Frequently Asked Questions
The goal of this project is to modernize how SMU communicates with its audiences — internal and external — by delivering the most relevant information to the right audience.
The initial phase of the project focused on alumni and donor communications (external), helping improve coordination, branding and campaign management. The project has since expanded to support internal communications for students, faculty and staff through campus.
Today, the initiative supports a broader University communications strategy focused on audience segmentation, subscription-based communications, more coordinated communication planning and improved governance.
This project supports the implementation and expansion of Salesforce Marketing Cloud across SMU’s marketing and communications enterprise.
It is led through a collaborative partnership between Marketing and Communications, Development and External Affairs, the Office of Information Technology and communicators from schools and administrative units across the University. Representatives from these areas help guide implementation, governance, training, communication standards and platform adoption.
To better understand the University's communications needs, SMU conducted a campus-wide assessment of email practices and technology requirements. Feedback from communicators across schools and administrative units helped identify the functionality needed to support both alumni and donor communications as well as future enterprise communications initiatives.
Based on this assessment, the Office of Information Technology and Development and External Affairs evaluated several enterprise email marketing platforms. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was selected because it best met the University's needs for audience segmentation, campaign management, automation, reporting and long-term scalability.
A SFMC User Group meets weekly to discuss future campaigns/communications and challenges, celebrate wins, share best practices, create draft policies, procedures, and training materials, participate in training, and make recommendations to the leadership committee. Act as thought leaders and partners and share updates with colleagues not in the user group. Decision requests are compiled and shared with the leadership committee. Decisions from the leadership committee are shared with this committee.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) FAQs
Salesforce Marketing Cloud serves as SMU's enterprise marketing and communications email platform and supports a growing range of communications across the University.
Today, the platform is used for:
- Alumni and donor communications.
- Internal communications for students, faculty and staff, including audience-targeted communications, employee newsletters, operational updates and automated communication journeys.
- Subscription-based communications that allow recipients to manage eligible communications through the SMU Subscription Center.
As adoption continues to expand, additional schools and administrative units will begin using Salesforce Marketing Cloud to deliver more coordinated, audience-centered communication.
The project website and blog are updated with information periodically about implementation efforts and important resources.
Generally, SFMC is used for:
- Alumni and donor communications.
- Internal communications for students, faculty and staff that are used for essential messaging (administrative updates, etc) and value-added information (newsletters with bundled information)
If your primary goal is promoting events to students, faculty or staff, SMU360 may be a better option than email. Similarly, some communications may be better suited for University websites, newsletters, digital signage or other established communications channels.
The project website has training resources, including links to online “Trailheads” and “Trailmixes” offered by Salesforce. Users can create a login on the Salesforce website to access these free online training resources.
- A Trailhead is an online training resource that allows users to learn important skills to use the platform.
- A Trailmix is a customized learning journey that users can create for themselves or others within the organization.
SMU’s project website also includes a Marketing Cloud glossary of terms.
If you will be using Email Studio, please visit these resources to help get you started and comfortable using the Email Studio platform.
If Salesforce Marketing Cloud appears to be the right fit, submit a request through STABLE. Your request will initiate a consultation with the project team to better understand your communications goals, target audience and use case.
During the consultation, the team will evaluate whether the University's available audience data and segmentation capabilities can support your communications needs, discuss governance and best practices, and identify any training or onboarding required before access is provided.
Users are granted access to the platform and assigned roles by account administrators. The following resources outline user roles in SFMC.
Marketing Cloud roles and permissions
With Marketing Cloud roles you can grant your users access to the areas and features that pertain to their job functions. View Marketing Cloud roles.
SFMC Journey Builder
Journey Builder is a marketing automation tool that allows subscribers to receive messages via email or SMS based on criteria or previous engagements.
Imagine this tool as a better way to automate messages and reach target audiences at specific points in time or as a result of subscriber engagement.
Journey Builder is a user-friendly, drag-and-drop tool that allows marketers to create personalized, engagement-based journeys for their customers.
- Design and automate campaigns that guide customers through their journey with a brand.
- Execute simple or multi-step marketing and data management activities on an immediate, triggered or scheduled basis.
Email journeys in the Journey Builder tool provide personalized and captivating messages to your audience through automation.
These journeys can range from intricate sequences spanning a year with different decision points to straightforward single emails sent annually.
By prioritizing the individual experience of each recipient and tailoring emails based on specific triggers, you can ensure the delivery of pertinent and timely content that encourages interaction.
- Boost interaction (more opens and clicks).
- Streamline processes for better productivity.
- Target the perfect audience, precisely when they’re receptive, with tailored messages.
- Experiment with A/B testing using Path Optimizer.
- Utilize Einstein’s Send Time Optimization to send emails when recipients are most likely to engage.
It is an integrated set of AI technologies integrated within the platform. You can learn more about Einstein online (FAQs).
You can also watch a Salesforce video about how it uses Generative AI: 5 Steps to Prepare Your Organization for Generative AI.
- A welcome message when someone subscribes or opts-in to receive communications.
- Welcoming new students to the Hilltop with a series of follow-up messages to help orient them to campus.
- Onboarding materials and support during the first 90 days for new SMU employees.
Journey Builder Prerequisites
Review these items before using Journey Builder in the Marketing Cloud whether you’re a marketer or administrator.
Journey Builder Activities
Canvas activities include messages, decisions, updates or a combination of these elements dragged onto the Journey Builder canvas. In a multi-step journey, the activities you configure affect each contact until they reach a goal or the end of the journey.
Journey Builder Reports
View a list and description of Journey Builder reports available in the Reports tool.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement: Journey Builder Demo | YouTube Salesforce
Bulklist Retirement FAQs
The bulklist platform will be retired in December 2026.
The goal of this initiative is to improve the relevance, effectiveness and overall experience of internal communications at SMU.
Historically, many communications were distributed through broad email lists or independent newsletters, resulting in a fragmented flow of information across the University. An audit of existing bulklist usage found that many lists were being used primarily for event promotion, often reaching overlapping audiences through separate communications channels.
As a result, students, faculty and staff receive multiple messages promoting events, updates or opportunities that are not directly relevant to them, contributing to email fatigue and making it more difficult to identify information that matters most.
To address these challenges, SMU is adopting a more intentional communications model that aligns information with the most appropriate channel:
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Event promotion will be centralized through SMU360, the University's event discovery platform.
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Informational communications will be delivered through Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which supports audience targeting and segmentation.
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Consolidated newsletters and digest communications will help surface important information while reducing the number of standalone emails sent across campus.
These approaches reflect communication best practices increasingly used by colleges and universities across the country.
The replacement platform will depend on how your bulklist is currently being used.
In general:
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Bulklists used primarily for event promotion will transition to SMU360
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Bulklists used to communicate value-added information other than events, such as a newsletter, will transition to Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC).
As a general principle, all campus events will need to be posted to SMU360, which is becoming the University's centralized platform for event discovery and promotion. Communicators should avoid single-event email promotions (and reminders) to the entire campus community.
Informational communications, such as newsletters, will generally transition to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Additional information, timelines and training opportunities will be provided before any changes are implemented.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is SMU's enterprise communications platform. It enables communicators to send targeted communications to specific audiences using institutional data that is refreshed nightly.
The platform supports audience segmentation, automated communications journeys, reporting and analytics.
Departments across the University already use Salesforce Marketing Cloud to support operational updates, service notifications, organizational change communications, employee communications and automated journeys.
SMU360 is the University's centralized event platform. It allows students, faculty and staff to discover campus events and engagement opportunities in one location. SMU360 was originally acquired to exclusively support SMU student organizations, and it quickly became a flexible and powerful platform that has extended beyond the student into different departments.
As part of the bulklist transition, event-related communications currently distributed through bulklist will transition to SMU360 and related event promotion channels.
Moving event-related communications to SMU360 will help create a more consistent experience for students, faculty and staff while reducing reliance on standalone promotional emails. It will also support future event digest communications and other event discovery tools.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows communicators to deliver targeted communications to specific audiences using institutional data and audience segmentation.
The platform is well suited for operational updates, service notifications, organizational communications, reminders, employee and student journeys and other informational communications that benefit from audience targeting and automation.
Yes.
Existing bulklists will remain available until the retirement date unless otherwise communicated.
No.
As the University transitions away from the bulklist platform, new bulklists will not be created. Departments seeking new communications solutions should work with the project team to identify the most appropriate alternative.
No.
As the University transitions away from the bulklist platform, new bulklists will not be created. Departments seeking new communications solutions should work with the project team to identify the most appropriate alternative.
Yes. Training and support opportunities will be offered throughout the migration period.
The goal is to improve the communications experience by reducing unnecessary messages and delivering information through channels that are more relevant to the audience and purpose of the communication.
Additional information, project updates, training resources and implementation timelines are available on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud project page.