Marketing Cloud API Capabilities
Contents
[NOTE] Updated February 28, 2020. This article may have outdated content or subject matter.
The Marketing Cloud API is a vast integration ecosystem that offers a wide range of different capabilities on the Salesforce platform. Marketing Cloud offers two robust APIs: REST and SOAP. Each API has its benefits, so sometimes you may even use both, depending on your needs.
Marketing Cloud Applications
REST API
You can create content, build your contact records, and monitor your customer journeys with the Marketing Cloud REST API listed below: - Contact Builder - Content Builder - GroupConnect - MobileConnect - MobilePush - Journey Builder - Personalization Builder
Note: if you are using the REST API you can send both transactional or triggered messages,manage campaigns and handle event notifications.
SOAP API
If you’re working with an existing Marketing Cloud integration or building new functionality with Email Studio, the SOAP API provides the tools you need. Using this API you’re able to manage: - Automation - Content creation - Subscribers and lists - Tracking - Triggered sends - Other email activities
Note: the SOAP API accepts SOAP envelopes to exchange information with Marketing Cloud.
Content Builder
As the name suggests users utilize Content Builder to create and manipulate marketing items such as emails, images, text and other documents.
Journey Builder
This API is mainly used to create event-driven, responsive campaigns to distribute across any channel, that is both online and offline. Using Journey Builder, you can design interfaces specific to each customer communication requirements thus enabling a customized business process. >The Contact and Journey Builder APIs share some of the same functionality, but the Journey Builder API is the preferred API. Use the Contact API only if your business cases require you to use data encryption, account expansion, or batch.
GroupConnect
With GroupConnect you can send real-time event-based messages to your users in Facebook Messenger and LINE. Listed below are some use cases: - Send Account Updates - Send a message when changes occur in the user account. - Send Payment Updates - Send Payment Updates
GroupConnect Known Issues
- This API cannot automatically create contacts.
- This API cannot use content templates from Content Builder.
- API send reports are not available.
- This API addresses only install package permissions.
MobileConnect
You can subscribe to mobile numbers to a Short Code. Delivery of an outbound SMS message through the MobileConnect application requires an active shortcode and keyword subscription.
MobilePush
Marketing Cloud MobilePush lets you create and send notifications to encourage the use of your app.
Personalization Builder
Personalization Builder utilizes AI to learn the different preferences for each customer. Every customer interaction is an insight. With every click, download, view, and purchase, customers are giving data about their preferences. it then uses all the data it learned and build a user profile based on the insights learned.
Contact Builder
The Contact Builder app provides access to contact data contained within your account and the relationships designed to help you use that data. Use Contact Builder to manage, consolidate, organize, and link data from all Marketing Cloud apps and external sources. With Contact Builder you can leverage all collected information to personalize customer conversations at any size in any channel. That single view of the customer can contain the mobile number necessary to send SMS messages via MobileConnect, the email address to send email messages via Email Studio, and the mobile device identifiers used for sending push messages via MobilePush. All associated addresses, subscription, and tracking information associated with activities and journeys relate to that single contact record.
Email Studio
Email Studio allows you to build and send personalized email from basic newsletter to more complex engagements such as campaigns. With Email Studio, you can deliver promotional, transactional, and triggered messages.
Author Remario Richards
Modified February 28, 2020