Note: while Pardot has technically been rebranded as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE), we’ve been slow to adopt this new mouthful-of-a-name and have chosen to keep this article old-school with the name ‘Pardot.’
By the time many of our Pardot clients make their way into our first meeting, they’re in a bad place. They’re often deeply disappointed with their decision to purchase Pardot (this is especially common for organizations coming out of one of the flimsy Pardot “Jumpstart” packages offered by so many agencies).
Looking for a new agency? Check out this article to avoid making a big mistake.
Wondering if you’re suffering from Pardot-Remorse? Review the symptom list below.
Symptoms of Pardot Remorse
- Your marketing users aren’t adequately trained in the tools and/or are uncomfortable using them
- You’re essentially using Pardot as a glorified (though much more expensive) Mailchimp
- Results from your efforts are unclear and unreported
- Your Pardot form, landing page, and/or email designs are dated or unattractive
Sound familiar? Don’t fret—the good news is that you’ve made an investment in a tool with incredible potential. If you find yourself suffering from this distressing condition (Pardot-Remorse), there’s still a lot you can do to turn things around.
You can begin this process by addressing each of the symptoms above.
1.) Pardot Training
In order to empower your team to use Pardot to its full capacity, they need to be well-trained. If your Pardot implementation didn’t include tailored, comprehensive training, correct this by finding an agency to conduct new training sessions for your team. Make sure to start with a discovery meeting to help the agency understand your business, challenges, sales processes, and marketing goals. A reputable agency will offer a personalized curriculum.
For more information, read this article on questions around Pardot training.
2.) Pardot Usage Expansion
Only using Pardot to send the occasional list email? It’s time to broaden your horizon—Pardot is capable of so much more than this. If you’ve already invested in training, this process will be a lot simpler as your team will already be aware of the possibilities available to you. If you’re still unclear on what Pardot has to offer, request another demo from your Salesforce Account Executive, or reach out to an agency for an audit. An audit will help you understand what you’re currently doing in Pardot, and—more importantly—all the tools and features you’re not using.
Additionally, pay close attention to your Pardot content strategy. Content is a critical fuel for Pardot success, and demand generation will suffer if you’re not generating content and/or don’t have a strategy for how you plan to use it.
3.) Quality Pardot Reporting
The native Pardot reports are—at best—mediocre, and leave a lot to be desired. If your team is actively engaged in marketing efforts in Pardot, that’s great! But it’s also only half the battle. If you’re not reporting on the results of those marketing initiatives, there’s no way to make informed decisions about future campaigns. To resolve a reporting dearth, the first step is to recognize Pardot’s reporting inadequacy. High-quality reporting begins inside Salesforce, where you have access to:
- Pardot metrics (on the lead, contact, and campaign objects)
- Lead metrics (lead and converted lead objects)
- Campaign metrics (campaign object)
- Campaign influence (a campaign’s association with the opportunity object and metrics)
Combined into a dashboard, these types of reports will provide you with a much clearer picture.
4.) Pardot Asset Design
If your Pardot asset design (think forms, landing pages, and/or emails) is unremarkable, this is an easy fix. If you have an internal developer skilled in CSS and HTML, they can often quickly learn the intricacies of Pardot design needs and help you build out better assets. If you don’t, you can reach out to an agency that will provide you with this service ad-hoc. Remember that almost anything is possible with your Pardot forms, landing pages, and emails; if you have a more elegant vision for your assets, see that it is realized.
Conclusion
Pardot is a robust tool with many capabilities, and it takes the right combination of knowledge and skill to really leverage it to its fullest potential. If you’re stuck feeling dissatisfied, you’re not alone—we run into this scenario every day. But it’s also not too late to make a change.
If you’re struggling to make Pardot work for you and feel an agency would make a difference, don’t hesitate to reach out.
