Salesforce tasks are one of the unsung heroes of Account Engagement. You can use Salesforce tasks to let the sales team know there’s work to be done, and using tasks can eliminate one of the common arguments for creating duplicate leads.

Yet, many are unhappy with the rigid options for creating tasks through Account Engagement. That leads us to our solution. We can make tasks even better, perfectly better in fact! We can make Salesforce tasks that are set up exactly how we want through Account Engagement using an External Action.

External Actions are a way to make things happen outside Account Engagement via Salesforce CRM Flow and APEX code.  We can create an External Action that creates a task with what we want in it and our merge fields in the body of the task comment so we can capture exactly what was on a form fill.

Process Overview: Creating custom Salesforce tasks with Account Engagement External Actions

Normally we would add a completion action to a form called “Create Salesforce Task,” which prompts us for a few rigid text fields that don’t support merge fields. 

Now we can add an ‘External Action’ for creating a task that has as few or as many fields as we want and allows us to add merge fields. 

Building this new Create Salesforce Task external action

There are a few steps we need to follow to build this. We start in the CRM and work backwards, toward Account Engagement.

Here’s the order you’ll complete the steps:

1. Create a flow.
2. Create an External Activity.
3. Create the completion action.

Creating the Flow

First, we want to create an Autolaunched Flow.

Create variables

Next, let’s create some variables. The RecordID is the only required variable. (We need to attach the task to something). The rest of the variables are optional, but having them will give us more flexibility when we create the completion action.  All variables should have the ‘Available for Input’ checkbox checked. 

Build the Flow

After creating the variables, we can get build the Flow. Start with the Decision Element to create a different path for Leads vs. Contacts. We’ll need to look up the record owner in the CRM, as Account Engagement doesn’t give us access to that as a merge field. To do this, we need to know whether to look up a Lead or Contact record. Use the table below to set up your lead path filter.

Update the label for the default path to “Contact”.

Add a ‘Get Records’ element

For each path, we will need to add a ‘Get Records’ element.  Select the correct object and then set the following filter:

Create task details

Next, let’s create the task details. Start by creating another variable using the details below. Do not check the “available for input” box for this variable. 

Add an Assignment element

Then, add an Assignment element for each path to fill in the details. The Assigned To ID for the new task is the record owner from the object we looked up. Lead owner ID if it was a lead, Contact OwnerID if it was a contact.

Optional Step: Description formula

For the description, we can use a formula to put together the description that we want using a combination of our other variables.  To do this, create another variable with the type “formula”. Name it “FormattedText” and input this as the formula: “{!Task_Instructions}BR(){!Form_Comments}”

This will update the description field on the task to display the information inputted from Task Instructions and Form Comments. You can input a formula to include the variable values that are important to you. See another example in the screenshot below.

Create task record

Our last step in the flow will be to create the task record. Use the “Create record” element and add the variable “NewTaskRecord” under the “record” drop-down. Leave the other settings as is.

Flow is complete

When you are complete, your flow should look like this:

Your flow is complete. You can debug using an existing record. You will need to activate the flow before moving on to the next step.  

Marketing Extensions External Action

Next we want to create the External Action. Be careful with these,  we can’t currently delete any we make by mistake. If you have access to an Account Engagement Sandbox, this could be a good time to use it when building your first External Action.

Create a new Extension

In Marketing Setup> Marketing App Extensions, we will want to create a new Extension.  Name it “Create Task” and select the box “Active in Automation”.  

Create a new Action Type

Once it’s created, go to the Related Tab, and create a new “Action Type”.

Name it “Create Task” and Search for the flow we just created under “Invocable Action”. The flow must be activated.  Check the box for “active in automations” . 

The Action Type will write an Action Schema for us. We can simply click save, and we are done.

Optional Step: Adjust default details

We can also adjust the default details, providing Account Engagement default merge fields, and reordering the fields in the ‘view’ section, and even making fields required, such as our RecordID field. These adjustments can make our new tool easier to use! In the screenshot below, we’ve added in the merge field for RecordID so that we do not have to have our end users do this in Account Engagement.

Select business unit

Under the related tab, select “New” under Business Unit Assignments. Search for your business unit name and select it.  If you are unsure of your business unit name, go to Marketing Setup > Business UnitSetup.

Completion Action

Now we can use our shiny new Task!

Finalize with completion action option

When our Marketing App Extensions have all the bits ‘Active’ and we have assigned our business unit, we will get a new Completion Action option on forms and Engagement Studio Programs.

Fill in all the fields

This is where we can fill in all the fields we created as flow variables. We can use Account Engagement merge fields to fill them in, or just start typing text. Or a bit of both!

If you look at the ‘Task_Instructions’ in this example, you can see we can fill in text with a bunch of merge fields. Those merge fields are other completion actions on a form.

Start Creating Custom Tasks!

We used to be able to create a task and only have a generic “Follow up with this Contact” in the description. With custom tasks, the descriptions can now be populated dynamically with the exact information that prospects input on a form.  

Tasks can hold custom information like support questions or product interests, which can help streamline the next steps for the users receiving the task. So if your sales team is getting the tasks sent to them, then they can check the task to understand the best route to take.

Need help understanding how external actions and Salesforce tasks fit into your overall business strategy? Reach out to the team at Sercante to start a conversation.

Thank you to Mike Creuzer for contributing his expertise to write this post!

Original article: Use External Actions to Create Custom Salesforce Tasks

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For Account Engagement users, the most exciting feature coming with the Salesforce Winter ‘24 release is the ability to get more precise with wait steps in Engagement Studio Programs.  Gone are the days waiting a full day to trigger an action, we can now set wait steps anywhere from 2-8 hours. This provides more flexibility with our programs and what we are able to do.

How do we get started with shorter wait steps in Engagement Studio?

In Engagement Studio, we’ve always had the ability to add wait steps. We were able to do this in day long increments after an event took place. We’ve used these for things like, sending follow up emails after a form fill, or sending an additional email days after an initial send. 

Sometimes, a day seemed like too long of a wait, but that was all we had to work with. 

Now, we can use these new hour increments. When adding an action to an Engagement Studio Program, click “wait”, then toggle to “hours” and set the desired amount of hours. That’s it!

When you should use hour wait steps…

Wondering how you can make the most of this feature? We’ve compiled a list of scenarios that we think would be best suited for a short, hours-long wait period.

• Welcome Programs
  • Prospects signed up for your mailing list or were imported? Add an hour wait step to send that first welcome email instead of waiting days.
• Post Form Follow Up Emails from Sales Team Members
  • If your follow up emails are sent immediately, prospects know it’s automated, and waiting days to follow up can lead you to miss out on an opportunity. With a wait step of just a couple hours, it gives your prospects time to finish looking at your website, gives your internal assignment processes time to complete, and feels more personal than an automated reply.
• System Processing Time For List Evaluation
  • When using automations that evaluate which lists a prospect is on, a two hour wait step will ensure your dynamic lists have time to run and prospects newly added to the list are included.
• Custom Redirect/ Page Action Follow Ups
  • Set up custom redirects or page actions on high priority pages and have them funnel leads into an Engagement Studio Program. From there, suggest the next step a prospect should take or the next piece of content the prospect might be interested in a few hours after they have left your website.

Time to get started with shorter wait times in Engagement Studio

This feature is one that hundreds of trailblazers have been asking for because it can be so useful in customizing programs. Once it becomes available, we recommend revisiting your existing engagement studio programs and seeing if this would be a better fit for some of the current day long wait steps you are currently using.  

Being able to take action in hours, rather than days can really help personalize the experience you give to prospects.

Want to learn more about how to create the most effective Engagement Studio Programs? Consider taking  our Workshop: Engagement Studio for Marketers.

Original article: The Wait is Over: Shorter Wait Steps in Engagement Studio Are Here

©2025 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

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Mardreamin’ 2022 is taking place from November 2-4. We invite you to join all your fellow Salesforce and Pardot Trailblazers to share best practices, tips and tricks, and stories about how different industries and organizations ramp up their sales and marketing initiatives and engage their audiences. 

If you haven’t already registered for this free, virtual event. Do that now. Here. 

If you are focused on reporting and analytics,  we curated this collection of sessions for analytics gurus just like you.  This track will feature sessions on ROI Reporting,  B2BMA, UTMs and  much more. Below is an agenda for all those interested in Analytics and Reporting  that you can catch at MarDreamin’ 2022.

MarDreamin’ Agenda Day 1 – November 2, 2022

Demystifying the Salesforce and Pardot Connector  |  10:35 – 11:00 am ET

Do you find data flow between Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) and Salesforce to be a difficult topic in your organization? Are you plagued by thousands of sync errors? What do all the checkboxes and settings on the connector page do?

In this session, we will cover the basics of the Salesforce connector in a friendly and easy-to-understand way.

Topics we will touch include:

• Pardot V1/V2 connector
• Marketing Data Sharing Rules
• User Sync
• The multiple checkboxes found in the settings panel and field management

Additionally, we will cover some quick-win scenarios for you to run through to get your org running more efficiently. And, time permitting, we will have an open Q&A for the audience to share in on the fun! This session is perfect for both Pardot veterans and newcomers who want to have a deep understanding of the connector to act

Presenters:  Marcos Duran & Erin Duncan

Ask Me Anything (AMA): Marketing Operations (MOPS) Edition  |  11:05 – 11:45 am ET

Learn about how our panelist helps their team and themselves stay focused and efficient in a never-ending job landscape. In this session, we will also explore hot topics like: the great resignation, how to keep your team engaged while working virtually, and how to tackle other challenges that MOPS professionals are experiencing.  

Presenters:  Mimi (Hubbard) Claugus, Jenna Molby, Brent Patrick, Olliea Linn

Salesforce Reporting for Marketing Admins: How to Get Started |  11:55 – 12:35 pm ET

Join us for a crash course in Salesforce reporting. Now that Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) is on the platform, more and more traditional marketers are joining the ranks of Salesforce admins to manage their campaigns and record their contributions to the business.

In this session we will walk through quick reporting basics you can use to empower marketing and sales teams to follow up with prospects and measure performance at the same time.

We will cover:

• List Views
• Reports and Dashboards while dropping helpful tips to get your dashboards going from a marketing/Pardot perspective

This is not a Campaign Influence session. This session is meant to illustrate how to measure key goals around campaigns and how to visualize your data. You will walk away with a dashboard example.

Presenters: Marcos Duran

Breaking Borders: Going Global With Marketing Automation

 |  12:40 – 01:05 pm ET

Over the last few years, Salesforce has cemented Pardot / Account Engagement its as a strong competitor in the enterprise B2B Marketing Automation space, moving away from a historically SMB focus. But, when your teams are based across the globe, how can you really build a successful multi-regional marketing strategy?

Join this session to learn how to:

• Structure and organize a global MA platform
• Balance global collaboration with regional independence
• Run a well-organized operation
• Empower your people
• Leverage the full suite of tools in MC Account Engagement for a truly global marketing automation strategy

Presenters: Sarah Kelleher

10 Steps To Fully Maximize Your Pardot Investment  |  01:10 – 01:35  pm ET

So, you’ve signed on to become a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) customer. Now what?

This session covers 10 steps to get you from beginner to where you want to be with Pardot marketing automation.

You will learn how to:

• Identify where you are in your usage of marketing automation
• Visualize a clear roadmap to fully maximize the system
• Understand how to use automation or a faster sales cycle
• Increase the tool’s return on investment (ROI)

Presenters: Ryan Cammisa

Does It Integrate With __? Tips To Getting The Most Out Of Your Integrations (In Pardot)  |  01:40 – 02:20 pm ET

Learn from our panelists on how to improve the efficiency of your marstack by leveraging integrations across your marstack and what to do when things “don’t integrate as we expected”. In this session, we will also explore a roadmap of how to tackle a new integration project and how to leverage the Pardot API to access data beyond Salesforce. This will be a good guide of what a marketer needs to know when talking to technical folks. 

Presenters:  Mike Creuzer, Adam Estrelle, Jacob Catalano, Bobby Thanepohn, Julia (Stansbury) Hofmann

Unlock B2BMA: Going Beyond Stock Dashboards |  02:25 – 02:50 pm ET

This session will provide a brief overview of CRM Analytics and how B2BMA fits into the landscape. We’ll also walk through specific examples of how marketers can leverage this tool beyond the out-of-the-box reporting dashboards.

We’ll cover:

• Attribution models and Campaign Influence Challenges inherent in the lead versus contact dichotomy from an account-based marketing (ABM) perspective
• Why ‘exploring’ your data is so much easier in a business intelligence (BI) tool than a Salesforce report
• And more

Presenters: Duncan McGovern

MarDreamin’ Agenda Day 2 – November 3, 2022

Building Connected Pardot Campaigns: 6 Steps for Success |  10:20 – 10:45 am ET

When a new marketing campaign is about to drop, marketers are usually rushing to get things set up in Pardot and live asap. However, this usually results in key elements being missed and ultimately impacts reporting for connected Salesforce campaigns.

In this session, Triana will talk you through a campaign setup checklist that will help ensure your data aligns correctly in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) and Salesforce and you don’t miss a thing!

Steps include:

• Salesforce Campaign setup
• Mapping out the campaign journey
• Aligning marketing assets to your campaign
• Considerations for offline activity
• UTM tracking Testing that your setup is tracking correctly

Presenters: Triana Jarman

Foster a Junk-Free Pardot Org: 6 Data Maintenance Tips |  10:50 – 11:15 am ET

No matter how hard you try, data cleanliness can seem unavoidable. In the moment, you’ll say “I can fix this later” or “It’s not a big deal right now.” But after months of junk in your Pardot org, it makes prospecting new leads more difficult and reporting a nightmare.

In this session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about cleaning your Pardot org. We’ll uncover tips to:

• Get your Pardot instance organized today
• Keep it junk-free for the long term
• Understand why a clean database is critical to effective reporting

Presenters: Jacob Catalano

From Accidental Salesforce Admin to Accidental Pardot Admin: What Now? | 11:20 – 11:45 am ET

There are so many people in the Salesforce ecosystem who ended up here unexpectedly that we have a term for it — accidental admin. So, what do you do when you’ve not only become your organization’s accidental Salesforce administrator, but you are also suddenly expected to fulfill the admin role for Pardot?

In this session, we’ll discuss the skills you need to succeed in managing both platforms, what you need to understand about your Pardot org, and how to combat the imposter syndrome you might be experiencing.

Topics covered include:

• Top 5 technical skills that translate from Salesforce to Pardot
• The 3 biggest soft skills you’ll need to brush up on for success
• Information you probably already know but don’t realize
• Surprising pros of being an administrator of both systems
• My journey from accidental Salesforce administrator to marketing consultant and jump start program administrator

Presenters: Cate Godley

Building an ABM Strategy With What You Have |  01:05 – 01:30 pm ET

There are a lot of tools that promise account-based marketing (ABM) success. But you can likely implement an effective ABM strategy with the tech stack (and team!) you have.

In this session, we will review how to build out an ABM strategy with Salesforce, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot). We’ll uncover ways to get sales and marketing aligned so you can deliver right-person, right-time, and right-channel messaging.

Topics covered include:

• Creating your target account list and key buyer groups with sales using account persona insights, scoring, and grading.
• Einstein Determining the best mix of channels, engagement points, and building personalized assets with HML and dynamic content.
• Measuring the success of your strategy with engagement history and campaign influence

Presenters: Kelly Ryan

The Road To Email Compliance: Basics, Challenges, and Gotchas

|  01:35 – 02:15 pm ET

Learn how our panelists implemented marketing compliance solutions in their own organizations. In this session, we will explore the basics of different options you have as an Administrator to capture and process marketing consent and what are some lessons learned from the process by our panelists.

Presenters: Ben LaMothe, Hannah Horning, Krystle Solomon, Angelica Cabral, Bonnie Mulholland

Salesforce Flows 101 For Marketers |  02:20 – 02:45 pm ET

Have you heard of Salesforce flows? Have you seen what they can do? If not, you are not alone. Flows have taken the Salesforce ecosystem by storm.

Join us as we walk you through an introduction to Salesforce Flow 101 that is tailored to the needs of marketers. We’ll cover terminology and show you quick wins to implement in your org (with the support of your Salesforce admin) to reduce friction between sales and marketing teams. You can also supplement your marketing automation with the flow ideas we will showcase during the session.

Key areas we will cover include:

• Setting up qualification questions using on-screen flows
• Transferring data from one field to another on the same/different object(s)
• Triggering field updates based on specific actions

Presenters: Heather Rinke

Leveraging Marketing Cloud Engagement To Produce Positive Customer-Driven Outcomes  |  02:50 – 03:30 pm ET

Learn tips and tricks from our panel of trailblazers on how to maximize your investment in Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE). In this session we will also explore ways to improve your use of MCE, discuss use-cases for becoming more efficient and hear from first-hand experiences what skills are needed to thrive in your role managing MCE.  

Presenters:Kristen Schlau, Zachary Norman, Victor Alberto Jiménez Pantojoa, Genna Matson

MarDreamin’ Agenda Day 3 – November 4, 2022

Improve Accuracy and Compliance by Automating Campaign Management in Salesforce |  10:20 – 10:45 am ET

We’ve all been there. The creative use of campaign member status, inconsistent campaign names, campaigns that have been “In Progress” for years, and missing actual costs in campaigns. Learn how they have automated the campaign management process using several cool tools (free) created by Sercante Labs and Salesforce Flow Builder.

Presenters: Mike Morris

The Future Of Personalization In Marketing (using Salesforce CDP) |  12:05 – 12:45 pm ET

Join us with an overview of how CDP can help you identify trends and personalize your customer campaigns to be more personal and timely. In this session you will get some insight into knowing if your brand is ready to deliver a high quality customer experience via your digital channels.

Presenters: Amanda Duque

Salesforce Marketing Reporting: Using UTM’s to Show Real ROI |  12:50 – 01:15 pm ET

It’s possible to build a dashboard in CRM Analytics Studio that shows the return on investment (ROI) via UTM tracking parameters for both online and offline marketing activities. The process is pretty straightforward and you’ll end up with a single-source-of-truth dashboard to track and analyze the success of your marketing efforts.

This session covers various steps from:

• Offline marketing collateral
• Online advertising
• 301 redirects
• Web forms Capturing UTM’s (for all Source, Medium and Campaigns) in Pardot
• Lead Queues
• Opportunities
• Datasets Dashboards

Each step leads to a finale where you’ll encounter a real dashboard in CRM Analytics Studio that brings it all together to show all Leads and Opportunities split by Source, Medium and/or Campaign. This high-level view is where marketers can see clear ROI metrics for their marketing efforts. Join us for helpful nuggets if you’re new to Salesforce CRM Analytics Studio or if you’ve struggled to report on how successful your Pardot campaigns actually are.

Presenters: Mike Morris

Email for Everyone: Creating Accessible Digital Marketing Assets |  01:20 – 01:45 pm ET

Regardless of your marketing role — whether you are a director, an admin, a consultant, a graphic designer — you need to be conscious of ADA guidelines and ensure everyone is able to view and enjoy your digital marketing efforts.

In this session, I will share with you the top resources and items to check off your to-do list when enacting the ADA guidelines in your digital marketing to achieve email accessibility.

Presenters: Katy Hege, Cara Weese

Everything Marketers Need to Know About Web Tracking Cookies |  01:50 – 02:15 pm ET

There’s been a lot of talk about the death of web tracking cookies. Some even suggest it will end marketing as we know it. We’re here to assure that it’s just another evolution in how we make the magic of marketing work.

In this session, we’ll talk about what’s changing, what isn’t, and how marketers on the Salesforce platform can navigate this rapidly evolving landscape.

Topics covered:

• The differences between third- and first-party web cookies
• The driving force behind these changes and why it’s a win for user privacy
• Impact on key stakeholders
• New technologies and how they fill this gap
• What marketers can do today to take charge

Presenters: Krystle Solomon

Get ready for the only 3-day virtual conference that’s focused on all things marketing on the Salesforce platform.

There’s still time to register! Get to it and tell your friends to grab their MarDreamin’ tickets so they can catch these sessions. There’s something for every Pardot user.

You can get more from your MarDreamin’ experience through pre-conference training workshops. One flat fee gets you access to all the workshops. Find out more and register here.

Original article: MarDreamin’ 2022 Agenda: Analytics Sessions

©2025 The Spot. All Rights Reserved.

The post MarDreamin’ 2022 Agenda: Analytics Sessions appeared first on The Spot.