The work world is braving fresh waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. But how did work ecosystems gain such resilience? It embraced hybrid and remote models. No doubt, enterprises are adopting this evolving work reality. But it is the IT departments that are bearing the brunt of a new breed of security challenges. Most businesses have implemented, configured, and integrated Salesforce Marketing Cloud to make marketing efforts more effective.

Marketing Cloud has built-in security features that help marketers and other staff members work securely in a hybrid or remote model. But there are some things businesses like yours should keep in mind to strengthen the security of this Salesforce offering. This explainer will dive deep into the battle-tested security tips for aligning Salesforce Marketing Cloud with your data protection protocols.

Tip #1: Manage Accessibility With Business Units

Before creating users on your Marketing Cloud, see how your organization is structured. Here is a case in point: If your organization operates in multiple regions, every user may not need access to every dataset. The golden rule of data accessibility says that you should not grant data access to someone who does not need to see it. And to help implement this golden rule, you must use Business Units (BUs) in your SFMC. A BU helps build a hierarchical structure for your organization, and this structure helps control information access. BUs help Marketing Cloud users unsubscribe to the information they do not need at a Business-Unit level or an enterprise level.

Tip #2: Handle Role Assignments Based On Needs

Once you establish an organizational hierarchy, you need to assign roles. SFMC comes with two elements when assigning roles: permissions and roles. Permissions help build micro-level security; they allow users to create and edit in Journey Builder. On the other hand, Roles create macro-level security; they are an array of permissions. When assigning roles to SFMC users, start by giving them the ones that help them do their jobs. Moreover, when you give a user multiple roles, Marketing Cloud will prioritize the most restrictive value. For example, when you assign a user three roles—Marketing Cloud Channel Manager, Content Creator, and Marketing Cloud Viewer—they will be unable to send emails. Why? In this case, SMFC has defaulted to the role of a Marketing Cloud Viewer for the user because it is the most restrictive role of the three.

Tip #3: Limit Data Storage In SFMC

Understand this simple fact: Salesforce Marketing Cloud is not your business data warehouse. That is why you should not make it behave like one. When entering data into your Marketing Cloud, ask yourself this question. Will I use this data for segmenting at any point in time? If you would not segment the data you plan on entering into your Marketing Cloud, do not sync it. For example, do not make datasets, such as credit card numbers, part of your SFMC. Additionally, take extra data security measures based on the industry type your business serves. These security measures include using field-level encryption, leveraging tokenized sending, etc.

Tip #4: Restrict Data Exports Once And For All

Ask yourself this simple question. Does a specific user need to export data to work properly? If the answer is a no, then do not let the user export data. It is that simple. Data extraction or export in SFMC presents the top data security challenge. The data sitting in your SFMC org will be safe. However, when you export the marketing data to an unsecured system, then anything will be possible. That is why Salesforce experts always recommend businesses key steps to mitigate the risks projected by data export.

Tip #5: Follow The Gold Standard For Passwords And Logins

SFMC admins must follow Salesforce-recommended security policies to the letter. Moreover, admins must audit their org periodically to check if they have overlooked some security recommendations. And checking security recommendations is not challenging too. Why? Well, because everything is visible umber the Security Setting tab. Just click on the tab and check whether every field—Session Timeout, Minimum Username Length, Enforce Password History, etc.—is set at the recommended value.

Need help with baking security in your SFMC implementation? If yes, we have your back.

Flexsin: A Trusted Salesforce Silver Partner To Help Maximize Your SFMC ROI

We help businesses amp up the security of their Marketing Cloud implementations. Our suite of Salesforce Marketing Cloud services includes consultation, implementation, integration, migration, and support. As a Salesforce consulting partner, we have built deep capabilities in helping businesses use every SFMC feature. We have helped businesses use Marketing Cloud to automate and scale campaigns, boost revenue growth, etc. Contact our certified SFMC consultants to start optimizing your Marketing Cloud deployment.