Whether you’re a marketer, developer, architect, or consultant, a certification from Salesforce can help make you more marketable to employers and help you stand out from the pack. Here’s what you need to know about the new Marketing Cloud Administrator certification and how you can get started today.

The knowledge and skills you’ll need to become certified

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Administrator exam measures a candidate’s expertise related to the following five key areas:

1. Digital marketing proficiency

• Being able to describe governance and compliance in relation to digital marketing

• Recognizing security best practices for data, permissions, and PII 

• Describing Marketing Cloud product offerings

2. Subscriber data management

• Being able to describe the contact model in a given scenario

• Evaluating data quality in a given scenario

• Explaining preference and profile center concepts

3. Account setup

• Being able to implement the configuration of business units, users/permissions, and security/passwords in a given scenario

• Determining how to configure integrations in a given scenario

• Describing the features in Setup Home

• Describing Marketing Cloud extension products

4. Channel management

• Describing the configuration of Email Studio, Mobile Studio, Social Studio, and Advertising Studio in various scenarios

• Being able to explain the concepts and typical use cases of Journey Builder

5. Overall account maintenance

• Describing solutions for data extraction and report generation in a given scenario

• Expertise in monitoring a Marketing Cloud account and providing system availability 

• Evaluating the benefits of additional Marketing Cloud products in a given scenario

How a Certification Can Help Your Career

By becoming certified, you’ll play a critical role in ensuring your company effectively utilizes Marketing Cloud. You’ll be an expert at creating one-to-one customer journeys across email, mobile, social, and advertising. And you’ll be able to build a unified experience across marketing, sales, commerce, and service.

Certification can also open up opportunities to stand out and help others. This includes becoming a Marketing Cloud mentor or a subject matter expert (SME) for the Trailhead Credentialing team. Another benefit is always being up-to-date on new product releases. To stay certified, you'll be required to complete the Marketing Cloud Administrator certification maintenance modules on Trailhead once a year.

Simply put, an official certification proves you have Salesforce-verified skills. Employers value the investment you’ve made in building your expertise. Earning the Marketing Cloud Administrator certification proves your knowledge of governance and security in digital marketing. It’s a win-win for you and your current (or future) employer.