At Salesforce, we like to “walk the walk” by using the products we sell. As the head of Digital Demand Generation, my team manages all digital marketing campaigns for Salesforce. We are the team responsible for the Salesforce ads you see across the web. And in order to do that, we interact with an incredible amount of data to analyze, optimize, and ensure our campaigns engage the right audiences.

For any marketer, it’s easy to get buried in a sea of big data. (Analysis paralysis — it’s a real thing.) I knew there had to be an easier way. It seemed logical that our productivity would greatly increase if we had a single view into all our data — and one that updated in real-time and offered actionable recommendations. There’s a tremendous ability for data-capture inside our CRM — but how about the analysis and insight into the full-funnel?

We embarked on a search for a solution a little over two years ago, going through a full proof of concept (POC) with a few vendors, and we came to the realization that this technology was available in Datorama. Datorama enables companies to bring together marketing data from different channels, campaigns, and regions to unlock insights and take action. In less than 30 days, we were up and running with Datorama as part of Marketing Cloud and began to immediately see improvement across four areas:

1. One-stop shop

Whereas we used to spend time bouncing back and forth between programs to build detailed reports, and a tremendous amount of time doing reactive analysis, with Datorama we had all of our top, middle, and bottom of funnel conversation data in one place. We now had easy access to a clear representation of the overall impact of any given campaign, without any extra manpower. That meant we could scale reporting and optimizing, and free up time to apply those data insights to our digital campaigns. I can now see the performance of a campaign or vendor, and can even scale down to an individual offer.

2. Real-time syncing

In marketing, data is most useful when it’s timely. Datorama stands apart from competitors because it pulls data from all synced APIs every 20 minutes, instead of waiting until the end of the day (or even worse, the end of the week!). Seeing our real-time performance analytics helped us optimize campaigns and predict performance. Our programs are now more effective right out of the gate. We use Datorama to make real-time spend decisions based on actual performance — every day.

3. Magnified insights

By aggregating data from our CRM, Google Analytics 360, and all of our paid campaign channels (including paid search, paid social, lead buys, etcetera), Datorama lets our team optimize for lead generation and pipeline growth. We can keep it big-picture when necessary or drill down when we’re ready to get into the weeds. We’ve been known to nerd out about campaign performance, clicking in as far as we can go to check on pipeline performance or qualified leads. There isn’t a faster way to impact your business than through digital marketing channels, and Datorama’s insights allow us to be agile and aligned.

4. Accessible visuals

We think data can (and should) be beautiful. Datorama showcases insights through visually appealing, interactive graphics that are easy to create and easy to interpret for any stakeholder. So, we no longer have to spend as much time distilling information and walking clients through reports. Business leaders can see how our digital campaigns impact their pipeline numbers. We even have a dedicated Chief Marketing Officer dashboard, which lets our CMO Stephanie Buscemi see campaign performance across email, digital ads, social media, and beyond. Those same dashboards have been built for all of our business partners, so they have access to the same sets of data — which has allowed us to have one QBR that is holistic, rather than 14 individual ones for each team.

See it in action

Data is powerful, but it can be a lot to process — literally. With Datorama a part of Marketing Cloud, accessible, real-time data and insights are now at the fingertips of every Salesforce customer. Instead of running reports from sunup to sundown, my team is now free to focus on developing strategies and applying data. To see what all of this looks like in action, check out this demo video: 

Learn more and see Datorama in action here.