Have you recently made the leap to Pardot? Congratulations and welcome to the club!
I’m sure you’ve heard about all the features, tools, and support options for your new marketing automation platform. You’ve probably had many discussions on your setup with your consultant or admin. You’ve even started to explore what your new platform can do. And maybe you’re starting to get overwhelmed with all this new information.
As someone who’s been there, I’ve got your back. When I was learning Pardot I bookmarked any helpful resource I came across, a good habit for anyone learning a new platform. I saved every community and blog I could get my hands on and got up and running quick.
Recently, I have found myself sending out my list of saved bookmarks to other new Pardot users. But I’d like to make it even easier to get you up-and-running with Pardot as well. So to save you from a long list of bookmarks, here’s my ultimate list of Pardot resources.
In late 2017, Pardot began moving their documentation and help resources over to Salesforce. Due to this, some of these links have changed, are no longer be active, or will redirect to their new home.
Getting acquainted
You probably were excited about Pardot’s long list of features when you had just purchased it, but remembering what each of them can do and how to best use them is difficult. Check out these resources if you need a refresher:
- A handy glossary: Can’t remember the difference between an automation rule and completion action? Start here
- Best Practices: There are many routes to the same goal in Pardot but some will achieve results more quickly than others
Naming Conventions (I highly recommend reading this article if you’re looking to be organized from the get-go)
Using your lifelines
Pardot support and peer users are incredibly helpful and plentiful. Whether you need an answer ASAP or want to connect with other users, there’s a way for you to get support, find answers, and connect:
- Customer HUB: Homebase for all Pardot support resources
- In person events and Pardot user groups: Nothing beats in-person if you’re in a major metro area
- Pardot Salesforce Success Community: Feed of real-time Pardot user questions: likely your quickest way to get an answer to what is stumping you
- Knowledge Base: Search here first for common questions/feature refreshers
- Technical Support: Create and view support tickets – escalate here when all else fails
- Customer Success Group/Advocates: Sign up for office hours (there are several every week, plus themed webinars) to get real-time help with Pardot experts.
- What’s up with my instance of Pardot?See the latest status of known Pardot issues here
- Learn from experts: There are tons of blogs out there with helpful tips and tricks. This one by independent consultant Jenna Molby is fantastic for learning new ways to use Pardot.
Planning your Pardot strategy
Marketing is a passion of mine, and I bet yours too. Pardot and Salesforce offer a bounty of resources to learn the latest strategies and get started on the platform:
- Upcoming webinars
- B2B Marketing Blitz webinar series
- Past Topical Office Hours covering best practices
- Pardot’s Blog
- Salesforce’s Marketing Blog
Diving into the advanced features
As you probably know, Pardot offers some cool advanced tools to really take your engagement to the next level. Try using these three features to take it to the max:
- Explore Engagement Studio: where you’ll set up drip campaigns and more
- Learn automation rules: you can facilitate bulk updates and much more
- Use dynamic content: for personalizing emails to different segments
Taking a deeper dive
Maybe you’re obsessed like me and have loved using Pardot. Take a break from browsing Pardot’s resources and see if you have what it takes to become a certified Pardot Specialist.
This blog post was originally posted on www.idealistconsulting.com