Salesforce Marketing Cloud | Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

To cancel an adhoc send, in Email Studio, go to Interactions. In the dropdown select Salesforce Send Emails, then click View Active Sends button. Finally you’ll see Active  Salesforce Sends and you can cancel the send! Click on the checkbox next to the email you desire to cancel, then click  Cancel  Send at the top. Make sure you click in on the email first to ensure you are cancelling the right send.

Interactions > Salesforce Send Emails > View Active Sends

In University Community, it is recommended to cancel the send, make your changes in Email Studio, and then setting up the send again as if it is new.  

To cancel a single journey send, go to Journey Builder Look for the scheduled journey and click the blue "Cancel" button. See here for more information: https://omc.osu.edu/tools/sfmc/salesforce-marketing-cloud-training-single-journey-send

There are a couple reasons Salesforce might be giving you trouble.

1. Ensure you using the single sign-on link for SFMC: Salesforce Marketing Cloud Login. Your log in should be your name.#@osu.edu and your password.  

2. Try switching your browser to Chrome if you haven't already as it seems to run Salesforce the best.

3. Clear your browser’s history/cache then quit the browser and log back into SFMC.  

4. A reboot of your computer may be needed to allow for updates.

5. Check your browser screen is not enlarged or reduced and the magnification is at 100% (weird, yes – this is a known issue with SFMC). 

When looking at your link properties for the phone number, select "Other" in the first dropdown titled "Link to". Ensure the phone number being used have the country code as the first number to work on mobile devices correctly. Some mobile devices will make this clickable by default and on a desktop, it will depend on applications and settings for each computer.  

tel:+16142922281 

  <a href="tel:+18881235467">1-888-123-5467</a>. 

  This is what the code behind this looks like for phones and sms.  

<a href="tel:+11234567890">Call Phone Number</a><br> 

<a href="sms:+11234567890">Send SMS</a><br> 

Test emails may display visual differences such as borders, spacing, or alignment that do appear in the final send. These differences are often caused by outdated or deprecated content modules or duplicating an older email. To avoid issues start building the SFMC email from a current template or build from scratch using shared branded modules from the Ohio State email design system.

To avoid issues with the email code start building the SFMC email from a current template or build from scratch using shared branded modules from the Ohio State email design system.

This is not a best practice and should be avoided. Duplicating older emails is not recommended. Using an older email to begin working on a new email can cause issues. The duplicated emails may contain outdated code and modules, or legacy footer content that can cause formatting, accessibility or compliance issues. Plus you may leave old content and links in the email and not be aware of it. Best practice is to start from a current template or build from scratch using shared branded modules from the Ohio State email design system. 

Most email providers don't support embedded video, so the message could get flagged as spam. Instead, we recommend creating an image that links to an external URL of your video. This image can be an animated .gif that mimics the video content. It is helpful to have a play button included on the image to invite clicks.  

Images and animated .gifs need to follow accessibility guidelines. See this webpage for more information: https://omc.osu.edu/communities/email-community/email-accessibility 

This will be reviewed by Mindy Loschiavo, Associate Director of Email and Automation.

To place this code snippet in the footer the code will look like this, copy and paste 

 <p><u><a class="appleLinksDark" href="%%view_email_url%%" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 22px; font-weight: normal; color: #646a6e; padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 0; padding-right: 0;" target="_blank">View this email online</a></u></p> 



Below is the commented code for easier reference in the HTML 
  

Screenshot of what it looks like in Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
 

It should be immediate, but in some cases there may be issues with Workday not syncing properly with the Salesforce CRM. If someone is not receiving an email, ask for help from the identity management team by opening up a ticket with OTDI at this email OTDI-8help@osu.edu or at this webpage: go.osu.edu/IT.

This is an important question and usually we suggest using the college name and not an individual’s name. The reason for this is that most individual names may not be recognized by the recipient. However, a combination of name and college is entirely acceptable, although the entirety of the “From” name may not be visible in some email clients.  

Here is the ink to Request a new sender profile webpage. 

There is not a confirmed date to stop using the other tools (Constant Contact, Mail Chimp). Ohio State decision makers are involved in the renewing of contracts for the other platforms. For data and branding purposes it is suggested that all colleges and units plan to shift to SFMC and the earlier the better. For more information on Salesforce please see this webpage: https://omc.osu.edu/tools/sfmc 

Please note, SFMC (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) and Salesforce CRM have different data sources and purposes. SFMC is for Advancement (Alumni, Donors, Friends) purposes and Ohio State internal communications. The CRM is for recruitment and student communication purposes.  

Delivery failures to osu.edu addresses can occur if the recipient is no longer an active faculty, staff or student or they are new to Ohio State so their account has not yet synced to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Syncing to SFMC can take up to a week and sending to email addresses that do not have an inbox yet can inactivate this contact in the backend SFMC data. Wexner Medical Center email addresses may need to have their name.#@osu.edu email address forwarding function setup to receive important internal communications. To setup email forwarding for Wexner Medical Center staff only open an OTDI support ticket.  

Email address (mailto) links are not tracked in the same way as standard web URLs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud reporting will not capture engagement data for “mailto:” links, which can impact click-through metrics results. If it is important to track this engagement a SFMC cloud page containing a form for the recipient of the email to write and submit an email response can be created and linked to. Contact emailmarketing@osu.edu for more information on the cloud page solution.

The email community has been evolving key metrics with the open rate not being dependable. Reading through search results, it can be confusing as it appears there is confusion within articles in the wild.  The email and automation team has researched the details for recent and historic standards.  

Click-through-rate is the best indicator of engagement as the delivered number is accurate. Click-through-rate is different than click-rate. Click-rate/Click-to-open rate is the metric dependent on opens.  

The metric for opens is not a metric marketers should be depending on. Opens should still be considered, but the weight is skewed, due to MPP and other open tracking being manipulated in the inbox. There have been fluctuations in the open rate per chatter on LinkedIn and other forums for email, with the changes in security for the big 4 inbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft) having impact. 

If the click rate is low when calculated with delivered that means that the segmentation could be more strategic.  The audience is not engaged with the subject line/preheader or the sender profile is not recognizable to the recipient. Once they open it, the click is gauging interest in the content. Testing could help decipher what the audience is more interested in. Page views are a good metric to measure conversion. Maybe for audience members that are not engaged a different strategy is needed to re-engage.  

For more information on web analytics go here: https://omc.osu.edu/analytics-overview/data-dictionary 

 For articles about metrics and open rates, see below:  

https://sendgrid.com/en-us/resource/complete-email-metrics-guide#:~:text=Click%2Dthrough%20rate&text=To%20calculate%20CTR%2C%20take%20the,given%20email%20or%20email%20campaign 

https://www.usergems.com/blog/forget-open-rates 

https://www.litmus.com/blog/measure-email-marketing-success 

https://beefree.io/blog/8-email-marketing-metrics-that-actually-matter 

Click-through rate 

The click-through metric tells how many folks clicked on the links you dropped in your email. It is a direct indicator of engagement, showcasing the effectiveness of your content and the resonance of your call-to-action. It's like the applause after a killer performance - you want lots of it! 

Why click-through rates matter: 

• Audience engagement: CTR shows the level of interest your email generates. A higher CTR indicates that your audience finds your content compelling and is motivated to take further action.
• Content Relevance: Check the links that get the most clicks. You can tell the specific content that resonates with your audience by analyzing the links that receive the most clicks. This knowledge is invaluable for tailoring future emails to match their preferences.
• Call-to-Action (CTA) Check: A solid CTR means your CTA is compelling, making people tap their screens. If your CTA is clear, compelling, and strategically placed, it should drive a higher click-through rate. 

How to calculate CTR 

Divide the unique clicks by the number of delivered emails, then multiply by 100. 

It is your Outlook settings!  To adjust do the following.

In Outlook options: 

File, Options, Mail, Compose Messages then Editor Options.   

Inside Editor Options, there are 3 tabs in the upper left. Go to Advanced and scroll down to the bottom that has Advanced Typography. Unselect the "Use Hyphenation" checkbox.

Check out this video for a tutorial on how to add images to your outlook emails. 

The medical center marketing team only supports email for OSUWMC patient marketing messages such as our patient and family newsletter, Health & Discovery email, MyChart welcome, and enhancement and institution-wide info such as vaccines and Medicare enrollment.  Reach out to Karri Benishek karri.benishek@osumc.edu for further information on email support.  

All bulk email send requests or questions are to be vetted through the marketing and communications area of your college or unit. Your marketing and communications team may reach out to the Office of Marketing and Communications Email and Automation team for further support at emailmarketing@osu.edu with your email questions. If you are interested in learning more before reaching out, look at the following links:

Audiences available within the SFMC Business units

Bulk email sends should follow the Federal CAN-SPAM Act  for solicitations and invitations. It is also recommended to comply with Ohio State branded email templates and other email best practices.