A Beginner's Guide to Using Automation Studio

If you are Fresher and Learning Salesforce Marketing Cloud or are looking for ways to get started with Automation Studio Marketing Cloud, you are in the right place!

Automation Studio : Automation Studio is a Marketing Cloud application that executes multi-step marketing and data management workflows immediately, on a trigger, or by schedule.  Automations can also run individually from the overview.

Build workflows with activities like sending emails, importing files, or running SQL queries. The Activities page configures and manages these building blocks. It also runs individual activities on demand.

We can easily find Automation Studio under the ‘Journey Builder’. 

After selecting automation studio there are two primary tab we can see : 
1. Overview : It will displays all the automations you have configured, showing the status, most recent runs, and any errors for each one.
2. Activities : Define reusable activities here that can be incorporated into multiple automation workflows.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your First Automation System : 

When creating a new automation, click the 'New Automation' button in the top right corner. This allows you to define the workflow. The left side displays the building blocks for constructing the automation workflow. You can choose between three starting sources: Schedule or File Drop or Trigger. 

Schedule : By defining a schedule, you can determine when your automation will run and how frequently. This level of control allows you to plan your campaigns in advance, ensuring that your marketing efforts are consistent and targeted.  

File Drop : File Drop Automation is more than an ordinary file transfer tool—it's a comprehensive system that empowers businesses to automate the entire file transfer process effortlessly. Gone are the days of manually uploading, downloading, and synchronizing files between various locations. 

Overview about Automation Studio Activities :   

1. Wait: Define the wait duration, which can be a specific time period or until a specific date. 

2. Filter: Set criteria to determine which contacts pass through the filter. Evaluates a set of conditions and filters contacts based on those conditions. 

3. Update Contact: Choose a data extension and define the fields to update. Updates contact data in the Marketing Cloud database. 

4. Decision Split:  Define conditions and create paths for contacts based on those conditions. Routes contacts based on specified conditions. 

5. SQL Query: Write SQL queries to extract, transform, and load data from one data extension to another. Executes a SQL query to manipulate data. 

6. Import File: Specify the file location, format, and map columns to data extension fields. Imports data from an external file into a data extension. 

7. Export File: Define the data extension and choose the file format for the export. Exports data from a data extension to an external file. 

8. Random Split: Specify the percentages for each path. Randomly splits contacts into defined percentages. 

9. Refresh Group: Updates a specified Salesforce Marketing Cloud data extension with the latest data. Choose the data extension to refresh.