It’s time to talk about the bread and butter of Pardot – engagement studio! Engagement studio is Pardot’s visual workflow builder that allows users to automate a sequence of actions, like emails, based on evaluating criteria. This is usually established by a prospects behavior and/or data your team has collected on them. Individual workflows in Pardot are also called engagement programs. You’ve probably heard that engagement programs can save your team a ton of time – this is true! Aside from saving time, some of the greatest benefits users see from using engagement studio include personalizing prospect experiences, increasing the number of qualified leads for sales, having time to optimize campaigns rather than fire-drilling the next campaign and more.

3 Prep Steps to Building a Workflow in Pardot’s Engagement Studio

Workflows can vary in size and complexity. The set-up and launch of an engagement program may be overwhelming so one quick tip we offer clients is to map out your workflow and content in a word doc or lucid chart – maybe even pen & paper! It can be easier to organize everything off of Pardot so when your content and logic is finalized it’s a seamless transition.

Get Familiar with Engagement Studio Terminology

Action : an activity Pardot is taking internally or towards your prospect. Some examples include adding a prospect to a list, applying tags, and sending an autoresponder email.
Trigger : an activity your prospect has taken in which you are looking to track. Triggers can consist of tracking email opens, clicks, form submissions, landing page visits, and more.
Rule :  checks for internal data you have on your prospect. Rules include checking if they have a custom field, if they’re a member of a list, if they have a certain score, and more.

Prep Steps

Step 1: Ask yourself these questions

• AUDIENCE — Who should being getting this communication? What does your audience want to hear from you? What value are you offering your audience.
• GOAL — What is the goal of the program? To nurture new leads, get webinar attendees, schedule a meeting?
• CONTENT — Is there content that can be used for the engagement program? (i.e. blog posts, whitepapers, infographics, landing pages, forms, etc..)
• START & END DATE — When should this program begin? How to prospect enter? Should it be stopped at any time or do you want it to continuously run and be able to add more prospects to it?

Step 2: Create your assets (if applicable)

• Resources/Downloads
• Landing Pages
• Email Templates/ Content

Step 3: Build and Launch

• Sketch your workflow out on paper
• Build in Pardot’s Engagement Studio
• Launch!

Common Types of Workflows

1) Event Follow-up

A common best practice after hosting or attending an event is to follow-up with your audience. For example, if you gave a presentation at this event, send a follow-up email to give people the chance to download the powerpoint and reconnect with your company. You may also consider sending them a survey that looks for feedback on your presentation but also learns more about the potential customer. Odds are that your audience attended the event because they were looking for something whether it be more education, networking, or a resource for their company. A consistent and well thought out follow-up campaign can help convert interested prospects into your pipeline and keep your company top-of-mind.

2) Nurture Workflow

The idea with this type of workflow is to nurture prospects over time that usually consists of introducing your brand and offering value. Ultimately guiding them towards the decision phase of the buyer journey with your company top of mind.
For example, new leads may not be ready to commit to a product/service right away but with nurture campaigns you can provide multiple touch points of validation.

Nurture campaigns typically have three objectives:

Create awareness — Introduce your company and it’s products/services. What makes your company special? Why choose your products/services over the industry leaders?
Offer value — Share valuable content that will resonate. Blog posts, case studies, white paper, etc. Offering valuable resources helps creates trust.
Convert — Conversion, which signifies a point of interest or sale, is one way to measure the success of a nurture program. A conversion will depend on the objective of your campaign like whether or not they inquired on a web form after the email series. Other examples of conversation may also include creating a membership, starting a free trial, etc.

3) Upselling/Cross-Selling Workflow

Creating additional opportunities for your company can be easily automated with Pardot’s dynamic list and engagement studio tools. You’ve probably heard the expression data is key. Here’s a great example of why it matters. Dynamic lists are prospect lists that can automatically populate based on criteria. These auto-populated lists can be entered into engagement programs, which automatically filter contacts through a workflow. Companies can use these Pardot features to cross-sell or upsell to their market segments. For example, by creating a dynamic list based on recent customers who have purchased a lawnmower you can automate an email series showcasing your top grass seed brands.

If you need additional assistance with Pardot’s Engagement Studio, please contact: info@netrocon.com.