Pardot - A high cost, high impact, MAP with room for improvement
Updated September 30, 2015

Pardot - A high cost, high impact, MAP with room for improvement

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Automation Rules, Completion Actions, Page Actions
  • Campaigns
  • Dynamic Content, Custom Redirects, Files
  • Emails
  • Forms / Form Handlers
  • Segmentation
  • Social
  • SFDC Connector
  • GTW Connector
  • etc etc etc

Overall Satisfaction with Pardot

We use Pardot in the Sales and Marketing departments. Pardot is our primary lead / prospect tracking and communication platform. We are using Pardot in conjunction with SalesForce CRM to identify, segment, and distribute leads to our sales team based on territory automation. Pardot allows us to consolidate our marketing funnels, for the most part, so that we don't have to reference multiple platforms or databases to understand our funnels.
  • User tracking and scoring
  • Personalized content based on user profile
  • E-mail
  • Support, Live Chat Rules. You guys are among the best at this, shout out to Caitlin!
  • IP lookup in conjunction with SalesForce CRM
  • SalesForce CRM Connector
  • Flexibility of Automation Rules, Dynamic Content, E-Mail Sending options
  • Documentation, specifically best practices, In-App Help / Guidance
  • Increased campaign revenue
  • Increased conversion rates through personalized content (personalizations, dynamic content)
  • Helped bridge the gap between sales and marketing
  • Mailchimp,Marketo
We selected Pardot for the SalesForce CRM connector, as a SalesForce CRM company we needed that first and foremost. Overall Pardot is a good e-mail platform that offers robust customization and is meagerly intuitive. MailChimp has less flexibility, but overall is an easier platform to use in my opinion. Depending on a users needs, it'd be hard not to suggest MailChimp given the cost differences. That being said, our company couldn't switch to MailChimp, we'd have to scramble and find replacements for the other features we benefit from-- and I'm not sure there are low cost alternatives out there that could be used in conjunction with MailChimp that would give us the same control over our marketing efforts.
Pardot is expensive, depending on the organizations needs it's likely I would suggest a lower cost solution. Pardot is very powerful, but I don't view it as an accessible platform for small businesses. If you're dealing with multiple sales channels, teams, and a large database of users, then Pardot might be a great fit.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Feature Ratings

WYSIWYG email editor
7
Dynamic content
6
Ability to test dynamic content
4
Landing pages
Not Rated
A/B testing
8
Mobile optimization
3
Email deliverability reporting
8
List management
7
Lead nurturing automation
7
Lead scoring and grading
8
Data quality management
3
Automated sales alerts and tasks
9
Calendaring
Not Rated
Event/webinar marketing
5
Social sharing and campaigns
5
Social profile integration
5
Dashboards
6
Standard reports
5
Custom reports
1
API
6
Role-based workflow & approvals
Not Rated
Customizability
7
Integration with Salesforce.com
3
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

Using Pardot

9/10, it'd be a huge undertaking to switch at this point. So many wires are plugged in, I shutter at the thought of starting over. We've been generating a positive ROI on our investment since Year 1, we're in Year 3 now and we're continuing to grow our margins through effective use of the tools.