Business Units in Marketing Cloud Next

Data Spaces and Business Units

Business units are designed to keep data separate, making sure that data from one business unit isn't shared with other business units. Business units use the existing capability of data spaces to enforce data separation.

A business unit can be mapped to only one data space and that data space can't be related to any other business unit. This one-to-one relationship keeps data isolated and simplifies how you manage marketing content for each business unit. For more information, see About Data Spaces.

The Initial Business Unit

To turn on business units, start by creating the first two business units. Your current marketing configuration, including data space and default content workspace, is used to create your initial or first business unit.

• All existing users with the selected marketing permission sets are added as members to the first business unit. Business unit members require Marketing Cloud Admin, Marketing Cloud Manager, or both permission sets.
• The default marketing workspace in the org is assigned to the first business unit as the default workspace. In this workspace, all users with the selected permission sets get the Content Manager role.
• Any existing marketing workspaces are also assigned to this first business unit, and you can create more workspaces for the business unit.

Business Unit Members

Add users to a business unit as its members in one of these two roles:

• Marketer-Standard: Only users with the Marketing Cloud Admin or Marketing Cloud Manager permission sets can be added in this role. Only members with this role can activate flows in campaigns in the business unit. In the marketing workspaces of the business unit, these users have the Content Manager role and can create, edit, view, and publish content in the workspace.
• Marketer-ReadOnly: Members with this role can't activate campaigns in the business unit. They can send promotional messages and view performance dashboards. They don't have access to the marketing workspaces in the business unit. You can provide this role to non-marketing users, such as sales reps and other Salesforce users. See Distributed Marketing and Alerts.

Business unit members in both these roles have access to the business unit's data space.

Common Assets

Common assets is a library that makes content available to all business units. After an admin turns on the library, business unit members can post copies of their workspace content to common assets, and members from any business unit can copy that content to their own workspace.

For more information, see Enable Common Assets for Business Units and Distribute Content With Common Assets.

Considerations for Business Units

• After you assign a data space, marketing workspace, campaign, or brief to a business unit, you can't change the business unit.
• A business unit can have multiple marketing workspaces, with one workspace designated as the default. See Working with CMS Workspaces.
• To make sure that campaigns only target audiences within that specific business unit while maintaining data integrity and compliance, all elements of a campaign operate within the selected business unit. See Working with Campaigns.
• You can create up to 150 business units.
• You can deactivate a business unit, but you can't reactivate it after deactivation. See Deactivate a Business Unit.

Example: Business Units Use Case

To illustrate how business units work, consider Welo, a US-based ecommerce company specializing in sustainable home goods. Welo has successfully established its brand and customer base in the American market and now aims to expand into Latin America. The existing single-account setup isn't optimal for this expansion and can lead to customer confusion, irrelevant messaging, and compliance issues.

To localize its marketing efforts, manage separate campaigns, and adhere to different data privacy regulations in Latin America, Welo's marketing admin creates a Welo Latam business unit. The Welo Latam business unit now serves as a dedicated, partitioned space for the company's expansion.

This framework also provides a scalable model for future market expansions, along with these benefits:

• Partition data and content: Keep Latin American customer data, campaigns, flows, and content separate from its North American marketing operations.
• Maintain local control: Provide the regional team with tools and data for a successful local marketing strategy.
• Maintain global visibility: Enable Welo's leadership to track and analyze performance in both markets from a single platform, maintaining consistency and alignment with global goals.