However, after I passed the certification, Salesforce doesn’t let the certification go stale. You are required to do maintenance modules to keep your certification active. These modules are designed to help you stay current with important product updates to keep your certification active.

You are given a deadline to complete the maintenance module or lose your certification. After the countless hours I took to pass the exam, I am not going to let my certification lapse.

I wrote this blog post, so you don’t let your certification lapse either.

Here are the steps to maintain your Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist certification or any other Salesforce certification.

1. Do a web search for Salesforce Certification Maintenance Schedule
2. Verify when the due date for the maintenance module for your certification is due
3. Log in to Trailhead
4. Search Marketing Cloud Email Specialist Certification Maintenance
   • You should see 2 or 3 badges
5. Complete each badge to be on the safe side
6. Review the resources that are with each module
7. You should receive an email stating that your account is still valid

Bonus Points: Read the release notes for the product you work with daily.

So follow this advice and keep your certification active.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt, Email Developer

The post How To Keep Your SFMC Email Specialist Certification Active? appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

As an experienced email developer working in Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement, I wanted to know how Salesforce’s latest announcements would affect the future of the platform, workflows, and roles in the age of AI.

Theme of Dreamforce 2025

The overall theme of Dreamforce 2025 is the emergence of age Agentic Enterprise – a world where AI agents help human productivity instead of replacing it.

In the news, most companies are using AI to reduce headcount. Salesforce is going on another route: AI agents collaborate with people to make work faster, smarter, and more trustworthy.

For Marketing Cloud professionals, this is the beginning of the age of Agentic Marketing. Salesforce is integrating AI agents in the platform to help marketers and developers create personalized and automate customer journeys with real-time intelligence.

Marketing Cloud already has strong AI features, including Einstein Copy Insights, Einstein Recommends, and Einstein Send Time Optimization.

Salesforce is taking another step forward with the Agentforce 360 platform. Agentforce 360 introduces AI agents to help with data segmentation, send-time decisions, and contextual journey triggers. Built on top of Einstein, these agents allow us to send the right message at the right time with greater accuracy.

Data Is Key

Speaking of data, Data Cloud is rebranded as Data 360.  Data 360 unified customer data in real-time that every application, including Marketing Cloud Engagement, can use.

For email developers, this means the traditional model of nightly batch imports is getting a huge glow-up. With Data 360’s connected pipelines, journeys, and automations will eventually trigger directly from live data instead of waiting for a batch sync.

This will require new technical skillsets of understanding data models, integrations, and APIs that move information instantly between Salesforce CRM, Data 360, and Marketing Cloud.

People & Governance

Trust has always been the foundation of Salesforce and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. With AI and AI agents playing a larger role in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, people are still the key.

As Marketing Cloud professionals, we’ll need to keep performing manual QA checks, monitor how AI handles data, and ensure it operates within legal and compliance frameworks like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL.

AI can help us work faster, but it’s our professional responsibility to keep it accurate, ethical, and permission-based.

New Role of Email Developer

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is ushering in a new age of email developers. No longer will email developers be building email templates and managing the CRM.

Email developers will need to:

• Understand how data flows across the CRM and Data 360
• Design HTML templates ready for AI-driven personalization
• Work confidently with REST and SOAP APIs
• Collaborate with AI-powered tools and agents across the Salesforce ecosystem

The role of email developer isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, only evolving.

My Next 360 Days

After watching Dreamforce 2025, here’s my plan to adapt as an email developer:

• Expanding my knowledge of Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud)
• Learning more about AI agents and Agentforce 360
• Deepen my understanding of Marketing Cloud APIs (REST and SOAP)
• Pursue the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Developer certification

I plan on growing alongside the platform. Dreamforce made it clear that the next evolution of Marketing Cloud iso build on real-time data and AI collaboration.

Recommended Dreamforce 2025 Sessions on Salesforce Plus

I highly recommend that you watch the following sessions:

• Dreamforce Main Keynote 2025
• Marketing Keynote: Marketing That Sparks a Conversation
• Data Cloud Keynote: Activate Trusted Data Everywhere
• Key Data 36O Innovations to Unlock Your Data’s Full Value
• Your Marketing Maturity Model: What AI to Use When
• Unlock the Agentic Enterprise with Agentforce Marketing

Each session highlights how Salesforce is blending data, trust, and AI to empower marketers and developers alike.

Final Thoughts

Dreamforce 2025 was about a mindset shift. AI isn’t going to replace us; it will enhance what we already do well. As an email developer, the challenge is to keep learning and embrace tools so we can focus on strategy and creativity – not just code.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt, Email Developer

The post Dreamforce 2025 Takeaways for Email Developers: What’s Next for Salesforce Marketing Cloud appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

Moving Away From Webassessor

One of the main changes is that your certifications are moving away from Webassessor to Trailhead Academy. Anyone currently holding the Salesforce Marketing Cloud certification must move from Webassessor to Trailhead Academy.

Salesforce will email you to walk you through transferring your profile to Trailhead. The process is easy and takes less than 5 minutes.

New Testing Experience

In July, Salesforce Marketing Cloud exams will move from Webassessor to Pearson VUE. The change starts on July 21, 2025. The last day you must register for an exam on Webassessor is June 30, 2025.

SFMC Certification Title Changes

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is aligning its certifications with the new product names. Marketing Cloud is now called Marketing Cloud Engagement, and Pardot is now called Marketing Cloud Account Engagement.

The titles might sound confusing, but just remember that Pardot has “Account” in the title. That’s how I remember the difference between the two.

Here’s a list of all the Salesforce Marketing Cloud certification title changes you must know.

• Salesforce Certified Marketing Associate is now the Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Foundations certification (MC)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Specialist is now the Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Foundations certification (Pardot)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist has no name change (MC)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Administrator is now the Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Administrator certification (MC)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant is now the Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Consultant certification (MC)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Consultant has no change (Pardot)
• Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Developer is now the Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Developer certification (MC)

Important Dates

• June 30, 2025: Last day to register for SFMC exam with Webassessor
• July 13, 2025: Last day to take exam on Webassessor (Use any vouchers by this date)
• July 21, 2025: Take exams using Pearson VUE

Conclusion

These are the upcoming changes affecting newbies and experienced email developers in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud ecosystem.

The post SFMC Certification Changes Every Email Developer Needs To Know In 2025 appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

This year, my trip was cut short because I tripped up the steps in Penn Center. By the time I walked to the Javis Center, my knee was throbbing in pain. Fortunately, my knee was fine by the time I got back home.

Salesforce and Salesforce Marketing Cloud are going all in on AI and Data Cloud.

Throughout the day, I saw multiple presentations about the power of generative AI and Data Cloud.

Data Cloud is an awesome tool that ties in the data and opens up a world of opportunities for marketers.  Salesforce generative AI and Privacy Center are great tools to allow companies to use generative AI, provide privacy, and stay compliant with US and international laws.

The overall theme of Spring 2024 Salesforce World Tour NYC is that AI is a tool for email developers to embrace not fear. Salesforce is making AI a tool to help everyone on the Salesforce platform to be more productive.

Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for a few presentations because the throbbing in my knee got worse.

In conclusion, the Spring Salesforce World Tour 2024 was a huge success because I look forward to working more with AI and Data Cloud in the near future.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt 
Email Developer specializing in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

The post AI and Spring Salesforce World Tour NYC 2024 appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

The first time I attended the Salesforce New York World Tour was back in 2019, before the pandemic shut down the world. The 2019 World Tour was a huge affair, and it was the first time I did not spend hundreds of dollars to attend an IT technical conference. I will get into that more of that later.

Salesforce World Tour New York 2023 is a huge event that takes over three floors of the Jarvis Convention Center. If you have never been to the Jarvis Convention Center, it is a huge place.  Salesforce filled every floor of the Jarvis Convention Center with Salesforce products, technical seminars, and product demos. The last time I went to a convention this large, I paid several a few hundred dollars to attend. The Salesforce New York World Tour is free.

Observation One

There has been a lot of talk in the news about Salesforce as a company losing a step. Many financial analysts have not looked favorably on the stock over the past few months. After attending the Salesforce World Tour; Salesforce is going to continue to dominate every industry its products are in.

Salesforce is on the cutting advantage of technology with A.I. and EinsteinGPT integrated into every Salesforce product. Other companies are struggling to use ChatGPT. Salesforce has their own version called EinsteinGPT, integrated into all their products.

Observation two

Salesforce Marketing Cloud filled a conference room in the Javis Convention Center. The one thing that I picked up is that there are not enough Salesforce Marketing Cloud professionals to meet the demand.

Salesforce administrators outnumbered Salesforce Marketing Cloud professionals three to one. So, if you’re an email developer looking upgrade your skills and your paycheck, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a platform you want to look into.

Observation three

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is not going anywhere. I saw several demonstrations with A.I. and EinsteinGPT integrated into Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The future is bright for Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

I attended so many demonstrations on the power of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that I cannot list them all.

Conclusion

The Salesforce World Tour New York 2023 demonstrated the untapped potential of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. As an email developer, I am looking forward to the future of Salesforce Marketing Cloud thanks to the Salesforce World Tour 2023.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt 
Email Developer specializing in Salesforce Marketing Cloud

The post 3 Things I Learned from Salesforce World Tour NYC 2023? appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

LET’S CATCH PLAY CATCH UP

I took the Supermums Salesforce Marketing Cloud course in June 2021. I completed the course in October 2021

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?

This is just my opinion. I believe someone with six months of experience working as an email developer will benefit from this course.

Why do I say six months experience? With six months of experience, you should know email marketing terminology and an email automation system.

INSTRUCTOR

In my previous post, I mentioned Vicky, the instructor for the course.

Vicky brought a ton of real-world experience that you can only get from working with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The little tidbits that she taught me helped me in my first week as a Salesforce Email Developer.

Supermums picked a winner when they hired Vicky as an instructor.

CLASS

I missed several weeks of the class due to health and work-related reasons.

Supermums provides a recording of the live classes. Vicky, the instructor, is a mind reader, and she answered my questions even though I wasn’t in the live class.

CERTIFICATION

The Supermums course does prepare you for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist exam that I will be taking in February 2022. I also received a discounted code for the exam.

BONUS

One of the main reasons to take the Supermums course is a hands-on experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Trailhead does NOT offer you access to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Hands-on access to Salesforce Marketing Cloud makes this course so unique.

Side Note: The only way to access the Salesforce Marketing Cloud instance is to be a paying customer or through Salesforce Authorized Training Provider like Supermums.

AFTER COMPLETING THE COURSE

In December 2021, I was laid off.

When I updated my LinkedIn profile and resume, I was bombarded with interview requests with my newfound Salesforce Marketing Cloud knowledge. The Supermums course was the reason I received so many requests for interviews.

I received multiple job offers. I eventually accepted an offer as a Salesforce Email Developer in January 2022 with a 23% salary increase from my previous position.

Side Note: I have two years of experience as an email developer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you want to move into Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I highly recommend the Supermums Salesforce Marketing Cloud course.

Supermums is definitely a winner in my book.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt 
HTML Email Developer

P.S. If you want to learn Salesforce Marketing Cloud and elevate your Email Developer career like I did, check out SuperMums Salesforce Marketing Cloud Training, authorized Salesforce Training Provider.

The post My final thoughts on the Supermums Salesforce Marketing Cloud Course appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

If you never heard of Supermums, check out their website https://supermums.org/ to learn more information. Supermums is an authorized Salesforce training partner, which is one of the reasons I signed up for their Salesforce Marketing Cloud course.

Side Note: Many companies offering Salesforce Marketing Cloud Training are not Salesforce Authorized Training Partners. Having that Salesforce Authorized Training Partner stamp makes a huge difference, in my opinion.

The Instructor

My instructor’s name is Vicki.

She is a marketing pro with tons of experience. She has explained the ins and out of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and offering tons of tidbits that only someone with hands-on experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud would know.

A lot of the advice during class has helped during my interviews for an Email Developer role requiring experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The Class

The class meets virtually, and the recording are posted within a few hours so that you can watch the replay. Due to life, I’ve watched half of the classes on replay.

The live classes were awesome.

Each class tackles a part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that you be expected to know as an Email Marketing Specialist. The classes build on top of one another. So, suppose you do not have a marketing background like me. In that case, you will definitely better understand email marketing and marketing in general.

My classmates are great, and you don’t have to be a mom or dad to attend the class.

My Thoughts So Far

Taking the Supermums Marketing Cloud course, the biggest financial investments that I made in my developer journey.

Investing in myself has paid off nicely.

I watched two of my classmates pass their Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist exams. That gives me confidence because I take my exam at the end of September.

I am getting more calls for Salesforce Marketing Cloud email developer roles, which offer a higher pay rate.

The Supermums course is a win for me.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt 
HTML Email Developer

P.S. If you want to learn Salesforce Marketing Cloud and elevate your Email Developer career like I did, check out SuperMums Salesforce Marketing Cloud Training, authorized Salesforce Training Provider.

The post My thoughts midway through the Supermums Salesforce Marketing Cloud Course appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.

A few months ago, I joined the Philadelphia Salesforce Marketer group.  They were kind enough to send me an invitation to attend the Salesforce 2021 Connections conference watch party.

At the conference, Salesforce announced a marketer career path on Trailhead.

This announcement excited me.

Trailhead is a free online tool that teaches you how to transform your career in the Salesforce platform.

I was amazed at the different opportunities to use my HTML email development skills to advance my career with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

I was hooked.

I was excited about the Salesforce announcement because the marketer career oath had two trails: Email Marketing Analyst and Email Marketing Manager.

I spent the next two weeks completing the Email Marketing Analyst trail. After that, I started looking into opportunities as an email developer using Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Opportunities Galore

Lots of companies are seeking email developers with Salesforce Marketing Cloud experience.

After doing some research, I realized I wanted to take my email developer to the next level. So I was going all-in on Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email development.

There was one small problem!

I couldn’t get access to Salesforce Marketing Cloud to learn it.  Trailhead was great, but I needed real-world experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Invest In Yourself

After much research, I came across the Supermums Marketing Cloud training course.  Supermums has an excellent reputation and training partner with Salesforce.

Now, I had to make a decision.

Do I invest in myself or wait for a company to spend money to train me in Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

About 2 AM, I remembered a Jay-Z quote. I sign up for Supermums Marketing Cloud training course.

Luckily, I did sign-up because the course started the next day, and the next session was later in the year.

Final Thoughts

Over the next few months, I will be changing my blog to include HTML Email development using Salesforce Marketing Cloud.  I will also be blogging about the Supermums course.  I look forward to getting started and learning about Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Thanks for listening,
Ivan Hurt
HTML Email Developer

P.S. If you want to learn Salesforce Marketing Cloud and elevate your Email Developer career like I did, check out SuperMums Salesforce Marketing Cloud Training, authorized Salesforce Training Provider.

The post Why I joined Supermums Marketing Cloud course? appeared first on IvanHurt.dev.