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Connect Marketing Cloud once and Gradial can build emails, organize campaigns, and orchestrate journeys — with reviewers able to click straight from a Gradial artifact back into the Marketing Cloud UI whenever they want to finish in their familiar tool.

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What You Can Do

Email content

Browse Content Builder folders. Draft new emails from chat — HTML, text-only, or from a template. Fill or update template slots, subject lines, preheaders, and body content. Preview the rendered email inline before sending.

Content blocks and images

Read, create, and update reusable Content Builder blocks (HTML, text, code snippets, and references). Upload images to Content Builder and use their published URLs in emails and blocks.

Campaigns

Create campaigns with names, codes, and color tags. List, view, and delete campaigns. Attach or remove email assets from a campaign. Open any campaign straight in the Marketing Cloud UI.

Journeys

View existing journeys. Draft new journeys from built-in templates: single email, drip, decision split, and random split. Update activity wiring, copy, wait durations, and decision criteria. Create new API entry sources backed by a Data Extension. Publish journeys when ready.

Templates

Read existing templates so Gradial can reference them when drafting new emails. Create and update templates, including templates imported from another platform.

Data Extensions

Find Data Extensions by name or folder. Create a Data Extension from a full field definition. Read and upsert rows when the audience and source data are confirmed.

Sends

Create Email Studio send definitions, run a test send, then start or schedule the send. Gradial asks for your approval before every test, start, or schedule, and requires an accepted test send before a real launch. Place a send definition in Automation Studio as a Send Email activity.Access: Must be enabled for your organization. Contact your Gradial team to get access.

Automation Studio queries

Validate, create, and read SQL Query Activities, and add them to unscheduled automations — for example, to fill a journey’s entry Data Extension. Changing an existing query requires your approval.Access: Must be enabled for your organization. Contact your Gradial team to get access.

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Prerequisites

  • Admin access to your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account
  • Permission to create Installed Packages in Marketing Cloud
  • Your Marketing Cloud subdomain (found in your account URL)
  • A Gradial organization Administrator role to complete setup

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How to Connect

1

Create an Installed Package in Marketing Cloud

  1. Log in to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  2. Navigate to Setup → Platform Tools → Apps → Installed Packages.
  3. Click New, enter a name (e.g., Gradial) and description, then click Save.
2

Add a Server-to-Server API component

  1. In the newly created package, click Add Component → API Integration.
  2. Choose Server-to-Server and click Next.
  3. Grant the scopes the team needs:
Marketing Cloud’s Data Extensions Read scope covers both a Data Extension’s fields and its rows; there is no fields-only option. If your organization does not grant it, Gradial still works for email, campaign, and journey authoring, but cannot look up Data Extensions or verify send audiences.
  1. Click Save.
3

Copy your credentials

From the Installed Package details page, copy:
  • Client ID
  • Client Secret
  • Authentication Base URI (e.g., https://mcXXXXXX.auth.marketingcloudapis.com)
  • Account ID (MID) — the business unit’s Member ID
Keep the Client Secret secure. If you navigate away, it will be hidden. You can regenerate it, but doing so will invalidate any existing integrations using the old secret.
4

Add the integration in Gradial

  1. In Gradial, go to Settings → Integrations.
  2. Find Salesforce Marketing Cloud and click + Add.
  3. Fill in the connection details:
  1. Click Save. Gradial validates the credentials before the integration goes live.
  2. (Optional) Choose a default Content Builder folder for new email assets.
5

Assign to an Environment

  1. Go to Settings → Environments and select the Gradial Environment where SFMC should be available.
  2. Add the integration to that Environment.
  3. Repeat for any additional Environments.

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How It Fits Into Broader Workflows

Example — Build and attach an email to a campaign:
  1. Ask Gradial to find (or create) the right Content Builder folder.
  2. Have Gradial draft a new email — subject line, preheader, and body copy.
  3. Ask Gradial to create a campaign with a name and code.
  4. Attach the new email to the campaign in the same turn.
  5. Open the campaign artifact and click into Marketing Cloud when the team is ready to launch.
Example — Draft a welcome journey:
  1. Ask Gradial to list the available entry sources.
  2. Pick one of the bundled templates — single email, drip, decision split, or random split.
  3. Tell Gradial which email to send, how long to wait, and how to branch.
  4. Publish the journey when it’s ready.

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What’s Not Covered Yet

  • Stopping, pausing, or republishing a journey — only the initial publish is supported from Gradial.
  • Activity types beyond Email, Wait, Decision Split, and Random Split (SMS, Push, Update Contact, etc.).
  • Reading a Data Extension’s field definitions, or copying an existing Data Extension. To create a Data Extension, give Gradial the fields, for example as a screenshot of the source Data Extension’s Fields tab.
  • Scheduling or running automations — Gradial creates automations unscheduled; schedule and run them in Automation Studio.
  • Deleting automations, query activities, or send definitions.

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Multi-Business Unit Configuration

Parent-Level Access — Create one Installed Package at the Parent Business Unit level with access to all child Business Units. Use the Parent MID when configuring Gradial. Business Unit-Specific Access — Create separate Installed Packages for each Business Unit that requires isolation. Configure multiple integrations in Gradial, one per Business Unit.

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Troubleshooting

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Good to Know

  • Inline previews are safe to share: Gradial renders email previews through a server-side proxy that strips unsafe HTML.
  • Campaign updates are narrow: Marketing Cloud’s campaign API only allows a small set of updates. To rename or recolor a campaign, delete and recreate it through Gradial, or edit it in the Marketing Cloud UI.
  • Publishing a journey is asynchronous: once Gradial publishes, Marketing Cloud takes a moment to transition the journey through its internal states.

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Support

Contact your Gradial onboarding lead or email [email protected] for help with setup.