Are you planning to take the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization exam? One of Credera’s newest Marketing Cloud Consultants, Balwinder Tank, recently passed the exam with flying colours. Giving back to the Salesforce community is important to Credera, so Balwinder kindly shares his experience in this blog post.
Partner Learning Camp
Just like any other Salesforce cert, your first step towards passing the Marketing Cloud Personalization exam is to enrol into the Partner Learning Camp course.
In my case, as I’d never used Marketing Cloud Personalization before, I had to rely on the images provided in the Partner Learning Camp modules to envisage how I would navigate around the platform. If you have access to a demo or live account, that will certainly help you.
One of my key pieces of advice at this early stage is: do not mark modules as complete as you go through them! That way you can return to them if you want to go through them all in one go and then revisit them later.
My next top preparation tip: split your study sessions into two-hour slots with a five-minute break. I personally prefer to take notes by hand. After each two-hour slot I would read back through my notes to learn the key terms.
At a later date, when you know what you’re confident about – and what not – go back to the Partner Learning Camp again a second time. And remember! Partner Learning Camp is a great guided learning tool – but do not rely solely on this to pass your exam.
A little help from your friends
After you’ve been through the Partner Learning Camp once, find someone to test you on your knowledge. Our Solutions Architect ran a readiness spot check to establish my understanding of all the topics so far. He suggested to keep the following questions in mind when studying each topic:
What is it?
Why is it done?
When is it done?
Where is it found?
Who should implement it and how?
This was a great opportunity to uncover knowledge gaps and identify areas where I needed to study further. The more knowledge gaps you can identify early on, the better!
Visual learning
What really helped me was to map out a visual diagram of how Marketing Cloud Personalization works. This was a fantastic method to identify knowledge gaps as well. I used Lucidchart to map out the various touchpoints in the Marketing Cloud Personalization platform, as well as the stages that proceed after. I used this diagram to reinforce my understanding.
For those who prefer video, you can find some great Boot Camp sessions on YouTube. I found these gave me a better overall understanding of the product.
Knowledge bases
The Partner Learning Camp links to specific pages within the Interaction Studio Knowledge Space. I also went through the Interaction Studio Developer page, which outlined many key terms categorised into different areas, e.g. Web Integration, Event API, Mobile Integration. It was useful for learning different definitions.
Interaction Studio Knowledge Base: doc.evergage.com/display/EKB/Get+Started
Interaction Studio Developer Page: developer.evergage.com/develop-overview
External practice tests
Udemy is a handy resource for testing your knowledge. These questions may not appear on the actual exam. However this was particularly good for me to identify knowledge gaps. After taking a practice test, I received a summary of my results separated into the different topic areas. Then I knew which areas to focus on when going back to the Partner Learning Camp.
Study notes tips
When I was making my own study notes I wanted to keep it simple and easy to follow. I find that when there is too much information on a page, it is harder to focus and retain the information. Here’s how I categorised my notes:
Key components of the sitemap
Different sitemap objects
Key components of web campaigns
Different steps of the delivery process
Types of Profile Objects
Types of Campaign Objects
Types of Einstein Recipes and Ingredients
A lot of the questions test how well you know the different components of a topic or area. So the more of this you do, the higher your chance will be to pass the exam.
Exam day
Be sure to read each question carefully, as sometimes they are worded in a way to make you believe the answer is one option but then it is in fact another. For example, I needed to select which Einstein Ingredient was being described. I answered ‘Co-buy’… but the correct answer was ‘SmartBundle’. Easily confused!
I did, however, pass with a mark of 75% overall! So my preparation paid off.
Good luck to anyone reading this who’s preparing for their Marketing Cloud Personalization exam. I hope my experience enables you to prepare well for your exam and pass too!
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