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Forms Are Great, But Confirmed Opt-In Is Better

Are you spending hours upon hours curating engaging, click-worthy content, only to notice that you have low engagement, high unsubscribes and spam complaints? A list of opted-in prospects is great, but what happens when they input false or incorrect contact information, or sign up on a whim. By setting up Confirmed Opt-In (also known as Double Opt-In), you can be at ease knowing you’re collecting email addresses from a valid and monitored inbox, and of prospects who want to receive and read your content.

What is Confirmed Opt-In?

A Confirmed Opt-In (COI) is a process where a marketer obtains explicit consent from prospects to receive marketing emails.

Setting it up adds a few more steps to the Single Opt-in process but is generally easy:

A contact fills out your form and selects the consent check-box (single opt-in)
They receive the opt-in confirmation email, open it and click the button to confirm.
Their record is updated as an opted-in contact, along with other important details like when they confirmed their opt-in.

It may be a regulatory requirement in certain regions, so make sure you do your research to understand whether your prospects require a COI. It’s currently required in Austria, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Norway (source).

Benefits of COI for Email Marketing

While it can take more time to set up, the payoff is worth the effort:

Higher email engagement rates (opens/clicks): Prospects are interested in receiving your marketing emails and are more likely to purchase your products/services.
Lower bounce rates/spam complaints and a better sending reputation: No fake emails entering your database and causing high bounce rates or spam traps that end up harming your sending reputation.
A well-documented record of opt-in: With this auditable trail, if a recipient reports the email as spam, you will have proof to support your list’s opt-in integrity.
And generally a good, clean database.

Setting up Confirmed Opt-In

There are a number of ways to set up COI. Here’s a basic overview of how to set it up in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) instance.

Create two lists to capture opt-ins
- Confirmed Opt-in
- Not confirmed Opt-in
Create a landing page that a prospect is directed to once they confirm their opt-in.
Create a custom redirect link that sends prospects to the landing page above
- Add the following completion actions to the custom redirect:
  1. Remove prospect from Not confirmed Opt-in list
  2. Add prospect to Confirmed Opt-in list
Set up an auto-responder email to capture COI
- Add the custom redirect link (identified in the above step) to the call to action button to capture the COI
Add the following completion actions to the form/form handler that captures consent to receive Marketing Communications:
- Add prospects to the Not confirmed Opt-in list
- Send auto-responder email to capture their COI

Quality or Quantity

COI is a great way to level up your email marketing strategy; ensuring a healthy database full of ‘real’ and engaged prospects. And with sales and marketing always looking for quality over quantity, COI will ensure it gets you there.

What questions do you have about Confirmed Opt-in? Let’s hear it in the comments below.

Original article: Forms Are Great, But Confirmed Opt-In Is Better

The post Forms Are Great, But Confirmed Opt-In Is Better appeared first on The Spot.

By Rana Mansour|2023-01-05T17:28:14+00:00January 5th, 2023|Categories: Forms & Form Handlers, Getting Started, Pardot, revive, Setup & Admin|

Your website is one of your most important demand generation assets and a blog is a great way to increase your online presence by making you more visible on Google. It’s also a great way to bring prospects into your database to expand the top of your funnel.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set up your blog with a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) form, how to create a blog welcome email, and tips to automate blog digest emails.

How do you want your blog readers to subscribe?

There are many ways you can get your readers to subscribe to your blog. Some companies use a popup form when you visit a blog post, which has proven to be effective and other companies make it more subtle. Here are some different methods which will give you inspiration on how you should add the form to your blog.

Example 1: In a sidebar

Pardot lets you subscribe to their blog by entering in your email address in the sidebar.

Example 2: At the end of each blog

Hootsuite adds their blog subscription form to the bottom of each blog post. They also only ask for your email address and have some nice icons, so it’s clear what you’re signing up for.

Example 3: In the footer

Engagio has a “sticky footer” at the bottom of their blog page, as well as on each blog post to get readers to subscribe. The bold yellow color also draws your attention to the subscription form without being too invasive and they provide you with a close button to hide the form.

Example 4: With an automation

Asana uses a subscription form that slides out at the bottom when you scroll down about 80%. I like how the animation captures the attention of the readers and how they incorporate Facebook and Twitter buttons beneath the email sign up.

Example 5: In multiple spots

Shopify uses two slightly different methods for capturing their blog subscribers. When you visit their main blog page you can subscribe right from their header.

They also have a subscription form in the sidebar of each post. I like that they include some social proof in the subscription form in the sidebar and it’s clear what I can expect them to send me if I give them my email address.

What fields should you capture?

Standard fields

The shorter the form the more likely you will get your readers to subscribe to your blog. Most blogs only ask for an email address, but some also will ask you for your first and last name for more personalized blog digest emails.

Hidden fields

Your standard source fields should be on your blog subscription form, just like every Pardot form you create.

If you opt to have a subscription form on every blog post, I also like to add hidden fields for blog post title and blog post category. With my blog, for example, I have a subscription form at the bottom of each post and I use custom code in WordPress to automatically populate the hidden fields with the post title and post category. This way I can pull reports in Pardot to see what type of content is generating more blog subscribers and what posts have generated the most blog subscribers.

Here’s an example of populating hidden fields with WordPress blog information. Note: This method is only possible while using Pardot Form Handlers.

<input type="hidden" name="post-category" value="<?php the_category(); ?>" />

<input type="hidden" name="post-category" value="<?php single_post_title(); ?>" />

The Pardot implementation

Now that I’ve given you some examples of what form fields to include in your form and some methods for blog subscription forms, it’s time to show you how to build it out in Pardot.

Pardot Form Handlers vs. Pardot Form embed

There are some advantages and disadvantages for each form method. Embedded Pardot forms allow you to update the form directly in the Pardot form editor and the changes are live on your site as soon as you save the form. However, they also are embedded on your site using an iFrame, which means that certain functionality might not be available. Pardot form handlers are much more flexible and allow you to use your own HTML code to send data to Pardot.

When integrating your blog with Pardot the best form method to use, in my opinion, is Pardot form handlers, for a couple of reasons:

Changes don’t need to be made to the blog form regularly
It’s easier to have the form match your website/blog
Many blogging platforms have plugins you can use for blog subscription forms that will work well with Pardot form handlers

Create a campaign dedicated to blog subscribers

Create a campaign to attribute your blog as a lead source for any new subscribers. Your form and new subscribers should be assigned to the campaign in Pardot and/or Salesforce, depending on your lead attribution processes.

Create a Pardot Form or a Form Handler

In this tutorial, I will be using a Pardot form handler. You can also use a regular Pardot form if you prefer.

Create a Pardot form handler with a descriptive name. I called mine “Blog Subscription Form.” Select your new campaign, map the fields that you want to add to the form and click save. Note: Completion Actions and some other settings will be updated later on.

Add the form to your blog

There are many tools that allow you to add forms to your blog, but it depends what platform you use. Here’s a list of some popular plugins that will help you add your Pardot form to your blog.

PopUp Domination can be used to create a popup subscription form on your blog. You can use any HTML you want, which means it will work perfectly with your Pardot form handler.
Sumo is another option that will work on any type of blog platform. They also offer many different ways to display the subscription form on your blog.

While I’m a big fan of these tools, if you have a developer available the best option is to get them to implement your Pardot form on your blog using custom code. Depending on the method you choose it should be pretty easy for a developer to implement your form and it means you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription fee for using these tools.

Create a Thank You page

The next step is to create a Thank You page that the form will direct to when someone subscribes to the blog. I recommend that you create it on your website (instead of a Pardot landing page), to ensure it has the same look as your blog.

Once your Thank You page is created, copy and paste the URL into the Success location in the Pardot form handler.

Create a blog welcome email

A blog welcome email is a great way to promote more of your blog content. Choose a couple of your popular posts or create a digest of curated content your readers might be interested in.

When a reader subscribes to my blog, I send them a welcome email with some of my top Pardot blog posts. Click here to see what it looks like (and feel free to copy and paste the HTML to create your own welcome email).

Once you have your blog welcome email created add a completion action to your Pardot form to send an autoresponder email.

Emailing subscribers: Automated vs. Manual

Now that your form is set up on your site and your welcome email is ready, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to send notification emails when there’s a new blog post. There are two ways you can send out blog posts:

Automatically using a third-party application, or
Manually, since Pardot doesn’t have an RSS feed integration.

For my blog, I send out all my blog digest emails manually, since I like to have control over what’s sent. However, I only post about once or twice a week, so it’s pretty manageable.

Automated blog posts using Feed Otter

If you opt to go with the automated route, Feed Otter provides a full RSS integration with Pardot. You can quickly build, schedule, and email your blog subscribers notifying them of a new post, a weekly digest, or a monthly newsletter.

Manual blog post emails

Manual blog post emails require you to create an email each time there is a new blog post, or if you post a lot during the week, you can do a digest of all the new posts, once a week. It can be time-consuming, but if you have a good email template setup and a defined process the whole thing doesn’t take very long. If you’re going to go the manual route, here are some tips:

Create a simple, one-column email template, so you don’t have to spend time messing with formatting. This is the template I use for my blog posts.
Create an email that you can copy each time you need to send a blog email. This will contain all the settings (from address, list, etc.) you need to send the blog email.

Questions?

Send me a tweet @jennamolby or leave a comment below.

Note: This post was originally written in November 2016 and updated January 2023.

Original article: How to Integrate Your Blog With Pardot

The post How to Integrate Your Blog With Pardot appeared first on The Spot.

By Jenna Molby|2023-01-04T19:34:16+00:00January 4th, 2023|Categories: Emails & Templates, Forms & Form Handlers, Getting Started, Pardot, revive, Setup & Admin|

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set up your blog with a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) form, how to create a blog welcome email, and tips to automate blog digest emails.

How do you want your blog readers to subscribe?

Example 1: In a sidebar

Pardot lets you subscribe to their blog by entering in your email address in the sidebar.

Example 2: At the end of each blog

Hootsuite adds their blog subscription form to the bottom of each blog post. They also only ask for your email address and have some nice icons, so it’s clear what you’re signing up for.

Example 3: In the footer

Example 4: With an automation

Example 5: In multiple spots

Shopify uses two slightly different methods for capturing their blog subscribers. When you visit their main blog page you can subscribe right from their header.

What fields should you capture?

Standard fields

Hidden fields

Your standard source fields should be on your blog subscription form, just like every Pardot form you create.

Here’s an example of populating hidden fields with WordPress blog information. Note: This method is only possible while using Pardot Form Handlers.

<input type="hidden" name="post-category" value="<?php the_category(); ?>" />

<input type="hidden" name="post-category" value="<?php single_post_title(); ?>" />

The Pardot implementation

Now that I’ve given you some examples of what form fields to include in your form and some methods for blog subscription forms, it’s time to show you how to build it out in Pardot.

Pardot Form Handlers vs. Pardot Form embed

When integrating your blog with Pardot the best form method to use, in my opinion, is Pardot form handlers, for a couple of reasons:

Changes don’t need to be made to the blog form regularly
It’s easier to have the form match your website/blog
Many blogging platforms have plugins you can use for blog subscription forms that will work well with Pardot form handlers

Create a campaign dedicated to blog subscribers

Create a Pardot Form or a Form Handler

In this tutorial, I will be using a Pardot form handler. You can also use a regular Pardot form if you prefer.

Add the form to your blog

There are many tools that allow you to add forms to your blog, but it depends what platform you use. Here’s a list of some popular plugins that will help you add your Pardot form to your blog.

PopUp Domination can be used to create a popup subscription form on your blog. You can use any HTML you want, which means it will work perfectly with your Pardot form handler.
Sumo is another option that will work on any type of blog platform. They also offer many different ways to display the subscription form on your blog.

Create a Thank You page

Once your Thank You page is created, copy and paste the URL into the Success location in the Pardot form handler.

Create a blog welcome email

A blog welcome email is a great way to promote more of your blog content. Choose a couple of your popular posts or create a digest of curated content your readers might be interested in.

Once you have your blog welcome email created add a completion action to your Pardot form to send an autoresponder email.

Emailing subscribers: Automated vs. Manual

Automatically using a third-party application, or
Manually, since Pardot doesn’t have an RSS feed integration.

For my blog, I send out all my blog digest emails manually, since I like to have control over what’s sent. However, I only post about once or twice a week, so it’s pretty manageable.

Automated blog posts using Feed Otter

Manual blog post emails

Create a simple, one-column email template, so you don’t have to spend time messing with formatting. This is the template I use for my blog posts.
Create an email that you can copy each time you need to send a blog email. This will contain all the settings (from address, list, etc.) you need to send the blog email.

Questions?

Send me a tweet @jennamolby or leave a comment below.

Note: This post was originally written in November 2016 and updated January 2023.

Original article: How to Integrate Your Blog With Pardot

The post How to Integrate Your Blog With Pardot appeared first on The Spot.

By Jenna Molby|2023-01-04T19:34:16+00:00January 4th, 2023|Categories: Emails & Templates, Forms & Form Handlers, Getting Started, Pardot, revive, Setup & Admin|

Recently, I was challenged with creating a landing page for event registration using Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot). The event had 15+ roundtable sessions in the morning (within 2-time slots) and an option to register for the afternoon session (keynote, happy hour etc). Here’s a sneak peek into how I built it along with some code if you want to try building something similar for your next event.

VIEW DEMO

How it Works

Before we get into the details, here’s a high-level breakdown of how the page works.

A user clicks on the ‘register’ button to sign up for a roundtable, the roundtable name is populated in a hidden form field.
A user clicks on the ‘register’ button to sign up for the conference, a hidden form field is set to TRUE
A user then enters their information into a form. The data is sent to Pardot using a form handler.
Users who signed up for at least one roundtable are sent a Pardot email that contains a “thanks for registering” message, the name(s) of the selected roundtable(s) and a calendar invite.
Users who didn’t sign up for any roundtables, but signed up to attend the conference, are sent a “thank you” email with a calendar invite.

Pardot Setup

Field Creation

First, I needed to create a couple of new fields in Pardot:

Roundtable Name 1: This field will contain the name of the roundtable the attendee selects for the first time slot.
Roundtable Name 2: This field will contain the name of the roundtable the attendee selects for the second time slot.
Registered For Conference: This field is a checkbox (true or false) which will indicate that the attendee has selected to attend the conference.

Form Handler Setup

I opted to use a form handler instead of a Pardot form, so I could easily customize my form.

Field Mappings

I added all the standard fields to the form handler (first name, last name, company name, job title, opt-in, and email address). I also added the 3 new custom fields (roundtable name 1, roundtable name 2, registered for conference) and marked them as not required since the attendee doesn’t have to go to all 3 events.

Completion Actions

I added 2 completion actions, the first one is to sync the prospect to an SFDC campaign with the status of “registered”, the second completion action is to send me an email alert when someone registers. The email notification helped me easily determine which roundtables are most popular.

Thanks for registering email confirmation

I created 2 ‘thanks for registering emails’ and set them up to be sent via an automation rule.

Conference Only: This email is sent out to everyone who didn’t select to participate in any of the roundtables.
Roundtables: This email is sent out to everyone who registered for at least one roundtable session.

Conference Only Email

The conference only email was pretty simple. It contained a thank you message along with calendar invites.

The email was sent using an automation rule that checks if “conference only” is true and if both roundtable fields are empty.

Roundtable Email

The roundtable email contains a thank you message as well as the name(s) of the roundtables the user has selected to attend. The names of the roundtables are dynamically added to the email using a variable tag.

The email was sent using an automation rule that checks if the roundtable 1 field is not empty OR the roundtable 2 field is not empty.

pardot-completion-action-send-roundtable-email

Building the Landing Page

Building the landing page was the difficult part. I didn’t want to include the roundtable names in a drop down menu in a form, so I came up with the idea to make the registration process like a shopping cart.

VIEW DEMO

The HTML

I used Bootstrap as my framework for the landing page and used Bootstrap Panels for a clean way to display the roundtable names and descriptions.

<div class="panel panel-default">
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 1</span></h3>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-body">
      <div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
          Pellentesque tempus aliquet nisi in sollicitudin. Aliquam tempor ligula vel mattis cursus. Cras lacus est, facilisis feugiat rhoncus ac, condimentum a ex. Aliquam elementum, nisi non dapibus dapibus, neque mi mattis libero, nec mattis tortor elit ut sapien. Donec nisi nulla, feugiat non dignissim aliquet, efficitur eget lorem. Proin id pellentesque ante.
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

Since there were 2 time slots for the roundtables, I wrapped each of the sections in a DIV with a class of first-session and second-session.

<div class="sessions first-session">
  <div class="panel panel-default">
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 1</span></h3>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-body">
      <div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
          Pellentesque tempus aliquet nisi in sollicitudin. Aliquam tempor ligula vel mattis cursus. Cras lacus est, facilisis feugiat rhoncus ac, condimentum a ex. Aliquam elementum, nisi non dapibus dapibus, neque mi mattis libero, nec mattis tortor elit ut sapien. Donec nisi nulla, feugiat non dignissim aliquet, efficitur eget lorem. Proin id pellentesque ante.
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
        </div>
      </div>
      
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="panel panel-default">
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 2</span></h3>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-body">
 	<div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
     	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas lacinia, dolor scelerisque commodo sodales, augue lectus luctus turpis, id pharetra mauris libero at urna. Vestibulum in magna aliquam, interdum diam eu, pretium odio. Curabitur a porta metus, eget porttitor nibh. Maecenas porta condimentum lacus, in bibendum augue euismod sit amet.
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
        </div>
      </div>
   	
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="panel panel-default">
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 3</span></h3>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-body">
 	<div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
          Phasellus nec neque scelerisque, semper odio a, fringilla leo. Sed cursus lectus non purus cursus tempus. Cras eu blandit lectus. Proin sodales justo et felis consectetur, sed ultrices nibh imperdiet. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed aliquam congue feugiat. Nam elit orci, congue et maximus sed, commodo quis arcu. Suspendisse iaculis eros viverra consectetur pretium.
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
        </div>
      </div>
   	
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="panel panel-default">
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 4</span></h3>
    </div>
    <div class="panel-body">
      <div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
          Cras sapien leo, sodales vitae congue quis, semper ac ligula. Integer molestie fermentum suscipit. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nulla odio ligula, aliquam eget leo eget, sollicitudin fringilla ante.
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
        </div>
      </div>   	
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Sticking with the ‘add to shopping cart’ feel, I wanted to add a “your agenda” section to the bottom left corner of the page that populates based on the sessions you select. This can be done using my slide out lead generation form with a couple modifications.

<div class="slideout-form">
  <div class="slideoutform-header">
    <h3>Your Agenda</h3>
    <div class="close">X</div>
  </div>
  <div class="slideout-content">
      <div class="session-name-1"></div>
      <div class="session-name-2"></div>
      <div class="text-center">
      <a href="#registration" class="btn btn-white">Register</a>
      </div>
  </div>
</div>

Finally, I added the form to the bottom of the page, which uses a Pardot form handler and hidden fields for roundtable name and conference registration.

<div class="panel panel-default">
  <form action="" method="post" id="regForm">
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            <label>First Name <span class="required">*</span></label>
            <input class="form-control" name="firstname" required/>
        </div>
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            <label>Last Name <span class="required">*</span></label>
            <input class="form-control" name="lastname" required/>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            <label>Email Address <span class="required">*</span></label>
            <input class="form-control" name="email" required/>
        </div>
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            <label>Company <span class="required">*</span></label>
            <input class="form-control" name="company" required/>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-sm-6">
            <label>Job Title <span class="required">*</span></label>
            <input class="form-control" name="jobtitle" required/>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-12 optin-container">
            <input type="checkbox" name="optin" /> Opt-in to receive communications from Sample Company including exclusive event invites, product and company updates and more
        </div>
    </div>
    <input type="hidden" name="roundtable1" />
    <input type="hidden" name="roundtable2" />
    <input type="hidden" name="eventreg" />
  <div class="footer-reg text-center">
    <input type="submit" class="btn btn-register btn-large" value="Register" />
  </div>
  <div class="required required-msg">
 
  </div>
  </form>
</div>

JavaScript

I used jQuery to add some logic to my page. There was a fair bit of logic to consider for the roundtable registration, including:

Changing the button style when a session is selected.
Hiding the rest of the ‘register’ buttons within that time slot, so the attendee can only select one session.
Displaying the name of the selected roundtable in the agenda section.
Populating the hidden fields with the name of the selected roundtable.

 // Show the Agenda
  $('.btn-select, .btn-conference').click(function(event) {
    $('.slideout-form').slideDown();
  })
  // Session Selection Session 1
  $('.first-session .btn-select').click(function(event) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $(this).addClass('session-selected');
      $(this).removeClass('btn-select');
      $(this).text('selected');
      $('.first-session .btn-select').hide();
      var selectedsession1 = $(this).closest('.panel').find('.rountable-name').text();
      $('.session-name-1').html('<div class="agenda-item"><h5>9:00am - 11:00am</h5><div class="agenda-content">' + selectedsession1 + '</div></div>');
      $('input[name=session1]').val(selectedsession1);
  });
 
  // Session Selection Session 2
  $('.second-session .btn-select').click(function(event) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $(this).addClass('session-selected');
      $(this).removeClass('btn-select');
      $(this).text('selected');
      $('.second-session .btn-select').hide();
      var selectedsession2 = $(this).closest('.panel').find('.rountable-name').text();
      $('.session-name-2').html('<div class="agenda-item"><h5>11:00am - NOON</h5><div class="agenda-content">' + selectedsession2 + '</div></div>');
      $('input[name=session2]').val(selectedsession2);
  });

The entire HTML code

I created a new landing page in Account Engagement to host the registration page. All the CSS, JavaScript and Bootstrap files were also uploaded in Account Engagement to keep everything in one place.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta content="IE=edge" http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible"><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" name="viewport">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://jennamolby.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/favicon.ico" />
<!-- The above 3 meta tags *must* come first in the head; any other head content must come *after* these tags -->
<title>Pardot Event Registration Inspiration</title>
<!-- Bootstrap -->
<link href="bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="pardot-registration-inspiration-styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
 
<!-- HTML5 shim and Respond.js for IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries --><!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.2/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->
    </head>
    <body>
      <div class="header">
        <div class="container">
          <div class="row">
            <div class="col-sm-12 text-center">
                  Example Pardot Registration Page
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
        <div class="container">
          <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-9 centered-columns">
              <h2> 9:00am - 10:00am</h2>
              <div class="sessions first-session">
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 1</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                      <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Pellentesque tempus aliquet nisi in sollicitudin. Aliquam tempor ligula vel mattis cursus. Cras lacus est, facilisis feugiat rhoncus ac, condimentum a ex. Aliquam elementum, nisi non dapibus dapibus, neque mi mattis libero, nec mattis tortor elit ut sapien. Donec nisi nulla, feugiat non dignissim aliquet, efficitur eget lorem. Proin id pellentesque ante.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 2</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                 	<div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                     	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas lacinia, dolor scelerisque commodo sodales, augue lectus luctus turpis, id pharetra mauris libero at urna. Vestibulum in magna aliquam, interdum diam eu, pretium odio. Curabitur a porta metus, eget porttitor nibh. Maecenas porta condimentum lacus, in bibendum augue euismod sit amet.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 3</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                 	<div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Phasellus nec neque scelerisque, semper odio a, fringilla leo. Sed cursus lectus non purus cursus tempus. Cras eu blandit lectus. Proin sodales justo et felis consectetur, sed ultrices nibh imperdiet. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed aliquam congue feugiat. Nam elit orci, congue et maximus sed, commodo quis arcu. Suspendisse iaculis eros viverra consectetur pretium.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 4</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                      <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Cras sapien leo, sodales vitae congue quis, semper ac ligula. Integer molestie fermentum suscipit. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nulla odio ligula, aliquam eget leo eget, sollicitudin fringilla ante.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>   	
                    </div>
                  </div>
                </div>
                <h2>11:00am - Noon</h2>
                <div class="sessions second-session">
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 5</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                      <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Donec aliquet arcu at risus consequat mollis. Morbi suscipit ipsum commodo posuere faucibus. Mauris dui lacus, accumsan sed sollicitudin eget, placerat a velit.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title">Session 6</h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                      <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Nam congue quam non elementum placerat. Vivamus egestas, ante sed imperdiet fermentum, tortor libero fermentum magna, nec bibendum mauris lacus vitae ante. Donec eu leo volutpat, consectetur libero eu, porttitor dui. Mauris nec ornare ligula. Morbi et massa viverra, malesuada velit id, faucibus metus. Duis consequat tincidunt blandit.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <div class="panel-heading">
                      <h3 class="panel-title"><span class="rountable-name">Session 7</span></h3>
                    </div>
                    <div class="panel-body">
                      <div class="row">
                        <div class="col-md-9">
                          Sed turpis nisl, efficitur pharetra hendrerit ac, gravida id mi. Duis elementum velit nec risus aliquet congue et non dolor.
                        </div>
                        <div class="col-md-3 btn-row">
                            <a href="#" class="btn btn-register btn-select">Select</a>
                        </div>
                      </div>
                   	
                    </div>
                  </div>
              </div>
          <div class="slideout-form">
          <div class="slideoutform-header">
            <h3>Your Agenda</h3>
            <div class="close">X</div>
          </div>
          <div class="slideout-content">
              <div class="session-name-1"></div>
              <div class="session-name-2"></div>
              <div class="text-center">
              <a href="#registration" class="btn btn-white">Register</a>
              </div>
          </div>
        </div>
         	<h2 style="background-color:#49c5c8;">Register</h2>
            <div class="sessions conf" id="registration">
                  <div class="panel panel-default">
                    <form action="" method="post" id="regForm">
                      <div class="row">
                          <div class="col-sm-6">
                              <label>First Name <span class="required">*</span></label>
                              <input class="form-control" name="firstname" required/>
                          </div>
                          <div class="col-sm-6">
                              <label>Last Name <span class="required">*</span></label>
                              <input class="form-control" name="lastname" required/>
                          </div>
                      </div>
                      <div class="row">
                          <div class="col-sm-6">
                              <label>Email Address <span class="required">*</span></label>
                              <input class="form-control" name="email" required/>
                          </div>
                          <div class="col-sm-6">
                              <label>Company <span class="required">*</span></label>
                              <input class="form-control" name="company" required/>
                          </div>
                      </div>
                      <div class="row">
                          <div class="col-sm-6">
                              <label>Job Title <span class="required">*</span></label>
                              <input class="form-control" name="jobtitle" required/>
                          </div>
                      </div>
                      <div class="row">
                          <div class="col-md-12 optin-container">
                              <input type="checkbox" name="optin" /> Opt-in to receive communications from Sample Company including exclusive event invites, product and company updates and more
                          </div>
                      </div>
                      <input type="hidden" name="session1" />
                      <input type="hidden" name="session2" />
                      <input type="hidden" name="tractionforcereg" />
                    <div class="footer-reg text-center">
                      <input type="submit" class="btn btn-register btn-large" value="Register" />
                    </div>
                    <div class="required required-msg">
                    </div>
                    </form>
                  </div>
              </div>
            </div>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
   	
      <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
      <script src="pardot-registration-inspiration.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    </body>
</html>

The Entire JavaScript

$(document).ready(function(){
 
  // Show the Agenda
  $('.btn-select, .btn-conference').click(function(event) {
    $('.slideout-form').slideDown();
  })
 
  // Session Selection Session 1
  $('.first-session .btn-select').click(function(event) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $(this).addClass('session-selected');
      $(this).removeClass('btn-select');
      $(this).text('selected');
      $('.first-session .btn-select').hide();
      var selectedsession1 = $(this).closest('.panel').find('.rountable-name').text();
      $('.session-name-1').html('<div class="agenda-item"><h5>9:00am - 11:00am</h5><div class="agenda-content">' + selectedsession1 + '</div></div>');
      $('input[name=roundtable1]').val(selectedsession1);
      console.log(selectedsession1);
  });
 
  // Session Selection Session 2
  $('.second-session .btn-select').click(function(event) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $(this).addClass('session-selected');
      $(this).removeClass('btn-select');
      $(this).text('selected');
      $('.second-session .btn-select').hide();
      var selectedsession2 = $(this).closest('.panel').find('.rountable-name').text();
      $('.session-name-2').html('<div class="agenda-item"><h5>11:00am - NOON</h5><div class="agenda-content">' + selectedsession2 + '</div></div>');
      $('input[name=roundtable2]').val(selectedsession2);
      console.log(selectedsession2);
  });
  // Conference Selection
  $('.btn-conference').click(function(event) {
   	event.preventDefault();
      $(this).addClass('roundtable-selected');
      $(this).text('selected');
    var selectedSession3 = $(this).closest('.panel').find('.rountable-name').text();
 	$('.roundtable-name-3').html('<div class="agenda-item"><h5>NOON - 8:00pm</h5><div class="agenda-content">' + selectedSession3 + '</div></div>');
    $('input[name=eventreg]').val('true');
  });
  // Close button for the Agenda
  $('.close').click(function(event) {
      event.preventDefault();
      $('.slideout-form').slideUp();
  });
  // Smooth scroll for the register button
   $(function() {
    $('a[href*="#"]:not([href="#"])').click(function() {
      if (location.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') == this.pathname.replace(/^\//,'') && location.hostname == this.hostname) {
        var target = $(this.hash);
        target = target.length ? target : $('[name=' + this.hash.slice(1) +']');
        if (target.length) {
          $('html, body').animate({
            scrollTop: target.offset().top
          }, 1000);
          return false;
        }
      }
    });
  });
});

VIEW DEMO

Note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and updated in January 2023.

Original article: Inspiration: Using Pardot for Event Registration

The post Inspiration: Using Pardot for Event Registration appeared first on The Spot.

By Jenna Molby|2023-01-02T17:10:00+00:00January 2nd, 2023|Categories: Forms & Form Handlers, Getting Started, Pardot, revive, Setup & Admin|

Congratulations and welcome to Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) family! Not sure where to start? We promise it is not as scary as you think it might be. We have created this Pardot implementation plan and checklist to help get you started. After reviewing the official Pardot Implementation Guide, we created a project plan Google Sheet to keep track of tasks, notes, and documentation.

Get the Pardot Implementation Checklist Template

Look for the method you’ll use to open the Pardot implementation checklist template below. You’ll also find instructions for using the template.

Note: This is for a standard implementation and does not include any of the Lightning builders or B2B Marketing Analytics. Reach out to the team at Sercante for guidance with those implementations.

Google Users

If you have a Google Account: Click here to open the template in your browser and make a copy. Navigate to File > Make a copy > Update the document name and save to your drive.

make a copy of pardot implementation template

Microsoft Excel Users

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download to an Excel file instead. To do that, open the template in your browser and make a copy. Navigate to File > Download > Microsoft Excel.

pardot implementation template download excel file

Using the template

We have organized the templates into 3 different tabs:

Tasks
Timeline
Key Documents

Task lists

The task list is broken into 5 sections: Planning, General Set up & Technical Items, Salesforce Connector, Marketing Assets, and Integrations. The setup tasks include all the tasks listed in the official Pardot Implementation Guide.

Timeline

Sometimes it is good to see all the tasks visualized in a timeline, and you know someone is going to ask for it, so I added in a timeline tab just for that. Just update the start and due dates for your project and the timeline will also update.

Key Documents

There are lots of planning discussions that happen when implementing Pardot, so you will want to document final decisions and make sure that everyone can easily access the documentation.

For example, did you finalize your naming convention and folder structure? Make sure to put it in a document on a shared drive and add the link to this tab.

Hot Tip! The more documentation you create about processes the better. You never know when someone will ask for it and you can save yourself time later by documenting as you go.

Get Pardot Implementation Guidance

Still feeling overwhelmed with your implementation? Or have questions about Lightning builders or B2BMA setup? Don’t hesitate to reach out. The team at Sercante is here to help.

Original article: A Free Pardot Implementation Checklist and Planning Template

The post A Free Pardot Implementation Checklist and Planning Template appeared first on The Spot.

By Lauren Hosimer|2022-12-23T16:45:48+00:00December 23rd, 2022|Categories: Getting Started, Pardot, revive, Setup & Admin|

Pardot account audits: You know you need to do one, but somehow this daunting task keeps getting relegated to the bottom of your to-do list. With the new year on the horizon, do future-you a favor and carve out time soon to conduct an audit of your Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) instance. You’ll feel better kicking off 2023 knowing your account is in order!

So where do you start? Audits can certainly be overwhelming, with long checklists of components and settings to review. But, a bit of reflection up front can help you identify and prioritize the areas to audit with the highest need or greatest potential to benefit your business.

Key questions to consider before a Pardot account audit

Make the most of your time by asking yourself these seven questions before diving into your Pardot account audit:

1. Are the essential building blocks in place to ensure Pardot is working properly?

This is square one — you’ll need to confirm the foundation of your account is set before moving forward. Yup, this means going through the Pardot Settings tab and checking that there are no surprises. Must-dos include your account limits, Salesforce connector, user set-up, and tracker domains.

This is also a good time to step back and think about the big picture: How is data moving in and out of Pardot and where are the weak spots? Besides checking your Salesforce sync settings, review your lead forms, import processes, opt-out processes and integrations to make sure the data is flowing as you intend and that there aren’t any issues causing downstream impacts.

2. What haven’t we checked in a while?

As much as we want to “set it and forget it,” even the best marketing automations need check-ups. Take a minute and list out the areas in Pardot you haven’t paid as much attention to recently. Common culprits could be:

Sync errors
Repeating automation rules
Custom fields syncing with Salesforce
Email footer content
Scoring and grading rules
Sales handoffs and assignment rules
Auto-responder email settings and content
Automations based on email opens
The black hole that is the Uncategorized folder

During your audit, run through this list to ensure everything is running as you expect, and clean up whatever you can.

3. Where could a little work go a long way to fix something or improve efficiency?

We’ve all been there: You build a work-around or take on a manual process in order to get something done, then poof — it’s months later and you’re still doing it!

Now’s the time to figure out if there’s a better way that frees up your time and energy. This might mean addressing bigger issues that require multi-step solutions, but the upfront work now will pay off in the long run.

For your audit, prioritize figuring out ways that you can leverage automations to carry some of the load. Besides Pardot’s Automation Rules, explore these other key tools:

Conditional Completion Actions — game changer!
Dynamic Lists or re-executing Segmentation Rules
Engagement Studios — they’re not just for sending emails!
Salesforce duplicate rules
Salesforce Flows
Automate adding Contact Roles to Opportunities
Pardot API solutions, like Pardot External Activities

For help with any of these automations, feel free to reach out!

4. Does our marketing work align with best practices and industry standards?

When it comes to marketing practices, it can be helpful to compare yourself to others (within reason of course!). For example: Comparing your email engagement metrics and deliverability practices to industry standards can highlight areas that need improvement, like your template design, segmentation practices to engaged prospects, or personalization strategies.

Identifying the big-picture improvements needed to align with best practices will help you drill down on the specifics of what it will take to execute — and, as a result, which components in Pardot should be audited and updated to make it happen.

5. Can we showcase the ROI of our marketing efforts?

Connecting the dots between your marketing work and sales is truly the holy grail for marketing teams, but it can be tricky to get up and running.

With Pardot and Salesforce, you can unlock the marketing attribution magic through a combination of consistent processes and technical tools. Consider these questions and add related items to your audit checklist accordingly.

Are you using campaigns consistently to record and organize marketing initiatives?
Are Connected Campaigns enabled and configured correctly in your account?
Is data being captured at the right times in your prospect journey to connect their engagements to sales?
Are your marketing reports set up in Pardot and Salesforce?
If you’re using Campaign Influence reporting in Salesforce, does the attribution model fit your needs?
If you have more robust reporting and dashboard needs, could you benefit from using additional data integrations and/or B2B Marketing Analytics?

Getting a handle on where you are in the process of ROI reporting can crystalize your next steps. Making a commitment to shore up your marketing attribution once and for all in 2023 could pay dividends for you in the long run!

6. What’s coming up that will impact our Pardot system or usage?

Looking ahead, think about how new initiatives, goals or changes at your company will have trickle-down impacts on your Pardot account. What parts of your audit need to adapt accordingly?

Maybe your customer base is expanding and you’d benefit from setting up multiple Pardot Business Units. Or you’ll be creating lots of new automation programs and want to install a Pardot sandbox environment for testing. Maybe Einstein features in Pardot would alleviate some of your workload?

Conversely, try to identify some aspects of a typical account review to deprioritize or cross off your audit checklist entirely because of upcoming changes.

You’ll also want to keep an eye on upcoming feature releases and new system updates, like the opt-out field sync behavior changes.

7. What can we clean up or organize better to make things easier?

Lastly, a bit of housekeeping. Use part of your audit to tidy up your account for some quick wins:

Do your folders, tags or images need organizing?
Are there unused automation, lists, files, or email or form templates that you can clean up, consolidate or archive?
Where could you establish naming conventions to better organize assets going forward?
Are you identifying junk prospects and recycling them regularly?

Addressing built-up clutter in your account will help you reset and clear the way for more strategic work!

Account audits can feel intimidating, but they’re worth it

With these considerations in mind, you’re ready to tackle an audit of your Pardot account that focuses on what matters most to your business.

If it still feels overwhelming or you want some support, please reach out for help — the Sercante team routinely conducts account audits, looking for ways clients can better leverage both the strategic and technical aspects of marketing with Pardot. Plus, you’ll get the advantage of an impartial expert reviewing your account with fresh eyes. Contact us about audit services or fill out this form to get started!

Original article: 7 Questions to Guide Your Pardot Account Audit

The post 7 Questions to Guide Your Pardot Account Audit appeared first on The Spot.

By Kara Bennett|2022-12-13T14:58:10+00:00December 13th, 2022|Categories: Data Management, Pro Tips, revive, Setup & Admin|

When it comes to email marketing, creating beautiful emails with riveting content is only half the battle. Sending emails to the right prospects at the right time is just as critical as crafting the right message. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement’s (Pardot) segmentation tools take the guesswork out of finding the right prospects at the right time, but there are infinite ways to go about segmenting your database.

First, Why is Pardot List Segmentation Important?

Segmenting your database can help you identify prospects based on interest, activities, lifecycle stage, etc., so you can send them relevant, personalized information right when they need it. This kind of personalized experience not only helps build brand loyalty between you and your prospects, but it also increases email engagement because your prospects will actually use the information you are sending them.

When done correctly, Pardot list segmentation is a win for all parties involved. Read this blog post about creating a Pardot Email Preference Center for an example of segmentation done right.

Winning Pardot Segmentation Strategies

Below are just some of the ways you can segment your prospects for personalized emails. Make sure you share your other segmentation strategies in the comments!

Tip 1. Follow up with event registrants

Segmentation should be used both before and after events. Before events, you can thank prospects for registering, send them related content to the event, and send them reminders of where/when the event will be held. After the event, send them recap information, direct them to next steps, or introduce them to their Account team.

Tip 2. Nurture based on product interest

If you’re using Scoring Categories to gauge prospect interest in your different offerings, nurturing them based on their interest is a great way to speak to their needs. For these types of nurtures, I like to use a dynamic list to locate prospects who have a score over 100 in a scoring category, but do not have an open opportunity and have not yet scheduled a demo.

Tip 3. Send region-specific content

If your org regularly hosts events or webinars, segmenting your prospects by region is a great way to invite prospects to events in their area or webinars in their time zone. If your sales team is also divided by region, sales users can use these lists to zero in on their prospects. For these segmentation lists, I typically focus on the prospect’s Country and State fields and use the free Creuz Your Data tool to easily compile my lists of states/countries in each region.

Tip 4. Keep your partners up to date

Segmenting your partners into their own list is a great way to easily send them special newsletters and updates. But the best part is that this list can be used to suppress partners from prospect-specific marketing efforts, such as product nurtures.

Tip 5. Stay in touch with lost opportunities

Just because your prospect didn’t buy right now doesn’t mean they won’t become a customer in the future! Creating a Pardot segmentation list for prospects with lost opportunities is a great strategy to nurture them. That’s because they already know about your company and product offerings. They’re also more likely to already be subscribed to your marketing materials.

For prospects with lost opportunities, I like to use a more lengthy nurture that highlights new product offerings and customer use cases. These nurtures ensure our company stays top-of-mind so the prospect can reach out when they are ready to re-enter the sales funnel.

Tip 6. Exclude non-prospects from marketing efforts

Finally, another great way to segment your database is to build a primary suppression list that collects all the prospects you want to exclude from marketing emails, nurtures, “hot lead” lists etc. Building one list that all your Pardot users can reference takes the guesswork out of which prospects to suppress. Read more about Primary Suppression lists in this blog post.

Original article: 6 Ways to Use Segmentation Like a Pardot Pro

The post 6 Ways to Use Segmentation Like a Pardot Pro appeared first on The Spot.

By Erin Duncan|2022-12-09T21:19:40+00:00December 9th, 2022|Categories: Emails & Templates, Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|

The marketing magician has many tricks in the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) toolkit. One of those magical tools is the Pardot custom redirect.

What makes a Pardot custom redirect special? It allows you to segment and get the right data at the right time as your customers and potential customers interact with your marketing assets. This in turn allows you to better target interests and hone in on what’s working and what’s just cluttering your audience’s feeds.

So, what can you get out of using Pardot custom redirects? Read on to find out!

Use Pardot Custom Redirects to Better Understand Your Social Impact

Every social media channel contributes a unique insight about your offerings to your audience. When promoting content through social media channels, it’s important to make sure you measure what your audience reaction is to ensure your message is effective and not ignored (or worse, annoys your target audience).

If you’re publishing the same content to multiple platforms, you should create separate custom redirects for each platform. Not only will you see which of your social sites receives the most traffic, but patterns of engagement will emerge and help you draw conclusions about the specific interests of each audience.

Measure the Marketing Impact on Event Sign Ups

Every marketing department wants to show the impact they are making. One of the key drivers of revenue is based around events. It’s important to place custom redirects behind any event promotions created by marketing.

You should also give your sales reps custom redirects to use when they pitch the event as well. Better yet, create separate custom redirects for each channel that you use to promote the event for more insight into what’s working and what’s not.

Identify Your Most Compelling Calls to Action

There is a lot of buzz around the importance of “calls to action.” But how do you know which are most impactful?

The answer: a custom redirect! You can “play” with wording, placement and who clicked (did you get a response from your intentional target audience or someone else?). Now you can measure and make adjustments that will help ensure the right action from the right audience.

Utilize Your Partner Relationships to Understand Value

Want to get even more reach for very little investment? Use custom redirects with partners that show how their site is impacting traffic to your site. This information can help you make decisions about the value of the partnership and where you should invest more.

Get The Most Out of Your Offline Efforts Too!

While it might seem obvious, the value of creating custom redirects that are specific to written and offline content is critical. An engaged audience will interact with your content and their next step will be to visit your site.

Knowing which pieces generated the most interest (or sales in the long haul) helps you make the most of your marketing budget and determine what efforts are worth investing in. Offline is expensive… do you know what it’s doing for your business? Now you can.

Find Out Who is Engaged Internally

Most businesses send important information to their employees. But, do you know who actually reads those communications? Are they effective? Is your desired message being received? Are there patterns based on subject? Or frequency? Or send time?

We often consider these questions when we are dealing with our external audiences, but they are just as critical internally. Consider custom redirects as another tool that human resources, marketing or any department internally can use to ensure your company’s internal resources are engaged as well.

Check out this blog post for more creative ways to use Pardot to increase employee engagement.

Get Creative with Pardot Custom Redirects: Create a Quick Poll

How can you get quick input from your audience without a full online survey? Custom redirects might be the answer.

The process is simple. Create custom redirects to the separate links, buttons, or images used for voting and they will automatically record the clicks on each link.

A great example of this would be something like a Net Promoter score. You can create links with one question (example: Would you recommend our company/product/service to someone else?).

From the reporting side, you could now segment between “Yes” (raving fan) and “No” (potential detractor) answers. Then you can address any concerns from those who need follow up or are ready to promote your brand for you!

Monitor Prospect Activity

Ever wished you could be alerted to a certain prospect’s activity on your site? Imagine you’ve had a prospect close to close for over a month now, but they want time and space to make their own decision. Wouldn’t it be nice to know when that person gets serious and looks at your pricing options?

Custom redirects allow you to track such activity in a few different ways. For example, If using email to contact prospects, create custom redirects to monitor prospect clicks.

Using a service like Account Engagement (Pardot)? You can create an automation to notify your team that an action has been taken by a prospect, allowing you to be super responsive to high probability prospect activity. Strike while the iron is hot!

When you’re ready to level-up your sales team response skills, check out Salesforce Engage. Here’s a blog post that walks you through the tool.

Experience the Magical Insights Pardot Custom Redirects Can Offer

The most important thing when preparing any marketing effort is to determine how you will measure success. Custom redirects allow you to effectively collect relevant and timely data on who did what and why.

Used correctly, they can greatly improve the efficacy of your marketing activities and help you “prove” what you already know: Effective marketing strategies work. Even beyond that (and maybe more importantly) understanding what’s not working and being able to “fail fast” and move on to more impactful actions.

Need help understanding the full impact of your marketing efforts? Here’s a blog post that provides insight into proving the impact of your marketing efforts through connected campaigns. And if you’re still feeling lost, you can reach out to the Sercante team for help.

Original article: Uncover Marketing Magic with Pardot Custom Redirects

The post Uncover Marketing Magic with Pardot Custom Redirects appeared first on The Spot.

By Dominique Beaudin|2022-11-30T15:19:00+00:00November 30th, 2022|Categories: Analytics & Reporting, Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|

As Marketing Cloud continues to grow and integrate more and more with Salesforce, the good old days of marketers working in silos within Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) are long past due. Today, modern marketers are being asked to manage both the marketing operations and Salesforce, requiring a multifaceted skill set.

It can be difficult for marketers working in the trenches day in and day out to capture customer data, grow their audience, and prove a return on investment. With a full integration to Salesforce, those days are in the past, as we can now harness the power of Salesforce and combine that with Marketing Cloud, analytics tools, and third-party systems to create a full picture of all of your marketing efforts.

In this blog, we will highlight all things Salesforce Sales Cloud from a marketer’s perspective, including data architecture, security, sales processes, reports, dashboards, and the integration between Salesforce and Pardot.

Let’s Get to Know Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the leading Client Relationship Management systems (CRM) worldwide. At its core, a CRM helps companies grow and manage their customer base, streamline day-to-day operations, and increase profitability organization-wide. Specifically, Salesforce serves as a glorified rolodex — providing a vast array of departments, including sales and marketing, a centralized view of your customer.

Note: We often refer to Salesforce Sales Cloud as simply “Salesforce.”

Data and Relationships

Salesforce is built upon data models. Think of data models as a spreadsheet. Everything built within Salesforce is built within a spreadsheet.

When you think of it in that way, it’s so much simpler when you first login and start navigating the CRM. Every object within Salesforce is its own spreadsheet, and within that spreadsheet there are Fields (columns), Records (rows), and Cells (specific field on a record).

Contacts (object)
First Name (field)	Last Name (field)	CRM ID (field)
David (specific field)	Bowie (specific field)	000000001 (record)
Freddy (specific field)	Mercury (specific field)	000000002 (record)
Stevie (specific field)	Nicks (specific field)	000000003 (record)
Tina (specific field)	Turner (specific field)	000000004 (record)

Standard and Custom Objects

There are two types of objects in Salesforce — Standard and Custom objects. Standard objects are the items provided out-of-the-box when you initially purchase Sales or Service Cloud. They contain standard fields as well, though custom fields can be created. Custom objects are created by a Salesforce Administrator to store data that is specific for your organization. These objects can include the standard fields as well as custom fields.

The out-of-the-box objects included in Salesforce are:

Campaigns: A marketing initiative (the way to create a MQL)
Leads: Potential customers (generated MQL)
Contacts: People sales are negotiating with (SQL)
Accounts: Companies you do business with (customer)
Opportunities: In-progress deals (SOW)

Connecting Salesforce and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot)

While marketers prioritize their time within Pardot, the sales team is operating within Salesforce. By connecting the systems together, it allows the two teams to collaborate, by leveraging shared knowledge and resources via segmentation for marketing and messaging for Sales.

So, how does it all work?

Website visitors are cookied by tracking code in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (learn more about web tracking cookies in this blog post).
Visitors complete Forms or Form Handlers and are converted into Prospects
Prospects are nurtured by the marketing team and once they reach MQL status are assigned to Sales
Prospects assigned to Sales convert into a Lead record that feeds information back to Marketing
Once the Lead reaches the SQL status they are converted into a Contact and Account and an Opportunity is created
When opportunities are closed, revenue is attributed back to marketing and sales, and ROI is calculated

Let’s Build a Campaign

When marketers say “Campaign,” what they are really saying is the key initiative they are running to generate leads, create an upsell opportunity, or promote a company event.

A marketing campaign is made up of a multitude of efforts that include:

Digital Ads
Social media
Emails
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Print Media
Radio/TV

Several of these efforts can be created within Pardot or connected through integrations, and they can be tracked both by marketing and sales by syncing the data back to Salesforce.

Salesforce Campaign vs. Pardot Campaign

We all know what a “Campaign” is, but there are other uses of this term within Pardot and Salesforce. Also, they have very different uses and properties. Let’s learn the differences!

Pardot Campaigns populate sources within the platform and serve as thematic touchpoints that track first touch for Prospects.

Salesforce Campaigns are used to track, manage, and report on all marketing collateral.

Together, a Pardot Campaign captures first touch, and Salesforce Campaigns can capture ongoing touch points, showing a multi-touch attribution.

Salesforce Campaigns

One to many with leads/contacts
Can be linked to opportunities
Generally more specific than Pardot campaigns
- Specific webinar vs. the category of webinars
Can be organized into hierarchies and categorized for reporting

Pardot Campaigns

One to one with prospects
Every asset must be linked to a campaign
- Email, landing page, form, file
Pardot campaign equals the first initiative that the prospect engaged with
Now labeled Source Campaign in Pardot
- Not to be confused with Lead Source
Generally broader buckets
- Events, social, webinars, etc.

Here’s a chart that compares the differences between Salesforce and Pardot campaigns:

Data Sync and Segmentation

It is important to note that Pardot syncs on an individual level, not a company level. Records sync directly to Leads, Contacts, and Person Accounts within Salesforce. They can read Accounts and Opportunities, but they must be related to a person object with an email address. However, any object that you sync to Pardot can be used for segmentation, as long as it is tied to a Lead, Contact, or Person Account record.

You can learn more about Pardot sync behavior in this blog post.

This sync behavior becomes key in building a marketing campaign to know what you can and cannot segment your lists by, thus determining your target audience. Furthermore, the sync works both ways, allowing you to target a specific subset of Prospects based on specific data and then syncing those Prospects back to the Salesforce Campaign to track engagement.

Let’s Update the Sales Team

As marketers, we rely on the sales team to help us drive performance, segment data, and prove ROI as well as confirming marketing qualified leads. In turn, sales relies on us to see how our marketing engagements are impacting their Leads and Contacts so as not to overlap efforts.

When working with each other, you will see improved growth across the organization. This is much easier to accomplish by connecting Pardot and Salesforce.

Learn more about building strong relationships with the people who manage your Sales Cloud instance in this blog post.

Lead Assignment

Pardot was built with the primary goal of warming Prospects in order to advance them to sales as a marketing qualified lead. This is done most often through Pardot’s Scoring and Grading features, which allows marketers to know when a Prospect is ready to be handed to Sales.

Learn more about Pardot Scoring and Grading in this blog post.

Once Prospects are ready, Pardot has ways to automate lead assignment, such as Automation Rules or Completion Actions, to get that Prospect to the next level of the funnel.

Marketing Data in Salesforce

As marketers, we use data day in and day out to drive our decision making. Sales does the same, and we can arm them with additional data just as they do for us.

With the Salesforce sync, there are now a series of available fields and buttons that can empower your sales team to make more strategic decisions and to help you run even more successful campaigns. The data points provided below can be easily referenced by working with your Salesforce Administrator to add them to the Page Layouts for Contacts, Leads, and Person Accounts.

Pardot Data in available in Salesforce:

Pardot Campaigns
Pardot Comments
Pardot Conversion Date
Pardot Conversion Object Name
Pardot Conversion Object Type
Pardot Created Date
Pardot First Activity
Pardot First Referrer
Pardot First Referrer Query
Pardot First Referrer Type
Pardot Grade
Pardot Hard Bounced
Pardot Last Activity
Pardot Last Scored At
Pardot Score
Pardot URL

In addition to sharing fields between Salesforce and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, you will also have the capability to enable the sales team to be able to add Prospects to campaigns or lists within Pardot via “Add to Pardot List,” “Add to Campaign,” or “Add to Engagement Studio.”

Let’s Prove Your Marketing ROI

By enabling Connected Campaigns, you will also be able to view Engagement History metrics within Salesforce. All of your reporting data will be easily accessible and measurable through Salesforce reporting. Through Engagement History and Campaign Influence, we are empowering the marketing team with the full force of Sales Cloud to report on their end-to-end marketing efforts.

Learn more about Connected Campaigns in this blog post.

Reports & Dashboards

Through Engagement History, you will gain five custom report types:

Engagement Metrics on Campaigns: Provides data on all campaigns and all associated assets, including emails, links, forms, and landing pages produced within Pardot.
Engagement Metrics on Landing Pages: Provides data points pertaining to Landing Pages produced and operated from within Pardot.
Engagement Metrics on List Emails: Provides metrics specific to emails deployed out of Pardot, including Engagement Studio, list emails, autoresponders, and email templates.
Engagement Metrics on Marketing Forms: Measures the performance of Pardot Forms and Form Handlers that exist outside of the platform, such as on the company website.
Engagement on Marketing Links: Measures clicks and activity directly related to Custom Redirect links or files housed within Pardot.

These reports enable you to report on Leads and Contacts who are also Campaign Members to measure their marketing engagement, performance, and the overall success of marketing’s efforts.

You can learn more about how Salesforce handles Pardot marketing reporting in this blog post.

Salesforce Campaign Influence

Next, Salesforce offers Campaign Influence, which measures end-to-end performance and proof of ROI on all marketing efforts. Ultimately, it allows marketers to see the impact of your campaign on the closed/won opportunities.

Within Salesforce, there are influence models set up that scan all active campaigns to identify campaign members who are also assigned a contact role on an opportunity. They also verify eligibility based on additional rule criteria that can be configured. There are currently two types of Campaign Influence – Campaign Influence 1.0 and Customizable Campaign Influence.

Here’s a comparison chart that shows the differences between the two types of Salesforce Campaign Influence models.

Feature	Campaign Influence 1.0	Customizable Campaign Influence
Available in Salesforce Classic	X	X
Available in Lightning Experience		X
Primary Campaign Source Model	X	X
Auto-association with opportunities	X	X
Multiple Attribution Models		X
Flexible Influence Attribution		X
Locked Models		X
API Access		X

Through these data-driven models, Salesforce uses artificial intelligence to look at engagement patterns that led to conversion and tailors attribution credit based upon Campaign Influence Eligibility Limits and Auto-Association Rules. By setting eligibility limits, you are controlling how long a campaign is considered influential. This is determined by comparing the date that a contact was first associated with the campaign and the date that the opportunity was created.

In general, you want to double your average sales cycle. For the Auto-Association Rules, you are applying specific criteria to limit the types of campaigns that are considered influential.

When combined together, Campaign Influence and Engagement History give marketers worldwide insights into their campaign performance and allows for adjustments to be made or campaigns to be built upon to improve marketing effectiveness and to improve revenue company-wide.

Check out this blog post to watch a video that explains Campaign Influence in further detail.

Sales and Marketing Teams Work Better Together

By embracing these tips and tricks, the goal is for you to learn how to use Salesforce to drive alignment between your marketing efforts and the sales team to grow your business and prove your marketing ROI.

The integration between Salesforce and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) plays a key role in growing your brand. It is our goal at Sercante to help you in this effort. To learn more about Salesforce and receive more in-depth training, we encourage you to register for one of our upcoming Salesforce Basics for Marketers online courses.

Original article: Sales Cloud 101 for Pardot Marketers

The post Sales Cloud 101 for Pardot Marketers appeared first on The Spot.

By Cara Weese|2022-11-24T11:50:00+00:00November 24th, 2022|Categories: Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement has so many complex ways to create personalized experiences for the audiences the platform touches.

And if you haven’t gathered from the title, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization (formerly Interaction Studio… RIP Interaction Studio) is a great way to level up your personalization game. This is for the pros who have long since mastered things like personalization strings, dynamic content, and even AMPscript in the platform.

However, as with many Marketing Cloud features, Marketing Cloud Personalization offers so much flexibility and configurability that it can be challenging to know just where and how to begin.

Three Marketing Cloud Personalization Use Case Examples

Perhaps the best way to get started is to understand some industry-specific use cases for when Marketing Cloud Personalization web and mobile personalized campaigns can be strategically leveraged to create a customized, unified, and value-driven experience for your customers at every stage of the life cycle.

Use Case #1: Serve targeted educational content for prospective customers in the finance industry

A financial advisory company knows that potential new customers frequently conduct more research in the earliest stages of the buying lifecycle. Fortunately, the company maintains a finance blog on their site that features thought leadership from their advisors for just this very purpose.

When a new customer first comes to the company’s site, they may see an assortment of featured blog posts on the home page. Some posts on mutual fund investments capture their interest, so they click into them. They may then use the navigation menu or site search to investigate further.

Tracking content engagement

Meanwhile, Marketing Cloud Personalization tracks their site activity, such as which blog posts and product pages they spend more time on. They use this information to build a profile of customer preferences and affinities. Then, surface content in which the customer has indicated an interest using this customer profile information.

Showing profile-specific content

The next time the customer navigates to the home page or the blog landing page, they see featured posts on best tips to diversify their funds and an explainer of what investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses they should be aware of when selecting a mutual fund. The customer clicks into the posts and successfully becomes further engaged with the company’s website.

Use Case #2: Enrich a student’s higher education on-campus experience.

With tuition more expensive than ever and the pool of college students ever shrinking, a regional college knows that one of the strongest differentiators they can offer their students is a rewarding college experience that isn’t just confined to the classroom.

Showing targeted reminders in the college online portal

When a student subscribes to a college campus group’s mailing list, Marketing Cloud Personalization tracks that activity. The tool displays reminders of upcoming meetings hosted by that group on the home page of the student’s online portal account.

And, Marketing Cloud Personalization highlights a promotion for an upcoming lecture hosted by a notable product designer when the student browses the college’s events calendar. That’s because the system knows the student once took an elective on product design.

After class, the student stops by a local art gallery that features art from fellow college students. Marketing Cloud Personalization notes the geolocation and time spent within the store. It uses that information to display a 15% discount code for the gallery in an infobar banner ad within the college’s mobile app. The student also sees an ad for the store when they get the monthly campus newsletter they subscribed to.

Enhancing the overall student experience

By being served content that is tailored to the student’s own personal and educational interests, the student is more connected with their campus and, as a result, their satisfaction with their college experience increases.

Use Case #3: Onboard new app users with well-timed contextual tips and cross-sell to existing customers in the same place, at the same time.

New users logging into a company’s app for the first time may need initial guidance on how to use the app to encourage adoption. But there also needs to be a balance between providing timely instruction and not being obstructive.

Marketing Cloud Personalization first designates which users are logging into their accounts for the first time and those who have already been using the app extensively into two audiences.

Automate first-time user adoption

When a first-time user logs onto the app, they receive a pop-up window offering them a brief tutorial on how to use the app, with the option to entirely skip or end the tutorial at any time. The tutorial displays step-by-step contextual pop-ups at different places on the screen to demonstrate the app’s functionality and features. The tutorial finishes by pointing out to the user where they can access the support center for future assistance. If the user skipped the tutorial or exited out of it early, Marketing Cloud Personalization can note this.

Ensure continued use over time

Marketing Cloud Personalization can then monitor these new users for a defined period of time to evaluate whether they are using the app, and place them on a journey within Journey Builder to issue reminders and feature highlights. Once a user becomes comfortable in using the app, they can be moved from the first-time user audience and into other segments for further targeted marketing.

Create deeper connections over time

For the audience of existing users, Marketing Cloud Personalization can display inline banner promotions for other products they may be interested in or useful tips on how to use the product that they bought based on their actions, how long they’ve been a customer, and their personal attributes, all within the app, on the company website, and in marketing emails and text messages.

While targeting two different audience segments, Marketing Cloud Personalization can display content not only based on customer activity, but also at strategic moments and through different statuses, such as whether they’re a first-time user or not. Customers, in turn, not only receive personalized content, but content that is served to them at the time they would benefit from it the most.

Three Things to Prepare Before SFMC Personalization Implementation

The above examples are hardly an exhaustive list of all the ways in which companies can engage potential, new, and existing customers with Marketing Cloud Personalization. But no matter the industry or use case, there are also three things you should do to set your company up for success long before you implement.

Step 1. Align Internal Teams

You need to align your internal teams. The lift for setting up Marketing Cloud Personalization is quite a bit heavier than many of Marketing Cloud’s other tools. Depending on your business needs, the tool will require more resources of varying specializations.

You’ll need web development resources for deploying the necessary code to your website and apps (and the more frequently your site changes, the greater the demand on your web development team).
Your marketing and graphic design teams will need to create all the variations of content and assets that could be displayed to your audiences.
It is also highly recommended that you invest in UX Design resources as well, because…

Step 2. Know Your Audience

You need to know your customers. Not only should you identify all potential customer personas, but you should also map the journeys each persona could have across your website or app, whether it’s a first-time visitor browsing your site or a long-standing customer who wants to change the billing information associated with their account.

Identify customer interaction points

This process involves identifying every point of customer interaction, including areas where your customer is likely to experience frustration and reward (there’s a reason, after all, that Marketing Cloud Personalization is called a Real-Time Interaction Management platform).

A good UX designer will conduct research and testing to accurately paint a full picture of how customers use your website or app. From there, you will be able to create a strategy for how Marketing Cloud Personalization will display the right messages in the right ways at the right time to deliver the highest value for your customers.

Step 3. Create Content Beforehand

You must frontload your content. Of course, with all that pre-planning and journey mapping means you’ll actually have to create the content you’ll be using for every personalized path your strategy involves.

Determine content categories and tags

You will also need to make sure your content is properly categorized and tagged for the audiences and customer interaction points with which they’ll be associated, and this is even more crucial.

For example, you want to feature other recommended products (let’s say, a moisture-resistant jacket, water bottle, and thermal socks) that are related to the product that a customer is viewing on your website (hiking boots).

You’ll need to decide on the content tags that determine what other related products to display (hiking, moisture resistance, outdoors) and for what type of audience segment attributes (new and returning customers, hikers, outdoor enthusiasts, beginner to intermediate experience, ages 20-45).

Completing Marketing Cloud Personalization implementation pre-work is totally worth it

While the amount of pre-work required to leverage Marketing Cloud Personalization can seem daunting all on its own, it’s important to remember that a hyper-personalization system requires a hyper-detailed amount of content to feed into it.

And all that work is likely to pay significant dividends in the end. According to a McKinsey & Company report, over three-quarters of consumers report that personalized communications are a key factor in brand considerations and increase the likelihood of repurchase.

When implemented (and maintained) correctly with the right personalization strategy in place, Marketing Cloud Personalization can give your company a powerful tool to sharpen your communications and truly engage with the full breadth and depth of your customers.

Ready to learn more about Marketing Cloud?

More Resources on Marketing Cloud Personalization:

Original article: Marketing Cloud Personalization: 3 Use Cases and Implementation Tips

The post Marketing Cloud Personalization: 3 Use Cases and Implementation Tips appeared first on The Spot.

By Sarah Smith|2022-11-23T19:27:00+00:00November 23rd, 2022|Categories: Getting Started, revive, Setup & Admin|

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