What Are The Differences Between Salesforce Marketing Cloud And Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot)?
While Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) is presented as a more suitable marketing tool for Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing Automation, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is presented as a more suitable marketing tool for Business-to-Client (B2C) Marketing Automation. However, it would not be correct to conclude that Pardot cannot be used for B2C marketing or Marketing Cloud cannot be used for B2B marketing. Both marketing automation tools are powerful platforms that help manage marketing campaigns, monitor customer interactions, and analyze campaign performances.
Adapting Pardot to the Salesforce Campaign Model
After Salesforce acquired Pardot in 2013, it has ensured that the Pardot campaign model works in harmony with the Salesforce campaign model since 2018 in order to eliminate the confusion caused by the differences between the campaign functions, to clarify the purpose of the Pardot campaigns and to ensure its compatibility with the Salesforce platform.
With the use of Pardot with Salesforce, the interactions of potential customers can be tracked through the marketing funnel. Emails, forms, etc. in Pardot. It is possible to perform the lead generation function through marketing elements, to follow all the purchasing processes of the lead in the Salesforce platform, to evaluate how the marketing materials affect the results, and to monitor all the interactions of the customer.
Email Interaction and Multi-Channel Interaction
Pardot is more focused on campaigns conducted via email. Pardot’s capabilities are highly developed in email campaigns. Using other communication channels with Pardot is possible with additional integrations, tools, and costs. As a marketing tool, Saleforce Marketing Cloud is focused on interacting with leads through communication channels based on individual preferences. With Marketing Cloud, it is possible to communicate with prospective customers through multiple communication channels.
Marketing Cloud and Pardot Cost Assessment
It can be said that Pardot is less costly than Marketing Cloud, but if there is a business plan to run campaigns with additional communication channels (sms, social media, etc.), the cost advantage over Marketing Cloud will disappear, and Marketing Cloud should be considered that more suitable for more complex processes.
Pardot can be used by integrating with other data sources other than Salesforce, but it should be aimed to combine these data in Salesforce in order for Pardot to be used effectively. Marketing Cloud is a tool that can be integrated with data environments other than Salesforce CRM and can be used effectively without being dependent on Salesforce CRM. Marketing Cloud can be considered to be more suitable for more complex and multi-source data structures.
What are the Technical Personnel Requirements of Marketing Cloud and Pardot?
It should also be taken into account that the management of Marketing Cloud is more complex than Pardot, and Marketing Cloud will require technical personnel and consultancy services. Pardot can be managed with drag-drop and clicks without the need for coding. There are also situations that require coding for the management of Marketing Cloud.
Is Marketing Cloud or Pardot Compatible with Your Business Model?
It can be considered that for models where Pardot is marketed to fewer customers with greater monetary value, Marketing Cloud may be more effective for models where more customers are marketed at lower monetary value.
Lead scores (Score) and rating (Grade), which are among the capabilities of Pardot, significantly increase the success rate of the sales processes of the leads sent to the sales team. There is no out-of-the-box capability to score leads in Marketing Cloud.
The Power of Automation
With Pardot and Marketing Cloud, e-mail contents and drafts can be created with drag-and-drop functions, and interaction/communication processes with customers can be automated with built-in automation tools.
Author: İbrahim Önceler