A Home Builder Transforms the Customer Experience with Salesforce Data Cloud

The Challenges

Our client, a successful homebuilding and land development company in Texas, faced significant obstacles that limited their ability to fully leverage Salesforce Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud. 

An incomplete implementation with a previous partner resulted in inefficiencies and missed marketing opportunities. The company also faced the challenge of duplicate lead data, and didn’t have a clear picture of their customers and their needs as prospective home buyers. Key challenges included:

Non-Functional Marketing Cloud Org: Our client’s Marketing Cloud environment wasn’t fully functional, which significantly diminished their ROI in the platform.

Incomplete Integration: A poorly implemented Marketing Cloud Connect integration led to a disjointed marketing and sales experience.

Manual Processes: High error potential and inefficiency due to reliance on manual tasks.

Unsent Communications: Inability to send emails resulted in lost customer engagement opportunities.

Lead Duplication Issues: Multiple leads were created for the same person due to form submissions across different communities, external sites, and inconsistent data sources. This required manual consolidation into Person Accounts, complicating targeted marketing and nurturing. 

The Solution

Our team developed a comprehensive, phased approach to address our client’s challenges, including implementing Salesforce Data Cloud to unify audience data and enhance Marketing Cloud functionality. Some of the solutions we provided for our client included: 

Initial Assessment: Conducted an in-depth assessment of both Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud environments to identify missing or incomplete configurations.

Configuration & Build Completion: Detailed the required configurations to our client and completed the necessary builds to make the selected journeys functional.

Journey Enhancements & Email Builds: Within 8 weeks, we launched 15 enhanced as well as new journeys and 9 manual process automations in Marketing Cloud along with 47 emails that accompany them. 

SMS Opt-In Automation: We developed an automated solution for SMS opt-in utilizing both Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud.

Data Cloud: Building a Foundation

→ Read More: Unlocking Data: Enhancing Homebuyer Experiences with Salesforce Data Cloud

To establish a robust foundation for our client’s data, we prioritized consolidating and unifying customer data across Salesforce and external sources. By implementing Data Cloud, we tackled the core issues of fragmented customer information and lead duplication.

This phase enabled seamless data ingestion from CRM systems, creating unified profiles for each customer. With centralized consent management and integrations with external sources like Zillow and Trulia, we empowered our client to maintain accurate, real-time customer data regardless of the data source. 

The result? A 360-degree view of their customers’ activities, preferences, and interests — laying the groundwork for highly personalized marketing and meaningful engagement. Some of the solutions we provided for our client during this phase included: 

Data Consolidation: Data Cloud was implemented to ingest CRM data, consolidating duplicate leads and Person Accounts into a unified profile for each individual.

Consent Management: Centralized opt-in data to ensure communication preferences were respected and managed efficiently.

Integration with External Sources: Connected third-party sites like Zillow, Trulia, Livable and others via webhooks, enabling seamless lead creation and unification.

360-Degree Individual View: Created unified profiles to reflect all activities, such as form submissions, interactions, and interests across communities. This gives our client a clear picture of who their customers are, how they want to be communicated with, and what types of homes they are interested in based on key data points such as price, location, etc.

Data Cloud: Enhanced Insights & Engagement

Building on the unified data foundation, we focused on enhancing engagement through actionable insights. By integrating Marketing Cloud with Data Cloud, we brought email engagement metrics like clicks and opens into individual profiles, enriching the timeline of customer interactions. 

The addition of Einstein Engagement Scoring provided predictive insights to prioritize outreach efforts effectively. We also developed an Activity Timeline Lightning Component, enabling the sales team to view a consolidated history of customer interactions.

This comprehensive framework not only improves current marketing and sales strategies but also prepares the company for advanced segmentation and future innovations. Solutions during this phase included: 

Email Engagement Integration: Connecting Marketing Cloud to Data Cloud to unify email engagement data (e.g., clicks, opens) with individual profiles, enabling a comprehensive activity timeline.

Activity Timeline Lightning Component: Building a Salesforce component to display consolidated individual activity across all associated records for better sales insights.

Einstein Engagement Scoring: Leveraging Einstein Engagement Scoring to surface advanced engagement insights directly in Data Cloud, enriching lead records with predictive metrics. Einstein Engagement Scoring also allows the company to assign scores for each contact’s likelihood to engage with emails or interact with push notifications.

Future-Ready Framework: Establishing Data Cloud as the central hub for audience segmentation, enabling future integration with web tracking and additional external data sources.

Customer Impact

The partnership with Kelley Austin has transformed the company’s Salesforce environment into a powerhouse for unified customer engagement and efficiency. With a fully functional Marketing Cloud org, enhanced customer journeys, and automated processes, the company saw significant improvements in efficiency and customer engagement. Some of the benefits of this project include:

Enhanced Customer Engagement: With 15 new and improved journeys live, our client can engage more effectively with their leads and customers.

Operational Efficiency: Automating 9 manual processes reduced errors and freed up valuable time for the team to focus on more strategic activities.

Improved ROI: A fully functional Marketing Cloud org and Data Cloud integration helped our client to maximize their Salesforce investment.

‍Enhanced Marketing Precision: Unified individual profiles enable targeted marketing campaigns based on consolidated data.

‍Operational Efficiency: Automation of manual processes and centralized data reduced errors and freed up team resources.

Actionable Insights: Real-time reporting and dashboards provide visibility into lead traffic, conversions, and individual engagement patterns.

Effective Sales & Marketing Alignment: Sales teams now have a 360-degree view of customer interactions, improving outreach effectiveness and enabling lead scoring opportunities in future phases.

By fostering transparency and collaboration, Kelley Austin addressed the challenges posed by the company’s previous implementation issues, restoring their confidence in the Salesforce platform. The ongoing implementation of Data Cloud is a testament to our partnership, laying the foundation for continued growth and innovation.

This phased approach not only resolved immediate challenges but also positioned our client for long-term success in a highly competitive market where 60% of Engineering and Construction leaders are investing in end-to-end digitization to future proof their firms. 

By transforming their Salesforce ecosystem into an integrated, efficient, and future-ready platform, we empowered the client to connect with their customers in meaningful ways and adapt to evolving expectations. With tools like Data Cloud and Einstein Engagement Scoring, the company can now leverage advanced analytics and unified customer insights to drive precision marketing and strategic sales efforts.

The foundational work we've done opens the door for continued innovation. From expanding external integrations to enhancing audience segmentation and implementing AI-driven personalization, the company is now well-equipped to stay ahead of industry trends. 

Kelley Austin’s partnership underscores our commitment to our client’s success today and in the future, ensuring their business remains agile, customer-centric, and prepared for whatever comes next.