How Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Customers Can Access Marketing Cloud Next Functionality

How Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Customers Can Access Marketing Cloud Next Functionality

Here's a look at what you can do with the advanced features

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Marketing Cloud Account Engagement has come a long way in the last year. At Connections '24 we announced that customers in the AMER region could access many of the features we were building out in Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced Editions. This included Agentforce Campaigns, sending multichannel journeys with email and SMS, and advanced personalization features like Cross-Object Merge fields. In the Winter '25 release, we are expanding new functionality in Account Engagement to all customers on Growth, Plus, Advanced, and Premium.

This is currently available in AMER, EMEA, and LATAM, with more regions to follow early next year. In this piece, we'll explain how to use these new features and how these features will present new data, AI, and multichannel opportunities.

What you'll learn in this blog

• What does this mean for Account Engagement customers?
• How can I get access?
• What new features do I get with Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Next PSLs

What does this mean for Account Engagement customers?

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.

How can I get access?

Account Engagement customers will get these new features through Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Next 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.

1. You need to provision Data Cloud and connect it to Account Engagement. Agentforce, Cross-Object Merge Fields, and SMS require Data Cloud as a prerequisite. This can be done by activating Salesforce Foundations and Data Cloud Everywhere, which comes with a number of Data Cloud credits (including Segmentation and Activation credits).
   
   This is available for customers on Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher. Customers on Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Professional Edition will need to upgrade to use this. Once Data Cloud is provisioned, customers can connect it to their Account Engagement instance through the Account Engagement: Data Cloud Connector.
   
2. You need to configure the PSLs. This is something an Account Engagement Admin can do.

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.

What new features do I get with Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Next PSLs?

1. Agentforce Campaign Creation. Account Engagement customers can use Agentforce to create a campaign, a campaign brief, and accompanying assets, including email copy, in minutes, using one generative prompt. Marketers are in the loop the entire time - they can upvote and downvote outputs to train the model and make manual edits.
   
2. Segment Creation. With Segment Creation, marketers can use generative, natural language prompts to pull segments, instead of having to skill workers up on technical processes. With Data Cloud pulling data inside and outside the CRM you can get even more granular with targeting.
   
3. SMS. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement customers can build multi-channel journeys for their customers. without using a third-party application. SMS allows marketers to reach customers with just-in-time messages and is great for B2B companies looking to:

• Send reminders for events and drive attendance
• Drive upsell/cross sell initiatives, by sending texts to customers with contracts that are about to expire with new, personalized offers
• Drive prospects to book demos with the sales team
• Send customer satisfaction surveys

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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

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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.