Using Pardot for events

Using Pardot for events – Howto & Tips

Events are a significant component in any B2B’s sales and marketing. Wonder if and how you can use Pardot for events? Well, YES! Pardot can support events in many ways: execute marketing, send invitations, manage registration, track attendance, plus handle all post-event prospect communication and lead nurturing. And you can use Pardot marketing automation for both physical as well as online events. And as always, optimise your success over the time with A/B testing and reporting insights.

How to tips and best practices for using Pardot for events with success

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1. Using Pardot for event reporting: ROI ao

Start with the end in mind.

Create a campaign ahead of time and develop some custom member statuses. You can make these as granular as your appetite for detail. Invited, registered, attended, no-show, unsubscribed are usually enough for the bulk of your automated processes and reporting needs.

I’ve seen lead-sourcing info being added via lead status, such as email, webform, at show signup, custom redirect (Pardot’s bitly link), etc. Be sure to keep things manageable and keep your database logical.

Besides being able to report on members, you will also be able to report on all your marketing assets that related to this campaign.

Event reporting can include a Pardot new new lead report, an engagement studio report to see how emails performed and/or a salesforce report to track attendance and assess ROI. Discuss your Pardot reporting needs with us.

2. Using Pardot for event promotion

Pardot social posting can be used to announce your upcoming events on social media. What’s nice about this feature is that you can keep all your marketing assets and initiatives in one place.

Consider using QR codes in your marketing materials, leading to signup forms. As QR codes are typically used on a phone, ensure that your form and landing page is mobile optimised. Should be obvious, but I’ve seen this otherwise.

Whatever you do, use different custom redirects for different lead sources, so you can see which was most effective.

3. Using Pardot for event registration

Pardot’s forms or form handlers can be used to manage event registration. Forms sit on landing pages, and you can optimise your results with A/B or multivariate testing (dependent on your edition of Pardot).

4. Using Pardot for events’ automated communication

You can easily create branded, automated, personalised and effective event communication with Engagement Studio, email templates and automations and other Pardot features.

Take it up a notch: Pardot can be configured to further segment event registrants and event attendees based on their submitted registration details, and provide them with ultra-targeted communication. Dependent on your Pardot edition level, you can use dynamic content, conditional completion actions or both.

But no matter what edition of Pardot you have, we can help you build a fabulous customer experience by planning ahead, and building communication assets within Pardot for use before, during and after your events.

By planning ahead, you’ll develop clearer CTA for your audiences to further them on their journey.

Create a grouping of on-brand emails that portray the look and feel of the events that support the attendees throughout their journey towards becoming your customer.

We can set you up with automated follow-up processes to nurture leads from an event into new customers. All we need to know are some details about your industry and business.

We often use the Engagement Studio tool to help clients think through what they like to happen in a particular sequence, and the options in the studio helps them to make their processes more sophisticated and efficient, often saving lots of ‘chasing’ time by first line sales reps.

In your thank you email, and ongoing nurturing email, give prospects reasons to stay in touch.

5. Using Pardot for Events’ sales communication

Event registration via Pardot forms and landing pages show up in the Engagement History that your sales reps can see on lead and contact pages. A great moment to reach out to them. If your company has also purchased Salesforce Engage, then members of your sales team can even be alerted that a lead has registered for an event.

So, marketers, be sure to create a couple of Pardot templates for Sales to use to send 1:1 personalised messages about the event to clients and prospects – aside from the automated series. Best practice: show your sales team your entire marketing programme to avoid duplication of effort and everyone to walk in tandem.

6. Using Pardot for Events’ addressing great hot leads with lead grading & lead scoring

In fact, if you have set up prospect grading in Pardot, your form might indicate some prime target leads. You can set some automations to get them straight into the hands of Sales, by getting them notified.

Ditto with lead scoring. Pardot allows you to bring hot leads who have reached a certain score, straight to Sales via notifications.

7. Using Pardot ‘s event management software integration for efficiency

Pardot and Eventbrite

Pardot has a built-in connector for Eventbrite. You can find this under Pardot Settings > Connectors > Add Connector > Eventbrite.

Pro tip: consider enriching and importing Eventbrite data into Pardot to ensure you get all the data you need.

Pardot Zoom Integration

We have also configured Pardot to integrate directly with Zoom for webinar registration. You must use campaigns and leverage Zoom’s API. This has been incredibly productive for our clients.

Be sure to leverage the Eventbrite custom fields in your signup forms to maximise registrant insights and allowing for personalised and timely further follow-up.

8. Using Pardot trade show features to keep track and score

Pardot can track what marketing assets are collecting new leads via a Pardot registration form at a trade show, cookie tracking will get mingled fast, if not managed. Here comes Pardot’s kiosk feature, which resolves this issue and keeps all registrants separate by turning this initial tracking off for a moment.

Form autoresponders can send an immediate welcome email to registrants, and you can build the relationship further post-event. Marketing can also create a few quick-note templates that are adjustable by floor staff to quickly whiz off notes to people they have just met – all fully branded, with prepared marketing statements and asset support in the emails. Think of info blocks, ebook pdfs, invites to upcoming events, newsletters, and more.

If you’d use a scanner at the event, be sure to import your leads into Pardot as soon as possible, associated them with your event campaign and take advantage of the above. Import hot leads from the show separately, and assign them right away.

Build your revenue generation from events with Pardot

These are just our 8 top tips. We have many more insights on how to best configure Pardot and Salesforce for your event and business success.

Interested to learn how we can help you configure Pardot for your revenue generation, with webinars, in-person events and otherwise?

Book a discovery call

Note: early 2022, Pardot has been relabelled as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement by Pardot, or MCAE but we find this very long name or acronym confusing in our writing, so we’ll stick to referring to Pardot as Pardot for the time being.

Last Updated on April 18, 2023