Pass the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant CRT-550 Questions and answers with CertsForce

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is B — Request SSH key authentication to be enabled for the FTP user and create an SSH Key in Key Management.

SSH Key authentication allows secure, passwordless connection to the Enhanced FTP server.

It eliminates the need for password rotation, thus avoiding manual updates every 90 days while still maintaining security.

SSH keys are managed within Marketing Cloud’s Key Management.

❌ Why others are wrong:

A: SAML SSO is for user login to Salesforce/Marketing Cloud apps, not for FTP authentication.

C: ‘Exclude FTP Users from Password Expiration’ is not available for standard Enhanced FTP users (it’s only for system user accounts under certain conditions).

D: SFTP is already in place through Enhanced FTP; the issue is not switching protocols but eliminating password dependency.

Exact Extract from Salesforce Official Documentation:

Salesforce Help — Enhanced FTP Authentication:

"To avoid password expiration impacting file transfers, request SSH Key Authentication to be enabled for the Enhanced FTP user. SSH keys allow passwordless authentication for secure automation."

(Source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_es_enhanced_ftp.htm )

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Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Correct answers are A and D.

A — In Mobile Studio, Filtered Lists can be created using MobilePush Demographics attributes (device platform, app version, opt-in status, etc.).

D — In Contact Builder, you can create a Filtered Data Extension based on records existing in the MobilePush Demographics Attribute Group.

Both allow segmentation of registered Mobile Push users without manual queries.

❌ Why others are wrong:

B: Automation Studio queries on _MobilePushDemographics are possible, but it’s not the standard business-user-friendly method.

C: Journey Builder should use properly segmented sources, not mass targeting.

Exact Extract from Salesforce Official Documentation:

Salesforce Help — MobilePush Demographics Segmentation:

"MobilePush users can be segmented based on demographic attributes available through MobilePush Demographics in Contact Builder or Mobile Studio Filtered Lists."

(Source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_ms_mobilepush_demographics.htm )

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The most common cause for not seeing or syncing Sales Cloud objects in Contact Builder after a successful connection is incorrect permission settings. Both the Salesforce CRM user and the Marketing Cloud API User must have specific permissions (like API Enabled, Modify All Data, View All Data, and Marketing Cloud Connected App permissions).

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Exact Extracts from Salesforce Documentation:

Source: Salesforce Help – Marketing Cloud Connect User Permissions

→ "Ensure that the Salesforce user and Marketing Cloud API user have the correct permissions to sync data objects and access CRM data from Contact Builder."

Source: Marketing Cloud Connect Implementation Guide

→ "Proper object permissions and field-level access are required for synchronized CRM objects to appear in Contact Builder."

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Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is A — From the Reply Mail Management settings page, choose the "Create Custom Response" option under "Automated Response Email for Remaining Replies" section and select the HTML email.

RMM allows you to define an automated response for incoming replies.

You can specify a simple custom response and link it to a pre-built HTML email template through the RMM settings without requiring a triggered send setup.

❌ Why others are wrong:

B and C: Using a Triggered Send is more complex and usually unnecessary for a simple automatic response.

D: There’s no option to paste full HTML code into Admin > Account Settings for auto-replies — that's not how RMM is configured.

Exact Extract from Salesforce Official Documentation:

Salesforce Help — Reply Mail Management Setup:

"Configure a custom automated response by selecting 'Create Custom Response' under 'Automated Response Email for Remaining Replies' in Reply Mail Management. You can link a pre-built HTML email."

(Source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_es_reply_mail_management.htm )

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Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is B — Configure a Journey with API Event Entry Source, triggered by Process Builder.

Because the Appointment object doesn’t directly relate to Contact, Process Builder (or Flow) in Salesforce CRM can be used to fire an API Event to Marketing Cloud when an appointment is scheduled.

The Journey will then handle sending the notification and updating the "Confirmation Sent" checkbox.

❌ Why others are wrong:

A: Salesforce Data Entry Source requires a direct relationship (Contact or Lead) — which is missing here.

C: Data Extension Entry Source needs a manual or scheduled import — not real-time.

D: Salesforce Send with Automation Studio would not provide immediate real-time notification based on appointment creation.

Exact Extract from Salesforce Official Documentation:

Salesforce Help — API Event Entry Source for Journey Builder:

"Use API Events to inject contacts into a journey from external or Salesforce sources where no direct object relationship exists, enabling real-time processing and communications."

(Source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_jb_api_event_source.htm )

In Marketing Cloud's Automation Studio, when configuring a File Drop Automation, the system automatically detects and uses the file that triggers the automation. The Import File Activity within this automation doesn't require a specific filename; instead, it processes the file that initiated the automation. Therefore, there's no need to set a dynamic file naming pattern or check additional options.​

For integrating Marketing Cloud with Sales Cloud via Marketing Cloud Connect, the API user in Marketing Cloud should have the "API User" checkbox selected. Additionally, assigning both the "Administrator" and "Marketing Cloud Administrator" roles ensures the user has the necessary permissions to facilitate the integration effectively.​

To prevent duplicate Contact records, the customer needs to update the current All Subscribers list and Contact model by migrating the Subscriber Key to match the Sales Cloud ContactID or LeadID (B).

Uploading a CSV with the new Subscriber Keys mapped appropriately will ensure that existing records are updated (A).

Simply continuing as normal (C) will not prevent duplicates because Email Address is not unique enough across Salesforce objects. Full purge (D) is unnecessary and risks data loss.

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Exact Extracts from Salesforce Documentation:

Source: Salesforce Help – Subscriber Key and Contact Key Best Practices

→ "When integrating Sales Cloud, update existing Marketing Cloud subscribers to match the Salesforce ContactID or LeadID as Subscriber Key to prevent duplicate contacts."

Source: Salesforce Implementation Guide – Marketing Cloud Connect Setup

→ "Migrating existing contacts requires careful key management to align records across systems without duplication."

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The correct answer is C, because:

In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, when a subscriber's status changes to 'Held', it means that Marketing Cloud has suppressed sending emails to that subscriber due to repeated soft or hard bounces.

Users cannot directly edit or re-enable subscribers marked as Held.

Instead, Salesforce Support must be contacted to review and re-enable those subscribers if appropriate (for example, if it was a temporary deliverability issue).

Salesforce official documentation states:

"Held Status: A subscriber is placed on Held status after a threshold of consecutive soft or hard bounces. To reactivate held subscribers, submit a case with Salesforce Support. Users cannot manually reactivate held subscribers themselves."

(Source: Salesforce Marketing Cloud - Subscriber Status Overview)

Important Points:

Held status is a safety mechanism to protect sender reputation and avoid deliverability issues.

Salesforce must verify that it is safe to re-enable these subscribers to prevent risking future blacklistings or IP reputation damage.

Why the other options are incorrect:

❌ A. Extract and Import as 'Active':

You cannot change subscriber status from 'Held' back to 'Active' through data imports — importing won't override Held status.

❌ B. Mass update in Contact Builder:

Contact Builder cannot change the status of subscribers in the All Subscribers list — status is managed at the system level.

❌ D. SQL query to update 'Held' to 'Active':

SQL queries cannot modify system-managed fields like subscriber status in the All Subscribers list.

Additional reference:

"Marketing Cloud Support can reset a subscriber's status to Active after evaluation. Self-service options are not available to update 'Held' statuses."

(Source: Salesforce Marketing Cloud Admin Guide - Managing Subscribers)

Thus, C is the correct and official answer.

The best solution for fast, transactional emails like password resets is the Transactional Messaging API.

It is optimized for speed (near real-time delivery).

It supports notification of status via response payloads and optional callbacks.

Triggered Send Definitions are older and not as real-time or robust. Journey-based API entry methods (C and D) introduce unnecessary delays for critical transactional messaging.

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Exact Extracts from Salesforce Documentation:

Source: Salesforce Developer Guide – Transactional Messaging API Overview

→ "Transactional Messaging API provides fast, secure sending of transactional messages like order confirmations or password resets, with near real-time delivery."

Source: Salesforce Help – Transactional Messaging vs. Triggered Sends

→ "Transactional Messaging APIs are designed to deliver messages as quickly as possible, whereas classic Triggered Sends and API Event Journeys are better suited for marketing campaigns."

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