As you may or may not know, Pardot has a rolling release schedule where new features become Generally Available (GA) as they’re deemed ready. Some of these features may be contingent on the Sales Cloud release but most come out on a rolling basis. Below are features that will deliver an immediate improvement to your marketing automation processes.

SSL for Vanity Domains

This MAJOR improvement to Pardot will impact any company looking for additional security. Pardot has always offered secured URL’s but you were required to use Pardot’s domain to host landing pages, forms, etc. With this new release, you can secure your branded vanity domains. This news is especially welcome in the banking and financial services industries. (One of Silverline’s primary verticals…)

Example:

• Previously: https://go.pardot.com/landingpage
• As of February 1st: https://info.yourbrandsdomain.com/landingpage

Pardot & Salesforce Campaign Sync

A long time coming, this feature brings Salesforce and Pardot even closer to becoming a truly unified platform. Previously, Pardot campaigns were more focused on giving you lead source information on net new leads. If you wanted true multi-touch reporting, you would have to manually integrate Salesforce campaigns using automation rules, completion actions, Engagement Studio steps, etc…

In late March of 2018, you will have the ability to sync Pardot campaigns directly with Salesforce campaigns upon creation. Additionally, you can use a CSV to match-up campaigns in bulk. This will enhance and simplify the reporting process for marketers and help drive some of the robust reports now available in Pardot’s B2B Marketing Analytics.

Engagement Studio

Engagement studio seems to have gotten the lion’s share of improvements for this release period. These improvements include (or will include):

• Advertising Studio Integration – customize your prospect’s journey based on interaction with advertising
• CSV Reports – 4x more data than previously available!
• Customized Business Hours
• Enhanced Testing
• Email Send Date – perfect for promoting webinars and other live events:

Salesforce Engage

Several new features have come together to make Salesforce Engage more powerful than ever. Each improvement lends to increased team adoption of the tool.

• Engage users will now be able to “send on behalf of” others – perfect for inside sales, BDRs, or sales assistants.
• Reporting will be available and shareable by teams. Previously, users could see their own reports and managers/admins would have to see everything.
• Engage for Outlook! Enough said…

Potpourri

Pardot didn’t stop with the enhancements listed above. Here are some of the additional enhancements made during this period:

• Available in Japanese – Not just an update to language; the tool itself has been regionalized for Japanese business etiquette
• Leads matched to accounts based on domain and other prospect data
• SOC-2 Type 2 Certification – Pardot obtained a highly coveted security certification!
• Descriptions – No more guessing what purpose a colleagues automation rule or Engagement Studio campaign serves!

Spring ‘18 has been one of the most robust release periods for Pardot to date. With so many improvements in such a short period of time, it will be interesting to see what else Pardot has in store for 2018. Be sure to join the Pardot user community, subscribe to our blog, and feel free to reach out in the comments with any of your Pardot questions.