Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration

Send WhatsApp messages on Salesforce Marketing Cloud through SleekFlow

Written By Frieda Yip (Super Administrator)

Updated at September 12th, 2024

In this article, we will guide you through setting up your Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrations on SleekFlow. By integrating Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can set up automated workflows via Salesforce Journey Builder, a feature within Salesforce Marketing Cloud that enables businesses to create personalized and automated customer journeys. This allows you to send messages to your customers through WhatsApp Cloud API channels and manage customer details and conversations.
 

Access your Salesforce Marketing Cloud API Key and endpoint URL

 

🔒 The information in this section applies only to Admin account users

 


To send messages through SleekFlow’s WhatsApp Cloud API via Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Builder, you need your Salesforce Marketing Cloud API key and an Endpoint URL to configure the SleekFlow app within Journey Builder.

To access your unique Salesforce Marketing Cloud API key, follow these steps below:

  1. Click on the icon on the left-hand navigation bar
  2. Under “Third-party integrations”, you will find “Salesforce Marketing Cloud” integration

     
  3. Click “Connect”. You will be then redirected to the “Connect to Salesforce Marketing Cloud” page

     
  4. Your Salesforce Marketing Cloud API key is located under “Your unique API key”
  5. Under “Your unique API key”, you will find your “Endpoint URL”. The “Endpoint URL” is SleekFlow’s custom domain for users to call API. When you are setting up the activity to send SleekFlow WhatsApp message on Journey Builder, you will be required to paste this “Endpoint URL” 

 

Copy items

  • To copy your API key and endpoint URL, you can click on the button. The relevant item will be copied to your clipboard

 

Reveal API key

  • If you want to reveal your API key, you can click on the icon to reveal your API key
     

Note: You should protect your API key to prevent unauthorized access to your data.

 

 

Refreshing your Salesforce Marketing Cloud API key

 

Why should I refresh my API key?

There are several reasons why we recommend refreshing your Salesforce Marketing Cloud keys regularly, including: 

  • Security: Regularly changing API keys helps mitigate the risk of unauthorized access. If a key is compromised, refresh your API key to limit the time an attacker can exploit it
  • Access control: By refreshing your API keys, you can manage and control who has access to your APIs, ensuring that only authorized users or applications can interact with your services
  • Revoking old keys: Refreshing keys allows you to easily remove old keys that may no longer be in use, reducing the attack surface of your application

 

How to refresh my Salesforce Marketing Cloud API key?

To refresh your API key, follow these steps below:

  1. Visit the “Connect to Salesforce Marketing Cloud” page
  2. Click on the “Refresh API key” button

     
  3. A confirmation modal will show up. Click on “Refresh”

     
  4. Your API key will be refreshed, and you can view the last updated date of the API key under your API key

 

Install SleekFlow app as a Salesforce package

To send out a SleekFlow WhatsApp message on Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Builder, you have to install the SleekFlow app as a Salesforce package.
 

What is a Salesforce package?

Salesforce packages are collections of customizations, applications, and components that can be bundled together for distribution and installation within Salesforce environments.

There are two types of Salesforce packages:

  • Managed packages: These are typically used for commercial applications. They allow for version control and can be upgraded without affecting the user’s data.
  • Unmanaged packages: These are usually used for open-source projects or for developers' sharing of components. Users can modify the contents freely.

Packages can be shared or sold on the Salesforce AppExchange or distributed directly to other Salesforce users.

 

 

You can follow the steps below to install the package:

  1. Sign in to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account
  2. Click on your avatar on the top right. “Settings” dropdown menu will appear. Select “Setup”
  3. Under “Platform Tools”, there is a “Apps” section, select “Installed Packages”

     
  4. In the “All Packages” page, select “New” on the top right
     
  5. A “New Package Detail” modal will pop up. You have to input a name for the new package. For example, “Send messages with SleekFlow”. Click “Save” once you have completed filling in the details.

     
  6. Once the package is created, you will be redirected to the details page of this installed package. Select “Add Component” at the bottom. 

    In Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Builder, a "component" refers to the individual elements that make up a customer journey. These components allow you to design and automate personalized customer experiences.

     



     
  7. An “Add Component” window will pop up, select “Journey Builder Activity” and click “Next”

    In Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder, a “Journey Builder Activity” is a specific action within a customer’s journey.  Learn more about Journey Builder Activity by visiting Salesforce’s guide here.

     



     
  8. Input the Endpoint URL. The URL can be found in the “Connect to Salesforce Marketing Cloud” page. Then, click “Save”

     
  9. Your SleekFlow app is successfully installed as a Salesforce package
     

Note: the SleekFlow app is only available to the user account, but not the entire Salesforce organization. If multiple Salesforce users are required to set up Journey using the SleekFlow app, please repeat the above steps for each Salesforce user account.  

 

 

Sending SleekFlow WhatsApp messages on Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Builder

After you have installed the SleekFlow app in your Salesforce user account, you will be able to send SleekFlow WhatsApp messages on Salesforce Journey Builder. You will be configuring the action as a “Data Extension” in Salesforce Journey Builder. Data Extensions in Journey Builder act as a bridge to sync customer data between platforms, enabling personalized, targeted messaging across SleekFlow’s channels.

You can follow the steps below to configure the send WhatsApp messages action within Salesforce Journey Builder:

  1. Select and drag “Data Extension” to the Entry Source location

     
  2. Click on the “Data Extension” and configure the Data Extensions you would like to use within this journey

     
  3. Once you set up the data extension, drag the SleekFlow app you installed to the flow where you want to send a WhatsApp message through SleekFlow

     
  4. To configure the message, click on the SleekFlow app icon within the flow, a pop-up window will display
  5. Here outlines the details of each field:
    1. API key: Refer to Access your Salesforce Marketing Cloud API Key to learn about about retrieving your API key
       
    2. WhatsApp Business phone number: The WhatsApp Business phone number you would like to use to send out the WhatsApp message. This number has to be connected to your SleekFlow account. 
      If you haven’t connected to any WhatsApp channel on SleekFlow, you can refer to our article to Connect your WhatsApp Business API account, or migrate an existing WhatsApp Business API account to SleekFlow.
       
    3. Recipient phone number: The phone number you would like to send the message to. If you want to use variables from Data Extension, e.g. “Phone”, you can insert the variable as followed - {{Phone}}
       
    4. Analytics tags: Analytics tags allows you to tag your message, allowing you to filter out relevant messages for conversation analytics. If you want to receive analytics for your SFMC campaigns, you are advised to add at least one analytics tag. Multiple tags can be added
      You can apply the tags with plain text, and separate each tag with a comma, for example: “tag 1, tag2, tag_3”
       
    5. Message type: You can send messages in the following formats:
      1. File: Sending an attachment (the message will fail if a 24-hour messaging window is not open with the recipient)
      2. Text: Sending a plain text message (the message will fail if a 24-hour messaging window is not open with the recipient)
      3. Template: Sending a WhatsApp template message
         
    6. Message content: You can insert the message content here, if you want to insert variable from Data Extension, you can wrap the variable with “{{ }}”, e.g. “{{Name}}"
      For template messages, you are required to insert the template payload in the message content.
      To locate your message payload in WhatsApp template manager, you can refer to the guide here. Don’t forget to fill in the template variable, if there is any. 

       
  6. Once you are all set, you can select “Done”, repeat step 3 again if you want to add additional send SleekFlow WhatsApp actions within your journey