{"id":27592,"date":"2021-09-04T14:23:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/?p=27592"},"modified":"2023-03-13T16:25:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:55:18","slug":"brief-guide-to-journey-testing-with-salesforce-marketing-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/brief-guide-to-journey-testing-with-salesforce-marketing-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Guide to Journey Testing with Salesforce Marketing Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—Maya Angelou<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s hyper-connected, hyper-digitized, hyper-competitive world, customers expect truly extraordinary customer experiences. In fact, about 86%<\/a> of customers are willing to pay more if a brand can deliver great experiences along their journey \u2013 whether it\u2019s online or in-store, via email or text messaging. As PwC<\/a> says, \u201cexperience is everything\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And creating and delivering extraordinary customer experiences starts with creating customer journeys. Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) provides a powerful tool to create effective customer journey maps. This tool is called Journey Builder<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Journey Builder, you can visually represent each interaction that a customer could (or does) have with your brand along their journey. With this \u201cjourney map\u201d, you can understand them better and leverage key insights about them to design personalized, automated email interactions at scale. The result: improved customer engagement at every step of the journey and customer experiences that garner support, loyalty, and even brand advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to achieve these goals, it\u2019s crucial to create the best possible journey map in SFMC Journey Builder. And for this, testing each journey is vital. This brief guide shows you how to test journeys in SFMC Journey Builder to design and send memorable email campaigns with ease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Journey Testing in SFMC Journey Builder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With SFMC Journey Builder<\/a>, you can map customer journeys and recognize how they engage with your company over time. Put yourself in your customer\u2019s shoes; it will help you develop a keen sense of empathy and design email campaigns that address their needs. This will positively increase engagement that results in deeper relationships and greater brand loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Journey<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The above journey maps how the brand will engage with customers after purchase through promo codes and email reminders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By testing each journey, you can confirm that it is behaving as expected and thus ensure that you\u2019re creating the right email campaign for each journey before investing time and resources into that campaign. To get the best possible results, create separate email journeys and campaigns for customer onboarding\/welcome, abandoned cart, engagement\/re-engagement, special occasions, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With SFMC Journey Builder, you can test both simple and complex journeys ahead of time. This means you can always create and save a \u201cdraft\u201d journey and make changes to it at any time. Do keep in mind that journey testing is not available for Single Send journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey Testing with Sample Contacts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before testing a journey, make sure you validate and save it in Journey Builder. By validating, you ensure that all elements of the journey\u2019s design are complete and ready to test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After creating and validating a journey configuration, run the \u201ctest mode\u201d in Journey Builder. Here\u2019s how to do it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i) Create a list of 10 sample contacts from your SFMC instance to understand how they experience the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ii) Choose the Send Type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iii) Choose whether you will send them test messages during the test run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iv) Go to the Test Behavior section in Journey Builder to view a summary of activities in test mode (see the section on test mode).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v) Activate the journey test. At this point, Journey Builder will run the test against your sample audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the test is complete, you will see how each sample contact interacts with the journey. Is this what you expected? If yes, you can activate the actual journey. If not, go back to the previous steps to make changes and rerun the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, start with a simple journey to test your approach and gather baseline metrics. Once done, you can iterate by adding more complexity to the journey as required.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Journey Testing with Data Extensions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In SFMC, data is stored in a table where the columns define the data that\u2019s stored in rows. This table is known as a data extension (DE). In the DE, a column is an attribute<\/em>, and a row is a record<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey Builder allows you to test email marketing journeys with a DE as an entry source. In this case, you can configure a journey test using real SFMC contacts. Choose a sendable DE, and admit contacts into a journey in a batch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can use the same DE as the entry source for multiple journeys. However, if the DE contains too many rows, it may impact journey performance, so pre-filter the DE to speed up processing. If a single journey\u2019s data is stored in multiple DE, create a single entry source DE using a query. Finally, create a copy of the DE as sendable and testable, and use this copy as a test group of contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To configure a test that simulates the journey of real contacts in your SFMC DE, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n