Features

Content creation

  • Email newsletters
  • Forms and landing pages

Promotion & distribution

  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing

Content analytics & tracking

Track marketing efforts and leads

  • Prospect tracking and analytics 
  • Lead scoring and grading
  • Email and Social Media Tracking
  • Landing page and email A/B testing 

    Content platform administration

    CRM integrations with:

    • Salesforce.com
    • SugarCRM
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM 

    Support

    • Phone Support
    • Call Support

    Pricing

    Basic info

     
    $1,000 - $3,000/mo.
     
    Annual subscription
    • Standard Plan - $1,000/ month
    • Pro Plan - $2,000/ month
    • Ultimate Plan - $3,000/ month
    Vendor Pricing

    Reviews

    4.3
    15 reviews 
    Sort by
     
    Client Interview
    Jul 13 2015

    Pardot Implementation for IT Firm

    5.0

    Features: 
    4.5
    Ease of use: 
    5.0
    Support: 
    5.0
    Willing to refer: 
    5.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Confidential spend
     
    Information Technology
     
    1-10 Employees
     
    Ontario, Canada
    Owner, IT Firm
     
    Verified
    The Review
    Recommendations

    The client is a provider of software and services to companies that want to improve in the areas of marketing, sales, operations, and customer loyalty. The client implements Pardot to help their clients generate, nurture and track leads through email marketing. The client stated that in certain cases, lead nurturing and follow up has increased from 25 percent to 80 percent. The client highly recommends Pardot for any company looking for a business-to-business marketing automation tool.

    BACKGROUND

    Can you please provide a brief description of your company?

    We are a services company. We're a Pardot partner, we're also a NetSuite and Salesforce development partner. We provide services around those tools.

    What is your role in the company?

    I am the owner of the company.

    OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

    What was the business challenge that incited the need for a Marketing Automation Tool?

    We saw the need in our customer base for a tool like Pardot. So, the challenge for our clients is that the CRM (customer relationship management) tools, where you have all the e-mail addresses, don't do a very good job of tracking and targeting leads and prospects as they come in. They do an OK job of emailing your customers, but it's not great. Our clients needed a tool that was great at sending an email, tracking it, doing the right thing there and also tracking people and seeing what they're doing online.

    SOLUTION

    How do you implement the tool?

    First, we get our client's data loaded into the software in an intelligent way. A big challenge for marketers is still segmentation. Most marketers are marketing to existing customer databases, and leads and prospects for multiple products, and having good data is very important. We help them get that migrated, and Pardot has some nice ways of helping ensure that data is kept clean and up to date.

    It also allows companies to collect more information in time with progressive profiling. If you don't know certain information about a prospect, you can ask it on the forum instead of asking for information that they have already given. We'll also setup intelligent nurturing into your programs and mobile-responsive landing pages for them.

    There are plenty of templates, both on emails and landing pages, in Pardot. They provide you the ability to create your own templates, which people like us do fairly regularly. It makes it very easy for an end user, who's using the client's Pardot system, to go and grab a custom template and use it for their own landing page. The email editor is quite easy because it is drag and drop, and you can add and remove sections fairly simply.

    RESULTS

    Can you share any results of your implementation of Pardot?

    I don't have anything very specific. I will say that the deliverability of Pardot, very quickly, goes into the 99.9 percent rate, whereas before they were dealing with 80, 85, and 90 percent deliverability rates. People start to tend to send less email. They send less email. They send the right emails to the right people, and it's an interesting conversation.

    The quality of content going to sales increases massively, and leads actually start to get followed up on. Normally, depending on the business, 25 percent of the leads and content that marketing engages with gets followed up by sales. If you're doing it properly, like our good customers are, they're following up on 80 to 90 percent.

    FEATURES

    Were there any software features that really impressed you?  

    It's important to understand how easy it is to integrate with other tools. A lot of people will get into marketing automation, sending emails and doing landing pages. That's all fine, but understanding how to drive the process with Salesforce, NetSuite, and CRM tools is really important. Pardot's excellent at that.

    Have you used their support resources?

    They're quite good. Depending on the level of product they have with Pardot, customers have both online chat support, online web support to submit a case, and they also have a very excellent knowledge base with videos and training. The knowledge base actually contains knowledge, which is nice.

    Are there any areas of the software that could be added or improved upon?

    Pardot can give you a lot of numbers on campaign performance, email performance, landing page performance, and those kinds of things that everybody else can do. It doesn't have an engine that allows you to customize your own reports in a very detailed way, and that's usually specific to the person's business. So, all the tools need to get better at providing good analytics tools.

    OVERVIEW

    We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for ease of use?

    Five. It's very quick and inexpensive to get Pardot up and running.

    What would you give the software for features available?

    Four and a half. The features are very good. They've been very progressive and they roll out new features on a very regular basis.

    For support and responsiveness of the team or resources available?

    Four and a half.

    For overall satisfaction with the platform?

    Five. We've been a Pardot partner for years now, and we don't do anything but Pardot. We've not seen the need to go to anything else. Pardot's a B2B [business-to-business] marketing automation application. That's the one qualifier I would give it. It's not a B2C [business-to-consumer] tool.

    How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

    Five. I have no qualms about recommending Pardot. They're a fantastic crew, great people, the product's awesome, and it's easy to do business with them.

    5.0
    Overall Score
    • 4.5 Features
    • 5.0 Ease of Use
    • 5.0 Support
    • 5.0 Willing to Refer
     
    Client Interview
    Oct 13 2015

    App Development Software Company Use of Pardot

    5.0

    Features: 
    5.0
    Ease of use: 
    4.0
    Support: 
    4.0
    Willing to refer: 
    4.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Information Technology and Services
     
    51-200 Employees
     
    San Francisco, CA
    Campaign Manager, Bizness Apps
    Patrick Shock
     
    Verified
    The Review
    Recommendations

    The Pardot client is Bizness Apps, a mobile application platform that makes building mobile apps for small and medium-sized businesses easier. The client was in need of an inbound marketing platform that strongly integrates with Salesforce, for this Bizness Apps implements Pardot rather than HubSpot. The client highlight's Pardot's integration of Salesforce as the largest reason for their recommendation to other users. This client looks for improvements in Pardot's landing page builder.

    BACKGROUND

    Can you please provide a brief description of your company?

    Bizness Apps is a mobile app platform. We make building mobile apps easy for agencies and small businesses.

    What role do you play at Bizness Apps?

    As campaign manager, I oversee content creation and email campaigns.

    OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

    What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for Pardot?

    Prior to Pardot, we used HubSpot, but needed better communication with Salesforce.

    SOLUTION

    How does your company implement Pardot?

    We use Pardot for lead nurturing and email marketing. Our sales team also uses Pardot for 1:1 emails.

    Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

    Not really. We chose Pardot because of its ability to communicate with Salesforce.

    RESULTS

    Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of Pardot?

    We've seen a solid increase in lead interaction and overall sales. In Pardot, we're able to better track leads, we can create better content and our account executives have better and more constructive calls and demos.

    FEATURES

    Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?  

    What impresses me is the simple fact that Pardot integrates so strongly with Salesforce. I know I'm repeating myself, but it makes everything so much easier.

    Looking back, are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

    Pardot's landing page builder isn't great and there could be improvements to the emails. For example, Pardot can't send RSS Feed emails for blog subscribers

    Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

    Pardot customer support is great.

    OVERVIEW

    We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

    Five.

    What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

    Four. Pardot can be a bit mechanical.

    For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

    Four. Chat support is a five, but for normal support not the upgraded support you pay for, responses takes time and are via email, which slows the process.

    Overall, satisfaction with the platform?

    Five.

    How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

    Four. Depends on the needs of the business. Lower-level inbound could be done with HubSpot.

    5.0
    Overall Score
    • 5.0 Features
    • 4.0 Ease of Use
    • 4.0 Support
    • 4.0 Willing to Refer
     
    Client Interview
    May 17 2016

    Lead Tracking and Drip Campaigns with Pardot

    4.0

    Features: 
    4.0
    Ease of use: 
    4.0
    Support: 
    2.0
    Willing to refer: 
    4.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Marketing and Advertising
     
    51-200 Employees
     
    Chicago, IL
    Director of Marketing, Digital Marketing Agency
     
    Verified
    The Review
    Recommendations

    The user is a digital marketing agency is Chicago. They use Pardot for drip email campaigns, lead tracking, and scoring. Pardot has allowed them to set up lead nurturing tactics and get more insights into their potential clients. They particularly like its seamless integration with Salesforce, but have had issues reaching Pardot's support team. They recommend that Pardot users hire a consultant during the onboarding process to ensure that Pardot is used to its full capacity.

    BACKGROUND

    Can you provide a brief description of your company?

    We are a PR and digital marketing agency focused on business-to-business companies.

    What role do you play there?

    I am the director of marketing for the company. I run all of our internal marketing campaigns and programs and help grow the business.

    OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

    What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

    We wanted to be able to track more of what our content was doing, so we started running more content campaigns. We didn't have any visibility into what was happening with that content, who was viewing it, who was actually finding it valuable, and the types of interactions they were having with it, so we started seeking different solutions.

    SOLUTION

    How does your company implement this platform or software?

    I try to use it as fully as I possibly can. We use everything from their email campaigns to their drip campaigns and managing our contact lists, as well as our social media management. We use the campaign functions and the folder functions. Our webinars are also synched up and in there.

    We do lead scoring and grading. We really try to use it close to full capacity, so all of our capture forms as connect to our Pardot account.

    We don't use the landing page builder or the forms through Pardot because I have full functionality with our CMS [content management system], and I can go in and just create those pages when I need to, which I think is rare.

    Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

    The reason we ended up going with Pardot was because they had recently been purchased by Salesforce, which was a tool that I had purchased six months prior to purchasing Pardot. They seemed to have a good integration. We were getting into a level where they could offer us a good deal to go along with what we already had, and the support was good at that time, too. Because many of our clients use Salesforce, we assumed they would also be using Pardot in the years down the road, so we thought having it in-house would be helpful. It's turned out to be exactly that case. I probably help three to four different client cases on a weekly basis internally.

    On an annual or monthly basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

    I have it lumped in with Salesforce, so I don't know what it costs on its own.

    FEATURES

    Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

    The integration with Salesforce is pretty seamless and helpful. They just rolled out a new updated interface, and it looks good. All of their campaign data lives within one view now, which is great. Lists, activities, form completions, any opportunities that you have listed in Salesforce, all of that is listed within one view for any given campaign, so when you are running a new campaign, it's helpful. It's even helpful for an old campaign if you're going back to look at it to see the success. You can see how far leads have made it down the funnel.

    Something else that's cool is identifying leads by IP [Internet protocol]. Even if a company hasn't been identified by somebody filling out a form, they can identify you by the server. That's an interesting thing, too. You can see who's poking around even if they don't fill out a form.

    Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

    You're not able to make grading or scoring leads contingent upon any other factors or variables. Say you have a new lead that's coming in, and they have filled out a form. You have progressive profiling, and they say that they are a specific title and a specific revenue. Grading is where they allow you to give it a letter grade based on different fields that they're filling out and how important those are to your business model.

    For example, if somebody comes in and they say that they have $1 million to give you but the type of company is something that you would never work with, it doesn't allow those fields to be contingent. It's only an either-or type of situation. You can always have negative grading, but that $1 million price tag may bump them all the way up, and it may go immediately to one of our sales guys, but the type of company may not even be remotely close to what we would work with. Even though you could bring that down by a letter grade, it could still get through.

    Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

    Pardot definitely gives us a lot more insight into what we're doing. It helps us with our reporting, and it's probably helped me keep my job because it shows what we're doing is working. I'm definitely appreciative of that. We have had some pretty good successes because of the drip campaign programs on Pardot. For example, if somebody downloads a piece of content, they can then be added to a drip campaign to receive related content that may be applicable to them for any set amount of time following their download. That's something that we've actually seen a handful of leads come through on that I wouldn't be able to do manually.

    Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

    I have used their support, or at least attempted to, and I would say that this is probably the biggest pain point of using the tool. At first, they were very hands-on. They had somebody that I could refer to there, but they were right in the process of their acquisition and integration with Salesforce, and now it's completely impossible to reach out to somebody on their end. We actually had to bring in a third-party consultant to help. I did all the implementation three or more years ago, but we definitely had some pieces that needed to be fixed and rearranged, and we brought in a company to help us do that. We couldn't get that support through Pardot.

    There have been times where I've had something that I needed somebody to check on or to look at to make sure I had set up correctly, and you can't even find somebody to reach out to.

    We don't spend a small amount of money with the company, and you would think that somebody would be able to pick up the phone and help you figure it out if it's a quick fix, and you're not emailing back and forth on a busy schedule while they're helping so many other people. It just doesn't seem very efficient.

    In the more recent weeks, I have even looked to try to reach out, and I don't even think that there's an area to fill out a Zendesk ticket anymore, at least from what you are able to find easily. I used to have it bookmarked to open the help page, and the more recent times I've tried to do that, it doesn't even exist.

    Do you have any advice for somebody using this tool or thinking about using the tool?

    This tool is an absolute monster. You definitely want to bring somebody in to help you set it up. I wish we would have from the beginning brought somebody on to consult and to implement it. We actually just had a client yesterday who realized that they've had their Pardot set up for a few years, and the tracker code was not set up on their website, so they're not even tracking the activities of what's happening. Their forms are connected, but nothing else is.

    It's a technically difficult thing to do, and if you haven't done software integration before, I would definitely recommend getting someone to help you or whoever with it. The other thing would be to use it for more than just emails. Segment your lists. There's definitely many ways that they help you do that.

    Set up scoring and grading – do that from the beginning. Have the business conversations that it takes to get that set up correctly because it's more painful down the road. Try to integrate it with as many tools as you can. They integrate with so many different tools, but try to get all of your tools in there as quickly as you can so that you can have the most visibility.

    RATINGS

    We ask you to rate the software on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.

    What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

    4

    What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

    4

    For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

    2 – I'm feeling generous.

    How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

    4

    For overall satisfaction with the platform?

    4

    4.0
    Overall Score
    • 4.0 Features
    • 4.0 Ease of Use
    • 2.0 Support
    • 4.0 Willing to Refer
     
    Client Interview
    May 24 2016

    Campaign Management with Pardot

    4.0

    Features: 
    3.5
    Ease of use: 
    4.0
    Support: 
    4.0
    Willing to refer: 
    4.5
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Public Relations
     
    51-200 Employees
     
    San Francisco, CA
    Digital Marketing Manager, Communications Agency
     
    Verified
    The Review
    Recommendations

    The user is an integrated agency in San Francisco. They use Pardot to set up online marketing campaigns and have a comprehensive view of how digital marketing efforts are driving leads for one of their clients. They have had a great experience with the onboarding process and Pardot's support team, but would like their analytics to be more robust. The user recommends Pardot to businesses that need a marketing automation and tracking tool that is comprehensive, but not as complex as Marketo.

    BACKGROUND

    Can you provide a brief description of your company?

    We're an integrated communications mid-size agency servicing many B2B [business-to-business] technology companies.

    What role do you play there?

    I'm a Digital Marketing Manager at the agency.

    OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

    What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

    We're primarily using them for one of our clients, helping the client to launch their brand, begin to activate digital properties, and disseminate marketing collateral, as well as host the content. We wanted to have a comprehensive view of how those properties and assets were driving leads within one tool, looking at the real business results coming from our efforts.

    SOLUTION

    How does your company implement this platform or software?

    The vast majority of my time on Pardot is spent on developing tracking codes, developing the individual campaign, seeking those codes, implementing them into quite a bit of the social ads that we're running, as well as the structure of the display campaigns. In addition to that, we've used it for developing email campaigns. From that perspective, it's been really nice and super easy to use as plug-and-play.

    The onboarding process that Salesforce offers with Pardot is great. The functionality is intuitive enough where even a newcomer could figure out how to use their features, like the email campaign builder. Pardot makes it easy.

    Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

    As is the process for any client without a tool that we engage with, we do a comprehensive review of everything that's out there. We landed on Pardot for this particular client as a result of the size of their business. Ultimately we could have recommended something more robust, like Marketo. However, they simply weren't there. Pardot was fit for their needs.

    FEATURES

    Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?

    To be honest, I wouldn't necessarily say that there was anything that wowed me over any other tool. I think what it does, it does well. Pardot was the right tool for what we needed.

    Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?

    There are two things. First, the campaign view is really messy. For instance, if I'm running 24 ad word groups for a single client and I'm tracking them all individually, there's no way that I can organize 4 or 5 of them each into its own header so that I can have a high level view and then if I want, click in and go deeper into it. It all just kind of sits there on the campaign dashboard.

    The other thing that is a bit lacking for me are the analytics. They're very basic when it comes to anything that I'm running. Even the social analytics could go further. I usually defer back to either looking at the platform itself or another tool.

    Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?

    Their resources are very helpful. I've had positive experiences with them.

    RATINGS

    We ask that you rate Pardot on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best score.

    What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?

    3.5

    What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?

    4

    For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

    4

    For overall satisfaction with the platform?

    4

    How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

    4.5

    4.0
    Overall Score
    • 3.5 Features
    • 4.0 Ease of Use
    • 4.0 Support
    • 4.5 Willing to Refer
     
    Survey Response
    Mar 27 2016

    Marketing Automation With Pardot And Salesforce Integration

    4.0

    Features: 
    4.5
    Ease of use: 
    4.5
    Support: 
    3.0
    Willing to refer: 
    4.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Business services
     
    501-1000 employees
     
    New York, NY
    Associate, Marketing
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Experience:

    We chose Pardot because it is easy to integrate with Salesforce. It also gives us the ability to utilize landing pages, forms, and emails all in one solution! We use it primarily for email automation, lead nurturing, event promotion, and follow-ups. However, we have begun using them for their landing page capabilities and seamless integration into Salesforce. It has performed relatively well for us. We have used it now for the past 3-4 years and have been mostly happy. However, it can be very slow at times and this can cause some issues. We have begun vetting future options.

    Pros:

    The list management tool is fantastic.

    Cons:

    Honestly, the fact that at least once a day it will freeze up or crash is incredibly frustrating. I should not have to hope the next page is going to load every time I click next. Also, the customer support is lacking a bit with this tool. It is sometimes hard to contact our point of contact, and we could use better support resources.

     
    Survey Response
    Sep 16 2016

    Marketing Automation with Good Training

    5.0

    Features: 
    5.0
    Ease of use: 
    4.5
    Support: 
    5.0
    Willing to refer: 
    5.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    $251 - $1000/mo. spend
     
    Business Services
     
    201-500 Employees
     
    Mount Laurel, New Jersey
    Director, IT
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Recommendations:

    I would recommend Pardot's marketing services to any company.

    Experience:

    We chose this platform because we needed a service with ongoing 24/7 technical support. We also benefit from the trainings and local user groups in cities across the globe. We use the marketing automation feature with ROI reporting. Pardot has performed far beyond our expectations. It has saved us money and time all while providing training that educates our staff.

    Pros:

    The trainings included in our package. Our staff and team really benefits from it.

    Cons:

    Maybe a little lower price or a little more for your money.

     
    Survey Response
    Mar 23 2016

    Best Set of Marketing Features

    4.5

    Features: 
    4.5
    Ease of use: 
    5.0
    Support: 
    5.0
    Willing to refer: 
    5.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Advertising and Marketing
     
    5001+ employees
     
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Vice President, Marketing
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Experience:

    Pardot is one of my favorite marketing automation services because it provides the best suite of features for my needs. I had a very good experience with Pardot. I haven't run into any problems and would recommend it. It performs well and has provided a lot of benefits for our company.

    Pros:

    Pardot is easy to use. It is a very good system.

    Cons:

    It needs more options, and the interface could be improved.

     
    Survey Response
    Apr 02 2016

    Targeted Email Marketing With Pardot

    3.5

    Features: 
    4.5
    Ease of use: 
    4.0
    Support: 
    1.5
    Willing to refer: 
    3.5
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    Business services
     
    501-1000 employees
     
    New York, NY
    Associate, Marketing
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Experience:

    We used Pardot to manage our lead generation lists and used the email automation features to target select groups. This includes direct content marking, branding, and drip nurturing. We use all the features except the calendar functions. We use it to create emails, files, landing pages, lead nurturing process and more. The customer service for the product is lacking. It has a ton of great features to use that integrate right into our CRM. However, sometimes it will just freeze and load slowly. It is a bit annoying. I do like the product overall, just some minor fixes would take it to the next level.

    Pros:

    The best part is the integration with our CRM. It makes everything very easy and helps us take advantage of linking landing pages, and working on our lead generation.

    Cons:

    If they could just improve their customer service, it would make the product leaps and bounds better!

     
    Survey Response
    Jul 31 2016

    Smarter Lead Generation with Pardot

    5.0

    Features: 
    4.5
    Ease of use: 
    5.0
    Support: 
    5.0
    Willing to refer: 
    5.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    $251 - $1000/mo. spend
     
    Information Technology
     
    501-1000 Employees
     
    Batavia, NY
    Director, Information Technology Company
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Recommendations:

    To expand the company to provide more marketing for other types of consumers.

    Experience:

    They really get what we are trying to do as a company in marketing and how to get our products across to people. We use it for email marketing, smarter lead generation. I love working with them and all they have to offer; they really come through with email marketing.

    Pros:

    The email marketing they provide.

    Cons:

    I wish they had more services to provide so I can use only them.

     
    Survey Response
    Sep 19 2016

    Powerful Lead Generation Tool

    4.0

    Features: 
    5.0
    Ease of use: 
    4.5
    Support: 
    4.0
    Willing to refer: 
    4.0
    See More
    the reviewer
     
    $251 - $1000/mo. spend
     
    Energy & Natural Resources
     
    501-1000 Employees
     
    Saint Louis, Missouri
    Executive, Marketing
     
    Verified
    The Review

    Recommendations:

    This is the most powerful choice.

    Experience:

    We chose it because of the amount of capabilities and level of security it has that make it the best quality. We use this platform to speed up our sales cycle and to generate new leads to strengthen our business. It has powerful marketing features.

    Pros:

    It helps us create meaningful connections and a pipeline for leads.

    Cons:

    Nothing at all.