The TIL (Today I Learned) series combines short posts about nice tips & tricks that solve little, everyday frustrations – or something worth remarking on with the Pardot product.
Today I noticed there’s a new ‘Description’ field available on Automation Rules. Something this small can often go unnoticed, but not past me – it has made me very happy indeed.
Why Automation Rules?
Automation Rules are the most powerful of the 4 automations in Pardot. These rules are often the glue in the lead nurturing flow and need to remain in action to avoid messing with your processes. Another way to put it, is that they are a crucial cog that the rest of the machine relies on to run.
Now that Automation Rules can be set to repeat, it’s important that their purpose is clarified so that people in the future can make a decision whether to keep them running indefinitely or not.
Why use the Description Field?
The ‘Description’ field is great for:
- Auditing: it’s best to audit your account once a quarter. Automation Rules are one feature that has tight limits*, and so is a primary target for culling.
- Lifespan: when executing Automation Rules in real-time, it can affect your Pardot account’s performance. Adding an end of life period in the description can lead to improved speed after account cleaning.
- 3rd Party Collaboration: for external teams like marketing automation consultants or digital marketing agencies to work with your own internal team in harmony.
- Clarity: the rule ‘Name’ field is limited in the number of characters. Easily add more text to clarify the rule’s purpose, rather than deciphering the string of acronyms you wrote last month.
- Caution: if there is a reason why this rule should definitely not be removed or resumed.
*(Standard = 50; Pro = 100; Ultimate = 150)
Admittedly, for some time I’ve been craving some more administration-friendly functionality built into the Pardot features. For instance, in Salesforce at the field-level settings, you can attach a field description (for admin use in setup), and help text (for end users which displays text upon hovering). Thankfully, Pardot is beginning to mirror the CRM’s added functionality, designed with admins in mind.