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Pardot - It works!
Updated February 03, 2016

Pardot - It works!

Yvette Montague | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Professional

Modules Used

  • Email, landing pages, score, rating, drip, automation rules, sf.com integration, content, forms, reports, segmentation, leaddeck

Overall Satisfaction with Pardot

Pardot is used in sales and marketing depts. It is used for lead generation and prioritization and to supplement sales-prospect communications. Goal: give sales team more time to sell. Provide a greater level of job satisfaction - moving team beyond "dialing for dollars" type prospecting.
  • Drip campaigns that trigger off sales funnel actions (not just time frame)
  • LeadDeck - smarter cold calling to companies who show interest.
  • Analytics/engagement history logged against each known prospect.
  • Integration with Salesforce.com to follow conversion from interest through to sale.
  • Reporting layouts - can't customize columns, sorts etc.... Drawback when users are accustomed to flexibility of Salesforce.com. It would be great if they would make all Pardot data available in Salesforce.com so that I can run all reports from one area.
  • Would be nice if a few landing page templates were provided (similar to email templates offered).
  • More advanced Salesforce.com integration - ability to write to the account, opportunity or custom objects (not just lead and contact).
  • Advanced programming on the Pardot side. The ability to create formulas and advanced drip/marketing process flows.
  • Salesforce.com sync. Records only sync from Salesforce to Pardot when an email address is added. There is no way to easily set the sync to be based on criteria other than the existence of an email address - such as record type, or a custom flag.
  • Sales effectiveness - more time selling instead of managing communications. Pardot can send emails that look like they came from the reps.
  • Shorten sales cycle - better-qualified leads. The ability to decide when to send a lead to sales based on a score (or grade) means that we can send them engaged prospects rather than cold prospects.
  • Smarter cold calling - know businesses that visited site.
  • A more streamlined marketing process. The integration between Salesforce, landing pages, emails, AdWords is a dream when it comes to managing and reporting on campaign effectiveness.
I used ExactTarget in a company that had a large B2C focus, as well as a B2B. If sending large volumes of emails to consumers, ET is the solution of choice. Pardot is a better fit if you're looking at smaller volumes and if you need interaction with the sales team based on prospect actions. Pardot enables marketing - sales communications.
Target audience is B2B or B2C - Pardot is best suited for B2B interactions. Is thrust of marketing effort online or offline? Pardot is best suited for online campaign management where prospect email is collected. It cannot manage offline campaigns (e.g. Direct mail) Make sure marketing staff (or Pardot support staff) is also well versed in Salesforce.com administration as there are quite a few modifications that could be required to get Pardot collecting/reporting on desired data.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Feature Ratings

8.9
WYSIWYG email editor
9
Dynamic content
8
Ability to test dynamic content
8
Landing pages
8
A/B testing
10
Mobile optimization
10
Email deliverability reporting
10
List management
9
Triggered drip sequences
8
8.8
Lead nurturing
10
Lead scoring and grading
8
Data quality management
8
Automated sales alerts and tasks
9
Not Rated
Calendaring
Not Rated
Event/webinar marketing
Not Rated
5.0
Social sharing and campaigns
5
Social profile integration
Not Rated
7.0
Dashboards
7
Standard reports
7
8.3
API
10
Role-based workflow & approvals
9
Customizability
6
Integration with Salesforce.com
8
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

Using Pardot

3 - Management, Marketing and Marketing Automation.
2 - Supporting Pardot requires a mix of marketing and technical skills. Support needs to have a thorough understanding of online marketing - HTML coding experience is an asset. Support should know Salesforce.com (creating fields, formulas, workflows + process builder, understanding profiles and data access) and how the connector works if Pardot is connected to Salesforce. Support should also have a solid grasp of how Pardot works. I would highly recommend the advanced Pardot certification.
  • Drip campaigns. The ability to send emails to prospects based on specific behaviors. The ability to keep our brand in front of prospects in a non-intrusive way is huge.
  • Landing page build and integration. The ability to follow a prospects action from email, to website, to form and eventually through to sales.
  • Progressive forms. Love them! The ability to slowly collect prospect information over time without burdening sales. Start with must-have info, then progress to nice-to-have.
  • The ability to compare visitor behavior (those not in the system) with prospect behavior (those in the system).
it works as expected.

Pardot Implementation

  • Professional services company
MModern Marketing, a certified Pardot Implementation partner, was used to implement Pardot.
www.mmodernmarketing.com

Pardot Training