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Here's a look at what you can do with the advanced features
Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) has come a long way in the last year. At Connections ’25 we announced the next generation of Marketing Cloud built natively on the Salesforce platform using Agentforce, Data Cloud, and our Meta data platform. This includes Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced Editions, Salesforce Personalization, Marketing Intelligence, and more.
Today, all MCAE customers – on Account Engagement Growth, Plus, Advanced, and Premium – can access the features we are building out in Marketing Cloud in supported regions . These include Agentforce Campaigns, sending multichannel journeys with email and SMS, and advanced personalization features like Cross-Object Merge fields.
In this blog, we’ll talk about how to unlock these features, and look at how they will provide new data, AI, and multichannel opportunities.
Account Engagement customers have been asking for these features for years. And with Data Cloud as a foundation, these features are finally possible. Data Cloud allows you to unlock all of your data sources – inside and outside the CRM. It also helps you create connections between those data points.
With more data at your disposal, it is easier to tap into advanced personalization features like Cross-Object Merge fields, which pulls in information from Data Cloud to display merge fields related to the contact record. Data Cloud also gives customers the data foundation necessary to use Agentforce to build campaigns, and send customers SMS messages without having to use a third-party platform.
Account Engagement customers will get these new features through Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Permission Set Licenses (or PSLs – not to be confused with Pumpkin Spice Lattes) provisioned directly in your existing Account Engagement SKUs. These PSLs are available in Account Engagement Growth, Plus, Advanced, and Premium Edition in supported regions. Customers must have Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher to access this.
Although Permission Set Licenses will automatically be added to these orgs, customers need to do a few things to get started.
You need to purchase additional Data Cloud, messaging, and AI-request credits. Since the features available through PSLs – such as Agentforce, Cross-Object Merge Fields, and SMS – use Data Cloud as their foundation, they all use a consumption-based pricing model.
This means that if you want to send emails built through Agentforce, you’ll need to purchase AI-request credits and email credits. If you want to send SMS messages, you’ll need SMS credits. If you want to use Cross-Object Merge, you might need to purchase additional Data Cloud credits.
Account Engagement customers on Plus, Advanced, and Premium Editions with Digital Engagement can also use Unified Conversations for SMS, allowing them to turn one-way promotional messages into two-way conversations with Service Agents.
4. Cross-Object Merge Fields. Marketers can personalize messages based on objects related to the contact record. This can include attributes like product purchased, marketing actions taken, service case record status, and more. Before, Account Engagement customers could only pull in merge fields based on the contact record – information like first name, account name, etc.
With Cross-Object Merge fields, Account Engagement customers can now pull in information related to the contact record – like the product they just purchased or the title of the webinar they just attended. This is something Account Engagement customers have wanted for years.
5. Rule-Based Dynamic Content. Similar to Cross-Object Merge Fields, this feature taps into Data Cloud to help Account Engagement customers personalize emails based on information in the contact record. Marketers can customize body content, subject line, and preheader content with known attributes.
The features customers get through Permission Set Licenses expand Account Engagement’s capabilities, allowing for more advanced personalization, multi-channel messaging, and for easier campaign creation.
I lead the product team for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (fka Pardot) and am responsible for building out the product strategy for supporting B2B marketers across Marketing Cloud. I live in Atlanta, Georgia.
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