10 Marketing Cloud Business Units Best Practices

Marketing Cloud Business Units (MCBUs) are a powerful tool for managing customer data and marketing campaigns. They allow marketers to segment customers into different groups and target them with personalized messages. However, setting up and managing MCBUs can be a complex process.

In this article, we’ll discuss 10 best practices for setting up and managing MCBUs. We’ll cover topics such as data segmentation, customer segmentation, and campaign optimization. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your MCBUs are set up correctly and are delivering the best results for your business.

1. Use Business Units to manage multiple brands

Business units allow you to segment your marketing activities into distinct areas, each with its own set of goals and objectives. This makes it easier to track performance across different brands, as well as measure the success of individual campaigns.

Business units also make it easier to manage multiple teams within a single organization. For example, if you have an ecommerce business that sells products in multiple countries, you can create separate business units for each country. This allows you to assign specific tasks to each team, such as creating localized content or managing customer service inquiries.

Finally, using business units helps ensure compliance with data privacy regulations. By keeping data separated by brand, you can easily control who has access to what information. This is especially important when dealing with sensitive customer data.

2. Create a dedicated business unit for each brand

Having a dedicated business unit for each brand allows you to focus on the specific needs of that particular brand. This means that you can tailor your marketing efforts and strategies to meet the unique goals and objectives of that brand, rather than trying to fit it into a one-size-fits-all approach.

Additionally, having separate business units for each brand helps ensure that all resources are being used efficiently and effectively. By creating distinct teams with their own budgets and timelines, you can better manage costs and optimize performance across multiple brands. Finally, this also makes it easier to track progress and measure success, as each team is responsible for its own results.

3. Use the parent BU as an umbrella organization

The parent BU is the highest level of organization in Marketing Cloud, and it’s responsible for managing all other BUs. This means that any changes made to the parent BU will be reflected across all its child BUs. For example, if you change the email address associated with the parent BU, this same email address will be used by all its child BUs.

Using the parent BU as an umbrella organization also helps ensure consistency across all your marketing efforts. By having a single source of truth, you can easily make sure that all your campaigns are aligned with each other and that they’re using the same branding elements.

4. Use separate BUs for different regions

Using separate BUs for different regions allows you to customize your marketing campaigns and messaging based on the region. This is important because different regions may have different needs, preferences, or cultural norms that should be taken into account when crafting a message. Additionally, using separate BUs can help you track performance more accurately by allowing you to compare results across regions. Finally, it also helps with compliance as certain countries may have specific regulations that need to be followed.

5. Use separate BUs for different departments

Using separate BUs for different departments allows you to keep track of each department’s performance and progress. It also helps ensure that the data from one department doesn’t interfere with another, which can lead to inaccurate results. Additionally, it makes it easier to manage permissions and access levels within your organization. Finally, using separate BUs allows you to customize campaigns and messages for each department, ensuring that they are tailored to their specific needs.

6. Use separate BUs for different teams

Using separate BUs for different teams allows you to keep track of who is responsible for what. It also helps ensure that each team has access only to the data and resources they need, which can help prevent accidental data leakage or misuse. Additionally, it makes it easier to manage permissions and control user access. Finally, using separate BUs can make it easier to troubleshoot any issues that arise since you’ll know exactly which BU is affected.

7. Use separate BUs for different campaigns

Using separate BUs for different campaigns allows you to track the performance of each campaign separately. This makes it easier to identify which campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement. It also helps you optimize your budget by allocating resources more efficiently.

Additionally, using separate BUs can help you segment your audience better. You can create targeted campaigns that are tailored to specific customer segments or demographics. This will help you reach the right people with the right message at the right time.

8. Use separate BUs for testing and development

When you use separate BUs for testing and development, it allows you to test changes in a safe environment before pushing them out to your production BU. This helps ensure that any changes you make don’t negatively impact the performance of your campaigns or disrupt customer experiences. It also makes it easier to troubleshoot issues since you can quickly identify which BU is causing the problem. Finally, using separate BUs for testing and development ensures that all data remains secure and confidential.

9. Use separate BUs for production and staging environments

Having separate BUs for production and staging environments allows you to keep your data clean and organized. It also helps prevent any accidental changes or deletions from affecting the live environment, as well as ensuring that all of your testing is done in a safe space. Additionally, it makes it easier to track performance metrics and analyze results since each BU will have its own set of analytics. Finally, having separate BUs can help with compliance requirements, such as GDPR, by allowing you to easily manage user consent across different environments.

10. Use separate BUs for sandboxing

Sandboxing allows you to test out new features and strategies without affecting your production environment. By using separate BUs for sandboxing, you can ensure that any changes made in the sandbox don’t affect your live campaigns or data. This helps protect your business from potential errors or mistakes that could have a negative impact on your customers.

Additionally, having separate BUs for sandboxing also makes it easier to track progress and results of tests. You can easily compare the performance of different versions of campaigns or strategies against each other, which will help you make more informed decisions about what works best for your business.