Salesforce Campaign Flows: A New Era of Automation

Salesforce’s Flow has long been a powerful automation tool, democratizing access to sophisticated automation for non-coders. It also drives the automation behind Marketing Cloud Growth Edition, including email dispatch. Salesforce Campaign Flows mark a significant step toward making automation more accessible for marketers.

For the first time, Salesforce introduces what are termed “non-admin flows,” which offer a streamlined interface for managing Flow automation without dealing with complex nodes and elements. This marks a significant development, as no other Salesforce products currently feature this simplified approach. Marketers now have direct access to Flow’s capabilities.

Introduction to Salesforce Campaign Flows

Campaign Flows in Salesforce provide a user-friendly interface for setting up email content, applying actions to records triggered by events, and more. This functionality closely parallels tools like Engagement Studio in Account Engagement and Journey Builder in Marketing Cloud. However, the timeline for incorporating features such as Journey Builder’s goals and exit criteria into Campaign Flows remains undisclosed.

Flow now supports shorter wait periods, a sought-after feature for orchestrating marketing journeys more effectively. Branching logic with Decision elements allows users to create “yes/no” paths based on lead or contact criteria, adding flexibility to the marketing automation process.

Types of Campaign Flows

Currently, there are two types of Campaign Flows: Segment-triggered Flows and Form-triggered Flows. The key differences between these Campaign Flows and traditional Salesforce Flows include:

Available Elements

Campaign Flows are a simplified version of Salesforce Flows, with some elements unavailable in this reduced interface. Key elements such as Wait and Decision elements are included, which are essential for marketing use cases. The following table compares available elements:

Element Name	Salesforce Flow	Segment-triggered Flows	Form-triggered Flows
Action	✅	❌	❌
Add Prompt Instructions	✅	❌	❌
Apex Action	✅	❌	❌
Assignment	✅	✅	✅
Collection Filter	✅	✅	✅
Collection Sort	✅	✅	✅
Create Records	✅	✅	✅
Custom Error	✅	❌	❌
Decision	✅	✅	✅
Delete Records	✅	✅	✅
Email Alert	✅	❌	❌
Get Records	✅	✅	✅
Loop	✅	✅	✅
Recommendation Assignment	✅	❌	❌
Screen	✅	❌	❌
Send Email Message	*	✅	❌
Send SMS Message	*	✅	❌
Start	✅	✅	✅
Subflow	✅	❌	❌
Transform	✅	❌	❌
Update Records	✅	✅	❌
Wait	✅	✅	✅
Wait Until Event	*	✅	✅

*Only with Marketing Cloud Growth

Wait vs. Wait Until Event Elements

The “Wait” element allows for fixed pauses, such as waiting for three days. The “Wait Until Event” element, available in Marketing Cloud Growth, holds Leads/Contacts until a specified event makes them eligible to proceed. This mirrors functionality found in Engagement Studio.

User Access and Capabilities

In Marketing Cloud Growth, Campaign Flow sharing is set to private by default, with visibility influenced by associated records, sharing rules, and manual sharing settings. This means Campaign Flows are generally private unless additional sharing rules are established.

Creating and Editing Campaign Flows

Campaign Flows in Marketing Cloud Growth have a simplified user interface compared to Salesforce’s traditional flows.

Salesforce (Admin) Flows: Accessible from Salesforce Setup by users with “View Setup” and “Manage Flow” permissions. No sharing rules are required.
Campaign Flows: Managed from the Campaign record within the Marketing app, resembling record-based management rather than an artifact in Salesforce Setup.

Summary

The introduction of non-admin flows in Salesforce marks a significant step toward making automation more accessible for marketers. These simplified interfaces enable the creation of effective marketing campaigns while maintaining the option to integrate with more complex flows in Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. Future developments will likely expand the use cases and capabilities of these streamlined flows.