they are readily available online via Google Drive as Google Docs, Sheets or Slides. Hence, IT
departments can put their focus on creating programmes that can help run the business more efficiently
instead of spending their time buying and administering servers to store company data. Users can also
immediately access relevant data and processes just by simply logging onto the app.

Furthermore, by using marketing cloud, you can reduce your marketing cost since most cloud marketing
tools are either free or on a subscription basis. The majority of such cloud services also offer the basics
like email marketing and analytics platform, web analytics bundles, content management and social
media tools, etc. Apart from that, they also provide other components that are customisable and
suitable for different organisation marketing strategy.

One example would be Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It has a component called Journey Builder which
helps marketers identify the moments that define the customer experience and use them to power 1-to-
1 relationships. Such component helps marketers tailor campaigns to customers' behavior and needs,
demographics and communication channel preferences. It also provides B2B edm marketing automation
under one of their tools called Pardot.

Pardot provides a full set of solution that helps marketers create meaningful connections, generate
more pipeline, and empower sales to close more deals.

While the market is still young with many innovations sprouting out on a daily basis, the term ‘marketing
cloud’ has been gaining significant attention to major software companies as they sought to instill the
growing importance of this technology for marketing teams. It is certainly a thriving force which
marketers from everywhere are only beginning to acknowledge.