I’ve been really impressed with some of the latest changes Pardot has made. With Winter ’16 six major enhancements were made. We took a deeper look so you don’t have to go through 400+ pages of notes.
Here’s what we found:
- 400% Improvement in Salesfore/Pardot Syncing
Before this latest release, Pardot/Salesforce syncing could be a bit slow, taking up to 10 minutes. With this release they’ve shortened that time to 2 minutes – a whopping 400% improvement. Well done! On the downside, you need to contact the Pardot support team to cut this time. Get on the phone ASAP.
- Support for Changes to Google AdWords URLs
In July 2015, Google AdWords upgraded the URLs to split the landing page URL and the tracking parameters into two fields: the final landing page URL and the tracking template. In reaction to this change, Pardot’s Google AdWords Connector has been updated to support this change. If you use Pardot Google AdWords Connector, you need take action to ensure that your ads are properly tracked. Have your Pardot admin switch to the new URL system in Pardot and insert new tracking template into your ads.
- Automatically Create Prospects with New Emails
This one is killer. As you know, previously, when an email address was added to a lead or contact, the new Prospect would NOT be added to Pardot. With Winter ’16 this is solved. Administrators can choose an option so that whenever email addresses are added to Salesforce leads and contacts, a prospect is created in Pardot. To activate this, visit the salesforce connector configuration settings.
- Personalize emails to prospect tags using Variable Tags
Sales reps can now insert both standard AND Pardot tags in emails (as opposed to just standard tags prior to this release). This is a great addition to the Salesforce Engage. If you haven’t had a chance to, I recommend checking it out.
- Email Editor Usability Updates
This latest release made some nice usability updates to the email editor. You can now open the editor to full screen giving you better visibility as you’re designing an email. You can also now resize the side bar on emails you’re building. This is long overdue.
Logging Engage Emails
As you know Salesforce.com let’s you log TONS of information, so organization is key. Prior to this release, Engage email activity was logged together with Pardot marketing emails. With a simple update to the Salesforce connector, these will now be logged separately.
What’s missing: Lightening! I was hoping this release would create integration with Salesforce Lightening for some killer reporting capabilities. We’ll have to wait…Perhaps Spring ’16?
