{"id":24081,"date":"2021-01-20T18:47:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T13:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/?p=24081"},"modified":"2023-03-13T15:45:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:15:19","slug":"a-deep-dive-into-sfmc-automation-studio-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/a-deep-dive-into-sfmc-automation-studio-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Deep Dive into \u2018SFMC Automation Studio\u2019 – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the second article in the series of articles dedicated to Automation Studio within Salesforce Marketing Cloud. In the first article, we covered the basics of Automation Studio, its use cases, and the modules within it. This article can be found over here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article we will cover the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Differences between Journey Builder<\/a> and Automation Studio<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Important Activities within Automation Studio and its implementation   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences between Journey Builder and Automation Studio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First, let me address one of the most frequently asked questions in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud world – what\u2019s the difference between Journey Builder and Automation Studio. This one is a very common question from clients, the SFMC community as well as your marketing community. So, let\u2019s talk about the differences and clear the doubts around it.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey Builder is a tool within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud umbrella to interact with the subscribers with a 1-1 personalized touch i.e. emails to subscribers will be sent based on the engagement (open or click) or their demographic attributes (Country, Gender, etc.). It is used for targeting subscribers on an individual basis and adapting to their behavior. On the other hand, Automation Studio is used majorly for data management and segmentation activities within Marketing Cloud. It can also be used for sending emails at scale but without individual attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Automation studio has a fixed lifecycle and contacts can\u2019t enter the journey at any time but with Journey Builder, contacts can enter at any time during the lifecycle of the journey. For example, if the automation is running for 5 days, then new contacts can\u2019t enter before the 5 days required to complete the automation schedule but with Journey Builder, they can enter the Journey at any time. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"Let<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another important difference is how you gauge the journey goal. Journey builder can be stopped once a goal is reached but for Automation, it will finish once the full schedule is over, i.e., if the condition is met (coupon redemption) then contact exits the journey and the statistics<\/a> are captured towards the journey goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the recommended industry best practice is to make use of both the tools to resolve the marketing use case. Automation Studio and Journey Builder should be used in conjunction to help the customers. Automation studio should be used to fetch the data from external sources and then perform the data segmentation on the data. Journey Builder should then take the data from the Automation Studio and run Journey on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Automation studio will fetch the data from various systems like your CRM system and eCommerce system and then store it inside Marketing Cloud. It is then divided into multiple tables as per the scenario. These tables are then fed into Journey Builder as per the use case. Journey Builder can then perform multiple activities on subscribers like Decision spilt, Engagement spilt, and Wait activities. The Journey builder can then send the email or the SMS to the subscribers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The below image shows the steps described above for the optimal use of Journey Builder and Automation Studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Automation<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Important Activities within Automation Studio and its detailed implementation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We will now discuss some Automation Activities in this article and some of them in the following article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Send Email Activity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the name suggests, this activity is used for sending emails in bulk, in an automated fashion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use case: Marketers want to send birthday emails<\/a> to their subscribers. This requirement can be met by the Send Emails Activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The steps are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Select the Email template<\/em>: The first step is to select the email template<\/a> which needs to be sent as a part of this activity. This step takes you to the Content Builder module where you can make a selection of the required email template. In this case, the email template will be the birthday emailer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Define Properties:<\/em> This step helps you to define the following attributes of the email:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name: Name of the activity <\/p>\n\n\n\n

External key: This is the unique key for the API<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email properties: <\/p>\n\n\n\n