Data
Understanding the data contained within Pardot is vital as you look to optimise for effective campaign management. You need to evaluate what’s in there, and why. It can quickly become a maze filled with random prospects and no one knows where they came from or where they’re going. A snapshot review of your prospects with any anomalies flagged will help get your lists back in order.
You might not yet have considered how your data should be segmented. Or the requirement for segmentation may have changed based on the discovery stage of the Pardot Quick Audit. This review might also highlight any gaps in your prospect data.
Data integrity should also be considered at this finnish telephone numbers stage. If your data hasn’t been entered correctly, your campaign will suffer. For example, we often find that records are entered with names all in capitals or company names use the full incorporation name (e.g. Example Business Limited). When using variable tags, this data would make your communications look unnatural and inevitably deter the prospects. Another wasted opportunity.
Technical
The second half of the Pardot Quick Audit looks at the technical application of the system and how it’s configured. With the discovery phase completed, we can apply your application of Pardot to those findings.
The following areas are explored within the technical phase:
Content review
Development best practices
Naming conventions
Technical setup: SPF record and DomainKey settings, connectors, CRM integration
Progressive profiling and form structure
Reporting
Systems architecture
CNAME and DNS settings
It’s highly recommended that you host your landing pages and forms in Pardot to see the full benefits of its Engagement Studio. To host these assets in Pardot, you’ll need a tracker domain (CNAME record) which is often referred to as a tracker domain. The CNAME is used to point a sub-domain to another host. In this case the host will be go.pardot.com. Having this in place allows for a seamless transition from the company website to Pardot hosted pages.
Equally important and often overlooked are the two most broadly accepted standards of authentication, Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail. Major internet service providers and spam filters typically check for one or more of these authentications when determining if an email should make to a recipient's mailbox. Your tech support should be consulted on this point to give yourself the best chance of your emails making it to their intended destination.
Integration
Pardot should never be treated as a standalone technology. Of course, it’s a powerful piece of technology and we believe it should always be seen as the bedrock of your digital marketing strategy, but it needs to talk to other systems. CRM, proprietary software and event software are good examples of technologies that should integrate seamlessly with your marketing automation.
B2B firms often have proprietary software where customer transactions are tracked. For example, fintech companies will typically have their own platform that’s used to manage client accounts. Much of the information held within the bespoke platform will likely be an enabler for sophisticated nurturing programs. Developers, therefore, need to think about how they can push data from their native platform through to Pardot. This could be done directly or via the CRM if the data should also exist there.
As a Salesforce company, Pardot naturally has seamless integration with Salesforce Sales Cloud (CRM). However, it can also be integrated with other CRM systems. This flow of data is essential to ensure that sales teams are receiving the leads and prospect information they need to close sales in a timely manner. When considering CRM integration, custom field naming conventions should also be considered. A coherent naming structure between marketing and sales will help to encourage alignment and avoid time-consuming confusion.
The audit also provides an opportunity to review the fields within Pardot from legacy campaigns that are no longer required and consider if new fields should be added.