Five Common Marketing Cloud Problems Solved by Stashr

If you haven’t heard yet, Stashr.io is one of the newest apps (as of June 2023) to hit the Salesforce AppExchange for Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement (SFMCE). We are excited to be a Salesforce ISV Partner and to bring the SFMCE community an app that covers a much needed gap — Version Control and Recovery.

Not exactly the sexiest of MarTech topics, but one that in the SFMCE space tends to get overlooked or be a second thought. Why is it rarely an active conversation for your org you ask? It’s (usually) hard to implement across teams, it takes a bit of strategy to get right, and mostly… it’s not an easy thing to implement in SFMCE… until Stashr!

How Can Stashr Help?

1. Direct Integration and Built Specifically with SFMCE in Mind

Stashr.io is SFMCE specific, built by a team that has been in the ecosystem with easily over 20 years of combined experience. We are Email Specialists, we are Developers, we are Admins, we are Users; we know the platform and stay on top of how things change and shift within it.

Our approach with Stashr is to take a complex process like version control and not only craft a solution that brings its power to users of every level but approach it in a way that makes sense for SFMCE. Through our partnership with Salesforce and the AppExchange, Stashr can be installed and accessed directly from SFMCE; this allows you to create, manage, view differences (at the asset level), and recover your configurations directly within the platform.

2. Forward-Looking and Automated Backups

In all of the years I have worked in SFMCE I’ve seen version control handled in a few different ways. When I look back at how teams work within the platform it was important to create a solution that not only captured what is there but what will be there. We know that you have multiple people working on projects, creating emails, creating automations… what you backup today might only be a fraction of assets that will be added over time.

Stashr backs up your assets based on the folders they reside in. When you select a folder your backup will include all nested subfolders and the assets within them; which means the folders and assets added in the future won’t feel left out, we’ll get them on the next backup!

Which brings me to the fact that you… well, you’re busy being awesome and creating value for your company. We want you to be able to concentrate on the fun stuff, let us make sure your projects and assets are safe and sound. For each configuration, you’ll be able to configure it either as a Weekly or Monthly backup, based on how often your assets change. The best part? We’ll send you and your team an email letting you know if there are any configurations with alerts, or changes that are new. This makes it so changes don’t happen silently and you can take action when needed.

3. We Can Find the Needle

Imagine… a team member is tasked with making an update to a SQL query. They work diligently, updates are validated and they make the changes to the production assets and close out the task.

You are notified a few days later that there’s something off with the records in a Data Extension that is associated with the Automation, and you need to look into it. You haven’t reviewed this Automation in a while (or it’s new to you), you know your teammate updated a Query (but you don’t know what was updated). Lucky for you, this Automation is being backed up with Stashr.

You hover over your favorite blue cloud icon and navigate over to Stashr. Next you hit that search bar and quickly find the configuration for that Automation. Within a few clicks, you’re reviewing the contents of your previous backups against what’s in SFMCE. In a matter of minutes you can see exactly what’s changed, what’s been added, what’s been removed. You can see where a condition was off or an OR should have been an AND. Whatever the issue, you can now either make the appropriate changes or recover the asset from your Stashr backup.

Go ahead and take the credit, you deserve the spotlight and are the true hero!

4. If We had a superpower it would be… X-Ray Vision

We all know that SFMCE is an immensely powerful platform, each studio can (in some cases) leverage assets and data from other studios. While this is great, it can create walls that don’t always let us see how things are connected and worse when something on the other side of the wall changes or fails.

When asked what our superpower power is… it’s x-ray vision. Assets that are backed up in a Stashr configuration don’t stop at the surface level. We know that the assets directly in the configuration are important, but the ones in the other rooms are just as important. So when we recognize a dependency, we go around and grab those as well to include in your backups. That way, when something changes on the other side of the wall, we have your back!

5. Something go down? Breathe. Find. Recover. Test. Fix.

We work in an industry where there’s a lot going on all of the time. Even within the most rigid and test driven processes; things break, changes happen, unexpected results occur, rogue commas get added (this one specifically is my kryptonite).

• Breathe. It happens, it’s okay, this is what safety nets are for.

• After you take a few breaths, let’s get to business. Jump into Stashr, find the configuration, find the changes.

• Know what’s changed? Find that comma? Sweet! If lots of changes were made; recover the asset. Our approach to recovery is to create a new asset rather than update the existing one. We want you to have the opportunity to test your recovered asset before moving it into your production process or assets.

• Have your recovered asset or know what needs to be done? Get to work and fix the script, email, data extension, or whatever the issue is.

Conclusion

Stashr is a powerful app that solves some of the most common problems faced by Salesforce Marketing Cloud users. With its direct integration and built-in SFMCE-specific features, Stashr offers a comprehensive solution for version control and recovery. Whether you need to recover lost metadata, find specific changes, or simply ensure that your assets are backed up and safe, Stashr has you covered.