Using Sitecore CDP with Salesforce Data Cloud

At Horizontal, we believe that Sitecore and Salesforce are better together. The two can be like peanut butter and chocolate in the same MarTech stack. The keys to success are solid integration and leaning into what each platform does best. It sounds simple, but we all know that in our digital world — it's easier said than done.

In many recent cases, Sitecore CDP and Salesforce Data Cloud have been considered competitors. However, these products mostly serve different use cases. Customers of both Sitecore and Salesforce who need a more robust 360 view of their customers should consider if using Sitecore CDP and Data Cloud in tandem could serve their needs.

Sitecore Content, Salesforce Core

Utilizing Salesforce data elevates your personalized digital content to a whole new level. Achieving beautiful integrations between the two platforms, as well as the rest of your MarTech stack where relevant, is necessary but can be complex. Sitecore CDP and Salesforce Data Cloud both support Unified Customer Profiles, and they can and should be used together to achieve this superior level of customer communication.

The key to achieving harmony with these platforms is mapping their inputs and outputs based on what each platform (and associated ecosystem as a whole) does best. Sitecore is the king of content, so the CDP inputs and outputs should be focused on web, mobile, and other digital touchpoints. Salesforce Core is an industry leader, so the Data Cloud inputs and outputs should be driven by customer relationship, service, and/or journey data.

CDP and Data Cloud will each pass each other data, and they will each exchange data with other platforms. This is their main purpose as data aggregators and processors. CDP will excel in driving personalized content for Sitecore’s CMS and other digital channels, and Data Cloud will excel in driving customer profiles and lead scoring in the broader Salesforce ecosystem.

Ensure that your integrations are monitored. If you don’t have status indicators on your integrations and one of the integration points breaks, troubleshooting may be difficult and time consuming.

Key Differences

Identifying and leaning into the differences between CDP and Data Cloud is key to having the two working together in harmony. The three major differences I will review here are advanced segmentation, real-time processing, and primary audience.

Advanced Segmentation

Each platform differs in its segmentation capabilities and the functionality it offers to the admin when creating segments. Sitecore CDP offers truly advanced segmentation with the help of SQL queries. After you create a segment in basic mode, you can switch to advanced mode to write and run SQL queries against it. These queries allow you to apply advanced segmentation techniques to your customer data, like quartiles, clustering, and regression logic.

Salesforce Data Cloud offers “waterfall segments,” which are hierarchical segments containing multiple subsegments. The subsegments can be mutually exclusive so that customers can only exist in one of them (e.g. promotional offers). Einstein generative AI also allows admins to create segments based on prompts containing a high-level description of the segment. However, this does still seem to be an early-stage feature. There are guidelines for the prompts that suggest that it doesn’t completely support conversational language quite yet. Salesforce documentation also says, “The generative AI model isn’t always consistent when answering requests, so you might get different results when entering the same prompt.”

Real-Time Processing

Sitecore CDP supports real-time customer identity resolution using its Stream API. As customers interact with your site, they will trigger IDENTITY events that will convert them from a visitor to a customer in CDP (anonymous to known, for those industries who do not use the term "customer"). As soon as the customer triggers one of these events, the Stream API will check for a matching customer profile in CDP and then perform the associated actions.

Salesforce Data Cloud does have some real-time processing support, but it is limited. Real-time insights must be built on real-time data graphs in the visual builder and only include sum and count aggregations. Data Cloud mostly utilizes batch and near-real-time processing.

Primary Audience

For the reasons named above, as well as the primary focus of Sitecore and Salesforce functionality, CDP and Data Cloud serve different primary audiences.

Sitecore CDP primarily serves external customers. External customers interact with the website, mobile app, and other digital channels, triggering events and conversions along the way. CDP processes and analyzes customer data and then aids in personalizing the content on those channels, so its primary focus is for serving your external customers.

Salesforce Data Cloud’s primary purpose is to serve internal customers, a.k.a. employees. Marketers frequently consume and analyze customer data, and Data Cloud aids those efforts at scale. For businesses already deeply ingrained in the Salesforce ecosystem, Data Cloud will become the brain of your internal customer data operation. Data Cloud is a critical input for personalized content, but its primary use will be for internal customer relationship management.

Applying AI

The best way to apply AI in daily marketing operations is to have it automate the menial tasks that consume too much time and resources. CDP and Data Cloud apply AI in similar ways that can be used for increasing efficiency: automating customer profiling & segmentation, predictive analytics, personalization, and anomaly detection.

Both platforms also differ in AI capabilities – such as Data Cloud’s integration of Einstein AI with generative capabilities. Sitecore’s CDP has more content-focused capabilities, such as AI-generated analyses of data from multiple channels and automated A/B testing for marketing campaigns.

Although Salesforce comes out ahead on generative AI, Sitecore recently announced its new Stream product at Symposium in October 2024. Sitecore Stream, purchased as a separate license, is an additional AI layer on top of CDP (and other Sitecore products) to further enhance customer insights. Stream’s brand-aware AI can help ensure that campaign messaging or personalized content will be on-brand and appropriate for the context.

Industry Relevance

Customer 360 is critical for so many industries and is applied differently in each one: CPG, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, financial services, and yes – even healthcare. I want to be sure to highlight security and compliance here since we are talking about exchanging customer data between multiple platforms. Many organizations, specifically in healthcare and financial services, have been hesitant to adopt advanced data tracking and AI due to security and privacy concerns. Sitecore announced at 2024 Symposium that CDP (along with XM Cloud, Content Hub, and Personalize) is now HIPAA ready. It is also important to note that Sitecore Stream is only trained on an organization’s own data, and that data is never shared outside their Sitecore solution.

Adding Agentforce is another game-changer for industries like real estate and insurance. Data Cloud and Sitecore CDP can help ensure that each independent agent is able to serve their customers the most relevant content and feels fully equipped to sell.

No matter what industry you are in or applying this to, aggregating and processing your customer data is critical to making your customers feel special and cared for. Sitecore & Salesforce customers have a huge opportunity to lean into the strengths of both platforms and create a robust customer 360 view out of their MarTech stack.

How Horizontal Helps

This is Horizontal’s bread & butter: creating connected digital experiences using Sitecore and Salesforce. Our goal is for our customers to achieve seamless communication between their MarTech tools that ultimately results in intelligent and personalized communication to every customer every time. If you are reading this, you likely know the drill: your best choice of platform (or combination of platforms) depends on the outcomes you are trying to achieve. The best way to start is an analysis of your business outcomes and how each platform can get you there.

Horizontal is a top-tier partner of both Sitecore and Salesforce, and we are honored to be Salesforce Data & AI Partner of the Year for 2024. Reach out to us for help with an integration like this!