Useful Tools for SFMC Professionals

 In the dynamic world of digital marketing, Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) professionals constantly seek tools that enhance their efficiency and streamline their workflow. Here’s a compilation of essential tools every SFMC user should consider incorporating into their toolkit, alongside brief descriptions of what they offer:

Ampscript.io: This tool is invaluable for those using AMPscript in their SFMC campaigns. Ampscript.io provides a user-friendly environment to write, test, and debug AMPscript code directly in the browser, without needing to first test it in SFMC. This speeds up the development process and helps avoid common pitfalls in campaign setups.
URL: www.Ampscript.io 

Dataviews.io: Dataviews.io offers visual diagrams and detailed descriptions of SFMC Data Views, making it easier for users to understand the complex data relationships within SFMC. This tool is especially useful for those looking to enhance their SQL querying capabilities within SFMC, providing actionable insights into data structuring and optimization.
URL: Dataviews.io

SFMC Companion (Chrome Plugin): I use this chrome extension everyday and I believe it is a must-have for improving navigation and functionality within the SFMC interface. This can be used to quickly navigate through your Marketing Cloud objects (such as Automations, Queries, Data Extensions and more) to find where they are saved, what activities are using them, and what other objects they interact with.
URL: SFMC Companion

Postman: While Postman is widely used across many software development environments for API testing, it is particularly beneficial in SFMC for testing and debugging API calls. This tool can simulate API requests to Salesforce, helping users verify and troubleshoot their integrations and data exchanges. For example you can trigger and test your API trigger based emails and journeys.
URL: Postman

Data Extension Finder Tool: There are sometimes going to be a situation where you may not be able to use a chrome extension like SFMC Companion. In such cases you can use SSJS to create a cloud page tool that can be used to search for data extension via its name or external key. Here is a page that shows how to do this. Example 1. Example 2.

Cloud Page to Find Queries & Automation that Target a Data Extension: While this feature is available out of the box with the SFMC Companion, you can also use SSJS and WS proxy to build a cloud page for this functionality. Here is a useful YouTube video by Camron Robert with sample code. 

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