Like it or not, marketing automation is here to stay. There will be no such thing as sales and marketing in the near future, only marketing automation.
Just kidding… But that’s how big of a deal this is!
If you haven’t caught up with the trend yet, you are at least aware of what marketing automation is. But just in case you’re still behind the curve, let me quickly take you through its definition:
“Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks.“
The technology is a segment of customer relationship management (CRM) but is also used all on its own by companies worldwide (and yes, even including the ones that are still stuck in the Stone Age).
5 Reasons Why You Should Choose Marketo
Marketo Activity Stream
this gives you access to all the activities, events, and campaigns associated with a particular person or company. You can also see their engagement history, custom information, profile changes, etc.
Marketing Attribution
Marketo tracks all the interactions and touchpoints that led to a conversion or revenue opportunity by attributing credit back to your marketing efforts. In addition to this, Marketo has many native and third-party integrations that provide multi-touch attribution models and attribution analysis.
Advanced Lead Nurturing
The Customer Engagement Engine allows you to create specialized, multi-channel campaigns based on specific triggers.
For example, if a lead repeatedly visits your website’s pricing page, Marketo will automatically add that particular lead into this accelerated lead nurture funnel.
An accelerated lead nurture campaign is a series of emails sent to a lead to push them quickly through the sales pipeline. These are great for leads who have shown interest in your product or service and have been actively browsing your website but need a little nudge in order to convert.
Lead Management
Marketo’s lead management module helps users monitor leads across all channels. In addition, it has built-in lead scoring capabilities that allow users to identify high-value prospects immediately and follow up with them accordingly. The software can also integrate with CRM applications like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SugarCRM, NetSuite, Eloqua, SAP Hybris Marketing, etc.
Award-Winning Email Marketing
The tool’s engagement engine enables users to manage email marketing campaigns from start to finish. It provides a wide range of ready-to-use email templates, and it also allows users to personalize their emails using dynamic content. For example, users may track open rates and clickthroughs in real-time and set up auto-responders for requests and inquiries sent through email.
Pardot Marketing Automation Software
Pardot is a cloud-based B2B marketing software. It helps to create marketing campaigns, manage leads, and track sales.
Pardot offers tools for email marketing, lead generation, lead management, sales insight, and ROI reporting. In addition, the platform allows users to segment and score prospects based on their behavior. Pardot can be integrated with Zoho CRM Salesforce CRM, which also works as a standalone product.
Pricing starts at $1000/month for 1000 contacts on the annual plan (or $1200/month on the monthly plan). In addition, custom pricing plans are available for high-volume businesses.
Features
Pardot has several unique features that make it stand out from the competition.
Marketing automation
This includes email marketing and leads nurturing. Email marketing is straightforward. With lead nurturing, you can create email campaigns to send to prospects based on their interests, behavior, and lifecycle stage (e.g., subscriber/prospect/customer).
Lead management
This includes website tracking, visitor identification, and progressive profiling.
Social Media Marketing
This includes social media tracking and social sharing widgets. Social media tracking lets you identify prospects who have interacted with your brand on social media (e.g., liked or shared your posts). You can then use this data to build lists that you can use for future campaigns. Widgets let you add share buttons to your website or landing pages so visitors can share them directly on their social media accounts to drive sales.
ROI reporting
You get access to a dashboard that shows the return on investment (ROI).
Final Verdict
Pardot vs. Marketo both are leaders in marketing automation, so which one is better for your business?
Both, Pardot and Marketo are excellent in their ways and have come a long way since the first time they were released. As technology evolves and gets more sophisticated, so do these platforms.
But let’s be honest: if you’re considering using one of the two software, you’re probably doing it because of budget reasons. Even though both Pardot and Marketo are great, Pardot is more affordable than Marketo.
Marketing automation software can create, deploy, and manage marketing efforts at their most basic. But technology can do a lot more than that. For example, it can help businesses improve customer acquisition and retention, increase revenue and ROI, reduce costs, etc.
In this post, we’ve put together a detailed Marketo vs. Pardot comparison to help you decide which marketing automation solution is right for your business.
