Resolutions: some people love them, some people can’t stand them; regardless, New Year is a great opportunity for the metaphorical ‘clean slate’. The point is to lay out the new habits, tactics and best practices we want to adopt and adhere to in 2018.
It’s undeniable that this first quarter will be pivotal for Salesforce B2B Marketers, you only need to refer to the Spring ‘18 release highlights for B2B Marketers to realise that change is in the air.
The resolutions here are covered high-level, but you’ll find links to more in-depth content dotted about, for reference throughout the year.
Let’s crack on. In 2018, I will…
1- Start using Salesforce Campaigns
Pardot Campaigns are not the same as Salesforce Campaigns, but not for long. In the Spring ‘18 release, these two types of campaigns will be merged. With the release date steadily approaching, it’s wise to familiarise yourself with Salesforce Campaigns and work it into your campaign building process in good time.
Salesforce Campaigns, have more potential for tracking the full picture of the customer lifecycle – every marketing touch. This is known as multi-touch attribution, where you can associate more than one campaign that has influenced your prospective customer.
This post covered 5 pointers I commonly pass on to Pardot users so that they can ramp up with Salesforce Campaigns effectively.
2- Roll-out or Reassess Campaign Influence
It’s likely that many of you are aware of how Salesforce Opportunities in your CRM are associated (attributed) to your marketing campaigns; however, for some, it remains a mystery.
Understanding campaign influence in Salesforce is the first step. There are two types:
- Salesforce Influence Model: this model automatically associates Campaigns to Opportunities, using the contact as the golden link (Opportunity Contact Roles). The campaign on the opportunity ‘Primary Campaign Source’ field will receive 100% of the credit.
- Customisable Campaign Influence: this model means you can attribute Opportunity revenue across multiple campaigns. You can define the weightings for first touch, and last touch, or stick to an even distribution model (where all campaigns have equal input).
Here are some questions to get started:
How granular do you need to go when splitting out the revenue from an opportunity across your campaigns? Are you able to define how significant the first touch, or last touch is to the opportunity? Does an even distribution model mask the true influence your campaigns are having on the opportunity?
3- Write our Archiving Rule Book
Archiving can cause confusion and stress, often left until the last minute. Here’s a heads up: no archiving strategy will cause more confusion and stress than continuing without one.
The key thing to remember is once you’ve assessed the who, what, when and why of your archiving process, you don’t need to be afraid of archiving. You can always fetch all prospects and marketing assets back from the Recycle Bin.
Why archive? The short-term benefits are evident. Users will be able to work more efficiently, and you will keep below your account limits, especially when it comes to mailable prospects, automations and files. Then, in the longer-term, you’ll see improvements to your email deliverability, once you only send emails to engaged prospects!
4- Finalise Permission-based Marketing
The subject of Permission-based Marketing ties in nicely with archiving. With GDPR around the corner, if you don’t have explicit consent to market to prospects, it’s time to wave goodbye to them. The most popular method is the Permission Pass Campaign, which asks for a consent renewal.
5- Clear Obsolete Pardot Fields
Pardot fields are easy to create, which means people go a little crazy sometimes (myself, included!). There is likely to be fields that were created for one-off campaigns that are no longer required. The best way to investigate field usage (filled fields vs. blanks) is to do a full prospect export, which includes the values for both standard and custom fields.
6- Take Folders Seriously
Organising your Pardot account is something I could preach until I’m blue in the face; it’s not just isolated to Pardot, but is advocated for any Marketing Automation tool.
Folders are the cornerstone of account organisation. Some people overlook folders, believing that they’re unnecessary, useless repositories. However, folders could be the unsung hero of marketing organisation.
At the time of writing, Pardot Marketing Assets are not searchable in the Global Search (search box). How to mitigate this? Use Folders.
Want to break down your prospects’ scores into categories to show specific product line interest? This feature relies on Folders.
Make your folder structure make sense, and not too many levels deep. A complex structure will not get adopted by your team.
I’m sure this resolution will feature on everyone’s lists to come!
Summary
Whether you love new year’s resolutions, or not, New Year presents the opportunity to lay out the new habits, tactics and best practices we want to adopt and adhere to in 2018.
This post covered 6 resolutions I believe deserve a mention. It’s not an extensive list by any means, but combines the reoccurring annual resolutions and a few new entries to leverage new developments, and ultimately, get you ready to be a Salesforce B2B Marketer at your peak.