14 July, 2016
Beginning the journey towards implementing marketing automation technology is exciting and, as with all things new, contains a few unknowns. Here at LavaBox we've been around the Pardot block a few times and have some useful suggestions to help you plan for your implementation.
Pardot is an immensely powerful tool lending itself to almost endless applications, so deciding where to start can be daunting. Here's a few suggestions to get you off the mark:
Tackling all of these in at once could be biting off more than you can chew. Instead prioritise the 2-3 most important to your organisation then work your way through them accordingly.
Your customers are all on a journey. Every business's customer lifecycle is different, but generally a typical customer journey can be broken down into:
Ask yourself the question, "If I could move a customers from one stage of their journey to the next, where would I see the strongest commercial win?" Then decide on two priority campaigns that focus on different areas of the customer lifecyce for your initial implementation.
Example: If you focused on the "researching" stage, you'd be developing a campaign that captured the details of early stage researchers in return for a key piece of educational content. This would then flow into a drip campaign to nurture them until they're ready to move to the "shortlisting" stage and speak with a salesperson.
Pardot really is a collaboration of marketing and sales. It provides the opportunity for marketing and sales teams to work much closer together than they once would have.
While being a relatively easy software product to use, it does require some technical knowledge initially to ensure your systems collaborate and operate efficiently.
Consider including the following people through-out your implementation:
Firstly, what do you already have? One of Pardot's strengths is recycling existing content that once would have died on the vine.
Engage your sales team by getting their perspective on what kinds of content would help address their customers' buying considerations. This is also a good chance to ensure you understand their sales process from end-to-end. There's no use developing marketing automation that doesn't enhance the customer's buying experience and help reps close deals.
Review historical marketing assets and cherry-pick content that is still relevant and can be re-used or re-tooled easily. To get you underway consider any existing:
One final aspect to consider, is that all content doesn't have to be proprietary. Helpful content that's been developed by third parties can be distributed throughout your campaigns e.g. a relvant industry article from a major news site.
Pardot Quick Starts run for 8 weeks total and during that time our weekly sessions will cover as much as you need. At the conclusion of each session, your Pardot consultant will assign some key objectives to work on and complete before the next session.
The actual time investment required will vary depending on your objectives. It's always recommended to consider not only your availability but that of your team's also. As a rough guide between 10 - 30 hours per week is a good amount of time to invest in the technical implementation. New content should be briefed in as early as possible to your creative team, and can be slotted into campaigns when ready.
05 February, 2016
There's a tendency to think the only use case for marketing automation is at the front of the sales funnel. In reality, marketing automation can become the glue that ties the entire customer journey together. From lead generation and nurturing, through to re-engagement, solution selection, customer onboarding, and proactive account service. Let's take high level look at how marketing automation can enhance the customer experience and drive revenue throughout the customer lifecycle:
More10 August, 2015
Cold calling doesn’t work too well with complex sales for a few reasons. First, you have to get lucky - calling a prospect who actually cares about the problem you’re trying to solve at the moment you’ve contacted them. Second, you have to educate them - around who you are, the problem they have and how you’re uniquely positioned to help them solve it. Third, you have limited time - they didn’t ask for the call, and understanding your complex proposition probably isn’t on their list of priorities that day.
More01 September, 2016
Lead nurturing empowers marketers to craft tailored content journeys that take prospects down different routes based on their actions (like clicking through on email links) or data profile in Salesforce (like their lead score or industry vertical). These campaigns deliver content that supports the sales process and influence prospects throughout the customer journey. Below are five lead nurturing campaigns that help move prospects from "new lead" through to "contract signed."
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