SAP & SSL in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

SAP(Sender Authentication Package)

The Sender Authentication Package (SAP) helps your subscribers to identify your brand and increases awareness about your brand. SAP offers a Feature of tools to help make sure your email messages land in the inboxes of the people you want to reach.

SAP (Sender Authentication Package)Features :

SAP Provides the Four Feature:

1. Private Domain
2. Account Branding
3. Dedicated IP Address
4. RMM (Reply Mail Management)

1. Private Domain: This feature allows you to use a custom domain for sending your emails. This domain shows up as the “From address” in your emails, helping to build your brand and improve your reputation. Marketing Cloud uses security measures like SPF, Sender ID, and DKIM to make sure your emails are legitimate and to protect against fake or phishing attempts.

1. SPF(Sender Policy Framework) : Allows email senders to define IP addresses allowed to send email, and only email messages originating from those addresses are trusted.
2. Sender ID: A senderID looks at the domain listed in the “From” address.
3. DKIM ( DomainKeys Identified Mail.):Adds a digital signature to ensure that the message comes from a verified sender and contains only the intended content.

Note: SAP also provides benefits for SMS messages and landing pages. For SMS, Sender ID lets you show who is sending the message, so recipients know it’s from you. For landing pages, having a dedicated domain helps verify that your web pages are legitimate and part of your marketing efforts.

2. Account Branding: This feature lets you customize your account with your own verified domain. Normally, links and images in your emails include a Marketing Cloud URL for tracking.

Account Branding Examples:

Before Branding: An email might include links like https://tracking.marketingcloud.com/yourlink and images served from https://marketingcloud.com/yourimage.jpg.

After Branding: With Account Branding, these links and images would be updated to use your own domain, such as https://yourdomain.com/yourlink and https://yourdomain.com/yourimage.jpg.

3 . Dedicated IP Address : This feature assigns a unique IP address for your account. All email sends from your Marketing Cloud account will use this IP; allowing you to establish a sender reputation and letting email service providers know that you’re a good sender.
4. Reply Mail Management (RMM) : This feature helps you to control any replies to email messages you send using Marketing Cloud. It can be used to filter out of office and auto-replies, process unsubscribe requests, forward replies to the email address you specify, trigger messages, etc. We’ll discuss about RMM in detail in the next article.

Examples :

1. Without SAP

2. With SAP

SAP Flow :

A Marketing Cloud account can have multiple SAP; but one business unit (BU) only supports one SAP for branding purposes.

Example :
If there are 2 brands, brand1 and brand2 – then we cannot configure them within the
same business unit. We need 2 business unit with 2 SAP (one per BU).

SSL(Secure Socket Layer )

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates are a type of encryption that can be used to secure Marketing Cloud accounts. SSL certificates help protect sensitive information by encrypting the transfer of data between your contacts and your website.

SSL certificates are useful in the following situations:

1. Cloud pages: Secure URLs for landing pages
2. Legacy landing pages: Secure URLs for landing pages
3. When users enter personal data: SSL certificates help keep personal data like
   credit card numbers private
4. When users view confidential information: SSL certificates help keep confidential
   information like health benefits and financial accounts private

You can either purchase the SSL certificate yourself or purchase it through Marketing Cloud as part of the Sender Authentication Package. You will need two (2) SSL certificates, (1) for the sender authentication domain and, (2) for portfolio content (must be purchased through Marketing Cloud.

There are two configuration options for the SSL certificate:

1. Securing microsite, landing page, or CloudPage URLs which would typically use your existing Sender Authenticated domain (e.g. pages.SAPdomain.com, cloud.SAPdomain.com, or pub.SAPdomain.com). With this option we can also secure view. and click. URLs for links within your SFMC content (e.g. view.SAPdomain.com and click.SAPdomain.com)
2. Securing portfolio content URLs, which use your existing Sender Authenticated domain (e.g. image.SAPdomain.com).

Note: SSL is not included in our Sender Authentication Package, but can be
purchased as an add-on to secure microsite, landing page, or Cloud Pages URLs or
image URLs in an account.

Which domains should be secured?

SSL Setup

1. Purchase SSL SKUs for your Marketing Cloud account SSL is not included in our Sender Authentication Package but can be purchased as an add-on to secure the URLs described above.

NOTE: You will need to complete the configuration of your Sender Authentication
Package (SAP) before you can set up SSL for those domains.

Here are some potential interview questions with answers based on the provided
document on SAP & SSL in Salesforce Marketing Cloud:

Interview Questions and Answers

Question 1: What is the Sender Authentication Package (SAP) in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and why is it important?

Answer: The Sender Authentication Package (SAP) in Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a set of tools designed to help ensure your email messages land in the inboxes of your intended recipients. It helps subscribers identify and trust your brand by allowing you to use a custom domain for sending emails, assign a dedicated IP address, and customize your account branding. SAP is crucial because it enhances brand recognition, improves sender reputation, and increases email deliverability.

Question 2: Can you explain the four key features of the Sender Authentication Package (SAP)?

Answer: The four key features of SAP are:

1. Private Domain: Allows the use of a custom domain for sending emails,
   improving brand recognition and sender reputation through security measures
   like SPF, Sender ID, and DKIM.
2. Account Branding: Customizes your account with a verified domain, ensuring
   that links and images in emails use your domain instead of Marketing Cloud’s.
3. Dedicated IP Address: Assigns a unique IP address to your account, helping
   establish a strong sender reputation.
4. Reply Mail Management (RMM): Manages replies to emails, filtering out
   auto-replies, processing unsubscribe requests, and forwarding messages to
   specified addresses.

Question 3: What are the benefits of using a Private Domain in SAP?

Answer: Using a Private Domain in SAP offers several benefits:

• It allows emails to appear as if they are coming from your own domain,
  enhancing brand recognition.
• It improves email deliverability by using security protocols like SPF, Sender ID,
  and DKIM to verify that emails are legitimate and protect against phishing.
• It contributes to building a strong sender reputation, leading to better email
  engagement rates.

Question 4: How does SSL work in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and what are its benefits?

Answer: SSL (Secure Socket Layer) in Salesforce Marketing Cloud is an encryption technology that secures the transfer of data between your website and your contacts. SSL certificates are particularly useful for securing URLs for landing pages (e.g., Cloud Pages), ensuring the privacy of personal data entered by users, and protecting confidential information. The benefits of SSL include:

• Encrypting data to protect sensitive information such as credit card numbers and
  personal data.
• Securing various types of URLs (e.g., landing pages, view and click tracking
  links, and image URLs) associated with your custom domain.
• Enhancing customer trust by ensuring that their data is handled securely.

Question 5: What should be configured first: SSL or the Sender Authentication Package (SAP)?

Answer: The Sender Authentication Package (SAP) should be configured first before setting up SSL for the associated domains. This is necessary because SSL certificates secure URLs that are part of the SAP configuration, such as microsite, landing page, or Cloud Page URLs, and image URLs in your Marketing Cloud account.

Question 6: Why might a business need to use multiple SAPs within Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Answer: A business might need to use multiple SAPs if it operates multiple brands, each requiring separate branding. Since one business unit in Salesforce Marketing Cloud supports only one SAP for branding purposes, if a company has multiple brands (e.g., Brand1 and Brand2), it would need separate business units and corresponding SAPs for each brand to ensure proper branding and sender reputation management.