Merits of Outsourcing Marketing Automation Assistance versus Reliance on In-House Resources
If you are a Pardot user, you know that Salesforce is continually updating the application and further integrating it into the Salesforce ecosystem. Naturally, part of that evolution also involves the ongoing development of training resources. Frequently, these can be found by running a general search engine query on a given topic. This will usually result in a Salesforce help page being served up in the top two or three search results. If that works to get you back on track then great – mission accomplished. But what if you are looking for a more systematic approach to gain familiarity with Pardot? This post covers some of the helpful, yet lesser known, resources that Salesforce makes available.
Getting Answers Quickly – where do those question marks lead to?
You don’t have to spend too much time in Pardot to notice the question mark icons at the top left of your window. Most of the time you will actually see two; one for Salesforce and another for Pardot. Clicking on the lower Pardot question mark will generate a Salesforce Help page that is relevant to the page it was accessed from. So if you are on a page about Email Templates a corresponding help page on that topic will be served up. Very convenient. Regardless of the starting page, however, any given help page accessed via the Pardot question mark will feature three vertical boxes on the far right of the screen. These boxes block off the following categories:
- Recommended Learning The Recommended Learning section directs to upcoming sessions provided by Salesforce trainers. These are offered at a cost.
- Post a Question The Post A Question section directs to the Trailblazer Community. Here you may be asked to sign-up as a Trailblazer member. Note – if you are career minded, you may want to sign up under a personal email, so that badges and credits are more easily associated with your individual identity as opposed to your corporate persona. Either way it is well worth it, as membership allows you to post questions, attend events, and interact with the Salesforce community at large. The Answers section conveniently breaks down postings according to themes; Email Marketing, Journey Management, Security and other topics.
- Contact Support As one would expect, clicking on this button initiates the process whereby a ticket is opened. Here, Salesforce collects as much information as possible to align with you with the most appropriate support team member. If you are initiating a ticket, it is important to grant access to your Pardot instance ahead of time. This is easily accomplished by clicking on the head and shoulders icon in the upper right hand corner of any Pardot window and then clicking on the option to “Grant Account Access”.
Looking for a Methodical Approach to Learning Pardot?
Trailhead – where does the trail start, and where does it lead to for Pardot?
Salesforce’s training ecosystem is known as Trailhead, and can be accessed via this link – Trailhead
In Salesforce, you get to Trailhead by clicking on the top question mark, (the one associated with your Salesforce window), and clicking on Go to Trailhead. Here in the Home section you will find a couple of brief modules covering the basic concept of what Trailhead is and how it can support your growth with Salesforce. If, however, you want to proceed directly to Pardot related materials you will want to click the Learn tab, immediately to the left of Home. The two sections that relate to Pardot are titled, Trails and Modules.
Trails – the Trails section provides an aggregated series of modules that are designed to provide familiarity with Pardot related concepts. By clicking on Pardot in the blue banner at the top of the page you will reduce the offering down to Pardot exclusive topics. This will reduce the offering to four Trails:
- Automate Marketing to Business with Pardon Lightning App
- Automate Marketing to Business with Pardon for Salesforce Classic
- Increase Engagement and Nurture Leads with Pardot Lightning App
- Increase Engagement and Nurture Leads with Pardot for Salesforce Classic
I have reviewed this material and have found only minor variances between the Lightning and Classic versions, so effectively only two Trails are being offered here. The total completion time is estimated to be between three to six hours depending on the module.
Modules – similar to the Trails section, filtering on Pardot in the blue banner will reduce the offering to a core list of approximately thirty modules. In contrast to Trails, these modules are brief and range from twenty minutes to an hour and half in estimated completion time.
The Master Pardot Docs Help Page
As you may have already observed, Salesforce provides a Help page for every aspect of Pardot configuration. In general, when I land on such a page I am keen to seek the answer and move on. The left hand column, (sometimes hidden but accessible by a navigation arrow), however, can lead to a wealth of resources if explored. The top of the information tree begins with a page titled: Market to Your Customers with Pardot
All subsequent help pages unfold from that point.
One subpage in particular stands out as an truly valuable source of information – the Pardot Basic Resources page
This page in turn offers information on the following topics:
- Downloadable Pardon User Guides (all of the Pardot related PDF files in one place!)
- Pardon Glossary (always handy)
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Pardot (who knew?)
So whether you’re after some fast solutions to get you back on track with your marketing initiative, or looking to gain complete mastery of the application, Salesforce provides the training resources available to meet your goals. I hope that the above guide will help you to uncover at least one or two resources that prove to be of value.
