Salesforce Marketing Cloud: the technical guide

Marketing Cloud Engagement is understood through its data model, not through its interface. Each of these twelve articles starts from a case met in production, with the queries and the code to reuse. They can be read in any order; the ones that follow on best are grouped below.

SQL and data views

Eight ready-to-use SQL queries for Marketing CloudConsolidated exclusions, human clicks, engagement scoring and a reactivation audience: eight annotated queries to drop straight into your Marketing Cloud Engagement automations. Slow SQL in Marketing Cloud: staying under the 30 minute limitA Query Activity stops after 30 minutes, with no execution plan and no index to create. How to measure, rewrite the conditions and split a query that has grown with your data. Marketing Cloud data views: what they actually tell youSix months of retention, a US time zone, opens loaded by Apple and clicks from antivirus software. What a data view lets you conclude, and what it does not. Keeping data view history beyond six monthsMarketing Cloud data views only go back six months. How to build a history of sends, opens and clicks that survives reruns, pauses and late events.

Data, imports and duplicates

Overwrite, Update, Append: the SQL queries that succeed while writing the wrong dataThe write mode of a Query Activity decides what stays in the target table. Picking the wrong one does not fail the automation: the gap shows up in your sends, weeks later. Automation Studio: the import that chased 9,000 former customersA file with 14 rows instead of 9,000, an Overwrite import onto the production table, and an automation showing green. How to place volume checks before the send in Automation Studio. Subscriber Key: why an unsubscribed customer keeps receiving your emailsIn Marketing Cloud Engagement, one address under two Subscriber Keys means two people. How to find those duplicates in SQL, block the sends and fix the source.

AMPscript and personalisation

Lookup, LookupRows, LookupOrderedRows: picking the right functionThree AMPscript functions that look alike, three different guarantees on order, case and volume. How to choose, how to walk a rowset, and where the 2,000 row ceiling stops you. RaiseError: skipping one recipient without stopping 400,000 emailsIn Marketing Cloud Engagement, RaiseError halts the whole send by default. How to skip a single recipient, keep a record of the ones you drop, and test every safeguard. Dates and time zones in Marketing Cloud: why your birthday emails go out a day lateMarketing Cloud system time runs at UTC-6, with no daylight saving. A query that treats the server date as today's date in Paris gets it wrong for part of the year. CloudPages: the URL parameter that exposes your customers' dataA plain identifier in the address of a CloudPage is enough to browse a customer file. How to build an encrypted link, check access at the top of the page, and refuse cleanly.

Consent and compliance

Preference centre and GDPR: when antivirus gateways unsubscribe your customersAn unsubscribe page that acts on load ends up obeying security gateways. How to build a Marketing Cloud preference centre that writes only on POST and leaves a usable record.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: the technical guide

SQL and data views

Data, imports and duplicates

AMPscript and personalisation

Consent and compliance

Do your exclusions really cover every channel?