Before I get into the details of how to prepare for these exams, I should tell you that I had zero hands on experience with any of the Marketing tools. The intent was to study for these exams and learn something new during the preparation process. Since I would be entering the consulting world soon, I might be made part of a project that involves the Marketing Cloud hence the proactive measures. And who doesn’t like more certifications?
My preparation strategy was nothing special but simply going through the study guides, googling the topics mentioned and skimming over the relevant content. I didn’t find these exams to be overly tough and the questions’ wording was quite straightforward which made it easier to pass these compared to the other exams. So here is my list of most important topics to hammer for the exam preparation:
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
Automation Studio, Playbooks, Query Activity, Other Activity Types
Data Extensions, Lists
CAN-SPAM Act
Email Validate tool
HTML Paste
Triggered Automation
Personalization Strings
Send Classification
A/B Test audience
Email Design
Segmentation (Drag & Drop, Audience)
Data Relationship
AMPscript
Email Template
Hard Bounce & Soft Bounce – Difference
Scheduled Sends, Triggered Sends
Import Wizard
Sender Profile & Delivery Profile
Subscriber Key & Primary Key - Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Specialist
Publish Post Inspector
Roles and Permissions (Very Important)
Engagement and Publishing Macros – Use Cases and Differences
Send to Salesforce Macro
Topic Profiles
Shared Content
Web Analytics code
Post approval via Mobile
Social Studio Calendar
Column Filters
Analyze Dashboards – Social Listening and Account Summary
Configuring Approval Rules
Tenants & Workspaces
Performance Tab
This should be your go-to source of information: http://help.exacttarget.com/
If you google the above topics and obtain a clear understanding of what the capabilities of these features are, it shouldn’t be too challenging to pass the exams. Personally, I found the Social Specialist exam to be a tad bit tougher than Email Specialist because of the former’s weightage on more scenario based questions. If you have even a little amount of hands-on experience with any of the features above, then both these exams should be a cakewalk for you.
Good luck!
