SFMC Features On Demand
Discover the Salesforce Marketing Cloud's Features On Demand and unlock platform potential.
What are Marketing Cloud's Features On Demand?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is full of features straight out of the box. You can spend hours going through various panels and menus, discovering more options to make the instance your own and align it to the business needs.
There is, however, a group of features that you won't be able to find. Salesforce hid them until you ask the Support (Free) or Account Executive (Paid) to unlock them. SFMC Features On Demand.
Why are they not available by default? There are various reasons:
- Some require irreversible changes, so Salesforce wants to be sure you know what you want.
- Some are putting a strain on the backend, so it is better to keep them off by default and enable only when a client needs them.
- Some have an additional cost and require a purchase before enabling.
- Some are dependent on specific modules, so there is no need to have them by default.
- Some will probably be added as a standard in the future (just as it has been done with previously on-demand Profile Attributes, Script Activity, Shared Folders and others - more on that in the bottom).
- Some are no longer provided even when you ask (sweet, sweet Code Activity for Journey Builder...)
I always wanted to have a full list of those features but could never find it. So here it is.
You Should Know
This document is a living thing. Salesforce adds, deletes and updates the Features On Demand with Marketing Cloud releases. I try to keep it up-to-date, but your help with this task will be appreciated.
If you found anything below no longer correct or know yet another hidden SFMC feature - please let me know.
Marketing Cloud Settings Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Audit Trail | Captures information about SFMC access and security changes. | Audit Trail | Free |
| Advanced Audit Trail | Captures Basic Audit Trail Events and critical events around Emails, MobileConnect, Mobile Push, Cloud Pages, Automations, Journeys and Google Analytics Integration. | Audit Trail | Paid |
| Smart Alerts for Marketing Cloud | Enables automatic notification for Marketing Cloud problems like slow Email Send speed, Journeys starting without contacts, Automation issues, etc. | Proactive Services for Marketing Cloud | Paid |
| Multi-Org Account | Allows you to connect different Sales/Service Cloud Orgs for each Marketing Cloud Business Unit. It is not reversible. | Multi-Org Account | Free |
| Restore Encryption at Rest Key | If you revoked (Bring Your Own) Key for Encryption at Rest, this allows you to restore the key and retain the data if you act fast | Restore SFMC Encryption Key | ? |
| SSO Metadata | Allows you to implement Single Sign-On for your Marketing Cloud instance. | SSO Implementation | Free |
| Custom Access Permissions for SFTP | You can ask Support to configure per-folder permissions for your FTP users | N/A | Free |
| SFTP Limited Access | You can ask Salesforce Support to limit an SFTP User access to only specific SFTP Folders | N/A | Free |
Deliverability Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sender Authentication Package | SAP is a collection of products including Private Domain with link and image wrapping (unique for SAP), Dedicated IP, and Reply Mail Management. Must-have. | SAP | Paid |
| Additional Dedicated IP | You can purchase additional dedicated IPs to manage more significant volumes or split communication types. | Dedicated IP | Paid |
| Additional Private Domain | You can purchase additional private domains to differentiate various communication types. This feature does not cover link and image branding. | Private Domains | Paid |
| SSL | Secures your traffic and gives that sweet HTTPS, a must-have nowadays. Once purchased, configuration is now self-serve in SFMC Setup. | SSL Certificate | Paid |
| Reputation Audit Test | Ad hoc request allows you to receive information about the current state of the blacklists, authentication, DNS and content reviews (spam assessment) for your dedicated IPs. | Reputation Audit | Free |
| Reputation Audit Account | [Deprecated] Allows you to receive a dedicated account to Reputation Audit tool so that you can check the state of your dedicated IPs without creating recurring Reputation Audit Test requests. No longer supported. | Reputation Audit | N/A |
| Bounce Detective | [Deprecated] Sends email alerts when recent send has an elevated bounce rate at any domain with 25+ recipients and provides per-domain bounce-focused analysis. No longer supported. | Bounce Detective | N/A |
| Sender Rating | [Deprecated] Provides a breakdown of current deliverability-focused sending scores, with trends, in a visually digestible format. | Sender Rating | Free |
| Dedicated IP Custom Configuration | By default, if you have multiple dedicated IPs, your communication will use all of them by splitting the volume into 5000 emails batches and rotating the available IPs to push those. You can also assign a specific IP to a particular Delivery Profile. However, with the help of Support, you can create hybrid solutions like pools of few IPs per each delivery profile. It might be crucial for massive senders. | N/A | Free |
| MTA Email Throttle | Apart from Email Studio Throttle feature focused on controlling engagement stream there is a deliverability-focused throttle added to a selected dedicated domain(s) on the MTA level. Perfect to limit send speed for reputation building purposes. | N/A | Free |
Email Studio Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAN-SPAM Compliance Check | Marketing Cloud by default requires you to be compliant with US CAN-SPAM regulation by enforcing Commercial / Transactional split of messages and requiring specific data to be available in the email footer. If you are sending to non-US recipients, you can ask to switch off that requirement | CAN-SPAM Compliance | Free |
| Email Send Log | Allows you to log send-time data about your emails. Requires two features: Send Log Data Extension Template and Business Rule on the backend of SFMC to populate Data Extension based on this template. If your Send Log doesn't work, you probably miss the Business Rule (it can be set to Blank, _AUTO or ENT._AUTO depending on whether you want Send Log to ignore errors, capture Business Unit sends or all Account sends respectively). Ask for both. | Send Logging in Email Studio | Free |
| Auto-Suppression List | Allows you to suppress Contacts from receiving any Emails from the whole instance or specific classification and Business Unit. No need to attach to each send as with standard Suppression Lists. | Auto-Suppression Lists | Free |
| Exclusion Scripts | Allows you to define custom exclusion logic evaluated at send time using AMPScript. If possible, use segmentation, suppression and auto-suppression lists due to performance reasons, but in some cases, Exclusion Script might be the only way. There is also a matching feature for Journey Builder Emails. Ask for both. | Email Studio Exclusion Scripts | Free |
| Custom List Detective | Allows you to block sending and subscribing all contacts with specified Email Address username (for example admin@) or domain (for example @competitor.com). Custom rules are applied for all current and future Business Units. | Custom List Detective | Free |
| Custom List Detective Allowlist | On top of Custom List Detective you can also ask Support to add specific usernames or domains to Allowlist. Might be useful, as this setting will overwrite the standard List Detective. | Custom List Detective | Free |
| Email Attachments | Allows you to send emails with attachments. | Email Attachments | Paid |
| Preserve Reply Attachments | Forwards attachments added to the reply email via RMM's auto-forwarding. | Reply Mail Management | Free |
| Enhanced Sender Profile | Allows you to personalise the From Name and From Address per each Subscriber using AMPScript. | Personalised Sender Profile | ? |
| Email Archiving | Allows you to save a copy of your Emails of particular Send Classification to Enhanced FTP | Email Archiving | Paid |
| Email Send Throttle | Allows you to control both the maximum amount of messages pushed in a given timeframe, as well as the hours when the sends occur. | Send Throttle | Free |
| CC and BCC for Email | Allows you to use CC and BCC in your Emails. You can even use personalisation strings for it (f.e. %%AccountOwnerEmail%%). Watch out for unsubscription rules! | Select Audience | Free |
| Additional Email Attributes | Allows you to use custom email attributes to use for personalisation. Perfect for tracking links. You can ask Support to enable more than default 5. | Additional Email Attributes | Free |
| Microsites | Allows you to access a Classic view from the Email Studio - Content and create Microsites. As it is a legacy feature that is being sunset, you will need a strong business use case to get it. | N/A | Free |
| Custom Preference Center Links | SFMC has a set of personalisation strings for preference management: %%subscription_center_url%%, %%profile_center_url%%, %%unsub_center_url%%. By default they link to the respective out-of-the-box pages, but support can redirect them to any other URL on request | N/A | Free |
| Custom List-Unsubscribe Header Link | SFMC automatically unsubscribes your contacts from the list assigned to the email when List Unsubscribe is triggered. Support can redirect it to any other URL (like Preference Center or custom Cloud Page handler). | N/A | Free |
| Custom Transactional Email Header & Footer | You can ask Salesforce Support to update your transactional emails header and footer | N/A | Free |
Mobile Studio Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMS Send Log | Allows you to log send-time data about your SMS. Requires two features: SMS Send Log Data Extension Template and Business Rule on the backend of SFMC to populate Data Extension based on this template. If your Send Log doesn't work, you probably miss the Business Rule. Ask for both. | SMS Send Logging Data Extension | Free |
| Push Send Log | Allows you to log send-time data about your push notifications. Requires two features: Push Send Log Data Extension Template and Business Rule on the backend of SFMC to populate Data Extension based on this template. If your Send Log doesn't work, you probably miss the Business Rule. Ask for both. | Push Notification Send Logging Data Extension | Free |
Analytics Builder Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Datorama Reports Advanced | Allows you to customize and create dashboards, add dimensions and measurements, track cross-channel engagement and query the data. Replaced the Discover Reporting Tool. | Datorama Reports Advanced | Paid |
| Custom Reports | Allows you to request creating a new Report aligned with your needs. | N/A | Paid |
| Account Utilisation Report | Ad hoc request to get the current utilisation status of Super Messages. | N/A | Free |
There are some additional analytics and tracking related features within Automation Studio Features - Data Extract Types. For example Include User Agent Information, Unique Clicks and Opens, Campaing ID and more.
Interaction Studio Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian | Continuously monitors additional metrics like clicks, events and impressions gathered from your site, web application, or mobile app. | Interaction Studio Guardian | Free |
Journey Builder Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusion Scripts for Email Activity | Allows you to define custom exclusion logic evaluated at send time using AMPScript. If possible, use segmentation, suppression and auto-suppression lists due to performance reasons, but in some cases, Exclusion Script might be the only way. There is also a matching feature for Email Studio. Ask for both. | Journey Builder Exclusion Scripts | Free |
| Salesforce Activities for Single Org | By default integrated Single Org SFMC can use Salesforce Journey Activities (both Data Entry as well as Data Update ones) only on Parent BU, but Support can unlock those also for all Child BUs | N/A | Free |
Automation Studio Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Extract Types | Adds various Data Extract Activity options in Automation Studio. Don't feel limited by the list available in the documentation. There are multiple other available, for example: Delete File From ET FTP or Safehouse, Enhanced FTP File Move and Copy, Custom DE Extract With Zip, Data Extension Extract with File Encoding BOM and gzip. Just state what you need, and there is a big chance there is a ready solution that can be enabled. And if not - check next point. | Data Extract Activity | Free |
| Custom Data Extract Types | If the Standard On-Demand Data Extract Types are not enough, you can request creating a custom one to suit your needs. | N/A | Paid |
| Salesforce Objects & Reports Import | If you are using Marketing Cloud Connect, you can ask Support to enable additional Import Activity Type to pull Objects and Reports to Salesforce Data Extensions folder. | Import Activity | Free |
| Additional Automation Activities | You can ask Support to enable a few additional Automation Activities focused on Journey Builder and Salesforce integration. | On-Demand Activities | ? |
| Allow Blank File Processing | By default, if your import activity encounters blank file, it will error out. This Business Rule allows it to continue the processing as normal. | N/A | Free |
Contact Builder Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Data Extension Templates | Allows you to request the creation of a custom Data Extension template that users can later use to auto-populate DE configuration. | N/A | Paid |
| Custom Data Views | Allows you to request the creation of Custom Data View. Mindblowing option. | Example Custom Data View | Paid |
| Data Extension Index | Required for ClaimRow() AMPScript function and an option of last resort for performance optimization in some cases. | Applying an Index to a Data Extension | Free |
Developer Features
| Feature Name | Description | Documentation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOAP Triggered Send Prioritization | Allows you to declare priority for your Triggered Sends created via API. | Triggered Send Priority | Free |
| SOAP Disable Datetime Normalisation | By default dates coming to Marketing Cloud via SOAP API will be normalised. You can ask to disable it. | Datetime Normalisation | Free |
| Salesforce AMPScript Functions for Single Org | By default integrated Single Org SFMC can use Salesforce AMPScript functions (like RetrieveSalesforceObjects) only on Parent BU, but Support can unlock those also for all Child BUs | N/A | Free |
You Should Know
Some features are currently added Out of the Box for new Salesforce Marketing Cloud deployments but were not in the past. If you are rocking old instance, you might also be interested in features like:
- Script Activity for Automation Studio: use SSJS in your Automations
- Shared Folders for Content Builder: make your Content available across multiple Business Units
- Profile Attributes for Email Studio: Subscriber attributes stored at All Subscribers level and available for personalisation
- Brand Builder: allows you to style Salesforce Marketing Cloud a bit by using accent colours and adding your company logo.