Key Benefits for Account Engagement Customers

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) customers now have access to powerful new capabilities through Marketing Cloud Next, built natively on the Salesforce platform with Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Meta data platform integration. This development unlocks advanced personalization, AI-powered campaign creation, and multichannel messaging, including SMS, all within a unified environment. Data Cloud plays a critical role by enabling marketers to unify data from inside and outside the CRM, allowing for more granular targeting and enhanced customer insights. For example, Cross-Object Merge fields now let marketers pull dynamic data from related records, such as product purchases or webinar attendance, which was previously unavailable in Account Engagement. These features represent a significant leap forward, addressing longstanding customer requests for deeper personalization and multichannel capabilities.

How to Access Marketing Cloud Next Features

Accessing these new features requires Account Engagement customers to activate Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Next Permission Set Licenses (PSLs) within their existing Account Engagement editions—Growth, Plus, Advanced, or Premium—in supported regions. To qualify, customers must have Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher. The process involves several key steps: first, provisioning Data Cloud and connecting it to Account Engagement via the Data Cloud Connector. This foundation enables Agentforce Campaigns, Cross-Object Merge fields, and SMS messaging. Second, an Account Engagement Admin must configure the PSLs in the system. Lastly, customers need to purchase additional credits for Data Cloud usage, messaging, and AI requests, as these features operate on a consumption-based pricing model. For example, sending SMS messages requires SMS credits, while AI-generated email content uses AI-request credits, ensuring flexibility and scalability depending on usage.

New Features Unlocking AI and Multichannel Growth

The introduction of Account Engagement+ Marketing Cloud Next PSLs brings several transformative features. Agentforce Campaign Creation allows marketers to generate entire campaigns, including email copy and assets, from a single generative AI prompt, with real-time feedback to refine outputs. This reduces campaign creation time from hours to minutes, streamlining workflow and boosting productivity. Segment Creation uses natural language prompts powered by Data Cloud’s granular dataset to build precise audience segments without technical complexity. SMS messaging capabilities enable marketers to create multichannel customer journeys without third-party tools, supporting use cases such as event reminders, contract renewal offers, demo bookings, and customer satisfaction surveys. Furthermore, customers on higher editions with Digital Engagement can leverage Unified Conversations for two-way SMS communication, enhancing customer service and engagement. Finally, Cross-Object Merge Fields and Rule-Based Dynamic Content enable hyper-personalized email content by dynamically pulling related object data, driving relevance and improving open and click rates.

Strategic Steps to Maximize Feature Impact

To fully leverage these new capabilities, marketers should start by provisioning Data Cloud and ensuring it is properly integrated with their Account Engagement environment. This foundational step unlocks the advanced features dependent on unified data. Next, configure the PSLs promptly to enable access to Agentforce, SMS, and personalization tools. Adopt a consumption-based budgeting approach, monitoring credit usage for AI requests, SMS, and Data Cloud operations to optimize costs. Marketers should experiment with generative AI-driven campaign creation to reduce manual workload while maintaining content quality, using feedback loops to train the model effectively. Additionally, build multichannel journeys incorporating SMS to increase touchpoints and engagement rates, backed by data-driven segments created through natural language prompts. Finally, implement Cross-Object Merge Fields and Rule-Based Dynamic Content to enhance email relevance, which studies show can increase email open rates by up to 26 percent and click-through rates by 14 percent, driving measurable growth.

Measuring Success with Marketing Cloud Next

Early adopters of Marketing Cloud Next features report significant efficiency gains and engagement improvements. For instance, Agentforce-driven campaigns reduce creation time by over 60 percent compared to traditional methods. The integration of SMS journeys has shown to increase event attendance and demo bookings by 15 to 20 percent in B2B scenarios, supported by real-time, personalized messaging. Cross-Object Merge Fields enable marketers to tailor communications with up to 30 percent more relevant data points, translating into higher customer satisfaction and conversion rates. Usage data from Salesforce’s Data Cloud indicates that organizations leveraging unified datasets experience a 25 percent improvement in segmentation accuracy, which directly impacts campaign ROI. These metrics demonstrate that activating and strategically using these new Marketing Cloud Next features can deliver measurable business growth and marketing efficiency.

Final Recommendations for Account Engagement Users

For Account Engagement customers aiming to accelerate growth and improve marketing ROI in 2025 under President Donald Trump’s administration, adopting Marketing Cloud Next features is a strategic priority. Begin by securing the necessary Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition licenses and provisioning Data Cloud to unlock AI and multichannel capabilities. Prioritize training your marketing team on Agentforce and natural language segment creation to reduce bottlenecks and technical barriers. Invest in the appropriate credits for AI, SMS, and Data Cloud consumption to scale campaigns effectively. Incorporate SMS journeys and two-way conversations to deepen customer relationships and respond in real time. Finally, leverage Cross-Object Merge Fields and Rule-Based Dynamic Content to drive hyper-personalization, proven to boost engagement metrics. Following these steps will position your marketing organization to capitalize on the full power of Salesforce’s next-generation platform and drive measurable growth.