877.703.4488 info@cloudmybiz.com
Pardot Dynamic Lists vs. Automation Rules

Pardot Dynamic Lists vs. Automation Rules

Pardot B2B Marketing for Salesforce is an extremely powerful tool. You can link thousands of prospects and leads to your CRM and engage with them in all sorts of ways. However, with great power comes great… confusion? Specifically, how do you know which automation tool to use for each situation?

Pardot features a couple of primary tools to use for your segmentation and automation: completion actions, segmentation rules, dynamic lists, and automation rules. In this article, we are going to be looking at two of these, dynamic lists and automation rules. When combined, these two tools form the backbone of your automated marketing efforts.

What is the difference between dynamic lists and automation rules?

Are you saying, well duh, one is a list and the other is a rule? You aren’t wrong, but the thing is, dynamic lists are defined by rules, and automation rules can be used to create lists. So the lines aren’t as clear as they may seem.

In short, a dynamic list is a list of prospects that automatically updates itself, both adding and removing members, based upon the rules you specify. Automation rules can certainly be used to add prospects to a static list, but they can also be used for many other options, such as assigning prospects to a particular sales rep/team.

Both dynamic lists and automation rules run continuously, matching and working with any prospect who matches their criteria.

The short answer is, you should use a dynamic list when you are creating a list that will likely be changing regularly. Such as members who have yet to watch a video, or who have an upcoming renewal date. By using a dynamic list, not only will your prospects be added the moment they qualify, but they will be removed when they no longer are needed.

With automation rules, the best practice is when you have a rule, that will run continuously and be based on multiple criteria.

Use Cases

Dynamic List

ABC Coolers is looking to send a reminder email to each of their customers who have a subscription renewal coming up. This could be done via either a dynamic list or automation rule, however, the dynamic lists are the best practice, since we will be looking to create a list that is continuously changing. While the automation could be written to give similar results, the dynamic lists will yield better transparency, tracking and reporting options. As well as being cleaner in the system.

To do this, we would create a program in the Engagement Studio, specifying the email to be sent, a start and end point. Then we simply specify our new dynamic list as the recipient. Thus, whenever someone is added to that list, the engagement program fires, sending of the email. What’s more, the program to be set so that members can enter an unlimited amount of times so that every time a renewal is pending, your list will update and send those critical emails.

Automation Rules

For automation rules, better uses will be when a list is not needed. ABC Coolers is again looking to automate their process. This time, they want to achieve a couple of results:

  • When prospects view a landing page but don’t take completely the form, they want a follow-up email to be sent.
    • To do this, they would use a completion action attached to that landing page to designate if the form was completed. Then, the automation rule is simply “send an email if the page was viewed AND the tag does not equal completed”.
  • When prospects haven’t been active in a while, ABC wants to slowly reduce their Pardot Score, so that only active leads will be pushed toward sales
    • This automation rule would be based on any field that tracks how many X days since the prospect has been active, and then reduces the score.
    • For every greater power, multiple rules could be built, with incremental dates, such as 15 days with no action, 30 days with no action, 60 days with no action, and at each of these markers, the score is reduced. Oh, and just to make sure the score doesn’t go too low, you can also specify that it only applies to prospects with a score above zero!

So, hopefully, this quick dive into the use cases for Automation Rules and Dynamic Lists has given you a couple more ideas into how you can use Pardot to better manage your B2B marketing efforts.

 

-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team

 


 

Don’t have Pardot yet?

Want to get going with one of the top B2B marketing platforms available?

Contact our Sales team for more info.

Contact us

App of the Week – Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce

App of the Week – Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce

Jitterbit

Feeling bogged down moving files and data between systems? Is setting up the file transfers complicated, and error-prone? With Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce, you can dramatically reduce the time and effort required to automate the import and export of critical business data from Salesforce CRM, force.com and all business-critical databases and files – whether they live in on-premise or in the Cloud. This not only reduces strain on IT but makes life easier for admins as well with “set it and forget it” type automation.

Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce is a FREE data migration tool that enables Salesforce users to automate the import/export of data between flat files, databases, and Salesforce / force.com.

Check it out here!

 

Using the New Salesforce Flow Builder

Using the New Salesforce Flow Builder

Quality workflows are one of the things that makes Salesforce so useful. A good admin should be able to take just about any routine process and streamline it via a workflow. As we reviewed in this previous post, the flow builder is an intuitive and visual way of automating processes, saving time and money, all while requiring absolutely no coding! What’s more, because you build it directly in Salesforce, you will essentially be setting up a web of flows that send, receive and send back all sorts of values and records.

The New Salesforce Flow Builder began rolling out to users starting at the beginning of this year, and it is flush with useful upgrades, including a simper toolbox, more standardized designs and overall faster performance.

Demoing the Flow Builder

So what does all of this look like exactly, and are there any specific ways the changes can be used? Well, I’m glad you asked. First of all, the flow builder recently got a facelift to mimic the Lightning Design System. The workspace is clean and simple, with many familiar element shapes for each action. As for the second question, the flow building can be used for just about everything, from the simplest of tasks, to very complex, multi-step processes.

But why describe it when I can show you instead? On their blog, Salesforce has recently released a series of demo videos that will show any interested admin or user the Flow Builder, starting with the absolute basics and building from there!

 

And for anyone who wants to briefly know what the demos cover, without actually sitting down to watch them, well here you go:

  1. Send an Email

    • This video covers how to create flows, how to send an email from a flow, and the different types of flows that you can create.
  2. Get a Record and Use It

    • This video covers how to create flows, how to send an email from a flow, and the different types of flows that you can create.
  3. Get Multiple Records and Loop Through Them

    • This video covers how to use the Get Records element to retrieve multiple records from Salesforce, how to use collection variables, and how to use the Loop element to repeat an action on all of the retrieved records.
  4. Decisions, Related Records and Buttons

    • This video covers how to use the Decision element to choose which path your flow should take based on a picklist value on a record. It also covers how to add a screen to your flow to show information to a user, and how to create an object-specific Flow quick action to launch your screen flow from a button on record detail page in Lightning.
  5. Screen Elements

    • This video covers how to configure different types of screen components such as choices, picklists, radio button groups, and checkboxes, so you can get the right kinds of data from your users in an interactive screen flow.
  6. Roundup of Other Flow Features

    • This video covers how to create more advanced logic in flows using formulas. It also shows how flows can be extended using flow actions, AppExchange, and more.

 Watch the Tutorial Videos

This is only the beginning! Advanced Admins can do all of this and more. Of course, you can also be sure that Salesforce will continue improving and tweaking their system at regular intervals.

 

-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team

 

App of the Week – SpringCM Contract Management | Secure and Scalable Workflow Automation

App of the Week – SpringCM Contract Management | Secure and Scalable Workflow Automation

When you are working hard to bring in new business and close sales, the last thing you want is to hold up or even lose a deal because of issues or deals with your contract management software. While it is safe to say that most companies have switched to digital contract management systems, the question is, which one to choose? Why not look to the folks at DocuSign, one of the most trusted names in digital documents and e-signatures? SpringCM by DocuSign is a powerful workflow engine that allows you to standardize your business process and increase visibility.

Let work flow by automating the contract management process SpringCM (a DocuSign company) generates, automates and stores your documents and contracts, simplifying your business processes and making it easier for your customers to work with you.

Check it out here!

 

Salesforce Pardot vs. Marketing Cloud: Which Should You Choose?

Salesforce Pardot vs. Marketing Cloud: Which Should You Choose?

When looking at marketing software for businesses, Pardot and Salesforce Marketing Cloud are two big names that regularly come up. Especially if you already use Salesforce, these two are probably your two best options for utilizing a powerful and fully integrated marketing platform with your CRM.

While both solutions are directly connected to Salesforce CRM, they do have some pretty significant differences. In this article we will be taking a closer look at both Pardot and Marketing Cloud, their strengths and weaknesses and some recommended cases for who should use which.

The Overview

While both of these programs can be very complex, and handle a wide variety of marketing needs, deciphering which one you should use is luckily not so complicated. If you need a place to start, look no further.

Pardot is aimed at B2B marketing and focuses on nurturing leads to the point of handing them off to a Sales representative. If your process is dependant upon “high touch” interactions with customers and clients, this may be the option for you.

Marketing Cloud is a more robust platform and focused on B2C marketing. If you are looking for 1-to-1 interactions with customers, through social media, subscriptions and a large database of users and customers, this is probably the option for you.

However, it should be said, the above recommendations are not hard and fast rules. Can Marketing Cloud be used for B2B? Absolutely. It depends on your needs. Can Pardot be used for B2C – potentially, but with less functionality than most companies would like for their marketing.

engagement programs

The Details – Pardot

Essential Features:

  • Email Marketing – A WYSIWYG email editor, with a selection of pre-built templates, dynamic content and in-depth analytics on email clicks, opens and more.
  • Social Media Marketing – direction connection to your social media accounts, link tracking and content scheduling for easy Social Media posts
  • Engagement Program / Drip Campaigns – a personalized journey for each prospect, with responsive automation based on the prospect’s actions
  • Integration with Salesforce CRM – Direct connection to the CRM lets you parse leads and data between the two, and send real-time notifications to the Sales team
  • Lead Generation – Tools for landing pages, forms and lead segmentation allow you to capture leads from your website and get them ready to put into the funnel.
  • Reporting and Analytics – Tracking for your different campaigns, and ROI so you know which marketing initiatives are working best.

Other items to consider:

  • Pardot is generally more user-friendly. It requires less setup and customization than Marketing Cloud – however, Pardot  cannot do quite as much, functionality wise, as Marketing Cloud
  • Businesses can see results from Pardot without a large, or dedicated marketing team.
  • Pardot is generally less expensive than Marketing Cloud

The Details – Marketing Cloud

Essential Features:

  • Journey Builder – personalized multichannel customer journeys, that reach across the entire lifecycle from leads to cases.
  • Email marketing – Email builder feature mobile-optimized templates, dynamic content and rich formatting (JavaScript and AMPscript).
  • Social Media Marketing – Connect to your social media accounts, plan and publish your campaigns and monitor the results
  • Mobile Marketing – Mobile device marketing, including two-way communications and tracking of user activities.
  • Advertising – Tools to advertise on the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and manage those ads at scale using rules and collaboration.
  • Predictive Profiling – Allows you to create contact profiles, infer customer preferences, and automate marketing decisions based on the resulting customer behaviors.
  • Web Personalization – Connect Marketing cloud to your website, where you can track visitors, get data on their actions, and create smart content to enhance the user experience.
  • A single data platform – All of your customer data (from all sorts of sources) becomes centralized on the Marketing Cloud Platform, giving you a more complete view and tools to analyze, filter and segment.

Other items to consider:

  • Marketing Cloud has a wealth of features and options, however, to fully utilize them you will need a good amount of customization and at the minimum, a small team of people to run the system.
  • Marketing Cloud will most likely cost you more to set up and to purchase that Pardot.

Roundup

So there you have it. Hopefully, this has given you a bit more clarity into the two systems and which one is right for you!

-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team