Over the past week or so, most people in the Salesforce and Marketing ecosystem have been talking about Marketing Cloud Next – both what it is and what it isn’t. There are those that are positive, touting it as a great step forward in Salesforce and Marketing Technology. There also are those who had a negative take away, saying that it is a signal that Salesforce is falling behind other marketing platforms. Rather than add to that noise disucssing pros and cons of the platform, I wanted to instead discuss the considerations and concerns that I have heard from the community on the argument to stay and the argument to leave.

Let’s dive right in with a couple examples I have heard in the community that are talking about leaving and moving to a completely different platform.

Leaving Marketing Cloud

There are many that feel underwhelmed and almost betrayed by Salesforce for this move from MC Engagement to the Core platform. With this feeling, they have decided it is time to leave the platform completely. Or there are those people who now see Marketing Cloud Engagement as a legacy tool and feel MC on Core is not capable enough for their business. Because of this, or a million other reasons, you are now thinking of leaving Marketing Cloud and/or Salesforce.

First of all, you need to consider the cost of leaving. If you are a current Marketing Cloud customer, you have likely invested a significant amount of time and money into your current setup. This includes not only the cost of the platform itself but also the resources spent on training, integration, and customization. Moving to a new platform will require a similar investment, and you need to weigh that against the potential benefits of switching.

Secondly, how invested in Salesforce in general are you? Do you also use Sales/Service Cloud? Data Cloud? etc. If you have all these products, shifting away to a new Marketing/Messaging system may introduce more complexity in integration than any added value you may have gained with the new platform.

Below are a couple specific examples I have heard in the community to consider before making the decision to leave the platform:

Grass is Always Greener

Now, there are a ton of use-cases where Marketing Cloud just doesn’t make sense and it’s a better path to move to another tool – but that is based off capabilities and context, not desire. Do not fall for the ‘Grass is always Greener’ trap. People tend to get swept up in ‘this tool sucks’ or ‘screw Salesforce’ messaging that trend on social media and some user communities from time to time and they forget to do an objective comparison of products. Instead they focus on finding the next best thing and not looking at what they might lose in the transfer – allowing for negative impacts due to unexpected outcomes.

Many times I have seen this turn into a disappointed marketing team and angry CMO/CFO at the extra cost (migration, training, integration) added on with at best a comparable feature set (can do X better, but sucks at Y). Is Marketing Cloud a sinking ship? No, not at all – it still is the leader in the market by a fairly wide margin. Before making a gut reaction based on emotion, I would recommend reflecting on why you are looking to migrate and redirect your energy into finding the actual best solution for your company.

“Best in Class” vs Suite

The “Best in Class” argument is one that I have heard a lot over the past few months. People are saying that Marketing Cloud is no longer “best in class” and that they should move to a platform that is. The problem with this argument is that “best in class” is subjective. What may be best for one organization may not be best for another. It depends on your specific needs, goals, and resources. Are there platforms out there that outperform Marketing Cloud in certain areas? Absolutely. For instance, Braze does Mobile leaps and bounds above what you get in SFMC – but, when you compare other capabilities, Braze falls well short.

Doing things with a patchwork mentality by getting disconnected “best in class” tools for each aspect can be a fantastic approach, but if you are not already set up or architected to handle the necessary integrations and data manipulations, etc. it can quickly become a very costly, complex, and time-consuming endeavor.

Customer Service Concerns

Another big issue people mention around wanting to leave Salesforce is their infamous customer service. This has been the case for YEARS with the customer service reputation of Salesforce being atrocious since the days that Salesforce bought ExactTarget. Was some of this coming from resentment of people that were ExactTarget customers and didn’t want to be part of the Salesforce ecosystem? Probably, but that doesn’t mean that the customer service was good either.

There have been efforts to improve this in Salesforce and although it is still not what I would call ‘great’, it is about the same as you would find anywhere else. I have not heard of a single marketing platform that has not received regular complaints about the support and customer service. Sure there can be minor differences, but is it really worth the cost of migrating so you can get a vague and unhelpful email reply to your issue in 23 hours instead of 24?

The ‘Negative Nancy’

Usually these are the people that are very vocal about what they perceive as the negative aspects or failings of the new release or capabilities….but also are the ones who will continue to use the platform and attach their careers to it. Just because people are spouting negative thoughts on LinkedIn or Slack or other places, does not mean they really believe it – nor that they will even take their own advice. A lot of times, these comments are there to incite conversation and get them reputation and interaction on the platform. Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one and some stink more than others. You got to make sure to know who the person is and what their motivations are before you go in to take a whiff/listen to what they say.

Now that we discussed those looking to leave, let’s take a look at those that are looking to stay on the platform and investing in the new requirements for Marketing Cloud Next.

Staying with Marketing Cloud

Whether you are too heavily invested in Salesforce or just like what you have and are willing to stick with the platform for comfort’s sake – there are still a lot of considerations you should make while deciding whether to stay with Marketing Cloud or not.

You need to really explore at this time of transition if the new tools and feature set is actually what your company needs or wants and not just go along with the status quo. Making no efforts to review and investigate the upcoming changes can lead to catastrophic issues and impacts to your company and your marketing/messaging strategies and operations.

Here are a few of the larger ones I have heard from the community:

The ‘All in’ Trailblazer

These tend to be the people that drank the ‘blue Kool-Aid’ (or Flavor-Aid for those that are sticklers), and are all in on the Salesforce ecosystem. They love everything that Salesforce has provided and are excited about the future of Marketing Cloud…despite not really researching what it means. They know the buzz words and the cool demos and features that are promoted, but do not know what that means and all associated capabilities/costs that come along with it.

Just because Marketing Cloud has always been your marketing platform, does not mean it will continue to be the best solution for you with these changes. It is wonderful to be excited – but you need to make sure that you are excited for the right reasons and make a smart choice for your organization.

Vaporware Concerns

Salesforce has been accused of this in the past around demos and product announcements as those that remember Journey Builder when it was first announced will certainly remember.  Vaporware is software that is announced but never actually delivered, or that is delivered but does not live up to the hype. This is a valid concern, but one that I think Salesforce has mostly learned its lesson on. Before making your final decision on the product, you should consider if the features announced or demoed are actually something that could not only be useful for you – but seem possible that they could be ready and running in a reasonable amount of time.

The ‘Squatter’

These are the people that are waiting to see what happens. They are not ready to jump ship, but they are also not ready to commit to the new requirements of Marketing Cloud Next. They want to see how the product evolves and whether it will meet their needs before making a decision. This is a valid approach, but it is important to stay informed and engaged with the community to ensure that you are not left behind as the platform evolves. You don’t need to make the decision now, but if you do not make it soon, you may find yourself forced into a decision to stay relevant or left too far behind to catch up to competitors.

The ‘800lb Gorilla’

Jokingly, people call Salesforce Marketing Cloud the ‘800lb gorilla’ because of the sheer size of its current market share. Although this is somewhat silly, it is still a consideration that should be had. Does this announcement align with your expectations or the direction of your organization? Maybe not – but with how large it is, you know that if that market share starts decreasing a company as large as Salesforce will heavily invest to get that share back. They have a vested interest in keeping their customers happy and engaged, and they will continue to innovate and improve the platform to do so. This is not to say that you should blindly trust them, but it is a consideration that should be made when evaluating your options. Especially as it can help reduce multiple migration efforts and costs.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is a lot to consider on both sides of the fence, and that doesn’t even dive deep into things like consent, data security, AI capabilities and ethical use, etc. Nor even cost or requirements for the new Marketing Cloud Next. My focus on this WAS to jump away from those specifics as they are something that you can easily get and find across the internet now – but those facts are not a full reflection on what it means for your org.

The key is to take a step back, evaluate your current situation, and make an informed decision based on your specific needs and goals. Whether you choose to stay with Marketing Cloud or move to a different platform, the most important thing is that you are making the right choice for your organization.