Salesforce Winter ’25: 7 Must-Know Marketing Cloud Growth Features

The Salesforce Winter ’25 release is here, and with it comes a suite of updates set to transform how marketers operate, especially within the new Marketing Cloud Growth platform. Built directly on the core Salesforce platform and leveraging the powerful Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud Growth is poised to integrate marketing processes more deeply into the Salesforce ecosystem than ever before.

In this blog, we’ll dive into the most exciting features from this release and break down how they can drive significant improvements in marketing effectiveness, personalization, and collaboration. From smarter email campaigns to the introduction of AI-driven assistants, these updates are designed to make marketing faster, smarter, and more scalable.

1. Marketing Email Personalization: Smarter, More Relevant Emails

Email marketing has always been a cornerstone of digital marketing strategies, and with the Winter '25 release, Salesforce is taking email personalization to a new level. One of the most significant updates is the introduction of dynamic email content, which allows marketers to create different content variations depending on who is viewing the email. Whether it’s subject lines, preheaders, or individual content blocks, everything can now be customized based on recipient data.

For example, a recipient who recently made a purchase might see a follow-up message promoting related products, while a new prospect could receive an introductory offer. This feature goes hand-in-hand with event-triggered content automation, a new campaign template that sends emails or SMS messages when key interactions occur—such as after a purchase or when a form is submitted.

Additionally, enhanced merge fields go beyond just inserting names and email addresses into emails. Now, you can include related data such as recent purchases or product recommendations, further tailoring messages to individual customers. This level of personalization is a powerful tool to increase engagement and conversions by delivering hyper-relevant content directly to inboxes.

Takeaway: With dynamic content and event-triggered messages, your email campaigns can feel more personal and responsive, leading to stronger customer relationships and better results.

2. Opportunity Influence: A Streamlined Approach to Measuring Impact

Measuring marketing’s impact on revenue has long been a challenge for many organizations, but with Opportunity Influence, Salesforce has simplified the process. This new feature, akin to Campaign Influence, allows marketing teams to track the effectiveness of their efforts by connecting marketing activities (like email clicks) directly to opportunities in Salesforce.

The key difference here is that Opportunity Influence removes the need for complex record associations (such as lead/contact → campaign → opportunity) that were required in Campaign Influence. Instead, when a lead or contact interacts with a marketing asset (like clicking on an email), this action is automatically attributed to the opportunity, simplifying the reporting process.

Additionally, marketers can choose to report based on first-touch (top-of-funnel awareness) or last-touch (bottom-of-funnel, closer to conversion) attribution models, providing more insight into what’s working at different stages of the customer journey. The best part? Opportunity Influence taps into the Data Cloud to manage these complex associations between various objects.

Takeaway: Opportunity Influence offers a cleaner, more straightforward way for marketers to show their contribution to revenue without the need for cumbersome tracking methods.

3. Einstein Copilot: AI That Works With You

AI continues to reshape the marketing landscape, and with the general availability of Einstein Copilot, Salesforce is helping marketers scale their efforts while keeping human creativity and oversight in place. Einstein Copilot is a generative AI assistant that supports marketers with tasks like campaign briefs, content suggestions, and messaging, taking over the repetitive work while freeing up time for strategic thinking.

One of the standout features is that Einstein Copilot uses the concept of "grounding", meaning it works within the boundaries of your organization's data, ensuring that the AI-generated content is always contextually relevant and secure. Thanks to the Einstein Trust Layer, inputs and outputs are fully protected and won’t seep into public AI models, such as ChatGPT.

Takeaway: With Einstein Copilot, marketers can speed up content creation, focus on strategy, and still maintain control over their brand's voice and messaging.

4. Einstein Copilot Branding Fields: Consistent, On-Brand AI Content

In addition to its AI capabilities, Einstein Copilot now allows users to set brand-specific parameters to ensure that all AI-generated content aligns with their organization’s voice and style. Marketers can set a default tone (professional, casual, urgent, etc.) and provide a brand description to guide the AI’s output.

The AI can also be prompted to adjust the tone as needed for specific campaigns, creating flexibility in how your content is presented while maintaining a consistent overarching brand voice. This is perfect for large organizations or teams that work on multiple brands or product lines.

Takeaway: With Einstein Copilot Branding Fields, your AI-generated content will always stay true to your brand’s identity, even when scaling content production.

5. Data Prism: Bridging the Gap Between Data and Marketing

One of the more unique updates in the Winter '25 release is Data Prism. This feature adds descriptions to data models in Data Cloud, effectively acting as annotations to help bridge the gap between marketing teams and data administrators.

For example, when creating audience segments, Data Prism can provide descriptions that explain how a particular segment was created or why certain data points are relevant, making it easier for non-technical marketers to collaborate with data teams and use Data Cloud more effectively.

The ability to make sense of complex data models without having deep technical knowledge is a significant benefit for marketers who want to leverage Data Cloud’s advanced capabilities without the steep learning curve.

Takeaway: Data Prism makes Data Cloud more accessible for marketers by adding helpful context and explanations to complex data models.

6. Share Content Across Workspaces: One Central Hub for All Teams

Marketers are often responsible for creating and managing a significant portion of a company’s branded assets. The Winter '25 release introduces the ability to share content across workspaces using Salesforce’s centralized content management system (CMS). This allows different teams within the organization to access marketing-approved content from a single repository, ensuring consistency across departments.

This update empowers marketers to not only curate content but also monitor its usage across the organization, ensuring that everyone is aligned with brand guidelines. It also fosters collaboration, making it easier for non-marketing teams to utilize approved content in their own efforts.

Takeaway: Sharing content across workspaces ensures brand consistency and facilitates collaboration between marketing and other departments.

7. Marketing Data Kits: Simplifying Data Management

With the constant evolution of technology, it’s important for organizations to keep their data infrastructure up to date. Marketing Data Kits are designed to bundle together everything you need for Marketing Cloud Growth to function with Data Cloud—this includes data streams, data models, and calculated insights.

Admins can now update or install these kits with just one click, a significant improvement from previous versions that required multiple steps. This makes it easier to ensure that your data infrastructure is always in sync with the latest Marketing Cloud Growth capabilities.

Takeaway: Streamlined updates for Marketing Data Kits make it easier for administrators to keep systems running smoothly, minimizing downtime and errors.

Miscellaneous Updates

Alongside these major features, there are several smaller but impactful updates in the Winter ’25 release:

• Alt Text for Decorative Images: Users can now skip alt text for purely decorative images, reducing distractions for users with assistive technology.
• MCGSetupUserPerm: A new permission set allows admins to easily delegate access to the Marketing Cloud Growth setup assistant, providing flexibility for large teams.

Conclusion: Supercharge Your Marketing with Kolvan’s Expertise

The Salesforce Winter ’25 release introduces a wealth of new features that make marketing smarter, faster, and more efficient. Whether you’re looking to improve email personalization, streamline campaign reporting, or leverage AI to scale your content production, these updates are designed to help marketers stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

At Kolvan, we specialize in helping businesses implement and maximize the value of Salesforce solutions, including Marketing Cloud Growth. Our team of Salesforce experts can guide you through these updates, ensuring you get the most out of these new features and drive real business results.

Contact Kolvan today to see how we can help you revolutionize your marketing efforts with the power of Salesforce Winter '25!

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