General Resources
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How Much Does a Marketing Cloud Consultant Cost?
An overview of standard hourly rates for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultants: Architects, Engineers, Administrators, and Email Developers.
Importance of Marketing Cloud Consultants
One of the more challenging aspects of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is how many distinct skill sets you need to properly implement, adopt, and start driving value from the platform. We all know Marketing Cloud is an expensive product to adopt - you want to avoid a situation where you pay for licenses, spend a ton to implement, and then can't figure out how to successfully use it. (For more context on the role of a Marketing Cloud Consultant, check out this resource.) For this reason, the concept of a ‘Marketing Cloud Consultant’ can be a bit misleading. It implies a one-size fits all skill set. In reality, there are a number of different roles needed at each stage of the Marketing Cloud journey in order to be successful. And those costs can stack up, especially when using a Salesforce Marketing Cloud Partner that easily runs you $200/hour to $350/hour.
In this resource, we highlight the 4 primary Marketing Cloud functions, providing a snapshot into the typical hourly rates associated with each and when they are needed along the journey.
Note: This is cost data based on hiring an Independent Salesforce Consultant / Freelancer. Hourly rates when engaging a Salesforce Consulting Partner will typically be 2x-3x these estimates.
Marketing Cloud Application Specialists
We categorize "Application Specialists" as the Consultants you engage during the initial implementation of Marketing Cloud.
Typically, these individuals are part of the project team that will lead initial discovery, requirements gathering, business process review / gap analysis, and hands-on configuration of the tool, including integrations to the rest of your Business Systems.
While some organizations may employ a Marketing Cloud Architect or Engineer in-house, it’s typically reserved for the largest global Enterprises. Most companies only need to engage these individuals during the upfront rollout and will rely on Campaign Specialists for ongoing, day-to-day management of the tool (more on those below).
Marketing Cloud Architect
At the top of the pyramid sits your Marketing Cloud Architect.
The Architect will lead a full discovery into your business, current Marketing strategy, existing systems environment, and incorporate the desired functionality and tools you're looking to bring into the mix. At that point, they will design and architect a roadmap for how you can adopt, customize, and integrate Marketing Cloud - this involves in-depth business process mapping, technical solutions architecture, and integration strategy.
Cost of a Marketing Cloud Architect
When engaging an Independent Consultant, you should expect to see a range of $170/hour-$185/hour.
Marketing Cloud Engineers
As part of your implementation, the Architect will be paired with a team of hands-on Marketing Cloud Engineers focused on building integrations and all customization needed to execute your cross-channel Marketing communications.
Typically, this involves integration of API’s set up for real time emails sends, start journey’s, insert records in DE with multiple email touch points.
Implementation of data structure in SFMC and set up attribute groups in Contact Builder/Data designer.
Creating BU, users, roles and assigning roles to specific users.
Configuring required Data Extensions, Publication List, Send Logs, E-Mails, Contents, dynamic content and other activities.
Creating Journey Builder in Building Journeys & Automations in Automation Studio.
Designed delivery checklist, debugging, Testing and Documentation.
End to End Digital marketing campaign execution and tracking.
Usage of AMP script to pull data into data extension and other functionality.
Cost of a Marketing Cloud Engineer
When engaging an Independent Consultant, you should expect to see a range of $110/hour-$130/hour.
Marketing Cloud Campaign Specialists
These are skill sets that will live within your Marketing organization on a full-time basis.
Companies will typically train their existing Marketing team on using the product or leverage Contractors in a managed services capacity.
The BIGGEST RISK to adopting Marketing Cloud is going through the entire implementation process and realizing you don’t have the internal capabilities to actually execute a campaign. Unfortunately, Salesforce doesn’t do a great job educating new customers on the challenges of using the tool but you will need Marketing Cloud Specialists to be successful.
Marketing Cloud Administrators
A Marketing Cloud Admin is responsible for the audits, strategy, content, and setup of the broadcast campaigns and email automations of current and potential members. They will bring proven success building and managing a variety of email programs for several types of members.
As part of the role, an Admin utilizes extensive knowledge to manage all member marketing activities in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, capitalizing on the full features and benefits of all marketing elements within the platform. Dynamic and technical marketing communicators can interface directly with internal stakeholders to understand their needs and then deliver effective SFMC strategies and campaigns.
They are the "Go to" for all Marketing users and manage all email campaigns including validation and testing practices (A/B testing/segmentation), while providing regular reporting dashboards.
Cost of a Marketing Cloud Administrator
When engaging an Independent Consultant, you should expect to see a range of $70/hour-$95/hour.
Marketing Cloud Email Developers
These Email Specialists are the backbone of your day-to-day Marketing Cloud utilization.
Responsible for supporting operations and cross-channel digital marketing campaigns including email and SMS using Email Studio, Content Builder, Automation Studio, Mobile Studio, and Journey Builder.
Working with marketing managers, converting their strategy into implementations including email QA in HTML, writing SQL query, AMPscript logic, leveraging assets to build and deploy the email campaigns.
Create different data extensions, triggered sends and associate them to different campaigns.
Create templates and sender profiles, send classifications and associated them as per business need.
Track campaign metrics including sends, click through rates, and other metrics, building dashboards to present analytics to company stakeholders.
Conduct A/B testing, perform quality assurance reviews and other activities to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of email deployment.
Develop robust campaign documentation, including customer specific work instructions.
Configure the Account, business units, create new users, assign appropriate roles and set the permissions to the new and existing users as a SFMC Admin.
Coordinate with the other Salesforce product teams to build, test and support system functionality in the Salesforce org.
Cost of a Marketing Cloud Email Developer
When engaging an Independent Consultant, you should expect to see a range of $85/hour-$105/hour.
FAQ
What are some Marketing Cloud alternatives?
The most common alternatives to Marketing Cloud are Marketo and Hubspot. PeerSpot has done a great job highlighting the differences in this article.
How much does Marketing Cloud cost?
Marketing Cloud Pricing can be tricky because of all the module offerings the product has. Luckily we've put together a guide to unfold all the Marketing Cloud Pricing options that Salesforce offers.
How do I know if I need a Marketing Cloud Consultant?
Here are 12 signs you might need a Marketing Cloud Consultant.
How exactly can a Marketing Consultant help me?
What a Marketing Cloud Consultant does is analyze the status of your stance, enlist the problems you want to solve and create a roadmap to execute on. A good consultant will not only execute but guide you through the execution of all the tasks at hand.
Should I hire an independent Marketing Cloud Consultant or a Marketing Cloud Partner?
It really depends on your budget but at FoundHQ, we believe that even in big projects where you're engaging a Consulting Firm or Partner, it's better to have an independent consultant who'll act as a part of your team. This person can make sure that what the Partner is recommending makes sense for your particular business. The main issue with Consulting Partners or Firms is that they're motivated to sell more products, more hours, more work. However, there are great Partners out there. You can check out the Top 10 Marketing Cloud Partners here.
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