Create Entry Event Data Extension

Create a standard, sendable data extension that captures information from the approved contacts that you use for journey messaging. For example, capture the sender email address and ID.

1. In Marketing Cloud Engagement, navigate to Audience Builder.
2. Click Contact Builder.
3. Click Data Extensions.
4. To create a data extension in your folder structure, click Create.
   

   Important Ensure that the data extension is standard, sendable, and the send relationship relates the ID to Subscribers on Subscriber Key.

   

   Tip

   • After you create this data extension for the first time, select Create from Existing to save time when creating journeys.
   • If you’re using tokenized sending or field level encryption, review configuration considerations.
5. Include these fields in the data extension.

   Column Name	Placeholder Text	Data Type	Length default = 50	Primary Key	Required	Notes
   greeting	[Full Name]	Text	> 0		No	Picklist of fields on contact or lead object
   id		Text	≥ 18		Yes	Id relates to Subscribers on Subscriber Key.
   email		EmailAddress	254		Yes, if sending email messages. Otherwise, No	Email address of contact or lead (standard field) Not configurable in profile attributes.
   sfCampaignId	[Campaign Id]	Text	≥ 18		No	ID of linked campaign
   sfCampaignMemberId	[Campaign Member Id]	Text	≥ 18		No	ID of injected campaign member
   sfQuickSendId		Text	≥ 18		No	ID of quick send record
   sendFromName	[From Name]	Text	> 0		No	Name of account owner for DM sender profile
   sendFromEmail	[From Email]	Text	> 0		No	Email of account owner for DM sender profile
   firstName	[First Name]	Text	> 0		No	First name of recipient
   lastName	[Last Name]	Text	> 0		No	Last name of recipient
   sfUserId	[Your User Id]	Text	≥ 18		Yes	ID of the user initiating the send. Usually the running user, but could be different if the user who prepares a bulk send isn’t the user who starts the send. Learn more.
   journeyID		Text	50		Yes	ID of journey that associates a journey to its personalization data extension
   sfOrgId		Text	50		Yes	ID of the corresponding Salesforce Org in which the campaign member resides
   smsValue		Text	< 160	No	No	To support custom SMS messages Learn more.
   mobilePhone	[Mobile Phone]	Phone	50	No	Yes, if sending SMS messages. Otherwise, No	mobilePhone must be set up as a profile attribute if it’s referenced in AMPscript.
   EntryObjectId		Text	≥ 18	No	No	ID of Case or Opportunity the Quick Send was initiated from.

   

   Tip You can’t set a required field as nullable.
   

   Note If you create a complex AMPscript to build out your email content in Content Builder, users can get an error message when they try to switch between preview and edit modes in Distributed Marketing. To avoid an error, account for the standard placeholders.
6. If you enhance the Distributed Marketing payload with more data by extending the entry source data or creating a custom personalization interaction, add the new fields to the data extension.