Nowadays, the market is saturated with different marketing automation tools, and each one has a reason for existing and serves a purpose. The challenge is not finding one; it’s finding the right one for you that matches your needs. So, how do you know which tool is right for your needs, and why should you include Account Engagement (Pardot) in your consideration?
Whether you should or not include Account Engagement (Pardot) in your evaluation is a rather straightforward question. Account Engagement (Pardot) is part of Salesforce Sales Cloud which means that if you are not using Salesforce currently and have no intention of switching to Salesforce in the future, Account Engagement (Pardot) will not be the right tool for you. And so this is where we part our ways (at least on this topic :))
But, if you are or will be using Sales Cloud and you want to evaluate if Account Engagement (Pardot) is right for you, then continue reading for some valuable insights.
Marketing and Sales alignment
First and foremost, Account Engagement (Pardot) can help you overcome a hurdle that so many companies face - namely, the alignment between Marketing and Sales (and Service). The struggle in this area is real. Marketing thinks Sales are not following up on all the great leads that they generate and lack real insight into what happens with the leads. They seem to disappear into this great black hole. Sales blame Marketing for just throwing all these unqualified leads at them that are tricky to prioritise. They have no actual insights into the leads, they are cold, and the job of reaching out to them is not appealing and fun!
Account Engagement (Pardot) offers great tools to overcome these obstacles and get a better alignment and workflow between Marketing, Sales and Service.
How?
You all work from 1 database, so there is no disparate data. You can work on campaigns together, from audience selection to real-time insights into the latest status on how the campaign is performing.
With scoring and grading, both the behavioural and demographic data can be taken into account to identify Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and then handed over to Sales when the time is right. To steer their conversations with these leads, sales have a full and at-a-glance insight into the journey the lead has been on so far. They can see the main areas of interest and therefore ensure to touch on the right topics while engaging with the lead.
Account Engagement (Pardot) will also support Account Based Marketing (ABM) initiatives. Marketing and Sales can work together to define the ideal customer profile based on Salesforce data and define specific outreach options based on the customer tiers.
Thanks to the standard Campaign Influence Reporting, Marketing can also easily measure the impact of their campaigns on the bottom line based on different attribution models, which will help to clearly show the value they offer, as well as adapt their campaigns and efforts to where they have the biggest impact.
Longer sales cycles with a focus on consultative selling
Marketing teams can easily create landing pages and forms to create lead generation campaigns. When these leads submit a form, they can be nurtured until reaching Marketing Qualified status and then get handed over to Sales. Moreover, the creation of nurture campaign flows is very straightforward and intuitive in Account Engagement (Pardot) with an easy drag and drop interface.
The main considerations are from content and functional perspective rather than that there would be any technical constraints. The nurture programs can also directly update campaigns which are accessed both by sales and marketing, or create specific tasks or other updates for the sales team, for example.
Throughout the sales process, different nurture campaigns can also be launched to move people through the buying process faster. Think about specific “Why now” campaigns or competitive analysis campaigns when opportunities are stuck for a longer time than usual. These campaigns can be controlled by the salesperson, who (from the lead or contact record) can directly add a person to a nurture program or be triggered automatically based on certain values or behaviours.
Marketing users are in the driving seat
As already mentioned, one of the code words for Account Engagement (Pardot) is “easy to use”. Marketing teams can create emails, landing pages, forms, and nurture programs, all without having to rely on, reach out to, or wait on developers, agencies, or webmasters to support them.
This will create shorter turnaround times for launching campaigns and also shorten the time to value. It will, in general, also create efficiencies within the team since previous, sometimes manual tasks, such as the lead creation or nurture emails, can be automated.
With the ease of use of Salesforce reporting, dashboarding and analytics, the sometimes tedious, heavily time-consuming task of creating the monthly reports can also become an easy, automated effort to produce.
The power of the Salesforce platform
Account Engagement (Pardot) is part of the Salesforce platform, and as such, it offers a broad range of options from Sales Cloud to Salesforce AppExchange so you can extend the tool’s functionality and tailor it to your needs.
A few other things to consider
In the top editions of Account Engagement (Pardot), you have access to AI features for send time optimisation, frequency of engaging, lead scoring, behaviour scoring, attribution, and campaign optimisation.
Furthermore, as with any Salesforce cloud or solution, you become part of the large and active Trailblazer community. There you will find a world of free courses to discover on the Trailhead platform.
Want to discuss in more detail if Account Engagement (Pardot) is potentially the right solution for you? Don’t hesitate to reach out, and we will gladly discuss your needs and objectives with you!
Ineke Leclercq, Commercial Automation Practice Lead
