Salesforce Marketing CloudFormerly Pardot, Evergage, ExactTarget, MyBuys, Datorama, etc.
Overview
What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Marketing Cloud is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital marketing platform within the Salesforce Customer 360 ecosystem. Marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.
Powerful but Lacking in Multiple Ways
Salesforce Marketing Cloud - A piece of cake!
Scalable and Robust
Salesforce Marketing Cloud: As powerful as it is complicated
Robust features if you have the time to learn them all...
Expensive but powerful CRM product.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Views
Love Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is Very Complex but Rich !
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is very powerful
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Review
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Review
Using Salesforce Marketing Cloud in HR tech
Awards
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Popular Features
- A/B testing (139)8.484%
- Email deliverability reporting (119)8.383%
- Dynamic content (140)8.282%
- List management (116)7.575%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Account Engagement
$1,250
Engagement
$1,250
Intelligence
$3,000
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $1,250 per month per installation
Product Demos
Pardot Engagement Studio: How-to Demo
How to Use Pardot Salesforce Engage
Pardot Demo: A Pardot Introduction for Beginners
Pardot Marketing Automation Demo
Inspire Meaningful Moments Through Salesforce Marketing Cloud | Salesforce Demo
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement: B2B Marketing Automation Overview Demo
Features
Email & Online Marketing
Using software to manage lists, send emails, automate email campaigns, and track results.
- 8.1WYSIWYG email editor(110) Ratings
Users can create html emails through a drag-and-drop interface, without html coding knowledge.
- 8.2Dynamic content(140) Ratings
Users can tailor email, website or landing page content depending on the viewer or recipient (e.g., email salutations that include the recipient’s name).
- 7.7Ability to test dynamic content(100) Ratings
Users can test dynamic content prior to launching a campaign.
- 7.6Landing pages(108) Ratings
Users can create web pages that are customized to a particular email or campaign. Landing pages often include web forms which can capture visitor information and integrate it back into the MA software.
- 8.4A/B testing(139) Ratings
Users can experiment with different variations of a campaign and measure results. Testable aspects might include subject lines, header images, or landing page copy.
- 7.5Mobile optimization(98) Ratings
Users can easily optimize emails and landing pages for mobile devices.
- 8.3Email deliverability reporting(119) Ratings
The software helps ensure inbox delivery of email campaigns, through features such as deliverability tests, opt-in management, bounce handling, suppression lists, dedicated IP addresses, and delivery monitoring.
- 7.5List management(116) Ratings
This involves creating, filtering, editing, merging and de-duping lists of contacts.
- 8.1Triggered drip sequences(84) Ratings
The software allows users to set up automatic / drip email campaigns triggered by certain events.
Lead Management
The process of tracking and managing prospective customers from lead generation to conversion.
- 7.7Lead nurturing automation(100) Ratings
Users can set up targeted drip email campaigns based on time intervals or prospect behavior, to automate the lead nurturing process and move them further down the sales funnel.
- 7.3Lead scoring and grading(100) Ratings
Users can set up the software to automatically rate leads based on calculations such as buying signals, such as form submissions, or page views, and automatically qualify leads based on demographic factors.
- 7.6Data quality management(104) Ratings
The software helps store, manage, and organize data around each lead, and avoid data problems such as duplicate contacts or non-standard formats.
- 7.6Automated sales alerts and tasks(92) Ratings
The software helps ensure that a sales person is notified of lead activity and can act on the information in a timely fashion.
Campaign Management
Users can schedule campaigns and/or events with reminders, announcements, etc.
- 7.9Calendaring(93) Ratings
The software helps users maintain a calendar of all marketing activities.
- 7.9Event/webinar marketing(87) Ratings
Users can streamline event marketing with features such as personalized invitations, registration, reminders and post-event follow-ups.
Social Media Marketing
Using social media networks to help amplify marketing endeavors.
- 7.2Social sharing and campaigns(76) Ratings
Users can incorporate social share buttons into campaigns to allow recipients to easily share content. Users can track shares as well.
- 6.4Social profile integration(32) Ratings
The software incorporates social profile data and social share histories to enhance segmentation and scoring of contacts.
Reporting & Analytics
Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.
- 7.6Dashboards(107) Ratings
Users can create, customize and share dashboards, which provide an overview of the most important metrics.
- 7.8Standard reports(111) Ratings
The software offers pre-built reports with metrics standard to the category.
- 7.4Custom reports(88) Ratings
Users can create custom reports.
Platform & Infrastructure
Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.
- 7.6API(81) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
- 8.2Role-based workflow & approvals(78) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
- 7.3Customizability(99) Ratings
Users can customize their instance with features like custom fields and custom objects.
- 8.7Integration with Salesforce.com(101) Ratings
The software can integrate with Salesforce.com bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
- 7.8Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM(8) Ratings
The software can integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
- 6.7Integration with SugarCRM(7) Ratings
The software can integrate with SugarCRM bi-directionally, allowing for data syncs, activity alerts, campaign triggers, enhanced reporting, and lead assigning.
- 7.3Third-party software integrations(14) Ratings
Integration functionality with third-party or in-house systems.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Features
Email & Online Marketing Features
- Supported: WYSIWYG email editor
- Supported: Dynamic content
- Supported: Ability to test dynamic content
- Supported: Landing pages
- Supported: A/B testing
- Supported: Mobile optimization
- Supported: Email deliverability reporting
- Supported: List management
- Supported: Triggered drip sequences
Lead Management Features
- Supported: Lead nurturing automation
- Supported: Lead scoring and grading
- Supported: Data quality management
- Supported: Automated sales alerts and tasks
Campaign Management Features
- Supported: Calendaring
- Supported: Event/webinar marketing
Social Media Marketing Features
- Supported: Social sharing and campaigns
- Supported: Social profile integration
Reporting & Analytics Features
- Supported: Dashboards
- Supported: Standard reports
- Supported: Custom reports
Platform & Infrastructure Features
- Supported: API
- Supported: Role-based workflow & approvals
- Supported: Customizability
- Supported: Integration with Salesforce.com
- Supported: Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
- Supported: Integration with SugarCRM
- Supported: Third-party software integrations
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Screenshots
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Integrations
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Competitors
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
Supported Countries | All |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(1351)Attribute Ratings
- 9.5Likelihood to Renew112 ratings
- 10Availability11 ratings
- 9.6Performance9 ratings
- 6.1Usability35 ratings
- 4Support Rating35 ratings
- 8.1Online Training7 ratings
- 5In-Person Training4 ratings
- 3Implementation Rating17 ratings
- 7.9Product Scalability24 ratings
- 7Ease of integration2 ratings
- 10Vendor pre-sale2 ratings
- 8Vendor post-sale2 ratings
Reviews
(76-100 of 316)Not so great, especially when it's time to reinvent yourself
- Segment client audience.
- Assign account manager dynamically.
- Expensive in the long run.
- Expensive setup to get the maximum of the software.
Marketing Cloud by Salesforce, powered by ML
- Analyzing the customer journey is really a good help; it helps in revisiting the strategy.
- Outbound orchestration across all the touchpoints; these are really helpful insights
- Real-time personalization and machine learning capabilities from Interaction Studio add on value in Marketing Cloud.
- Too much input from ML distracts you from the existing strategy.
- Tool expertise is required, not very easy to operate.
Simply a great service any company must put a bet on
- Audience in an ordered way.
- Well prepared documentation.
- Simplicity.
- Flexibility.
- Open-source.
Easy to use and great to work
- Captures all customer data efficiently
- Helps with better understanding and what the customer exactly wants
- Adapts to changes very quickly, helps us proving the best our customers need
- The look infield is great, it helps to capture data with great precision and the best part is that it is very efficient in segmenting customers
- Restricted number of fields
- Information loss on updates
- Sometimes take alot of time to load the dashboard
It is less appropriate where API integration is required; analytical packages are very limited in order to do analytics we can't completely rely on it; and need other tools to do the analytics and also custom analytics can't be deployed on the platform.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio, a tool that does it all!
- Offers multiple features
- Has something for every department
- Automation
- A/B testing and targeted content
- The reporting isn't clear
- Difficult to implement
- Has so many features you can get lost easily
Decent Email Marketing Automation for B2B Companies
- The UI is pretty intuitive. I've used other enterprise platforms for marketing automation like Marketo and this is much cleaner.
- The integration with CRMs (particularly Salesforce) is a big part of the value.
- The way they manage sender reputation by automatically cleaning your lists is important, and Pardot does that well. For example, any hard bounced emails, automatically become unmailable and are quarantined by Pardot automatically. They also prevent role emails at import and flag certain email patterns as spam traps. All these things are well-managed and help protect your sender reputation (critical especially since most clients are on a shared IP). Not all MAP do this as seamlessly as they do.
- Some of the features like the email builder and landing page builder seem like they've been neglected. They aren't as drag-and-drop friendly for marketers who don't know how to code. In fact, non-enterprise platforms like MailChimp do a far better job in this area.
- The limitations of automation can be a bit frustrating. As good as the integration with Salesforce is, you cannot do something as basic as trigger a rule based on a field change. (e.g. when the date for this field gets populated or updated, add to list or do this). This is not possible as an automation rule or even in their engagement studio. With other platforms, this functionality seems pretty standard.
- Engagement studio has come a long way, and while it's far more eloquent with its drag and drop UI, functionality-wise, it's still behind some of the others.
- This feature also seems like it's been neglected. The reporting leaves a lot to be desired unless you pay for B2B analytics, which is an upcharge. You can't even do something as simple as download the report in PDF format, which is a shame because there are some graphics and callouts in list email reports that would be better if they were shareable. They still record metrics like printed email, which seems a bit dated.
If basic HTML/CSS are not in your wheelhouse, I wouldn't select Pardot because their templates are not great out of the box and their builder leaves are basically a WYSIWYG. But if you're looking for an email automation platform that does email fairly well at a reasonable cost, Pardot might be a good choice.
If you are a small company and are looking to manage your email marketing and don't have an unlimited budget and/or time - this might not be the right solution. Not good for entrepreneurs or people who don't have a high level of technical skill, large team and tons of time to dedicate to it.
Efficient and Comprehensive Campaigns
- Integrate with Salesforce
- Visual Email Workflows
- Customer Insights
- Time-consuming to teach new users.
- Only one type of attribution.
- Pricey!
Solid all around. Not best in class at any one thing.
- Forms and landing pages. These are fairly simple to set up but also provide a lot of customization and capability. You can trap leads and automatically track a lead source for most of them from online sources.
- Integration with Salesforce. Coupled with Salesforce, Pardot becomes a powerful tool. Two-way integration means contacts the sales team is adding are immediately available for marketing campaigns, and new inbound leads can easily be sent to Salesforce to manage through a pipeline.
- Reporting. Pardot can report very well on email blasts, forms, landing pages, marketing campaigns, and even other things like Google paid search campaigns, webinars, or even search engine rankings vs. competitors.
- Email builder. At an agency where we've used plenty of email tools, Pardot is the farthest behind. While their testing functions are robust, the builder itself is behind the times. The templates are often not mobile responsive and requires a decent amount of HTML hard coding. There's no modern block editor either.
- List management is more cumbersome than other tools. It's difficult to manage a big group of contacts all at once. There's only ever a few options like removing/adding to list or tagging. There's not an easy way to mass update contacts.
- Contact search and segmentation is not great. Other tools have advanced search filters that make it easy to narrow in on contacts and see how many fit a certain criteria. Pardot doesn't really have that. The only way to do such a thing is to make a dynamic list, but the list of lists can get cluttered real fast.
Pardot - Awesome for Marketing Automation
- Drip campaigns that trigger off sales funnel actions.
- Integration with Salesforce.
- Great UI/UX.
- Reporting layouts aren't customizable.
- Could have better integration with Salesforce, particularly the ability to write to account, opportunity or custom objects, and better syncing with SFDC.
Robust Email Marketing Solution
- Salesforce.com integration including a connector app, bundled permission sets, user profile permissions
- Customizable Data Extensions that use either Campaigns or Reports from Salesforce.com
- Customizable Subscription Center for mailing list recipients to manage emails they do and do not want to receive.
- Administrative interface is quite a bit different than Salesforce.com Likely a legacy holdover from it's roots in ExactTarget
- Security configuration is confusing again a holdover from ExtactTarget
- Knowledge articles lag behind each release
- Nice interface - can even browse data segments quite easily without being overwhelmed by loads of information.
- Integrates well with other parts of the Salesforce stack.
- Reporting section is very insightful and produces granular pieces of information which can easily become actionable.
- Takes several days to create advanced segments (3rd party data), populate them and actually synchronise them with other platforms (in my case, DSP). Makes it very difficult to act with swiftness when market trends demand it.
- Krux media pixels aren't accepted in GDPR-heavy regions, making them absolutely redundant. Clearly, Salesforce hasn't done a proper outreach in all regions to make publishers white-list their tech.
- Rather poor match rate with DV360.
If the programmatic setup is somewhat advanced I wouldn't use Salesforce DMP, since its main strengths lies within building 1st party audience segments.
- It integrates with Salesforce CRM
- It works with workspaces, good for multinational marketing
- It tracks social media advertising success on the individual lead level
- It looks like it is 10 years old software that has not improved much
- It is missing common sense functionality that even free software offers and major functions are buggy
- Each social media connector is extremely expensive and this is not explained upfront
- The customer service and management are non-responsive or confused
- Onboarding is sloppy and happens only when pushing for it
Enterprise ready with great reporting
- Reporting.
- Email automation.
- More granularity in automation.
- Easier API to hook into.
- Dashboards per business user.
Pardot and Salesforce Go Hand in Hand
- My favorite feature of Pardot is the visual email workflows. It's very easy to see how leads will flow down the sales funnel.
- Forms are very easy to create and manage. We have completely switched over all of our form to Pardot.
- Pardot is built into Salesforce, making syncs instantaneous.
- You have to pay extra if you want good customer support.
- Sometimes the platform can be a little sluggish when trying to upload or download data lists.
- Expensive. They are one of the more expensive platforms out there.
I wouldn't use Pardot if you are a small company. They are very expensive. I also wouldn't use Pardot to build landing pages, as the builder is not that great.
My Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio Review
- Interface can easily be learned (very user friendly)
- Able to manage and produce content quickly
- Expensive for smaller organizations
- Sometimes can be buggy
Once you get past the learning curve, the possibilities are endless.
- It’s robust so, you can do a lot with it. I love that you can toggle between the WYSIWYG editor and HTML.
- I love that when previewing a campaign, you can see how it would look for a specific subscriber--very helpful for testing.
- It looks like something straight out of 1999. The UI is super archaic.
- The learning curve is incredibly high. There are so many different things you can do, and it takes a long time to learn it all.
Technical Consultant
- Personalized campaigns
- Bulk and tailored messages
- Data collection while entering the web forms
- UI issues with respect to template based emails
- Small business who are particular about the one on one relationship to stay focussed and monetize the business relationship through behavior analysis.
- Business units that are keen to leverage on omnichannel through Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio.
Pardot delivers a great UX and broad functionality
- Forms, particularly customized forms called "Form Handlers" in Pardot.
- Email reporting. Great detail and insights.
- Email templates and drafts are really confusing. I trained various people to create their own templates, but they consistently got confused between publishing a template or just saving a draft, and where they needed to go back to find it.
- Their help process is broken, at least for our particular use case. Because we have an enterprise license for Salesforce (even though we had a separate license for Pardot) whenever I needed help with something, I'd get stuck down a rabbit hole and couldn't submit a ticket.
Ensure Brand Consistency in Mass Email Generation
- Brand Consistency
- Scalability
- Drag and drop functionality
- Overlap with other Marketing Automation tools
- Lack of customized fields
- Tough mobile experience
It is less important if you are using other Automation tools that better connect into other Marketing streams. It does not allow for dynamic capabilities of Account Based Marketing objectives.
Pardot Pairs Perfectly with Salesforce
- Integrates wonderfully with Salesforce.
- Adds important insights to your existing CRM data.
- Can customize easily to fit your needs.
- Strong customer support.
- Doesn't integrate too well with other data third-party apps.
- Too many features are only available at higher levels.
- Doesn't have as robust an email integration tool like HubSpot.
Excellent impact analytics and lead generation tool
- Market segmentation.
- Impact analysis.
- UI can be somewhat complex.
- Requires careful attention to naming syntax when creating new campaigns etc.
Radian6 Delivers
- First time setup is easy to do. Keyword and dashboard creation are walked through, and results flow in quickly tell you if your set is working or not.
- Technical support is responsive. If technical support is not fast enough for an emergency issue, our rep is quick at getting things escalated.
- Dashboard widget options are simple to implement and easy to drill down into.
- If you open multiple widgets and drill down, each one has to be closed separately. It would be nice to have a “reset” button.
- The look of Radian6 has not changed in years. I think there’s room to introduced a new aesthetic, create new features, etc.
- Choosing what columns to export for listening results would be helpful. There are unnecessary columns that need to be deleted each time an export occurs.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio Review
- Reporting, analytics.
- Automation - scheduling messaging at various times i.e. for events.
- Lovely UI, easy to use.
- Limited with mobile - needs development.
- Contact import functionality can be annoying.
- Better integration with SF components.
Community Management Radian6 Review
- Very easy to use
- Friendly interface
- Little errors / bugs
- Heavier analytics abilities
- Ability to look at platforms that are review sites, amazon, etc rather than just social sites
- Updated interface