Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform is a powerful suite of tools designed to streamline and enhance marketing efforts. It offers a comprehensive range of functionalities, from email marketing to social media management, enabling businesses to connect with their customers across various channels. This platform empowers marketers to build targeted campaigns, analyze results, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.

This in-depth exploration delves into the platform’s capabilities, use cases, integration options, and potential challenges. We’ll examine its core components, its versatility across different industries, and the role it plays in today’s dynamic marketing landscape. Furthermore, we’ll analyze its advantages and compare it with other marketing automation platforms.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform is a powerful suite of tools designed to help businesses connect with their customers across various channels. It provides a centralized platform for managing and executing marketing campaigns, from email marketing and SMS messaging to social media engagement and more. This comprehensive platform empowers marketers to personalize interactions, automate workflows, and ultimately drive measurable results.

Key Functionalities and Features

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform offers a wide array of functionalities that cater to different marketing needs. These features include robust email marketing capabilities, enabling businesses to craft engaging email campaigns, segment audiences for targeted messaging, and track campaign performance. Beyond email, the platform supports SMS messaging, mobile marketing, and social media marketing, providing a unified approach to customer engagement.

It also includes sophisticated marketing automation tools, allowing for automated workflows based on customer interactions, and personalized experiences. Real-time campaign analytics provide detailed insights into campaign performance, enabling marketers to optimize strategies for maximum impact.

Components and Interrelationships

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform consists of various interconnected components working together to create a comprehensive marketing solution. These components are designed to integrate seamlessly, allowing for a smooth flow of data and interactions across the platform. For example, data gathered from email campaigns can be used to personalize subsequent social media interactions, enhancing customer engagement. The automation features tie various components together, streamlining workflows and enabling targeted messaging.

Key Modules Overview

The platform’s key modules work together to deliver a cohesive and effective marketing strategy. The different modules are tightly integrated, allowing for data flow and cross-functional campaign execution. This interconnectedness empowers marketers to create a holistic customer journey.

Module	Description	Key Features	Example Use Case
Email Marketing	Facilitates creation, sending, and tracking of email campaigns.	Email templates, segmentation, A/B testing, deliverability management.	Sending targeted welcome emails, promotional offers, or event invitations.
SMS Marketing	Enables communication via text messages.	SMS templates, audience segmentation, real-time tracking.	Sending appointment reminders, order confirmations, or promotional codes.
Social Studio	Manages and amplifies social media engagement.	Social listening, content scheduling, influencer marketing.	Monitoring brand mentions, responding to customer inquiries on social media, and running targeted ad campaigns.
Marketing Automation	Streamlines marketing workflows and automates processes.	Triggers, journeys, segmentation rules, and more.	Automating email sequences based on customer behavior, like abandoned cart emails.

Platform Capabilities and Use Cases

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is more than just a marketing platform; it’s a powerful engine for connecting with customers across various channels. Its robust capabilities extend beyond basic email marketing, enabling businesses to orchestrate sophisticated, multi-channel campaigns that deliver measurable results. Understanding its versatility across different marketing functions is crucial for maximizing its potential.

Email Marketing Capabilities

The platform offers comprehensive email marketing features, allowing businesses to create highly targeted and personalized email campaigns. These features include sophisticated segmentation tools, enabling marketers to tailor messages to specific customer groups. A/B testing capabilities help optimize email content for maximum engagement and conversion rates. Automation workflows enable the sending of triggered emails based on customer actions or behaviors, like abandoned carts or welcome sequences.

Robust reporting and analytics provide deep insights into email campaign performance, enabling continuous improvement and optimization. These features enable highly targeted and personalized communications, significantly increasing campaign effectiveness.

SMS and Mobile Marketing Applications

Salesforce Marketing Cloud empowers businesses to engage customers through SMS and mobile marketing campaigns. This includes features for crafting targeted SMS messages, enabling businesses to deliver timely updates, promotional offers, or important alerts. The platform facilitates mobile-optimized content, ensuring that messages display correctly across different devices and operating systems. Businesses can integrate mobile marketing with other channels to create seamless customer journeys.

This cross-channel integration is vital for creating unified brand experiences.

Social Media Marketing Integration

The platform seamlessly integrates with various social media platforms, providing businesses with tools to manage and optimize their social media presence. It allows for scheduling posts, tracking engagement metrics, and running targeted social media campaigns. Social listening capabilities provide valuable insights into customer sentiment and brand mentions. These insights are crucial for adapting marketing strategies to better meet customer needs.

Cross-Channel Marketing Campaign Facilitation

One of the platform’s most significant strengths is its ability to orchestrate cross-channel marketing campaigns. It allows businesses to synchronize messages across various channels, such as email, SMS, social media, and web, to create a unified and consistent customer experience. For example, a customer who opens an email promoting a product can receive a follow-up SMS with a discount code.

This creates a personalized and relevant experience for the customer. The platform streamlines the process of managing these interconnected campaigns, enabling businesses to track performance across all channels and make data-driven decisions.

Industry Sector Applications

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is used in a wide array of industries, including retail, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and technology. Its flexibility and scalability make it suitable for businesses of all sizes and across diverse sectors. Its ability to adapt to different needs allows businesses to achieve their marketing objectives.

Use Case Examples

Industry	Business	Campaign Goal	Marketing Cloud Use Case
Retail	Clothing store	Increase sales during holiday season	Personalized email campaigns targeting specific customer segments based on past purchase history, A/B testing email subject lines, and SMS follow-ups for abandoned carts.
E-commerce	Online bookstore	Promote new book releases	Automated email sequences for new book releases, social media ads targeting specific demographics based on book genre preferences, and targeted SMS promotions for early bird discounts.
Financial Services	Bank	Improve customer retention	Personalized email communications based on account activity and customer preferences, automated SMS reminders for upcoming bill payments, and targeted social media campaigns to address customer concerns.
Healthcare	Hospital	Improve patient engagement	Automated appointment reminders via SMS, targeted email campaigns for patient education and health initiatives, and social media posts with health-related information.

Integration and Data Management

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform’s strength lies in its ability to connect and manage data across various channels and systems. This integration capability is crucial for businesses seeking a holistic view of their customer interactions and data, enabling personalized marketing campaigns and optimized customer journeys. Robust data management and secure protocols are paramount to ensuring data integrity and compliance.

Integration with Salesforce Products

The Marketing Cloud seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Commerce Cloud. This unified view of the customer provides a comprehensive understanding of their interactions across different touchpoints. For instance, lead information captured in Sales Cloud can be automatically transferred to Marketing Cloud for targeted email campaigns, or service interactions can be used to personalize product recommendations in Commerce Cloud.

This interconnectedness streamlines workflows and improves customer experience.

Integration with External Tools and Systems

Beyond Salesforce ecosystem integration, Marketing Cloud supports connections with a wide array of external tools and systems. This enables businesses to leverage existing technologies and data sources. For example, integrating with CRM platforms like HubSpot or Marketo, or with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, allows for a more comprehensive view of customer interactions and data analysis. This ensures that marketing efforts are not siloed and can effectively use data from various sources to inform strategies.

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform is a powerful tool for businesses looking to boost their online presence. Understanding your brand identity is key to success, and a strong online brand can really help you stand out from the competition. A crucial element in this process is a solid guide to online branding, which helps you create a consistent and memorable image across all your digital channels.

This guide will provide you with valuable insights into building an impactful brand. Ultimately, the Marketing Cloud platform can be used effectively to execute strategies outlined in this guide, maximizing the impact of your online presence.

Data Management Features

The platform offers robust data management features including data cleansing, segmentation, and reporting capabilities. Data cleansing helps maintain data accuracy, ensuring that marketing campaigns are targeted at the correct audience. Segmentation allows for tailored communication to specific customer groups, while detailed reporting enables businesses to track the effectiveness of campaigns and measure return on investment. These features are critical for extracting actionable insights and optimizing marketing strategies.

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform is a powerful tool for reaching audiences, but truly engaging them requires more than just slick tech. Understanding philosophical tactics for creating viral content, like leveraging ethos, pathos, and logos (check out philosophical tactics for creating viral content ethos pathos logos ), is key to crafting impactful campaigns. Ultimately, using the platform effectively means understanding the human element behind the marketing data and delivering resonant messages that resonate with potential customers.

Data Security Protocols

Data security is paramount, and Marketing Cloud employs various protocols to protect sensitive customer information. These include encryption, access controls, and compliance with industry regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Furthermore, regular security audits and updates ensure the platform’s ongoing security. This commitment to data protection is essential for maintaining customer trust and avoiding potential risks.

Comparison of Integration Options

Feature	Salesforce Marketing Cloud	HubSpot	Marketo	ActiveCampaign
Sales Cloud Integration	Excellent, native integration	Good, API-based integration	Good, API-based integration	Good, API-based integration
E-commerce Platform Integration	Strong, native integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud	Good, API-based integration with various platforms	Good, API-based integration with various platforms	Good, API-based integration with various platforms
Data Management Capabilities	Comprehensive, including data cleansing, segmentation, and reporting	Good, but may require third-party tools for advanced segmentation	Good, robust data management capabilities	Good, but less extensive data management compared to Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Data Security Protocols	Robust, compliant with industry regulations	Good, but less detailed security protocols than Marketing Cloud	Good, with robust security protocols	Good, with adequate security protocols

This table provides a high-level comparison of integration options, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. Careful consideration of the specific needs of your business is crucial when choosing the right integration tools.

Benefits and Advantages

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform offers a powerful suite of tools for modern marketing operations. Its ability to unify customer interactions across channels and deliver personalized experiences sets it apart. This comprehensive platform provides measurable advantages, boosting campaign performance and driving significant returns on investment.The core strength of the platform lies in its ability to streamline marketing processes, from initial campaign planning to final analysis.

This allows marketers to focus on crafting compelling campaigns and optimizing customer engagement, ultimately leading to improved customer lifetime value.

Key Advantages for Marketing Operations

The platform’s robust capabilities streamline marketing operations, enabling marketers to manage multiple channels efficiently. This leads to improved campaign planning, execution, and analysis. Automation of tasks like email marketing, social media management, and ad campaign optimization reduces manual effort and frees up resources for more strategic initiatives. This enhanced efficiency is crucial for organizations aiming to maximize their marketing ROI.

Enhanced Campaign Performance: The platform’s sophisticated tools allow marketers to track campaign performance in real-time, enabling data-driven adjustments to optimize results. This real-time feedback loop empowers marketers to improve open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, ultimately boosting campaign ROI. For example, a retailer using Marketing Cloud might observe a low click-through rate on a specific email campaign.

By analyzing the data, they can quickly identify the reasons (e.g., poor subject line, irrelevant content) and adjust the campaign, leading to a substantial improvement in engagement.
Improved Customer Engagement: By providing a 360-degree view of the customer, the platform enables marketers to personalize interactions at scale. This tailored approach fosters stronger customer relationships and encourages repeat business. For example, a financial services company using Marketing Cloud can segment customers based on their investment portfolios and send personalized recommendations, fostering a stronger connection and driving more engagement.
Customer Segmentation and Personalization: The platform facilitates granular customer segmentation based on various criteria, enabling marketers to tailor messages and offers to specific customer groups. This level of personalization drives higher engagement and conversion rates. For instance, an e-commerce platform can segment customers based on purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics to deliver highly relevant product recommendations and promotions.
Streamlined Marketing Processes: The platform integrates various marketing channels, creating a unified view of customer interactions. This integration streamlines marketing workflows and allows for a more efficient and effective approach to campaign management, reducing duplication of effort and enhancing the overall marketing strategy.

Improved Customer Engagement Capabilities

The platform’s comprehensive tools enable marketers to deliver highly personalized and targeted communications, fostering deeper customer engagement. By leveraging data insights and sophisticated automation capabilities, marketers can create truly engaging experiences that resonate with individual customer needs. This is vital for building strong, lasting customer relationships in today’s competitive market.

Multi-channel Communication: The platform seamlessly integrates with various channels like email, SMS, social media, and web push notifications, allowing marketers to reach customers across multiple touchpoints. This omni-channel approach enhances engagement and creates a more cohesive customer experience.
Real-time Interactions: Real-time interactions allow for immediate responses to customer inquiries and feedback. This responsiveness significantly enhances the customer journey, offering a higher level of support and personalization.
Personalized Experiences: The platform’s ability to personalize communications allows marketers to tailor messages and offers to individual customer needs and preferences. This personalized approach increases engagement and conversion rates, ultimately improving the customer experience.

Enhancement of Campaign Performance

The platform’s analytics and reporting features provide actionable insights into campaign performance, empowering marketers to optimize strategies for maximum impact. By tracking key metrics and identifying areas for improvement, marketers can continuously refine their campaigns to achieve better results. Real-time campaign monitoring is key to adapting quickly to changing market conditions and customer behavior.

Real-time Performance Tracking: The platform offers real-time performance tracking, allowing marketers to monitor campaign progress and make necessary adjustments on the fly. This dynamic approach ensures campaigns are always aligned with optimal performance metrics.
Data-Driven Optimization: Leveraging comprehensive data analysis, the platform allows marketers to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and make data-driven decisions to improve campaign effectiveness. This iterative process continually refines campaigns for better results.
Improved Reporting and Analytics: The platform’s comprehensive reporting and analytics tools provide marketers with detailed insights into campaign performance, allowing for a thorough understanding of campaign effectiveness. This data-driven approach helps to refine marketing strategies and optimize future campaigns.

Key Considerations and Challenges

Stepping into the world of Salesforce Marketing Cloud requires careful consideration. While the platform offers powerful capabilities, understanding potential hurdles is crucial for successful implementation and ROI. Navigating data complexities, skill gaps, and financial commitments are key aspects of any successful project.The journey to leveraging Marketing Cloud’s potential isn’t always smooth. Careful planning, thorough assessment of internal resources, and realistic budgeting are essential for avoiding pitfalls and maximizing the platform’s benefits.

This section explores these critical considerations to equip you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions.

Potential Challenges in Adopting the Platform, Salesforce marketing cloud platform

Understanding the challenges associated with adopting a new platform like Salesforce Marketing Cloud is essential. Potential hurdles range from resource limitations to technical difficulties. Careful planning and proactive solutions are critical to mitigate these challenges.

Integration complexities: Connecting Marketing Cloud with existing systems can be challenging. Data structures, APIs, and legacy systems can create compatibility issues, requiring significant time and effort to resolve.
Data migration complexities: Moving data from legacy systems to Marketing Cloud often involves significant effort. Data cleansing, transformation, and validation steps can be lengthy and prone to errors. Careful planning and thorough testing are essential to ensure data integrity during migration.
Lack of skilled personnel: Effectively utilizing Marketing Cloud requires specific skills in marketing automation, data analysis, and campaign management. A shortage of qualified personnel can hinder the platform’s adoption and limit its potential impact.

Data Migration and Integration Complexities

Data migration is a critical aspect of Marketing Cloud implementation. Successfully migrating data from existing systems involves careful planning and execution. Thorough testing and validation are vital to ensure data accuracy and integrity in the new system.

Data Mapping: Defining the mapping between fields in the source and destination systems is crucial. Errors in mapping can lead to data loss or corruption. Thorough documentation and validation are essential to ensure accuracy.
Data Cleansing: Data from legacy systems often contains inconsistencies, errors, and duplicates. A robust data cleansing process is required to ensure data quality in the new system. This often involves identifying and resolving issues such as missing values, formatting inconsistencies, and duplicate entries.
Data Validation: Validating the migrated data against expected values and business rules ensures data accuracy and integrity. This step helps identify and correct errors before they impact campaign performance. The validation process should cover all aspects of the data, from formatting to business rules and data relationships.

Need for Skilled Personnel

Effective utilization of Salesforce Marketing Cloud requires a team with specific skill sets. The platform’s capabilities are best realized by individuals with expertise in marketing automation, data analysis, and campaign management.

Marketo and CRM Integration A Deep Dive

December 16, 20240

Marketing Automation Expertise: Individuals need to understand how to design and implement automated marketing workflows, nurture campaigns, and optimize customer journeys. This expertise is essential for maximizing the platform’s efficiency.
Data Analysis Skills: Understanding how to analyze data from Marketing Cloud reports and dashboards is crucial for making informed decisions and optimizing campaigns. Data visualization and reporting skills are critical to draw insights from the data.
Campaign Management Expertise: Individuals responsible for campaign management need to understand how to create, implement, and track the performance of various marketing campaigns. This includes expertise in email marketing, social media marketing, and other digital channels.

Costs and Pricing Models

The costs associated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud vary depending on the chosen plan and features utilized. A clear understanding of pricing models is crucial to avoid unexpected expenses. Licensing costs, user fees, and data storage costs all contribute to the overall cost.

Potential Challenges and Corresponding Solutions

Challenge	Solution	Impact	Cost Considerations
Integration complexities	Thorough planning, system analysis, and expert consultation	Reduced risk of system incompatibility	Potential for increased consulting fees
Data migration complexities	Data cleansing, transformation, validation, and migration tools	Ensures data accuracy and integrity	Cost of tools and dedicated resources
Lack of skilled personnel	Training programs, hiring specialists, and outsourcing expertise	Improves platform utilization and campaign performance	Investment in training or recruitment

Emerging Trends and Future Outlook

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform is constantly evolving, adapting to the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. Staying ahead of the curve requires understanding the emerging trends shaping the future of marketing automation and customer engagement. This section explores key trends, their impact on future strategies, and the role of AI and machine learning in transforming the platform.

AI-Powered Personalization

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming integral to marketing cloud platforms. AI algorithms analyze vast datasets to identify patterns and predict customer behavior, enabling hyper-personalized experiences. This includes tailored product recommendations, dynamic content adjustments based on individual preferences, and automated responses to customer inquiries. The result is a more relevant and engaging customer journey, ultimately boosting conversion rates and customer loyalty.

Companies leveraging AI-driven personalization are seeing significant improvements in campaign effectiveness. For example, a major retailer using AI-powered recommendations saw a 20% increase in average order value.

Hyper-Segmentation and Micro-Moments

Marketers are moving beyond broad demographics and embracing hyper-segmentation, targeting smaller, more defined groups of customers. This approach allows for highly targeted campaigns tailored to specific needs and preferences. Furthermore, the platform is becoming crucial in leveraging micro-moments, those brief but crucial instances when customers engage with brands, often driven by mobile devices. Identifying these moments, like when a customer searches for a product or reads a review, allows marketers to deliver relevant and timely messaging that directly addresses the customer’s immediate need.

This strategy increases the effectiveness of marketing efforts by focusing on moments of highest customer engagement.

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform is a powerful tool for crafting targeted marketing campaigns, but maximizing its potential often involves understanding how to effectively leverage other platforms. Knowing how to optimize your Google Ads bidding strategies is crucial for campaign success. Check out google ads bidding strategies the ultimate guide for a comprehensive guide on various bidding methods.

Ultimately, a well-rounded approach incorporating both Salesforce Marketing Cloud and strategic Google Ads bidding can significantly boost your marketing ROI.

The Rise of Omnichannel Experiences

The demand for seamless and integrated customer experiences across all channels is growing. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform will continue to play a pivotal role in unifying data and enabling personalized interactions regardless of the customer’s preferred channel (email, social media, mobile apps, etc.). This omnichannel approach fosters a holistic brand experience that strengthens customer relationships and enhances customer satisfaction.

The ability to track customer journeys across various touchpoints and deliver consistent messaging creates a more integrated and personalized brand interaction, leading to improved customer loyalty.

Integration with Emerging Technologies

The platform’s future will involve seamless integration with emerging technologies like the metaverse and the Internet of Things (IoT). As these technologies gain traction, the marketing cloud will need to adapt to handle the influx of data generated by these interactions. This integration will allow brands to leverage real-time data and create immersive experiences, allowing for personalized engagement in virtual spaces and incorporating data from connected devices.

This is a crucial aspect for brands seeking to expand their reach and stay competitive in the evolving digital landscape. For example, a retail brand might use data from a customer’s smart home device to recommend relevant products.

Predictive Analytics and Marketing Automation

Predictive analytics will become even more sophisticated, leveraging AI to anticipate customer needs and preferences. The platform will empower marketers to proactively personalize campaigns and automate processes based on these predictions. This will optimize resource allocation and increase campaign ROI. For instance, the platform could predict which customers are likely to churn and proactively offer them personalized retention strategies.

Emphasis on Data Privacy and Security

Data privacy regulations will continue to evolve, requiring greater transparency and control over customer data. The platform will need to adapt to address these concerns by offering robust data security measures and compliance features. This includes ensuring data encryption, access controls, and compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. A focus on ethical data handling will be critical for maintaining customer trust and ensuring long-term success.

Platform Comparison and Alternatives

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform, while a powerful tool, isn’t the only game in town. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of competing platforms is crucial for businesses looking to maximize their marketing ROI. This section delves into direct competitors, highlighting similar functionalities and key differences to aid in informed decision-making.Comparing Salesforce Marketing Cloud with other marketing automation platforms allows businesses to evaluate their specific needs and budget constraints.

A comprehensive comparison should consider factors like pricing models, feature sets, and ease of integration.

Competing Marketing Automation Platforms

Several platforms offer marketing automation capabilities similar to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. These include platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and others. Each platform has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, impacting pricing, scalability, and user experience. A thorough analysis of each platform is essential for effective selection.

Key Features Comparison

Different platforms cater to diverse needs and business sizes. Understanding the specific features of each platform is crucial for matching functionality to specific requirements. The table below provides a comparative overview of key features offered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud and leading competitors.

Feature	Salesforce Marketing Cloud	HubSpot	Marketo	Pardot
Email Marketing	Comprehensive email marketing tools, including segmentation, automation, and personalization	Robust email marketing capabilities, integrated with CRM	Powerful email marketing with advanced segmentation and automation	Excellent email marketing features, integrated with Salesforce CRM
Marketing Automation	Extensive automation workflows for lead nurturing, campaign management, and more	Good marketing automation capabilities, focused on inbound marketing	Highly configurable automation for various marketing processes	Effective automation tools for lead nurturing and customer engagement
Social Media Management	Integrated social media tools for scheduling and monitoring	Strong social media management features, often integrated with other tools	Social media marketing capabilities within a larger platform	Good social media marketing tools, including scheduling and reporting
Customer Data Platform (CDP)	Robust CDP capabilities for unified customer profiles	Limited CDP capabilities, focused on CRM data	Strong CDP functionality for customer data management	CDP features within the platform, though potentially less comprehensive
Pricing Model	Typically tiered pricing based on features and volume	Often a freemium model with paid plans for advanced features	Typically a tiered pricing model, emphasizing enterprise-level solutions	Often a tiered pricing model, potentially integrated with Salesforce pricing

Pricing Models and Considerations

Pricing models vary significantly between platforms. Salesforce Marketing Cloud, for example, typically employs a tiered pricing model based on features and volume. HubSpot often offers a freemium model, providing basic features for free and charging for advanced functionalities. Understanding the pricing structure is essential for aligning the platform’s cost with projected usage.

Platform Strengths and Weaknesses

Each platform possesses strengths and weaknesses. Salesforce Marketing Cloud, for instance, is known for its robust features and integrations, but can be more expensive. HubSpot excels in its ease of use and inbound marketing capabilities, but may lack certain advanced functionalities found in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Understanding these nuances is critical for selecting the right solution for specific business requirements.

Closing Summary: Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform

In conclusion, the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Platform stands as a robust and versatile solution for modern marketing needs. Its ability to manage customer interactions across various channels, coupled with its integration capabilities, positions it as a leading contender in the marketing automation space. However, businesses should carefully consider the platform’s complexities, potential costs, and personnel requirements before implementing it.