I had someone reach out recently looking for a solution to send a daily reminder email internally to individuals who existed on a report each day after a report refresh. The report already existed but they weren't sure how to refresh it. And while there are other options to take using Marketing Cloud Connect, there was a desire to continue using the report that was already in place.
Below are the steps executed along with a few links out to associated help articles and videos.
Step 1: Schedule a Salesforce Report to Refresh Daily
Schedule a Salesforce Report to refresh daily by Subscribing to the report. A benefit of subscribing is that you will be sent an email each day which confirms that the refresh took place and provides a total and a summary of individuals submitted.
Be sure your report includes fields for Email address and ContactID at a minimum in report results.
Be sure that the report is saved to a public folder rather than your personal folder.
Select the option to Subscribe and note the time you have scheduled as well as the report name.
Step 2: Create an Import in Email Studio
Create an Import in Email Studio > Interactions > Import.
Select Salesforce Objects/Reports.
Change the data type of Email to be Email.
Choose the Overwrite option.
Run the import once to create/generate the Data Extension and associated results.
Step 3: Locate the Resulting Data Extension in Contact Builder
Open Audience Builder > Contact Builder and locate the Data Extension resulting from Step 2.
The data extension may exist in either the root data extension folder or the root of the Salesforce Data Extensions folder.
Clear the records in the resulting Data Extension and then move it to the folder of your choice. For use in a Journey, the final data extension does need to reside in the main Data Extension folder rather than the Salesforce Sends Data Extension folder.
Step 4: Create an Automation in Automation Studio
In Automation Studio, create a new automation and pull in the import activity created in Step 2.
Step 5: Create the Journey
Create the journey and set the entry source to utilize the Data Extension and Automation created.
Name the journey and set the entry settings to either allow entry any time OR allow entry upon exit. For the use case I was helping with, the email was sent daily so either option was fine. Depending upon your own cadence and journey steps, you may need to allow entry any time.
For the journey entry source, pull in the resulting data extension created in Step 2 and set the schedule to be based on an Automation. You should not need a filter and when prompted to select the Contact Evaluation option, choose the option to evaluate all records.
Add desired activities and validate/activate the journey.
Step 6: Schedule the Automation
Return to the Automation created in Step 4 and schedule it to run daily or at the cadence that works for your use case.
Need Help Setting Up Journey Entry Sources?
Light Your Fires can help you configure report-based journey entry, automation scheduling, and the full data pipeline to keep your journeys running on time.
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