How to set up encrypted seeding with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) - Everest integration

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration for Everest allows users to automatically seed to their Everest seed list directly from their SFMC campaigns.

If you encrypt your subscriber lists, this integration will work for you. The only difference is that you will need to manage your seed list either manually or via API, and you will need to manage the suppression of seeds.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you will need:

• The access necessary to manage API credentials and installed package permissions within Salesforce Marketing Cloud
• Your Everest seed list already created and downloaded (under Creating and managing your Everest Seed List), but not added to Salesforce Marketing Cloud
• A blank document or text file for copying credentials

Note: You must complete the integration set up process for each Salesforce Marketing Cloud account (MID) that is set up to seed to Everest.

How to set up your Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration

In Salesforce Marketing Cloud

First, you'll set up your seed list. To do this:

1. Sign into your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account.
   • If you have more than one MID, be sure you're signing into the MID you want to integrate with Everest.
2. Create a data extension for your seed list. This data extension should contain only your Everest seed list.
   • Create a data extension in Contact Builder
   • Create a data extension in Email Studio
3. Upload the seed list you created and downloaded from Everest to this data extension.
4. Copy the data extension key and paste it to your blank document. You will use this key later.
   • If you created your data extension in Contact Builder, use the provided key under External Key or create your own and then copy it to your blank document.
   • If you created your data extension in Email Studio, use a unique value in Properties under External Key.

Next, you'll set up an installed package for your integration.

1. Select your username in the upper right corner and choose Setup.
2. Under Platform Tools, expand Apps and then choose Installed Packages.
3. Select New and fill in a name and description for your new package. If there is a checkbox for Create with enhanced functionality, check it.
4. Select Save.

Next, you'll set the permissions that allow Everest to integrate correctly.

1. Select Add Component, located at the bottom of the page.
   
2. If you see API Integration, select it and then select Next. Otherwise, continue to step 3.
3. Choose Server-to-Server. Select Next.
4. Check the following boxes for each set of components:
   • Channels
     • Email
       • Read
       • Write
       • Send
   • Assets
     • Documents and Images
       • Read
   • Automation
     • Automations
       • Read
       • Write
       • Execute
   • Data
     • Data Extensions
       • Read
         
5. Select Save.
   

Finally, you'll locate and copy the Client ID, Client Secret, and TSSD, or tenant-specific subdomain, of this Installed Package for authenticating with the SFMC API.

1. Copy your auto-generated Client ID and Client Secret codes and paste them into your blank document.
2. Locate the SOAP Base URI label. The URL under the label should look like this:
   https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.soap.marketingcloudapis.com/
   
   • The bolded 28-character string (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) is your tenant-specific subdomain, or TSSD. It includes everything after the double forward slashes and before the first dot.
3. Copy your TSSD, including any special characters such as hyphens, and paste it into your blank document.

In Everest

First, you'll set up your integration and authenticate with the SFMC API.

1. In a new tab or window, sign in to Everest.
   • If you have multiple accounts, make sure you are signing into the Everest account that goes with the SFMC MID you want to integrate.
2. Use the navigation menu at left to go to My Everest, then Apps & Integrations.
3. Under Email Service Providers, find the Salesforce Marketing Cloud widget and select Settings (gear icon) to open a slideout.
4. Enter a name for your integration that is meaningful to you. A best practice is to include your SFMC MID in the connection’s display name.
5. Paste your Client ID, Client Secret, and TSSD from your blank document into the appropriate fields.
6. Optional: If your edition of SFMC is Enterprise and you are unable to create installed packages at the Business Unit level, you can create the installed package at the Enterprise level and indicate the Business Unit MID in the Account ID / MID field.
7. Select Authenticate.

To complete this process, you'll edit the threshold settings for your integration.

1. In the Your Accounts widget, find the row with your integration and select the arrow icon at right.
2. In the Integration Features widget, in the dropdown labeled Is your subscriber list encrypted?, select Yes, Encrypted.
3. Copy the data extension key from your working document and paste it into the Data Extension Key text box.
4. Enter values for Minimum Campaign Send Size, Minimum Job ID Time in Minutes and Minimum Send Time in Minutes.
5. Select Save.

The Minimum Campaign Send Size and Minimum Send Time in Minutes settings will determine the size and frequency of campaigns that Everest will add the seed list to for you. The Minimum Job ID Time in Minutes will determine the time between sends for those campaigns in Salesforce Marketing Cloud that have a persistent JobID. Once the integration is set up and the thresholds have been set, Everest will begin to collect seed data for seeds sent from SFMC according to the thresholds.

• For example, if you set your thresholds to 10,000 and 60, we will seed to the first campaign that we see that meets the minimum of 10,000 subscribers once in an hour, even if other campaigns also meet the 10,000-subscriber threshold. After the hour has passed, we will start looking for the next campaign that meets the subscriber threshold, and so on.
• The send time in minutes threshold can be set to 0 so that any campaign that meets the minimum subscriber threshold is auto seeded.
• The send size can be set to 1 so that any campaign of any size is auto seeded, within the parameters of your minimum send time.

After you have saved your thresholds, enable the Inbox Test Auto-Seeding feature and select Save Features.

Once you have enabled the features, Inbox Placements should start showing up in In-Flight > Inbox Placement. We recommend checking Inbox Placement after a couple of days to confirm the threshold settings are appropriate and not over-seeding or under-seeding, adjusting as needed.

Note: As part of this integration, your Everest seed list will be added to your "All Subscribers" list in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Any time you send to All Subscribers, this will supersede your auto-seeding thresholds and include seeds in your send. Seed addresses will also be considered "non-openers," and therefore anything sent to that subgroup will trigger a send to seeds.

How to manage your seed list

If you manage this list manually, you will occasionally need to refresh your seed list. Simply download an updated seed list from Everest and update your data extension. A notification will be posted to the Everest resource center anytime the seed list should be updated.

You will also need to work with Salesforce to avoid the automatic suppression of seeds. Because seeds don't interact with your emails directly, they can be suppressed like other addresses with no engagement. Learn more about managing auto-suppression lists.

If you have the technical resources to manage this list via API, you can set up automatic updates. Please refer to the API documentation for the /seeds endpoint.