What is Pardot in Salesforce: Benefits of Marketing Automation Software
This article was originally published at Twistellar.com
Many businesses consider marketing automation to be a must-have. According to the latest Salesforce State of Marketing Report, the average enterprise has 900 (!) different applications to enable data-driven marketing.
How often, though, does quantity lead to the quality of marketing processes? And what are the planned outcomes of the transformation?
No matter what tool or platform you are going to have, the results might not justify the investment if you don’t prepare the ground for its implementation. Taking Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, also known as Pardot, as an example, we will discuss what companies expect VS what they really get with the help of martech tools.
In this article, we will be delving into what Pardot is, its practical advantages, recognized as a top B2B marketing platform in the Salesforce realm. We’ll uncover the impact of this B2B marketing automation tool through real-world examples shared in Salesforce Pardot customer stories.
Additionally, we’ll explore the significance of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement growth and highlight essential Pardot features that have solidified its role for B2B marketers.
First things first:
What is Pardot Account Engagement?
Account Engagement, formerly known as Pardot, is a widely-used marketing automation tool designed specifically for Salesforce customers. Originally introduced in 2007, Account Engagement initially operated independently from the core Salesforce platform.
However, in recent years, there has been a gradual migration of Pardot’s features and functionalities into the core Salesforce platform, resulting in a more integrated and seamless experience for users.
The Role of Pardot Marketing Automation
However tempting to imagine it this way, the customer journey isn’t straightforward. You don’t just fill the pipeline with clients and then push them to obtain products with thousands of irrelevant messages. Each interaction needs to play a role in converting your customer into your partner.
This is especially true for B2B companies with considered purchases. So it’s up to marketing teams to provide an engaging, powerful, and personalized experience for a customer from their first visit to the website to their making a purchase.
Marketing automation software provides a central database for oiling these processes.
- It automates repetitive tasks, such as email & ad campaigns, content distribution, handling contact forms, and social media planning. As a result, marketing operations are more optimized, and conversion rates increase.
- You have access to analytics. Data and marketing are synonyms. Relevant information about your customer behaviour gives more opportunities to personalize messages, fine-tune campaigns, and prove marketing ROI.
- It ensures a seamless experience. If integrated with the CRM, a unified platform harmonizes sales and marketing teams in their approach to customers.
However promising these benefits may sound, not every business needs marketing automation. There are two critical factors to consider before implementing it.
1. Growth strategy
First of all, it’s impossible to upgrade something that doesn’t work. Consider the current marketing processes in your company. If you have an active multi-channel strategy, then automation will serve you best, as it provides an all-in-one automation tool. But if scaling isn’t on the horizon, and an email channel, for example, is enough to keep you afloat, then it’s worth taking your time.
2. Ecosystem
This point backs the first one. An ecosystem is a base for your growth. So think about the tools that would fit in properly in the current ecosystem and help you scale faster. For example, Pardot (MC Account Engagement) integration with Salesforce expands its functionality with minimum errors in data syncing plus gives more automation options.
Keeping these two factors in mind, let’s see how exactly marketing automation works in the example of Pardot (MC Account Engagement).
What are the benefits of Salesforce Pardot (MCAE)?
Why businesses bother with adopting MCAE? The long-term advantages speak for themselves.
- Improved time-to-revenue: Pardot facilitates a quicker time to revenue for businesses by streamlining and automating sales and marketing operations.
- Streamlined processes: Pardot streamlines outdated sales and marketing processes, saving time and resources for businesses by automating routine tasks.
- Increased revenue: marketing automation with Pardot contributes to increased revenue by identifying and focusing on the most effective and profitable marketing channels.
- Quality lead generation: Pardot’s lead scoring and grading features help businesses generate more high-quality sales leads, ensuring a more effective and targeted approach to lead nurturing.
- Unified platform value: Pardot’s integration capabilities ensure a unified platform for sales, service, and marketing teams, fostering collaboration and providing a complete 360-degree view of customer engagement.
- Data-driven insights: Pardot offers data-driven insights, helping businesses make informed decisions and align marketing and sales efforts for improved overall impact.
- Seamless integrations: Pardot seamlessly integrates with other key business tools, such as CRM, video platforms, and advertising tools, enhancing overall functionality and connectivity.
- Easy collaboration: businesses using Pardot alongside Sales Cloud experience faster transitions from marketing to sales, fostering better collaboration and boosting conversion rates.
- Cost-effective growth: As part of the Salesforce Platform, Pardot eliminates the need for complex integrations, saving time and money and making it easier for businesses to scale and add new functionalities.
- Customer trust building: Pardot aids in building customer trust by enabling businesses to nurture leads, deliver relevant content, and personalize customer journeys, ultimately fostering long-term relationships.
Here’s a success story that illustrates how Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) can shift the marketing trajectory for a small business:
Gexcon, a world-leading safety and risk management company in the field, faced a challenge in streamlining marketing activities across departments. Gexcon, having a history with Salesforce, opted for MCAE (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) as a single source of truth to avoid data duplication and consolidate information.
Gexcon initiated a project with Twistellar to audit their system and align lead generation, qualification, and assignment processes in MCAE with best practices. The project prioritized marketing migration, lasting two months, covering migration, training, and support.
The key outcome was the successful implementation of MCAE, migrating the database and assets from HubSpot, and customizing MCAE and Sales Cloud to meet specific requirements. This included MCAE setup, content migration, database cleansing, custom preference center, and integration with Zoom. The implementation facilitated the synchronization of marketing and sales teams, aided by new assignment rules and custom Web2Case solutions in forms.
What is Pardot Used for?
Pardot (MC Account Engagement) oversees the upper layer of the sales funnel. It means you can build your customer journey and organize lead nurturing processes.
Track visitors and convert them into prospects
Use criteria-based automation tools to perform actions on prospects
Score and grade prospects to prioritize activities within your team
Engage them with adaptable email & social campaigns
Analyze how they interact with content
Segment effectively
Push high-quality leads to sales
As a result, anonymous website visitors get converted into qualified leads. Sounds impressive, and Pardot sticks to its promise. However, a tool is not enough to achieve success.
Pardot (MCAE) Common Misconceptions
For creating a realistic perspective on its capabilities, you need to give the boot to misleading expectations. Let’s dig into the most common of them.
Misconception #1: Pardot will Drive Revenue Growth and Replace my Marketing Team
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