Pardot

Regardless of how long you’ve been using (or not using) a marketing automation tool, you should always be on the lookout for ways to improve your marketing efforts—whether it’s by implementing drip campaigns, exploring the wonders of dynamic content, or creating highly targeted email blasts for specific audiences. The point is, there are always new and exciting things to try, especially with all of the extra time that you free up by implementing an automation system in the first place.

But how do you know what the next step is?

The best way to make sure that you’re always progressing with your...

If you’ve mastered marketing automation 101, and even tackled our 9 steps to go beyond the marketing automation basics, then you’re ready for a few of our expert tips. At this point, you should be delivering highly relevant and dynamic email content, sending out drip emails to nurture prospects over time, and managing your social profiles using real-time and scheduled posts.

Sound about right? If so, then read on to find out how you can continue to improve your marketing automation efforts with these 8 steps, inspired by the Mastering the Art of Marketing Automation eBook:

1. Don’t get lazy. At...

Each half-day session is packed with best practices and tips from fellow marketers. Take a look at the infographic below to find out more:

You can also follow the B2B Inspiration Tour conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #B2BInspiration.

Earlier today, we announced that our Pardot team was named Atlanta’s “Best Workplace” for the second consecutive year in the small business category of the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s “Top 100 Workplaces” program. This is awesome - an outstanding honor and testament to the culture that Adam Blitzer and the team have built at Pardot.

Celebrating and cultivating company culture has always been a cornerstone of ExactTarget. This recognition is particularly special because the award was based on anonymous employee engagement surveys conducted in December - two months after ExactTarget acquired...

Mastered the basics of marketing automation? If the answer is yes, I'm guessing you've already begun reaping the rewards of your initial automation efforts. I'm also surmising that your CRM system is busy collecting plenty of customer and prospect data, and you're actively engaged on multiple social channels. At this point, you might even have a little extra time in your schedule to dive into your RSS feed, or take a longer smoothie break.

You're off to a good start.

That being said, there's always more to learn about the complex clockwork of marketing automation. Take your knowledge to the...

This May and June, Pardot (an ExactTarget company) is traveling the nation to help B2B marketers network with each other, listen to thought-provoking presenters, and get inspired to be the best B2B marketers we can be.

Just over one week remains until the B2B Inspiration Tour kicks off in Atlanta, GA.

You won't want to miss this free half-day event, and registration is filling up.

Check out the B2B Inspiration Tour site for all the info on who's speaking and what you can expect to learn.

You'll get up to speed on new trends and best practices in the B2B marketing realm. Some of the areas we'll...

Earlier this week, Gartner published a Magic Quadrant report and positioned ExactTarget’s Pardot marketing automation a “Visionary” in CRM lead management. This is a great accomplishment that we believe reinforces our position as the solution to help business streamline sales and accelerate revenue growth with a powerful, yet easy to use cloud-based application.

We believe this openness of our solution is essential to helping marketers unlock the power of data in their CRM, analytics and content management to power more effective marketing. We also believe that, as a part of ExactTarget, we are...

Pardot, an ExactTarget company, is excited to announce the premiere B2B Inspiration Tour!

Are you near Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, or Seattle? This May and June, Pardot will be traveling to those cities for a free half-day event that inspires B2B Marketers.

What's your marketing missing? Join Pardot as we make connections, network, and begin a journey to create a unique B2B community to be inspired by others.

Thought leaders and industry analysts will be offering presentations and discussion on new B2B marketing information and current trends. Network with like-minded marketers right in...

Over the past few years, I've come to realize that my time here at Pardot has been nothing short of amazing. I love to watch our engineers take customer feedback and use it to develop new features. Just the other day, we rolled out a brand new feature that opens up a lot of doors for marketing and sales--an integration with UserVoice that will allow marketing and sales to identify both happy and unhappy consumers instantly, and apply business rules to these situations.

UserVoice is an application used by over 16,000 companies to help track suggestions and feedback from their users. At Pardot,...

If you had eight hours a day to work on your brand’s social media, what could you accomplish?

… Are you done daydreaming?

The reality is, a marketer’s day is filled to the brim with responsibilities and projects that take a lot of time. One minute, you’re brainstorming strategy for a cross-channel marketing campaign, and the next, you’re reviewing the latest marketplace data on subscriber acquisition and list growth. What’s a time-savvy marketer to do?

This infographic by Pardot (an ExactTarget company) breaks down your daily social media must-dos into an actionable 30-minute plan. A winning...

Marketers typically have a "go-to" set of campaigns and channels. Many will stick to these core channels, but a brave few will mix them together in bold and exciting combinations. This menu is a guide for any adventurous marketer looking to put together new and unexpected marketing campaigns that will delight, surprise, and engage their audience like never before. 

Enjoy.

While reading a recent article posted by Chris Penn called Which 3 Metrics Should You Pay Attention To?, I found myself thinking that his suggestions were great for a majority of companies... but what about those companies wanting to be agile with their marketing? Do those metrics work for agile marketing teams?

Agile marketers look at their campaigns, and their metrics, in a way that's slightly different from most. For instance, Chris' post says that the three most basic metrics for any business are audience, leads, and sales.

I would agree these are key areas to measure regardless of whether...

Last week I had the pleasure of listening to Lori Wizdo from Forrester Research on a webinar with our own Adam Blitzer. It was a great learning experience, covering how the sales and marketing processes have changed in recent years. Since it's so hard to give up an hour to attend a webinar these days, I wanted to share a few key takeaway from Lori's presentation.

Stat #1: 86% of B2B buyers engage with social media while working

I love this stat, and here's why. As marketers we have two weapons at our disposal: tools and techniques. Most marketers use the same set of tools; it's the techniques...

Consumers who interact with your brand through mobile-specific channels are among your most engaged. But once the “new” wears off, how do you re-excite and reengage those customers?

Be consistent and keep evolving. That may sound like a contradiction, but it’s not. Here’s why:

Be Consistent
Consistent SMS, push, or email offers, for example, mean consumers will begin to anticipate your message. For instance, send a Friday evening code for a free appetizer at your restaurant, or a free movie rental the first Monday of every month. Try testing several different offers and tracking the most...

If a company is serious about video marketing, they might need the services of Wistia, a fast-growing online video hosting company.

Wistia hosts videos for companies so that prospects don't have to leave the site to view it or watch ads. By using Wistia, marketers get analytics on user behavior and interactivity with the video. If the video was a hit, and most people watched it straight through, perhaps the company will produce another one like it. If it wasn't successful, it's time to come up with a new concept.

During a game of trivia the other night, I decided to cheat! I pulled out my phone, and was able to find out “Silent Bob’s” real name in less than 10 seconds.

This availability of information has programmed our society to have very high expectations when it comes to the question-and-answer process. If we have a hard time finding the answer to a question, we often get frustrated and build a negative connotation with brands that make it difficult to find information we seek.  This is not a new concept, so when I went to check out some of the most prolific B2B brands, I was surprised to see how...