Hubspot Migration to Pardot – 10 Tips for Success

So, you’re planning your Hubspot migration to Pardot, congratulations! Making the switch between platforms can be daunting and overwhelming, but this change is also a great opportunity to perform any data, asset, or list clean-up you’ve been wanting to tackle. Think of this as a clean slate to rejuvenate your marketing automation efforts. 

Before you turn the lights out on your Hubspot account, give yourself plenty of time to transition from Hubspot to Pardot. It’s important to make sure that you give yourself plenty of overlap time between turning on Pardot and turning off Hubspot. The overlap time for both accounts can vary depending on how many assets you have, how much you plan to bring from one platform to another, Salesforce data, among other things. In general, even if you aren’t bringing a lot from Hubspot to Pardot, it’s best to give yourself at least six weeks to make the switch. 

Here is a list of 10 tips to ensure your transition from Hubspot to Pardot is as seamless as possible. 

1. Honor your opt-outs from Hubspot. If you have a list of email addresses who have opted out from your Hubspot communications, you’ll want to continue to honor their opted-out status even when you move them to Pardot. The easiest way to accomplish this is by exporting a list of all of the opted-out/unsubscribes in Hubspot into a .csv file and then uploading them directly to Pardot. As you work through the Pardot import wizard, there is a section that will allow you to upload the list as opted-out. 
2. Create an IP warm-up plan. Pardot allows you to have a dedicated IP address. If you choose to use this feature (at an additional cost in Pardot Plus & Growth), you will want to make sure that you have an IP warming plan in place. IP warming is the practice of gradually ramping up your send volume on a predetermined schedule.
3. Create a migration document. A migration plan is essential when migrating your Hubspot to Pardot. This document can be as simple as using an excel spreadsheet to note which assets, forms, emails, email templates, landing pages, and landing page templates need to be recreated. This practice will allow you to prioritize and organize your recreated content.
4. Create a naming convention and folder structure in Pardot. An often-overlooked setup item in Pardot is folder structure and naming convention. Although the task may seem tedious and unnecessary just to get an email out the door, these items are best tackled sooner rather than later for organization purposes but also scoring. A feature that is often overlooked in Pardot is scoring categories which are driven exclusively by folder structure. For instance, if you want to score your prospects by product, having a folder structure in place by product, will allow you to score which product a prospect is most interested in. 
5. Set up your Pardot preference center. In Pardot, you are required to either have an unsubscribe link or preferences link in your emails before you can send them out. Prior to sending out your first email, it is important to have your preference center set up rather than just inserting the unsubscribe link to fit the requirement. This preference center will have public lists that your prospects can opt themselves into or out of (newsletter, product announcements, event invites, etc.) 
6. Set your Pardot forms live on your website. If you intend to use Pardot forms or Pardot form handlers, make sure that they are live on the site before sending out any emails or redirecting your digital ads to the site. You will want to start collecting visitor information in Pardot as soon as possible.  
7.  Recreate custom fields in Pardot. Pardot has 30 default fields available that are automatically synchronized with their corresponding Salesforce fields.        Anything beyond those default fields will need to be created as custom fields and manually synchronized with Salesforce. If you are using custom fields to capture information relevant to your business and products, it is especially important that these are set up so that you are able to use them on Pardot forms.
8. Set up your email sending and tracker domains. Your email sending and tracker domains will allow you to both send emails and track any clicks. Setting up these items in Pardot will require some help from your IT team, so be sure to plan ahead and prioritize this with them. These items are crucial to have set up before turning out the lights on your Hubspot account otherwise you will not able to send emails. 
9. Recreate your Hubspot lists in Pardot. Determine which lists you want to bring over from Hubspot and recreate them in Pardot. As mentioned above, use this as a time to clean up your lists and determine which lists don’t need to migrate. Consider which lists need to be public-facing and (in your preference center) and prioritize those.
10. Set up Pardot scoring. Pardot scoring is live and functioning out of the box with zero setup. Determine if the scoring model is appropriate for your business, if so, great! There’s no work to be done here and you can start scoring your Pardot prospects on day one. If the scoring model doesn’t fit your needs, evaluate what you want the scores to be and customize the model accordingly to make sure you are accurately scoring your prospects from day one. Keep in mind that that scoring is flexible and if what you have in place out the gate isn’t working for you, you can change it later.

In many instances, individuals or teams running the marketing automation efforts do not have time to continue their day-to-day tasks while simultaneously preparing for the switch from Hubspot to Pardot. Cloudtegic can ease the burden of making the switch by becoming your Pardot implementation partner. Whether you need Pardot training or just want us to rebuild your Hubspot assets in Pardot, reach out here to discuss your migration with us.