22 Mar Top Pardot Setup Considerations

Pardot Setup Guide –

 
Setting up Pardot may seem daunting when you first see the implementation guide. When rolling out Pardot, there are many points to think about as part of the process, but here are our top seven Pardot setup considerations.
 

1. 1. 1. User access
      2. Loading customer data
      3. Syncing of data between Pardot and Salesforce
      4. Segmentation of Pardot data
      5. Integration with your website
      6. Naming conventions of folders and files
      7. Email tool choice

1. User access

Who needs access to Pardot?

• Will it only be utilised by marketing?
• Will other users require access too, e.g., sales, IT, web designer, etc.
• Who will take on the role of the Pardot administrator?

And what level of access do they require? It depends on the activities they would carry out in Pardot. Here is a link to Pardot’s roles to help you decide. Some actions to consider are:

• Setting up and creating marketing campaigns and assets
• Creating emails
• Analysing campaign data

2. Loading customer data

All customers are known as prospects in Pardot. There is no distinction in Pardot between leads and contacts in Salesforce, apart from a marker on the prospect’s record. Even if you have Salesforce, customer data needs to be imported into Pardot. It begins the sync with Salesforce.

3. Syncing of data between Pardot and Salesforce

What customer data do you want in Pardot?

• Do you want a two-way sync between Pardot and Salesforce? It would sync all leads and contacts from Salesforce to Pardot. Note: You can’t choose to sync leads only and not contacts, or vice versa. It’s all or nothing with the “Automatically create prospects in Pardot if they are created as a Lead or Contact in Salesforce” checkbox option on the Salesforce connector settings. 
• Or, do you only want to push selected leads and contacts from Salesforce to Pardot? You can choose to share a subset of data with Pardot using sharing rules. 

4. Segmentation of Pardot data

How do you plan to segment your customers? Segmentation is key. It is often not given enough thought.

What data is there available in Salesforce that you could utilise? For example, product, quote, renewal, etc.

Think about what customer journeys you want to set up and how you would target those customers through your segmented mailing lists.

5. Integration with your website

Pardot provides a tracking code to track which pages of your website prospects have visited. This information is available through the prospect’s individual record. If a 3rd party manages your website, you would need to supply them with the tracking code to set this up.

6. Naming conventions of folders and files

How do you want to organise your marketing assets? Set up a folder structure that is meaningful to your business. Remember, there is no right or wrong way.

Some common naming rules include:

1. 1. Geographical – Region / Country
   2. Legal entity / Business Unit / Division
   3. Sector/Service
   4. Product
   5. Year
   6. Campaign Name
   7. Language
   8. Medium/description e.g., email, webinar, form

Similarly, when naming marketing assets, for example, emails, forms, lists, use meaningful descriptors. Ensure that all users responsible for creating assets understand the naming convention. 

For example, Division_Sector_Campaign-name-Language_Medium-Description = Finance-Tax-NewISA2022-EN-Email-Welcome. 

If the name is too long, you won’t be able to see it all in Pardot. It cuts off after around 40 characters, so it’s impossible to view the full name.

7. Email Tool Choice

Which Pardot email builder tool do you want to use? 

1. 1. “Classic” original email builder with access to the full HTML and email client render checker
   2. Drag and drop email builder if limited knowledge of HTML

Pardot introduced a new WYSIWIG email builder. It is good for novice users who are inexperienced in HTML. However, if you can create HTML emails, the original email builder provides more design flexibility. It is possible to use both!

Pardot offers Customer Success Events which are extremely useful if you have a particular question about how to do something or if you want to learn more about the software.

At Cairies we offer consultancy and support on an hourly basis, to customers looking to set up or provide advice on a Pardot implementation. If you would like help please contact us on 07811 111 620.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]