Snippets were added to the Pardot functionality toolset fairly recently as a way to help the marketers of the world stay organized and reuse their content across multiple templates or Pardot Business Units without copy and pasting (*cues angelic music*). 

In short, Pardot Snippets are a content block of dates, links, images*, or plain text that you can leverage across your Pardot instance (or Business Units) with one central hub to manage them – your campaigns. The way Pardot snippets work focuses more on the relationship between the content block and the campaign, versus individual prospect data. Currently this feature is only accessible to marketers via the Pardot Lightning App.

Snippets are incredible for marketers who are running multiple campaigns and need to edit tiny bits of information across multiple landing pages, email templates, etc. If you have had to do this in the past with Pardot, it can be a long process which is prone to errors like forgetting to update one of your templates. Snippets now grant you flexibility as to where you can place the different content you create – – for example different messages customer types of event different Business Units. You can also configure who within your organization can see, create, and use Snippets. This flexibility is great for global marketing teams that would like to limit access to specific assets by region, campaign or Business Unit without custom user roles within Pardot.

In this blog, we will tackle some common questions we have received about Snippets.

Before we get started, I must point out that Snippets do have a few requirements before you can use them in your Pardot org. If you are in an older account (older than 2020) you may need to complete one or multiple steps to enable Snippets in Pardot.

Requirements For Using Pardot Snippets:

• Must activate Pardot Lightning App
  • This can be configured in Sales Cloud and may need Salesforce Admin support
  • This also usually required SSO to be enabled for your Pardot/Salesforce User
• Enable Handlebars Merge Language (HML)
  • For older accounts, there’s usually a pop-up for this each time you login
• Connected Campaigns must be enabled
  • This can be turned on under your connector/account settings and may need Pardot Administrator support
• Access to create and edit Campaigns
  • Requires the Marketing User checkbox to be enabled in your Salesforce and may need Salesforce Admin support
• Be assigned the Sales Cloud, CRM, or Service Cloud permission set license
  • This can be configured in Sales Cloud and may need Salesforce Admin support

If you have a brand new instance, you should have automatically or manually configure most of these settings already (as part of the Pardot Setup Wizard in Sales Cloud) but it never hurts to take a second look. Make sure your Snippets tab isn’t hidden from your profile, this is usually the only thing preventing you from using Snippets.

Everything You Need To Know About Snippets: A Q&A

What are Snippets?

Based on the Salesforce help article, Snippets are reusable pieces of content that streamline how you create recurring marketing assets for your campaigns and business as a whole. Snippets can be leveraged in list emails, email templates, forms, and landing pages.

Why use Snippets?

This feature can save you time during setup and maintenance of your templates and content blocks across Pardot (or Business Units). Snippets can be used to populate and manage repeatable content across your Pardot assets (such as emails, forms and landing pages). These can be short character strings or full paragraphs of information that are tied to specific campaigns (or Business Units). They are also available in standard Salesforce reports.

Can I use Snippets in Pardot Classic?

It is important to note that although you can use Snippets in Pardot Classic’s WYSIWYG editor, you must first create them in the Pardot Lightning App as there is no tab to direct you to the Snippet library from within the Pardot Classic interface. You also cannot manage settings of Snippets such as which campaigns they are associated with from within the Pardot Classic UI.

What are some popular use cases for Snippets?

You can use snippets at the Business Unit level or the campaign level (and share it with as many campaigns/people as you want). Below are some examples of how we can leverage snippets to help you save time across Pardot assets:

• Emails (use in headers, footers, content blocks, additional CTA’s, navigation and more)
  • Webinar information – imagine being able to update details across multiple templates/landing pages, especially for series from one place
• Forms (use in before or after text, thank you content, etc)
  • Confirmation information – imagine adding “Add to Calendar” on multiple places without having to copy and paste, directly from the editor
• Landing Pages (Headers, footers, content blocks, disclaimers)
  • Accessibility requests – imagine adding directions for customer support or privacy notices to all your forms and being able to updates it from one place

Can I use Snippets across different Pardot Business Units?

Yes, you can. To be able to use a Snippet in a different Business Units, simply assign it to the right one using the assignment wizard. A Snippet can be used across multiple Pardot Business Units. This allows your team to leverage work used in one Business Unit without having to recreate it. You can also do the opposite, which in this case is limit the content to one Business Unit.

Can I limit who sees/uses Snippet?

Within the Pardot Lightning App, you are able to limit who can see the Snippet NavigationTab (you can hide the Snippets tab from their User Profile), which ultimately prevents you from accessing it.  Additionally, you can prevent certain people using Snippets if they don’t have access to edit the campaign object. If someone does not have the Marketing User checkbox enabled in Salesforce, they won’t be able to create Campaigns which are required to attach to a Snippet.

What if I want a Snippet to be available for multiple/all campaigns?

When you assign the Snippet you can go to each campaign and assign it on the campaign level. If you only have one Business Unit and you don’t want it to be restricted to one or a few campaigns, simply assign it to the Business Unit as illustrated in the step above.

I made a clone of my Snippet but I can’t seem to tie it to the right campaign. Why am I having issues with this?

When you Clone a Snippet it keeps the same API_NAME which is the unique identifier for the Snippet. Even if you change the Snippet Name, the API Name must be updated as well. Normally this won’t happen when you create a Snippet from scratch.

Why can I not see the Snippet tab in the Merge Field picker?

The first thing I would check is to see if you actually created a Snippet, otherwise this won’t appear. However, there are requirements to enable Snippets which could be the cause of you not being able to see them, and usually this is the issue – proper visibility. The first thing to check is to see if the email template or list email you are building has the same campaign associated with it. Nine times out of ten that’s the reason why you can’t see it, the snippet and campaign are not associated correctly (you can check the related list for that campaign), especially if you copied the template and updated the campaign.

Why can I not see my new Snippet but see others?

Notice that there is a short sync period. Usually waiting a few minutes (similar to campaign syncing period) is enough to get it to appear. If this doesn’t resolve on its own, then check the campaign or Business Unit that the Snippet is associated with.

If I edit Snippets, do they mass update or do I have to update each one manually?

Yes, Snippets will mass update, that’s the magical part of this feature. Similar to Dynamic Content any updates will go across all your templates. For example, think of being able to replace the privacy notice jargon on all your templates from one spot, that’s what Snippets can do! No more editing 100 templates. Need I say more?

Additionally, you can open this feature up to other people in your organization (in Sales Cloud) who might be the point of contact for those details.

Will a Snippet update if the email has already been sent? What about updating a landing page?

Similar to other Pardot functionality when an email has been sent already, the Snippet will NOT update after it has been sent. Future email sends with Snippets embedded will provide the latest updated information at the point of the send.

Landing pages, on the other hand, are different and will update close to real time as long as you are referring to the right snippet (via HML) and the campaign associated with this asset allows for the use of Snippets.

I tried adding an image and I can’t see an upload button or a gallery icon. Am I missing something?

At the moment the image tab is for organization only, you can input an image URL in it but this URL won’t render as an actual image. I tried the URL on its own, the URL within some HTML in the email and the same HTML without the URL reference just the direct reference. The only one that displayed it was the direct URL reference on the template preview, so if you want the actual image to display just add the image on the template, Snippets won’t work for this.

What happens if you dissociate the campaign of the asset that the snippet is on?

You will still see the HML that describes the Snippet name within the email builder. However, if you click on the preview tab, this shows as a blank, similar when you use HML to display a field and it’s empty. I received no warnings about this from the system when trying to save or publish a template.

What happens if you delete a Snippet that’s currently being used?

Although the system gives you a warning, it doesn’t act like other assets that prevent you from deleting it if there are dependencies associated with the Snippet. Proceed with caution if you delete a Snippet. Review the Related section under the Snippet tab and remove the Snippet from the assets associated with it prior to deleting it. If you delete a Snippet, it is not removed from your assets, but it will stop working. You would see a blank space where the Snippet should populate.

How do I restore a Snippet if I accidentally delete it?

In the App Launcher (in Sale Cloud), search “Recycle Bin” and it should be the top thing there. You can hit the down arrow at the right of the row to restore it. You may need a Salesforce Admin to support you in bringing it back if you can’t see the Recycle Bin. This option is available to you for 30 days.

Can I use standard Salesforce functionality to edit Snippets?

Yes you can. I actually learned this from Marianne Fields at ParDreamin’. In her presentation, she used Flow within Sales Cloud to look up a custom event object and pull data from it into her Snippets, while also automating the information updates from when her events team had changes to any of the event logistics, this would then update in Pardot and when it was time to send emails from Pardot, all the data was in the right spot. This is a great alternative for anyone on the Pardot Growth Tier, who may not have access to Dynamic Content or want more control in editing and approving content that goes out the door.

Wait, I already use Dynamic Content. What is the difference?

The difference here is that Dynamic Content depends on a prospects record data to populate information based on the criteria you established, it also has a limitation of 25 variations of content. Snippets on the other hand are “static” for everyone (meaning everyone sees the same thing) but can be updated universally similar to Dynamic Content. Snippets can be used by anyone with a Pardot instance, while Dynamic Content requires a Pardot Plus account or higher to be able to access it.

Although you can use Dynamic Content and HML together, using Snippets inside Dynamic Content or vice-versa don’t seem to be available at this time. There is no HML button in the Snippet wizard creator but you can manually add HML to Snippets.

Nice! This sounds great, how do I enable Snippets for Pardot in my account?

Review the prerequisites at the beginning of this post (and definitely the Salesforce documentation). If all that is completed, then make sure your profile has the Snippets tab turned on (set to Default On), then you can add the Snippets Related list to the Campaign page layout (and Lightning Record Pages if applicable) in order to see associations at the Campaign object level.

Lastly, you must be a Pardot Admin or Marketer User in order to be able to use Snippets within the Pardot Lightning App. Snippets however can be accessed from within Salesforce similar to Campaigns so don’t necessarily require a Pardot login to access.

Conclusion

With marketing teams and budgets changing during this pandemic, one thing is for sure. The winners will be the companies that can pivot quickly by leveraging all the tools at their disposal. Now that you know a little more about Snippets you can start to tinker with them to help you save time and effort. From going through this exercise three times in a week, I can say that it takes longer to set these up initially than actually using Snippets, but that’s a good thing given all the options for sharing and visibility. After that it’s a walk in the park!

Remember to be patient as you experiment with these and feel free to reach out if you need support leveraging this new feature or switching to Pardot Lightning from Classic.

What are some interesting use cases you have seen using Snippets in the wild?

The post Duck, Duck, Goose: How to play with Pardot Snippets! appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

Nearly 90% of marketers are using email (think tools like Pardot) to reach their audiences on a weekly basis, according to Oberlo. On average, people get roughly ~120 emails a day, according to Radicati. Whoa! That’s a lot of emails. For many organizations in sectors like manufacturing, the switch to digital channels has become a race against time. One could infer that this number has increased due to the shift to digital channels (such as email) in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift is probably affecting businesses who perhaps did not depend on email marketing to generate sales, or depended more on brick-and-mortar stores for sales. In any case, these metrics are alarming to say the least, which begs the question, what are you doing to stand out and make your brand memorable?

In Pardot, there are several ways to send emails, however the way you organize and set up your email campaigns can differ from team to team. As a marketing team, here are some challenges you may be facing and need support on in 2021:

• Planning and executing Pardot email campaigns that scale
• Creating email banners and graphics (with no designer on staff) 
• Checking for mobile responsiveness across templates (with little HTML knowledge)
• Testing your email content (lack of feedback on subject lines, copy, A/B testing, etc)
• Customizing email templates and trying to stay consistent with branding guidelines
• Navigating through ambiguous IT documentation around email domains

Regardless if you are a team of one or a team 15+, this Pardot Email guide can help you take your email templates to the next level with a few simple clicks.

21 Resources to Help Your Pardot Emails Stand Out In 2021

Some of these resources do require that you have basic HTML/CSS understanding to be able to use them properly (we always advise you to work with an email developer). Most of the resources below are free unless otherwise noted. Additionally, you should test everything you decide to implement as it will not look or act the same across devices and email clients (particularly Outlook) and could affect your email KPI’s.

Email Building Basics

1. Email Brief and Planning Worksheet (Litmus)

Are you new to email marketing? This worksheet (by the team at Litmus) will help you get your process in order. This outline can work for both individuals and teams looking to improve their email campaign creation processes by focusing on efficiency and better quality control in the new year!

2. Email Content Regions Guide (Pardot) 

Pardot Content Regions give you flexibility to lock down content controls to users creating emails and landing pages. Need the footer content to be restricted to edits? There’s a tag for that. Need the ability simply update the text and link of a button without editing code? There’s a tag for that as well!

3. Fonts (Google)

Google Fonts is an easy way to pull additional web fonts for your landing pages and email and use them within Pardot. Note that not all email clients allow the use of other web fonts and you would need to set up a default font (in Pardot it’s Arial) for email clients like Outlook. To use these custom fonts you can find a guide on how to implement this on the Pardot Knowledge Base or work with an email developer to leverage more web fonts properly.

4. Preview & Preheader Text Guide (Sercante)

Many email marketers underestimate or completely ignore the power of Preview Text. A survey conducted by Litmus and Fluent found that about 24% of email readers decided to open an email purely based on the preview text. This guide walks you the fundamentals of using it and how it can impact your email opens. Just remember to keep your preview text close to 40 characters so it doesn’t get cut off (different devices have different cutoff parameters).

Design With Your Audience In Mind

5. Bulletproof Email Backgrounds (Campaign Monitor)

Tired of boring white email backgrounds? This generator allows you to add images and backup colors (especially for Outlook) with a few simple clicks. You can then add this code to the HTML tab of your Pardot email for testing.

6. Color Kits (Scheme Color)

Color Schemes is a great tool to create color palettes especially if you don’t have a designer on staff and you’re just starting to develop your branding guidelines. To use this tool, simply add your HEX or RGB codes from your logo and out goes the color series. Don’t know the color codes? Try the image to color generator on their site and it will generate them for you.

7. Dark Mode Email Design Guide (Litmus)

Designing emails and websites for dark mode is becoming more and more popular. According to a survey from Medium, over 80% of mobile Users prefer dark mode when using their device. This informative guide will walk you through simple tips and tricks you can do to make sure you stand out. 

8. Email Banners (Canva)

Designing banners for email templates and social media posting? Canvas provides you with a series of predefined templates, stock imagery and even video clips (read more about using GIFs in your email campaigns). Remember to use the proper dimensions in your emails to make the banners easier to use.

9. Stock Images (Pexels)

Using images in emails can help spice up your content and promote click throughs. To use Pexels, simply search terms for your specific campaign needs and select the best image, most are free for personal and/or commercial use. Remember to think about considerations of using images in email, especially if the majority of your audience are on Outlook.

10. Social Media Icons (Hootsuite)

There are many social media icons you can find online. You may even have your design create some for you that are branded using your colors. Did you know that social media icons are actually trademarked? This guide will walk you through how to play it safe and access the correct branding and icons for your email marketing campaigns.

Delight Your Audience

11. Bulletproof Email Button Generator (Campaign Monitor)

Want to add buttons to your email templates but don’t know how? Use this simple generator to add buttons to your emails and landing pages. Simply input the URL link location and text you want on the button and then it will give you a code you can add to the right section to your email template. Guess what? They also work on Outlook. 

12. Calendar Invite Sharing Buttons for Emails (Eventable)

Want to create buttons for webinar registrants to add the event to their calendar? No problem, use this tool to create Add-To calendar buttons, which can be added to your emails with a few clicks!

13. Countdown Timers for Emails (NiftyImages)

Add a little flair and excitement to your emails, landing pages, and website with these countdown timers. To use this tool, add your timing, and then add the code to your email. If you registered for ParDreamin’ this year you will know exactly what it looks like. Similar to other animated images, some email clients only display the first frame of the image and may not work properly (especially in older Outlook accounts)

14. RSS Feed (FeedOtter)

Do you produce a lot of blog, public relations or news content on your website? It’s time to put FeedOtter to work! Although this tool is paid, it can be well worth it, if your organization is producing significant content month to month. Keep your audience engaged by and save on time by automating your newsletters with content from your website using this tool.

15. Video in Emails (Wistia)

You’ve seen the name Wistia before, you can’t remember where though right? It is actually one of the video native connectors you have access to when you buy Pardot. Although Wistia is a separate service to Pardot, they have great insights into how you can make video work for your brand and audience. Just in case you didn’t know, video doesn’t work across all email clients. This article walks you through your options to help your provide the best experience for your audience.

Testing Your Content

16. A/B Testing Case Studies (GuessTheTest?)

Need ideas of what to A/B test? Learn from other enterprise and B2B customers through their own A/B email testing experiences, you can even search by industry, the item that was tested and by conversion goals.

17. A/B Testing for Emails (Pardot)

Did you know that earlier this year Pardot made A/B testing available to all editions of Pardot? This help document will walk you through the steps on how to do it. It’s a great feature to leverage especially if you are trying to pinpoint what variety of preview text, subject line, or content works best for your audience. Need a little more help setting up A/B tests? Check out our blog post on A/B testing do’s and don’t here.

18. Gmail Email Tab Check (Gmail/Litmus)

Are you curious to see where your emails end up? With this tool you can test it for yourself. Currently it only supports tabs found within Gmail but if you are in the B2C/NGO/HigherEdu/Non-Profit side of email marketing that may be exactly what you need!

19. Subject Line Rater (Subjectline)

When writing copy, do you test subject lines? If you aren’t getting any feedback from your team, you are missing out. This tool gives you a score (scale from 0 – 100) AND feedback on how you can improve your subject lines before they go out the door! A good alternative is Omnisend!

Spam and DKIM Checkers

20. Blacklist Checker (MX Toolbox)

Are your emails even making it to your prospects Spam or Inbox folders? The answer is no if you have been blacklisted. For Pardot customers sharing an IP, this could happen even if you follow all the best email marketing practices. In short, being blacklisted means some of your emails you have sent may not be delivered (in order to reduce what is perceived email spam by the email clients).

21. Spam Checker (MailTester)

The spam checker checks for spam, DNS/DKIM validation, blacklists, broken links and ways to improve your content all in one! This is an amazing tool for anyone who is a team of one or working in a small team.

BONUS: Make sure you avoid these email marketing mistakes outlined by the team at Zapier and several marketing executives across industries.

Conclusion

Although Pardot does provide out of the box email templates that are ready to use, sometimes we crave a little more personalization for our templates to really communicate our message to our audiences.

The resources we covered today can help both novice and veteran email marketers alike improve the way they execute email marketing campaigns. In the world of email marketing, things are constantly changing and we must adapt otherwise our brands can look out of date. In the words of our fellow dragon, Mike Creuzer, “test all the things”.

As your team meets to set Q1 priorities for 2021 ask yourselves, “do we need support building our own customized email templates?” If the answer is yes, our development team is ready to invigorate your designs and add the functionality you need for your 2021 email campaigns. Don’t start 2021 on the wrong foot. Simply reach out to us to get started. 

The post 21 Resources to Level-Up Your Pardot Emails In 2021 appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.