Connecting the right dots: people, permissions and platforms.

While working at CARYA, I inherited the Salesforce Marketing Cloud setup for Groep VDH. It had grown layer by layer, built in different stages by different people for different needs. Not broken, but no longer clear enough for what came next: more subscribers, more precise interests and more detailed consent.

So I went back to basics. Where should each contact live? How do we know who is who? What are they interested in? Which system gets the final word—and who should receive which message?

Knock, knock

The work unfolded in three connected parts: sharper GDPR audience segmentation, a reusable event platform and a sunset policy for subscribers who had gone quiet.

Different projects, same underlying question: do we know who this person is, what they care about and whether we should still be contacting them?

Who’s there?

First came identity and consent.

The existing connection between Salesforce and Marketing Cloud did not always synchronise contacts reliably, so we chose a sturdier route: daily CRM reports, translated through SQL into clean audiences.

Contacts outside Salesforce received a permanent GUID; an internal passport that allowed Marketing Cloud to recognise them without mistaking an email address for a person. Salesforce remained the source of truth. Duplicates were mapped and removed, preventing conflicting identities and unnecessary contacts from quietly adding to the client’s bill.

Consent became more precise too. Instead of one large yes or no, customers could choose whether they wanted to hear about cars, vans, trucks, Brabus or events. Shared email addresses added another twist: preferences belonged to individual people, while an unsubscribe still had to work at inbox level. I mapped it all out, executed and got it working.

You’re on the list

Next came the event platform.

I built reusable event pages with dedicated forms for test drives, online competitions and more traditional events. Each registration checked whether the participant already existed, updated the gdpr constents if needed, linked known customers to the right event or created a lead when they are new.

A lightweight agent portal brought event setup, registrations, RSVPs and post-event follow-up into one practical workflow.

Less spreadsheet archaeology. Better lead and customer follow-up.

Into the sunset

The final part was a sunset policy for inactive subscribers: identify long-term silence, make one considered attempt to reconnect, then stop sending when the interest was no longer there.

My contract ended for economic reasons before the automation went live, leaving the final piece mapped, structured and ready for completion. In the end, the automation built to recognise an ending never got to see its own beginning.

The result

a system that became better at recognising people, respecting their choices and knowing when a message was relevant—and when silence was the better option.

Skills: Salesforce Marketing Cloud · Salesforce CRM · SQL · JavaScript · identity architecture · GDPR preference management · audience segmentation · deduplication · event automation · lead creation · sunset policy · user management · data policy