Implementing Marketing Cloud with Multiple Salesforce Orgs (Part 2)

This is part 2 in a three-part series about standing up Marketing Cloud in a Multi-Org environment. In our last post, we talked about how having the same contacts in more than one org can create duplicate records. In this post, we’ll do a deeper dive into the first of two approaches to help avoid this scenario.

• You can read Part 1 of this series here
• You can read part 3 of this series here

Approach #1 Marketing Cloud Multi-Org Connector

The Marketing Cloud multi-org connector will allow you to connect multiple Salesforce orgs to a single Marketing Cloud instance and maintain data integrity across the orgs.

Using the multi-org connector requires you to enable a feature in Marketing Cloud called Business Units, which will allow you to segregate access to data, content, and processes inside of a single Marketing Cloud instance. Create a separate Business Unit for each connected Salesforce Org and build a hierarchical structure with all child BUs rolling up to an Enterprise Business Unit, which has visibility and control over its children.

Architecture Considerations

• The Multi-Org Connector requires Marketing Cloud Enterprise 2.0. You’ll need to contact Salesforce Support to have the functionality turned on, and it can’t be undone once it’s been enabled.
• You’ll have to reestablish any existing connections to your Salesforce orgs and remap your data and synchronized data sources.
• If you have existing journeys with processes that span a Salesforce Org and Marketing Cloud Instance you’ll have to update their versions and retest them… although subscribers who are already in your existing journeys weren’t impacted.
• Marketing Cloud Data extensions can’t be shared across Salesforce orgs
• Contacts that exist in multiple Salesforce orgs will still have duplicate subscriber records. However, they’ll be easier to manage since each record will exist in a different business unit and you can use reporting at the Enterprise Business Unit level to identify duplicate subscribers and combine their history.
• You’ll need to create a custom preference center to handle subscriptions and global opt-outs.
• You can’t use custom field or attribute mapping directly on templates. However, this mapping can still be done if you have an AMPScript development resource.

Approach #2 Enterprise Org

Instead of using the multi-org connector, you can implement an Enterprise Org, which sits between your Salesforce Orgs and Marketing Cloud instance. All of your leads, contacts, and other relevant custom objects replicate from the source orgs to your Enterprise org, where the records are merged, normalized and then sent to Marketing Cloud via the standard single org Marketing Cloud Connector. Each contact’s ID in your Enterprise Org becomes its subscriber key in Marketing Cloud.

Architecture Considerations

• This approach allows you to use the out of the box Marketing Cloud Connector and integrate all of your Salesforce data directly to your Enterprise BU in Marketing Cloud.
• It also allows you to load contacts into your Enterprise Org from other sources in addition to your other Salesforce Orgs and still take full advantage of the functionality that’s available in Marketing Cloud.
• Your Enterprise Org should only be used as a passthrough and place to normalize their data before it goes to Marketing Cloud. All of your business process automations should occur in your source Salesforce orgs.
• Your Enterprise Org will need to meet all of the prerequisites to install Marketing Cloud Connect.
• In order to enforce this, make sure that access to your Enterprise Org is limited to only a handful of users who need to be able to configure or troubleshoot the various connections
• You can determine the licensing and storage costs for your Enterprise org based on the expected number of subscribers.
• Using an Enterprise Org will limit your ability to use some of the features in Marketing Cloud since your Marketing Cloud instance isn’t connected directly to the Salesforce Orgs that your contact data is sourced from.
• While considering this approach, make sure that you don’t have any journeys that utilize Salesforce data and aren’t sending emails to Salesforce Campaign Members or Reports.
• Make sure you also don’t need to send tracking and send history back to the Salesforce orgs where the data originated.

Choosing an Architecture

Which approach is the best fit for your organization? Unfortunately, the answer is: it depends and there are tradeoffs to each approach. In some cases, you may have to purchase additional tools or hire new resources. In other cases, you may need to add customizations or use manual workarounds for certain tasks that your employees may not have capacity for. So as you’re deciding which approach to take, make sure to weigh the pros and cons of each one to determine the best fit for your organization based on your current landscape, available resources, processes and your vision for the future.

Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll cover approaches that involve using ETL and MDM tools and standing up multiple Marketing Cloud instances.

Author Bios

Tiago Ruivo is a Senior Principal Customer Success Architect at Salesforce.org based in Chicago. With a deep technical architectural background and implementation experience, he helps organizations in the nonprofit and education industries succeed in their IT transformation using Salesforce and integrating it in its larger Enterprise Architecture.

Tom Leddy is a Director of Advisory Services at Salesforce.org Tom is based in the Chicago area and helps organizations in the nonprofit and education industries integrate Salesforce into their IT landscapes so they can serve their communities more effectively. He is also an author, public speaker, marathon runner and the president of Pawsitively Famous, Inc. You can connect with Tom on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Gokul Seshadri is a Senior Principal Customer Success Architect at Salesforce.org based in the U.S. He helps higher ed and nonprofit customers to succeed in their multi-channel marketing, digital transformation, and customer 360 initiatives using Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud, Education Cloud, and other related technologies.

Brad Shapiro (Principal Marketing Cloud Advisor) is a trusted digital marketing and communications advisor to the world’s leading Salesforce.org nonprofit and higher education organizations. With an extensive background in business strategy, digital transformation, and deep technical expertise, Brad can quickly enable organizations with the tools and strategies needed to engage audiences in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Tony Angle is a Principal Customer Success Architect and works in the Marketing Cloud Advisory area and is based in Virginia, US. He has worked with various educational and nonprofit organizations to help bring visibility to issues around data management as well as platform governance.