I recently had the opportunity to speak at Southeast Dreamin, and the topic I covered is one we get asked all the time – how to maximize your Pardot investment. When it comes to Pardot, there is a lot to it. It can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. We choose to take a crawl, walk, run approach when getting started with marketing automation. These 7 key steps provide the road map to go from crawl, to walk, to run, and fully maximize Pardot. This process results in a more efficient sales cycle and increased ROI.
To achieve full Pardot utilization, it’s important to ensure proficiency in generating leads, nurturing leads, automating marketing and sales tasks, and capturing accurate reporting.
Here are the 7 key steps to maximize your Pardot investment:
Step 1: Address your data hygiene.
Data is everything! Using dirty data can cause inefficient sales cycles, ineffective marketing campaigns, misguided decision-making, and poor ROI. Data should be clean, dupe-free, and optimized for reporting.
- 67% of businesses agree the main challenge to adopting marketing automation is integrating data from different sources and systems. (SpotlerUK)
Step 2: Think about segmentation.
Segmentation allows for personalized communication with an audience using data from Salesforce and Pardot (yet another reason why data is so important). Use CRM fields to organize data and build an ideal list, create list structure, and automate list creation/addition. With segmentation, you can customize your marketing efforts to maximize impact.
- 80% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide a personalized experience. (YIELDIFY)
- Compared to mass campaigns, personalized automatic campaigns results in 500% higher conversion. (SALES Manago)
Step 3: Set up marketing influence reporting.
One of the most important questions for marketers is, “what is working (and not working) to drive revenue?” When you can understand what tactics are influencing revenue, you can make more informed decisions about where to allocate budget and resources. Setting up accurate reporting to measure marketing’s impact across the buying journey is the first step.
- 77% of CMO’s at top performing companies say their most compelling reason for implementing MA is to drive up revenue. (GLEANSTER)
Step 4: Generate leads.
Capture anonymous visitors with forms and turn them into leads. Landing pages and media tactics can be optimized for lead generation with enticing CTAs. Lead quantity isn’t the only measure of success. Over time, you can work with sales to analyze the quality of leads generated to further impact ROI.
- 82% of marketers who are trying to increase lead quantity are also looking to increase lead quality. (SCOOP IT)
Step 5: Nurture leads and support sales.
Nurturing relationships with prospects is a key component of successful sales. Marketing can support sales by creating nurture programs for your buyers, specific to who they are and where they are in the buying cycle.
- Only 8% of businesses are using marketing automation to nurture their existing customers. (SIRIUSDECISIONS)
- 48% of businesses say most of their leads require “long cycle” nurturing with many influencers. (Ascend2)
Step 6: Create Sales + Marketing alignment.
We all know marketing and sales need to work together at this point. Marketing can focus on collaborating with sales to implement Pardot in a way that supports sales goals, develop content that speaks directly to sales ideal customer profiles, and optimize marketing programs to help meet revenue goals.
- Aligning sales and marketing also leads to 38% higher sales win rates. (MARKETINGPROFS)
- 58% of marketers now believe that upselling is one of the most important marketing automation benefits. (MOOSEND)
Step 7: Use scoring and grading to help prioritize outreach.
Scoring and grading help you to qualify and prioritize sales outreach. A qualified lead shows high intent engagement and meets key profile characteristics. By using score and grade together, sales can better understand when a target buyer is a hot lead.
- 29% of B2B marketers are using marketing automation to generate higher quality leads. (STATISTA)
These 7 steps lay the foundation for successful revenue operations and set you up to fully maximize your Pardot investment. At Cloudtegic, we consult our clients on all aspects of revenue operations, from Pardot implementation, to marketing strategy, to sales processes. How can we help you?
