Announcing the 2021 ParDreamies Pardot Award Winners

People do really cool stuff in Pardot, and the ParDreamin’ team is recognizing them for it with the first-ever ParDreamies Pardot Awards. The ParDreamies honor community members for finding creative and thoughtful methods to reach business goals using the power of the Pardot platform. 

Individuals submitted their stories as independent consultants, on behalf of their clients as part of an agency, and as in-house Pardot admins and marketing professionals. Then, we announced the winners of the ParDreamies Awards during the ParDreamin’ VIP After Party on October 28, 2021.

Here are the winners of the 2021 ParDreamies Pardot Awards.

ParDreamies 2021 Best in Show Award

Each ParDreamies submission entered the race to take all the glory by winning the ParDreamies 2021 Best in Show Award. The ParDreamin’ team considered each entry for their respective category, but the most innovative stories rose to the top to battle it out for Best in Show Pardot Award.

With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the overall winner for the ParDreamies 2021 Best in Show Award…

The fun way to profile your prospects

Submitted by Claudia Hoops for Destined

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - Destined

Summary:

Understanding who your prospects are and how they might interact with your brand presents a challenge to even the most seasoned marketers. The team at Destined saw opportunities in that challenge.

The ParDreamies Best in Show award goes to the team at Destined for building a fun icon-driven landing page their prospects use to profile themselves. Prospects use the landing page to provide information about themselves so Destined can send them on a personalized journey through a Pardot Engagement Studio Program.

Quick Facts:

  • Automates prospect profiling
  • Enables easy prospect segmentation
  • Empowers prospects to tell brands what they’re looking for
  • Combines Pardot forms, landing pages, scoring and grading, and engagement studio programs

ParDreamies 2021 Personalization Perfection Award

The best marketers know their audience and they know how to use technology to deliver messaging at the perfect time and in the perfect channel. The Personalization Perfection Award celebrates that perfection by recognizing right-time, right-message marketing achieved using the power of the Pardot platform. 

And the Personalization Perfection Award goes to…

Engaging prospects with quiz-style content

Submitted by Brittany Rhyme for Restaurant365

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - Restaurant 365

Summary:

Engage your prospect database using quiz-style content via the Outgrow + Pardot integration and creating an interactive experience using custom fields and dynamic content on Pardot Landing Pages.

Quick Facts: 

  • Outgrow + Pardot integration
  • Dynamic Content 
  • Custom Fields
  • Pardot Landing Pages 

ParDreamies 2021 Social Impact Award

While the past two years have been challenging for everyone, nonprofit organizations that serve the world’s most vulnerable populations were stretched to the limits while demand for services increased. One team rose to the challenge and found innovative ways to use Pardot to continue providing essential services.

The 2021 ParDreamies Social Impact Award recognizes an organization that creates positive social change through Pardot, and this year it goes to…

COVID-19 Learning & Policy Center

Submitted by Miriam Childs for Lexipol

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - Lexipol

Summary:

In March 2020, Lexipol utilized Pardot to provide targeted promotion and follow-up of our Coronavirus Learning & Policy Center. The resource is designed to give public safety agencies free access to industry-specific COVID-19 online learning courses, policies and news to assist in their response on the front lines of the pandemic.

Quick Facts: 

  • Pardot was critical in promoting and tracking success.
  • List emails and social posts informed the market of the site, highlighting critical information via dynamic segmentation.
  • Pardot files hosted and tracked policy documents are available on the microsite.
  • Scoring and connected campaigns allowed leveraging of interaction data.
  • Per Einstein AI campaign influence, these efforts influenced 2,445 opportunities to date.

ParDreamies 2021 Grassroots Innovation Award

Marketers are known for wearing many hats, and that’s especially true for marketers working for small businesses. But small business marketers using Pardot have an advantage because they have the power to automate that which can’t be accomplished manually by a small team.

That scrappy innovation is what led one (tiny) in-house team to implement new Pardot features to reduce workloads and prevent duplication of tasks. The winner of the ParDreamies 2021 Grassroots Innovation Award is… 

In-house Implementation: Business Units, Sandbox and Multiple Product Interests

Submitted by Pooja Goel for BrandEd

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - BrandEd

Summary:

The BrandEd team implemented Pardot Business Units and built a way to capture, track and manage multiple product interests for the same lead record (i.e. allowing prospects to select more than one program of interest upon form submission), and map them to Salesforce. BrandEd completed the project in approximately 60 days with a team of only two full-time employees who had no prior Pardot knowledge. 

Quick Facts: 

  • Complicated requirements – multiple business units, multiple products within each unit, tailored user journeys based on business unit/product choices, and tracking path for each customer-business unit-product combination 
  • More than 70% of prospects select more than one program of interest, so communication needs to be coherent and unduplicated, as much as possible.
  • Some Pardot features did not meet the team’s requirements so they devised creative solutions.
  • Utilized Pardot Sandbox to validate functionality

ParDreamies 2021 Extending Pardot Award

The ways companies and organizations use Pardot to achieve their goals is endless. That’s what makes Pardot integrations essential to teams of all shapes and sizes. Some teams use Pardot native features to collect prospect data, while others have their own industry-specific tools they hope will play nice with the platform.

One company leveraged the Pardot API to bring prospect subscription data into their marketing team’s hands so they can take the next steps. All this Pardot API innovation earned this company the 2021 ParDreamies Extending Pardot Award, which recognizes teams leveraging API-driven solutions. And the winner is…

Project Octopus: Bringing customer subscription status into Pardot

Submitted by Jacob Filipp for LexisNexis Canada

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - LexisNexis Canada

Summary:

The team at LexisNexis Canada was encountering the problem of “I want a list of everyone who cancelled their subscription to Product X, within geography Y.”  So, they developed a solution to put product subscription information into Pardot. This allows the team’s  marketers to pull their own campaign lists, which reduces list turnaround time and miscommunication errors.

Quick Facts: 

  • The Pardot v4 Batch Import API 
  • Pardot custom fields 
  • Developers delivered work in four waves
  • Automated QA testing
  • Formal refactoring phase
  • Navigated Pardot’s switch to OAuth

Pardot Award Honorable Mentions

We had many amazing stories and solution submissions from Pardot professionals in the community. So, of course, choosing the winners was challenging. 

Here are the honorable mentions from the ParDreamies award submissions. These solutions are all helpful in their own right, and they deserve recognition.

Honorable Mention: Hot Job Email Using Dynamic Content 

Submitted by BJ Dodenbier for Flexcare Medical Staffing

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners

A weekly email FlexCare Staffing sent to their prospects wasn’t getting the results they hoped because the relevant information wasn’t immediately obvious to readers. That prompted the team to take action through personalization.

Email personalization, which was achieved using Pardot Dynamic Content, created a better experience for readers by bringing the information they wanted to see to the top of the email.

FlexCare sends two primary emails every week with each email showing  the top-paying assignments of the week for each group.: 

  • Hot jobs for traveling nurses
  • Hot jobs for traveling allied clinicians

When these emails originated, they included the top 13 jobs for each group regardless of the recipient’s primary specialty. To provide a more personalized experience for the recipients of these emails, Flexcare Staffing redesigned the emails to show only the top-paying jobs for each clinician’s primary specialty. The updates lead to better engagement with prospects by significantly increasing click-through rates for the emails.

Honorable Mention: Pardot Business Card Scanner App from MarCloud Technologies

Submitted by Tom Ryan for MarCloud Technologies

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - MarCloud

Physical business cards give a personal tangible touch when forming business relationships, but they can be difficult to keep organized when you’re collecting them on a large scale at in-person events and conferences. That’s where the Pardot Business Card Scanner App from MarCloud Technologies becomes a game changer.

Most businesses that use Pardot also use Salesforce as their CRM. However, the data held in these two systems can become inconsistent, particularly when the sales team enters cold prospects straight into Salesforce thus bypassing Pardot altogether. 

The team at MarCloud saw an opportunity to create a business card scanner app that allows professionals to instantly add prospects they meet offline into Pardot. This aligns sales and marketing teams by ensuring the correct treatment of new prospects and saves time.

When MarCloud set out to create the world’s first ‘Pardot Business Card Scanner’ app, they had no idea if it would be possible. Integrating with the Pardot API is difficult, but they were able to deliver an app that:

  • Sends prospect data directly into Pardot lists, campaigns, and custom fields
  • Works without WiFi
  • Recognises multiple languages

Since launching in August 2021, the app has had over 45 iOS downloads and 25 Android downloads with global corporations making direct contact regarding paid plans.

Honorable Mention: Drop email templates like they’re HOT!

Submitted by Tammy Begley for Destined 

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - Destined email templates

While the new drag-and-drop Pardot Email Template Builder does make building emails in Salesforce a lot easier, it still requires a certain amount of time and effort for the marketing team to design, build and tweak them. That’s where the team at Destined decided to make the process easier for busy marketers.

The innovative team at Destined built email template packages that can be installed into a Salesforce org and ready to use in less than 15 minutes. Marketing teams just need to rebrand the templates, and then they are ready to use.

When Pardot announced the extensibility feature for the drag-and-drop email template builder that allows marketers to use pre-built components from the Salesforce AppExchange, Destined jumped at it. The developer team at Destined converted the company’s entire email template gallery into install packages that can go straight into any Salesforce org. Destined is the first Salesforce Partner in the world to have used the Pardot Email Template Builder extensibility feature to create install packages for download and use, and the project was featured at Dreamforce ‘21 in the Marketing Roadmap session.

The new Email Template Builder will be available to be used across all other Salesforce clouds, too. That means a company will have the power to deliver consistent branding and messaging from any Salesforce platform.

Honorable Mention: Pardot Forms: Customized content download on selection criteria

Submitted by Pankaj Verma for Accenture

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - Accenture

An Accenture client wanted to provide the best experience for their prospects by delivering relevant content to them with instant gratification built in. That’s where the team at Accenture swooped in with JavaScript magic to save the day.

The client has multiple product and service lines, which means prospects have specific needs when interacting with the company. Prospects visiting the client’s website encounter a form that gauges their interest area to determine those specific needs. So, the team at Accenture suggested the client use dynamic content in an email that’s triggered when prospects complete the form. However, the Accenture client wanted to deliver relevant content to prospects in real time rather than in an email to reduce the number of clicks for prospects.

So, the team at Accenture solved the challenge by introducing JavaScript Thank You Code and custom field values to the form that triggers an automatic content download based on prospect interest area. 

The hurdle was to have JavaScript code working within the Thankyou code of Pardot forms. The code had to pick the value and automatically download the personalized asset on form submission after prospects select their interest area from the radio button and drop-down menu. The team ultimately had to refine their approach of providing multiple selection criteria. 

The result of the project was a more personalized experience for prospects with instant gratification built in. After enabling the solution, conversion rates significantly increased for the form and leads were directed more efficiently based on assets consumed by them.

Honorable Mention: Pardot + Salesforce = Personalization Perfection

Submitted by Cara Woo for Cloudtegic

Cloudtegic

A Cloudtegic client using multiple Salesforce clouds was dealing with sync issues and lack of personalization options that made account journeys inconsistent for prospects. So, a consultant from Cloudtegic took six journeys out of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and duplicated them in Pardot to create a seamless experience that behaves and syncs as expected.

Using a combination of custom objects, formula fields, flows and automation rules, the Cloudtegic consultant was able to create fully personalized and automated account status journeys including:

  • Account-activated emails
  • Welcome emails
  • Account executive introduction emails
  • Account cancellation emails

Formula fields are generally not recommended for any use within Pardot because they do not trigger a sync. So, the consultant created a process builder that looked for the criteria of those formula fields to be created and/or edited. Then, she created a secondary field called “Pardot Sync” that uses Boolean to check from true to false and back again whenever changes are made on the account. This forces a sync between Salesforce & Pardot, and it clears the path to use personalization from custom objects in Pardot Dynamic Content.

The biggest hurdle she faced was the timeline. She only had three weeks to take six account journeys out of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and duplicate them in Pardot. These three weeks included scoping, building and testing. Due to the client’s flexibility and the consultant’s drive to get it done, they met their deadline with time to spare to deploy the changes in production.

The project touched nearly every feature of Pardot. The ability to sync with custom objects, the seamless sync between Pardot & Salesforce, and the ability to use Pardot Sandboxes and custom objects in automation rules all made this project a success. Additionally, the project likely saved the client budget in the long run while contributing to ROI by creating personalized experiences for prospects.

Honorable Mention: Next-Level Email Marketing Design for Brand Awareness by InterWorks

Submitted by Jenny Parnell for InterWorks

InterWorks

One team was searching for the perfect digital hub to house all of their marketing assets in addition to providing email marketing capabilities and robust reporting metrics. That search led the team to adopt Pardot for the organization. 

Since adopting Pardot as a home base for digital brand awareness and demand generation, the InterWorks Marketing Team has been maximizing their experiments with design. Their monthly blog newsletters, product updates, customer message and webinar communications all received custom designs, curated content and engaging themes. These custom emails hit inboxes and are undeniably stunning while also relaying vital information to their contact base to help grow the business.

The hurdles involved in this initiative included establishing a monthly cadence on multiple levels of their marketing funnel with limited time and resources to customize the content and design. 

In 2021, the team delivered nearly 500,000 messages to their contacts. They currently hold 13,000 active contacts for brand awareness and average 1,200 active prospects monthly. The team’s click-through rate is above industry-average at around 5%. 

Pardot has given InterWorks a digital home base to manage their marketing funnel. From email marketing, to webinar integrations with Zoom, replay integrations with Wistia, and customer insights integrations with Salesforce, they now have a better understanding of their contact base, which is vital to their global marketing strategy. 

The world of marketing and design is subjective. Pardot has enabled the team to become data-driven and confident in their creative approaches to drive interest in their brand.

Honorable Mention: Custom Pardot / Zoom Integration

Submitted by Julia Hoffman for FARO / Sercante Labs

ParDreamies 2021 Pardot Award Winners - FARO and Sercante Labs

FARO hosts 300+ webinars a year via Zoom. The Zoom-provided integration provides basic list management that can sync to Pardot from a Zoom registration page, but FARO was looking for a way to host webinar registration landing pages on their event website and automate a confirmation email using a Pardot template. Furthermore, there was a desire to send reminder and follow-up emails directly from Pardot in nine different languages.

FARO worked with Sercante to build a custom Pardot and Zoom integration that streamlined FARO’s webinar process. The solution accomplished that by allowing all of the participant management (confirmation emails, reminders, pre- and post-webinar action items) to take place in Pardot rather than Zoom. By using email templates with dynamic content, the team significantly decreased the amount of time required for weekly email design and by making the process more automated, webinar attendees are passed to sales days sooner.

The build included email templates with dynamic content to allow us to reuse assets, as well as an API that syncs data from Zoom to Pardot to automate records being upgraded from Registered to Attended. A Pardot engagement studio program template and process was created for scheduled execution of pre- and post webinar actions, supported in nine different languages.

Since FARO began using the solution from Sercante in April: 76 Webinars have been hosted; 9,215 Records processed via the integration, with approximately 30% of those then being updated from Registered to Attended via the integration; Resulting in 127 Closed Won Opportunities and $1.1M in revenue from those efforts.

Honorable Mention: Driving Business and Investment across the African Continent

By Africa Events Limited

African Investments Limited

Africa is a fragmented continent split into 54 economies, each of sub-scale size. Global businesses want to operate in Africa, but deciding who to deal with is complex, time consuming and expensive. Africa Events Limited launched a Salesforce-Pardot solution in 2021 to meet these challenges. The solution is set to become one of Africa’s most important business tools. Additionally, the team hosts a physical event, AFSIC – Investing in Africa, which has become one of the African continent’s most important investment events.

African Investments Limited developed a scalable system that will increasingly drive business and investment across the entire African continent by combining matching business requirements in all sectors of Africa’s 54 countries.

The team believes they have produced the first pan-African multi-sector, multi-country Pardot Business Opportunities Dashboard solution allowing companies to promote investment and business opportunities not just within Africa, but also as export opportunities to global companies. This is entirely new ground as they are not aware of a competitor doing anything similar. Business opportunities, and their growing network are shown at www.invest-in-africa.co.

Pardot is the company’s main communication tool. They use it to trigger email templates that are sent to 100,000+ of Africa’s most important business executives and investors. 

Honorable Mention: Leading & Inspiring Career Growth in the Pardot Community

By Ben Lamothe for BDO Digital

People working in the Salesforce ecosystem will typically choose to specialize in a specific platform. The path to becoming a Salesforce developer/architect/admin/analyst is fairly well established and clear to follow. The same can’t be said for someone who wants to work in marketing automation and has a passion for nonprofits or education, for example. Ben Lamothe sought to provide insight for those people and to hear from people working in those jobs today.

Ben’s Salesforce mentees were seeking a path into the ecosystem focused on the core Salesforce platform. It made him realize the path to becoming a Pardot professional is less than clear. That led to the decision to host a four-part Pardot Career Paths panel focused on the different career paths available for a Pardot expert/user/admin in marketing operations and automation at B2B and B2C companies; education organizations and institutions; nonprofits; and as independent consultant or with a Salesforce Partner. More than 20 Pardot professionals participated as panelists. They shared their career paths and answered questions from more than 340 attendees.

You don’t go to school for marketing automation. Instead, Pardot has passionate community users and platform evangelists to provide guidance. The Pardot community helped to achieve the goal of making the four panels happen.

Thanks to everyone who shared their Pardot stories

While the purpose of the first-ever ParDreamies Pardot Award Show was to recognize people for their amazing achievements, we’re presenting these stories with another motive. 

Understanding all of the possibilities within Pardot can be difficult to grasp. We hope that presenting these challenges and the solutions marketing professionals built to solve them helps others to do the same. Reading real-world examples of Pardot solutions is a great way to get the gears moving and ideas flowing.Have you built a really cool Pardot solution that may be helpful to solve challenges marketers face? Tell us about it in the comments below. And remember to sign up for the ParDreamin’ newsletter so you know when we open ParDreamies Pardot Award submissions in 2022.

The post Announcing the 2021 ParDreamies Pardot Award Winners appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-11-01T20:28:23+00:00November 1st, 2021|Categories: Career, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Events, Non-Traditional Use Cases, Salesforce|

ParDreamin’ 2021: The Pardot World’s Big Virtual Gathering

ParDreamin’ 2021 is the only global virtual conference that lasts three days and focuses on all things Pardot and marketing automation.

We’re pulling together marketing minds at all levels to learn together, network, and explore new territories. Pardot experts from around the world are gathering to share information they’ve learned the hard way through determination, and the easy way — from the Pardot community.

So pack your satchel and grab some snacks. Here’s what you can expect as you trek your way through ParDreamin’ 2021.

How to Attend ParDreamin’ 2021

ParDreamin’ is for people who want to immerse themselves in all things Pardot. However, it’s easy to attend if you’re new to Pardot or B2B marketing automation as a whole.

You’ll have access to more than 50 sessions, keynotes, and panel discussions hosted by some of the most recognizable names in B2B marketing and the Salesforce community.

ParDreamin’ 2021 kicks off with some pre-conference fun on October 26, and the main show happens October 27-29. No matter which aspects of the conference you attend, you’ll have to complete the ParDreamin’ registration form

Registering for ParDreamin’

You’ll see Ticket Options after you complete the Personal Information page. Here’s what you get with each of the ticket options.

pardreamin registration form

Conference Ticket: Free Pass

  • Three-day virtual conference access through the ParDreamin’ platform
  • Access to session recordings

Conference Ticket: VIP Package ($75)

  • Standard admission ticket
  • Conference t-shirt 
  • VIP After-Party access

Pre-Conference Workshop Pass ($299)

  • Standard admission ticket
  • Conference t-shirt (if you register by Oct. X)
  • VIP After-Party access

Send an email to [email protected] if you need help with the registration process.

ParDreamin’ Pre-Conference Training Workshops

Choose the Pardot training workshop that best fits where you are in your career so you can get closer to where you want to be. You’ll build strong foundations before moving on to more complex actions and insights. 

Register for ParDreamin’ Pre-Conference Training Workshops

You can secure your spot in a pre-conference Pardot training workshop when you sign up for a ParDreamin’ conference ticket. Choose ‘Pre-conference Workshop Pass’ under Ticket Options when you register for ParDreamin’.

You can select only one training workshop with the exception of  “Pardot Fundamentals,” which runs 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. ET. All other pre-conference Pardot training workshops run simultaneously from 11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET. 

The 2021 ParDreamies: A Pardot Award Show

People do really cool stuff in Pardot, and we’re recognizing them for it. Prepare yourself for the first-ever ParDreamies Awards!

The ParDreamies Awards will honor Pardot community members for finding creative and thoughtful methods to reach business goals using the power of the Pardot platform. 

We’ll announce the winners of the ParDreamies Awards during the ParDreamin’ VIP After-Party on October 28 from 4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. ET. And, remember to sign up for a VIP pass to ParDreamin’ 2021 so you can cheer for the winners during the live event. 

How to submit your entry to the ParDreamies

The ParDreamies recognize exemplary work utilizing the power of the Pardot platform. 

You have to submit your entry before the deadline for a chance to win. The deadline for entering is October 15, 2021.

The competition is open to all individuals, companies, and organizations involved in producing any marketing and communication materials utilizing the Pardot platform for external or internal audiences.

To be eligible, an entry must have been produced after January 1, 2020.

Complete the form on this page (scroll down) to submit a ParDreamies award application. You can complete multiple applications for different stories, but you can only win once per year.

Award categories

Each entry can only be submitted to one category. 

  1. Personalization Perfection: Right-time, right-message marketing
  2. Social Impact: Creating positive change through Pardot
  3. Grassroots Innovation: Scaling small business with Pardot
  4. Extending Pardot: API-driven solutions
  5. Best in Show: Overall winner

Getting Permission to Use Pardot Stories

You, your employer, and your customer (if you’re a consultant) must be willing to publicly share any stories you submit. Your customer does not have to be present to accept the award, but they have to grant permission to you for the public mention of their company name and story in reference to the award.

We realize that may create some barriers to submitting a Pardot story, so here are some considerations for those situations:

  • Let the company or client know what’s in it for them. Winning a ParDreamies award is a great way to show that a company is innovative and forward thinking. It also provides an easy publicity opportunity and gets the company name in front of thousands of business executives and potential employees.
  • Leave the company name out of the story. Including an impressive enterprise-level company name definitely makes a story stronger, but your story is probably solid without it. You can say something like “an enterprise-level company in the insurance industry” if you cannot get permission to use a company name publicly.

Flex Your Pardot Knowledge: Pardot Trivia Party

After a day of learning at our pre-conference ParDreamin’ 2021 workshops, join us to show off your brain powers. We’ll gather virtually to play Pardot Trivia and enjoy healthy competition and networking opportunities. 

pardot trivia

The Pardot Trivia party is open to all ParDreamin’ attendees, and it’s taking place during the pre-conference festivities on Tuesday, October 26. We encourage ParDreamin’ Pre-Conference Training Workshop attendees to stick around after the workshops to use their newly gained knowledge and maybe win prizes.

We have limited spots available, and registration is almost full at the time of this blog. So, get there quickly if you want to join.

Choose your team. You can choose to register as a team (6-8 players) or sign up as a free agent and we’ll add you to a team. 

Prizes. We’ll award cash prizes to the first, second and third place teams. You can also win a special prize for the best team name, so get your creative juices flowing. Pardot puns are welcome.  

Get Instant Answers: Genius Bar

Open October 27-29 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET

You can spend hours scouring the interwebz for the answer to your pressing Pardot question. Or, you can visit the ParDreamin’ 2021 Genius Bar to book a one-on-one session with an expert to get the info you need.

Choose the Genius Bar topic that’s related to your question to book an appointment.

Genius Bar Topics

Pardreamin genius bar

Our genius bar is organized by topics to ensure the right expert is available to discuss your individual questions. Register for the topic related to your questions to get the most out of your 1:1 session.

  • Automations – Talk with our automation experts to discover the best route to take. Bring us anything — from Engagement Studio Programs to dynamic lists and page actions.
  • Analytics – This is the place for questions about analytics topics like B2BMA or campaigns & ROI reporting. Meet 1:1 without analytics experts to talk about your specific tracking needs.
  • Tech/Dev – Working with integrations or the Pardot API can be a challenge. Talk with our developers to discuss your more complex technical questions.
  • Scoring & Grading – If you’re not fully utilizing Pardot scoring or grading rules, then you’re missing out. Our geniuses are here to talk through or take a peek at your current setup.
  • General/Misc. – Have a question not related to any of the topics above? Sign up for one of our general sessions.

Reserve a Genius Bar time slot

Space is limited in the ParDreamin’ Genius Bar. Please claim your spot by making a reservation. 

You can make a reservation inside the ParDreamin’ conference platform. Navigate to the Genius Bar page and scroll down to the Reserve My Spot link.

genius bar reserve my spot

Birds of a Feather roundtable discussions

birds of a feather roundtable discussion

Birds of a Feather roundtable discussions are a great way to network and collaborate with like-minded individuals. In these informal sessions, the moderator will present five discussion questions before sending everyone to smaller breakout groups.

We’re limiting the size of these sessions so everyone has a chance to share. That means you have to grab a spot at the table to join the fun.

Reserve a Birds of a Feather time slot

Space is limited in the ParDreamin’ Birds of a Feather sessions. Please claim your spot by making a reservation. 

You can make a reservation inside the ParDreamin’ conference platform. Navigate to the Birds of a Feather page and click the graphic for the topic that resonates with you.

Explore Pardot career opportunities

Hey, we’re all here for one reason, right? Learning more about Pardot and B2B marketing automation is going to boost your career potential and open a world of opportunities. 

Here’s how you can focus on landing your dream job while you’re navigating through ParDreamin’.

Your Pardot Career Path: Panel Discussion

October 29, 2021 | 12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET

Digital transformation entered the fast track last year. Companies are creating marketing operations roles for the first time while organizations are doubling down on new functionality and integrations. The job market for marketing operations professionals (MOPs) is exploding as a result. 

your pardot career path

At the same time, Pardot is leading the charge as one of the fastest growing products in the B2B marketing space. We’ve experienced more product innovations for Pardot in the last year than in the 5 years before it combined. 

In this panel discussion session, we’ll talk to people from the Pardot community who work in various industries and roles. They’ll share stories of their successes and failures, talk about the future of the job market and provide advice for advancing MOPs careers.

We invite attendees to come equipped with excellent questions for a Q&A session with our panelists.

The Spot for Pardot Jobs: Job Board

Find the marketing job you’ve been dreaming about. Inside the ParDreamin’ platform, you’ll see a Pardot Jobs Feed that’s filled with open MOPs opportunities.

Each listing includes a link you can use to apply for a job that interests you. Or, you can visit The Spot for Pardot Jobs to  browse other jobs.

The Spot for Pardot Jobs is a one-stop-shop for finding marketing-related jobs working with Pardot and Salesforce. You can also post jobs and connect with the perfect people for your team.

the spot for pardot jobs

Witness Pardot in Action: Industry Days

Pardot can look different for you depending on your industry. Learn about the differences and immerse yourself in real-life Pardot use cases that are specific to certain industries. 

Each conference day includes content to highlight diverse industry solutions.

Par-take in the Pardot Event of the Year

ParDreamin’ 2021 will be here before you know it. If you’ve already registered for ParDreamin’, then watch for an email that will give you early access to enter the ParDreamin’ platform. Get in there early so you can preview the schedule, register for special sessions, and build your perfect agenda.

If you haven’t registered, then get on it now! Remember, you can complete the form again if you got a free ticket but decided you’d like to add VIP access or a pre-conference training workshop.Click here to complete the registration form and get your ticket to ParDreamin’.

The post ParDreamin’ 2021: The Pardot World’s Big Virtual Gathering appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-10-15T18:14:50+00:00October 15th, 2021|Categories: Career, Events, Salesforce|

Launching Pardot Careers for Military Veterans

We have big news for military veterans who want to launch careers in the Salesforce ecosystem. The Sercante team is working with a nonprofit organization that’s well known in the Salesforce world to revamp its entire sales and marketing technology stack while enabling the expansion of Pardot training programs. 

Sercante is donating $140,000 in pro-bono company resources to Merivis, which is an organization that eases the transition to civilian life for military veterans and their families. Merivis provides resources for veterans and military spouses pursuing careers in cloud computing by coordinating learning cohorts that work to gain specialized skills and certifications. 

The pro-bono donation from Sercante will revolutionize Merivis fundraising efforts by equipping the team with a robust marketing strategy that has digital-first experiences built in. Sercante is also donating Pardot training programs to Merivis members who want to gain specialized technology skills to help them launch their new careers.

The ultimate goal of the donation is to get Merivis ready for rapid growth so they can continue to change lives for military families while addressing global talent shortages that make it difficult for companies and organizations to fill technical job roles.

 

Donation expands Pardot training programs for Merivis

The donation to Merivis is expanding training programs for military veterans and their spouses who want to work in Pardot as they launch their civilian careers. While Merivis has offered Pardot training to members in the past, the donation will expand training and create a 40-student cohort that will focus on all things Pardot. 

To design programming for the cohort, Sercante team members worked with the team at Merivis to combine existing Sercante Pardot training content with the Merivis method of training. 

The Merivis Pardot training cohort program includes:

  • Content from Salesforce Trailhead
  • One-on-one coaching
  • Virtual learning sessions
  • Soft-skills work to gain professional development competencies

Merivis Logo

Merivis prepares for rapid growth

The $140,000 donation to Merivis also includes a significant amount of technical support hours from the Sercante team. Merivis will use the support hours to increase the impact of their efforts using Pardot and the Salesforce platform, which will enable Merivis to scale their marketing strategy as the organization continues to grow.

Since 2015, Merivis founders Hector Perez, Kate Perez, and Joe Castro, have worked to build the nonprofit organization to provide real-world training to military veteran families as they transition to civilian careers in technology. More than 500 military veterans and their spouses have completed the training programs. 

Members of the Sercante team will apply their technical knowledge of Pardot and the Salesforce platform to configure and optimize CRM tools for Merivis. Optimizing the technology stack for the nonprofit is enabling Merivis to reach the right audience at the right time while saving time and money for the team.

“We’re a small team of people wearing many hats. Sercante is swooping in to optimize our marketing technology stack so we can increase our impact while using fewer resources. Ultimately, the donation will help us to grow as an organization and expand our transformational training programs to more individuals so they can gain in-demand skills to launch new technology careers,” said Kate Perez, co-founder and executive director of Merivis.

 

Get involved with Merivis

We highly recommend supporting Merivis however you can. Whether you’re a military veteran or someone who supports them or a member of the Salesforce community, there are a few ways to get involved with Merivis. 

 

Donate to Merivis

Merivis relies on donations and volunteers to keep everything running smoothly. So, making any type of donation goes a long way. You can choose from several different donation levels depending on your level of commitment.

Learn more about making a donation to Merivis here.

 

Join a Merivis Cohort

Here’s how military veterans can get in on the action.

You can apply to join a Merivis training cohort if you are a current service member, veteran, or military spouse. If approved, you’ll get between two to five weeks of virtual training, which typically requires 5-10 hours of commitment per week.

The goal for each cohort is to work toward Salesforce certifications, like the Pardot specialist or Pardot consultant certification.

Visit this page to learn more about joining a Merivis training cohort.

 

Be a Volunteer Coach

Volunteering is a great way to give back while learning more about yourself and the community. Merivis has a few ways to participate in the program as a volunteer:

  • Salesforce Coach and Content Lead – Mentor Merivis program members either in a group or individually.
  • Volunteer Instructor – Certified Salesforce professionals who volunteer to lead training sessions are essential to the Merivis program.
  • Resume and Mock Interviews – Veterans entering the workforce get help from volunteers to perfect their resume and practice interviewing skills.

Complete the form here to apply to volunteer for Merivis. You’ll bring more professionals into the Salesforce ecosystem while enabling military veterans to launch new careers — and probably meet incredible people while learning new skills along the way.

 

Tell us About Your Experience

Volunteering to teach others how to work in Pardot or other Salesforce clouds not only cements concepts in your mind, but it also provides a vital lifeline to people looking to break into the ecosystem.

Have you volunteered your Pardot skills for a nonprofit organization or Salesforce user group? Tell us about it in the comments below!

By |2021-10-19T14:02:20+00:00September 27th, 2021|Categories: Career, careers, Marketing Automation, Marketing Operations, Pardot, Pardot Training, Salesforce|

5 Steps to Pass the Pardot Specialist Certification Exam

Whether you’re an experienced Pardot admin or relatively new to the Pardot platform, passing the Salesforce Pardot Specialist Certification exam is a great way to demonstrate your skills and expertise. 

In this article, I share the five steps I took to pass the Pardot Specialist Certification exam – reviewing the exam resources, studying, taking practice exams, harnessing key test-taking strategies, and preparing to meet the exam requirements. In each step, you’ll find tips and strategies plus links to guide you through this process.

Ready to dive in? Let’s do this.

Step 1: Review the Pardot Specialist Exam Guide and Resources

Salesforce provides some amazing resources that outline everything you need to know to pass the Pardot Specialist Certification exam. 

Start by reviewing the Salesforce Certified Pardot Specialist exam guide. This will answer all of your administrative questions about the exam like:

  • “How is the exam administered?”
  • “How many questions are there?”
  • “What score do I need to pass?” 

Then, check out the exam outline to see a high-level overview of the exam topics. I recommend reviewing this guide – either by printing out a hard copy or copy-pasting into a separate doc. Then you can highlight any areas where you know you’ll need to focus more of your studying time. It’s ok to highlight most or all of the topics in this list! Your objective here is to understand the scope of what you need to learn so you can use your time wisely.

Step 2: Start Studying

Once you’ve reviewed the exam outline, head over to the Pardot Specialist Credential Trailmix. There is a LOT of content here – it’s estimated to take over 14 hours to complete! Shit just got real. Let’s take a deep breath and tackle this strategically to make the best use of our time and attention. 

Determine what worked for you in the past

Before you dive into studying, think back to your experiences in school. What worked when you were studying for an exam?

When I was in college, my favorite approach was to type up a master document containing my notes from lectures, textbook reading, and labs. A few days before the exam, I’d print out that document and read through it, writing out in pencil or pen anything that didn’t feel like it was sticking. Then, I’d review those hand-written notes the morning of my exam to make sure the trickiest information is the freshest in my mind. This strategy works for me because I create one centralized document for all of the information I need to know and I surface the information that’s hardest for me to learn. And as a bonus, this document becomes a great reference resource after the exam!

Are you the kind of person who likes learning from an instructor, being able to ask questions, and having a group of study buddies? If so, I highly recommend taking Sercante’s Pardot Admin Bootcamp Course. This course provides an invaluable mixture of technical learning, real-world use cases, and hands-on examples. It also provides a weekly structure that can help you stick to your study schedule ahead of the exam. 

Read through the Salesforce Trailmix materials

Work your way through the Salesforce Trailmix materials from the top to the bottom. And give special attention to the sections you highlighted earlier in the exam outline. For example, if Engagement Studio isn’t your strong suit, then make sure you have a good grasp of foundational topics. These include Visitors & Prospects, Syncing Prospects, and Mapping Custom Fields before you read the Engagement Studio documentation. 

Note that it is important to read the secondary documentation. What do I mean by “secondary documentation”? Here’s an example. If you open the Prospects documentation link, make sure you read through that page plus each of the linked documents on that page like “Anonymous Visitors” and “Active Prospects”. 

For any of the trailhead modules listed, notice the phrasing of the questions in the quiz section. Salesforce has a very particular way of wording their questions, so think of these quizzes as mini practice tests. I’d recommend writing down any questions and answers you don’t feel confident on to come back to later. Keep in mind that once you submit your answers, the quiz will disappear. 

Step 3: Take Some Practice Exams

Fortunately, there are loads of practice exams and pre-made flashcard sets available online for the Pardot Specialist Certification exam. Like the quizzes at the bottom of Salesforce’s Trailheads, these practice exams can help you get used to the style of the questions you’ll encounter on the real exam. A good goal is to keep taking the practice exams until you’re consistently hitting scores in the 80s or above. 

A word of caution: you need to be careful about the answers in these practice exams. Not all of them are correct, even in the paid versions! If there are any answers that don’t feel quite right, do a quick Google search or check in your own Pardot instance until you’re 100% confident you have the right answer. 

For the answers you really do get wrong, take a few minutes to dig into the related Pardot and Salesforce documentation in the exam Trailmix and practice in your own org to make sure you understand the underlying concepts and functionality. If you notice yourself consistently getting questions wrong about Dynamic vs Static Lists, for example, then study up a bit more on that topic. 

Step 4: Harness the Power of Key Test-Taking Strategies

Your exam day is fast approaching. Now’s the time to start thinking about your approach to taking the exam itself. Here are a couple of key test-taking strategies you can use to help improve your odds on exam day.

Narrow down the possible answers

If there’s a question on the exam that’s stumping you, first try to eliminate any answers you know FOR SURE are wrong. Sometimes, the incorrect answers can be surprisingly obvious. For example, if the question asks, “Which activity can be used to trigger an increase or decrease in a Prospect’s score?” and one of the answers is, “Printing an email,” you can easily cross that answer off.

From a statistical perspective, eliminating just 1 of 4 answers can increase your odds of getting the question right from 25% to 33%. If you can eliminate 2 answers, your odds go up to 50%.

Mark questions for review

If you haven’t taken a Salesforce Certification exam in the past, it’s important to know that you’ll be able to mark specific questions for review. Before you submit your exam, you can come back to your flagged questions and double check your answers. 

The approach I like to take is to mark any questions I’m not completely confident on for review. By using the mark-for-review feature, you can save brainpower by skipping over answers you know are correct instead of having to double check every answer before hitting the “submit” button.

If you encounter any questions during your review that you STILL aren’t confident about, then leave them in “review” status. Counting up the number of questions flagged for review just before you submit your exam can give you a ballpark idea of whether or not you’re going to pass. 

Step 5: Prepare for the Exam Requirements

Alright. You’ve studied your ass off, taken a boatload of practice exams, and now your exam day is just a few days away. At this point, it’s super important to re-read the section of the exam guide about the requirements for taking an onsite or online exam thoroughly. 

For online exams, there’s a bunch of pre-work you need to complete to meet the technology requirements. It’s a good idea to get this done sooner rather than later so your exam day doesn’t become extra stressful. 

Get ready to take your Pardot Specialist exam

Once you’ve gone through all 5 steps – setting the scope for what you need to learn, studying, taking practice tests, harnessing some key test-taking strategies, and preparing for the exam requirements – you’re ready to take your Pardot Specialist Certification exam! 

YOU CAN DO THIS. 

Remember that if you don’t pass, IT’S OKAY. You can always retake the exam. The most important part of this journey is the work you’re doing to level up your Pardot Admin skills. 

When you’re done taking the exam, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. How did your exam go? Which steps and strategies worked best for you?

Note: This blog was written in Summer 2021.

The post 5 Steps to Pass the Pardot Specialist Certification Exam appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-07-14T20:06:12+00:00July 14th, 2021|Categories: Career, Pardot Specialist|

Announcing The Spot for Pardot Jobs

We’re thrilled to announce a new platform we’ve launched for finding and posting Pardot jobs.

Supporting the Pardot community by sharing knowledge built the foundation for The Spot for Pardot in the Salesforce ecosystem. The Spot for Pardot Jobs hatched from that idea. 

We already share how-to guides, career advice, and occasional war stories with Pardot. So, we decided to kick it up a notch by helping marketing professionals find jobs working with Pardot and other technology tools.

The Spot for Pardot Jobs 2

The best place to find and post Pardot jobs

The Spot for Pardot Jobs is a one-stop-shop for finding marketing-related jobs working with Pardot and Salesforce. 

Anyone can post a job to the site for free. This makes the platform more accessible to smaller companies and startups that have limited hiring budgets.

The team at Sercante manages The Spot for Pardot Jobs. That means we’ll moderate the content to ensure listings are updated and relevant to job searchers. Our wish is for The Spot for Pardot Jobs to be the go-to platform for job seekers and companies looking for mutually beneficial relationships with Pardot professionals.

The Spot for Pardot Jobs 3

The Spot for Pardot Jobs is ready for action

You can start using The Spot for Pardot Jobs today.

The site is already available for both job seekers and job posters. We’ve added over 200 Pardot and marketing opportunities that may interest you.

For Pardot Job Seekers 

The open positions on the site include a mix of employer-submitted jobs and ones our team found online. The site is set to automatically delete the jobs we post after 30-90 days to keep it up-to-date. Employers are responsible for the jobs they post, but the listings will automatically delete after 90 days if there’s no activity from the job poster.

To get started, go to the site and click “Find a Job” in the top right corner. You can search for jobs using keywords, location, and more. 

Hot tip: there’s lots of remote work available.

For Employers

Human resources professionals love when they can post jobs for free. We’re throwing them a bone with The Spot for Pardot Jobs so we can all succeed.

Employers can start posting jobs to the site right now. Here’s how to post a job:

  • Click Sign Up and follow the prompts to create an account. 
  • You can log in if you’ve already created an account.
  • When you’re logged in, click the Post a Job link. Then, complete the form to post the job.

You can edit the job or remove it once you’ve filled the position. We’ll automatically delete listings after 90 days unless you take action before the time is up.

Get The Spot For Pardot Jobs Newsletter

You can stay up to date with career opportunities by signing up for our newsletter. We’ll highlight Pardot career trends, interesting job opportunities, and other information to help you move further in your career.

The Spot for Pardot Jobs Newsletter – Employer Edition

The Spot for Pardot Jobs Newsletter – Job Seeker Edition

Get Pardot Job Updates on Twitter

It’s really easy for you to keep up with the latest job opportunities that get posted to The Spot for Pardot Jobs. You can follow @spot4pardotjobs on Twitter to see job listings in your news feed.

Noteworthy job listings

We’ve added some especially interesting jobs we know you’ll want to see. Here are a few of our favorites:

Jobs at Sercante

The Sercante team is growing faster than ever. We want the best of the best talent in the ecosystem. So, if you’re a Pardot pro who’s looking for a career shakeup, then we’d love to chat.

Here are a few interesting job opportunities at Sercante:

Click here to view all opportunities available on the Sercante consulting team.

Land a Pardot job at Salesforce

We work closely with the team at Salesforce. So we know how amazing the opportunities are working on their team.

Check out these jobs available at Salesforce:

The Spot for Pardot Jobs 4

Launching Pardot careers every day

Rising from a little one-person blog, The Spot for Pardot has grown quickly. The Spot for Pardot is the place to go for anyone who wants to learn more about Pardot and marketing. We took it a step further by creating The Spot for Pardot Jobs.

It’s a platform where all the Pardot people can go to connect with new opportunities.

Now go forth, and discover all the Pardot possibilities!

The post Announcing The Spot for Pardot Jobs appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-06-30T17:05:32+00:00June 30th, 2021|Categories: Career, careers, pardot jobs|

Hayley Tuller Named 2020 Merivis Volunteer of the Year

Being generous with our time through volunteer work is a core value at Sercante.

Sercante Solution Engineer, Hayley Tuller, has taken that generosity to a new level. Her volunteer work in the Salesforce community earned her the 2020 Merivis Volunteer of the Year Award.

Merivis Co-Founder and Executive Director Kate Perez presented Hayley with the award during a virtual keynote presentation on May 26 at the 2021 Merivis Summit.

(more…)

By |2023-01-25T21:10:18+00:00May 27th, 2021|Categories: Career, Events, Salesforce News, Sercante News|Tags: , , |

Sercante Receives SI Trailblazer Fund From Salesforce Ventures

Today marks a major milestone for Sercante. We are pleased to announce Sercante is the recipient of the SI Trailblazer fund from Salesforce Ventures, a fund to accelerate the growth of next-generation consulting firms. 

This funding opens new opportunities to amplify our partnership with Pardot and gives us the ability to expand our team across all departments, increase investment in R&D, and continue to grow our international footprint. 

“This additional funding comes at a pivotal time to fuel our accelerated growth plans, deepen our product development efforts with Sercante Labs, and overall support our clients as they navigate digital transformation, Pardot, and Salesforce.”

Andrea Tarrell, CEO & Founder of Sercante

As we look back, when Sercante was a small Pardot-focused blog and a handful of brilliant minds, we never imagined we would be here three short years later. We have now grown to over 40 full-time consultants, developers, designers, and architects spread across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to support businesses globally. See Our Journey This Far

Words can’t describe how much we appreciate the awesome people that have chosen to give their time and talents to Sercante, the amazing clients that continue to push this limits of the platform, the team at Salesforce who cultivate a strong ecosystem… and of course, the amazing Pardot community who constantly cheers each other on and has each other’s backs. You all have a part in Sercante’s growth and we know that we would not be receiving this honor without your support over the years. So we want to thank you and let you know that we are as dedicated as ever to making marketing & sales teams are wildly successful on the Salesforce platform. 

Bonus Points – We’re Hiring! 

We’re on a mission to grow. The most important ingredient in that is awesome people. This is an exciting time to join the team and embark on this journey with us as this is just the beginning of plenty more awesomeness to come. We are currently looking for talented individuals to join our team in various roles to help man our ship including Pardot Pros, Salesforce Developers, Copywriters, and Technical Leads. We’re moving really fast and have a pretty unique culture. It’s not for everybody — but for those that fit, it’s a growth opportunity like no other.  So, if you’re a Pardot pro who’s looking for a career shakeup… We’d love to chat.

Open Roles on Our Team

We are currently recruiting for the following roles:

Interested in joining the team, but not quite seeing a role that calls to you? We are also non-specifically hunting for awesome people anywhere we come across them. So… let’s talk. Best way to get in touch is [email protected]

The post Sercante Receives SI Trailblazer Fund From Salesforce Ventures appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-03-23T11:10:00+00:00March 23rd, 2021|Categories: Career, Events|

Sercante Receives SI Trailblazer Fund From Salesforce Ventures

Today marks a major milestone for Sercante. We are pleased to announce Sercante is the recipient of the SI Trailblazer fund from Salesforce Ventures, a fund to accelerate the growth of next-generation consulting firms. 

This funding opens new opportunities to amplify our partnership with Pardot and gives us the ability to expand our team across all departments, increase investment in R&D, and continue to grow our international footprint. 

“This additional funding comes at a pivotal time to fuel our accelerated growth plans, deepen our product development efforts with Sercante Labs, and overall support our clients as they navigate digital transformation, Pardot, and Salesforce.”

Andrea Tarrell, CEO & Founder of Sercante

As we look back, when Sercante was a small Pardot-focused blog and a handful of brilliant minds, we never imagined we would be here three short years later. We have now grown to over 40 full-time consultants, developers, designers, and architects spread across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to support businesses globally. See Our Journey This Far

Words can’t describe how much we appreciate the awesome people that have chosen to give their time and talents to Sercante, the amazing clients that continue to push this limits of the platform, the team at Salesforce who cultivate a strong ecosystem… and of course, the amazing Pardot community who constantly cheers each other on and has each other’s backs. You all have a part in Sercante’s growth and we know that we would not be receiving this honor without your support over the years. So we want to thank you and let you know that we are as dedicated as ever to making marketing & sales teams are wildly successful on the Salesforce platform. 

Bonus Points – We’re Hiring! 

We’re on a mission to grow. The most important ingredient in that is awesome people. This is an exciting time to join the team and embark on this journey with us as this is just the beginning of plenty more awesomeness to come. We are currently looking for talented individuals to join our team in various roles to help man our ship including Pardot Pros, Salesforce Developers, Copywriters, and Technical Leads. We’re moving really fast and have a pretty unique culture. It’s not for everybody — but for those that fit, it’s a growth opportunity like no other.  So, if you’re a Pardot pro who’s looking for a career shakeup… We’d love to chat.

Open Roles on Our Team

We are currently recruiting for the following roles:

Interested in joining the team, but not quite seeing a role that calls to you? We are also non-specifically hunting for awesome people anywhere we come across them. So… let’s talk. Best way to get in touch is [email protected]

The post Sercante Receives SI Trailblazer Fund From Salesforce Ventures appeared first on The Spot For Pardot.

By |2021-03-23T11:10:00+00:00March 23rd, 2021|Categories: Career, Events|