Marketing Automation Software: Pardot Review

If you’re looking for a marketing automation platform that integrates well with CRM systems, you got to give Pardot a try. Pardot is a marketing automation brand that helps marketers create more leads, generate more pipeline, and empower marketing and sales to close down more deals successfully. Learn more about Pardot review and compare it to other similar marketing automation tools.

Pardot Review

Pardot has quite the interesting story. The company was acquired by ExactTarget back in 2012, which then changed its name to now digital marketing and analytics software company, Salesforce. The purchase was reported to be a stunning $2.5 billion.

Pardot is a partner of Salesforce, which integrates well with its CRM platform. It offers a lot of useful insights and marketing benefits. It primarily caters to B2B companies, ranging from small- to medium-sized businesses, to even enterprise-level companies. Probably the only weakness to its potential is its price.

Pardot starts at a staggering $1000/month. While Pardot does have powerful features to compensate for its price, much of its most compelling features will only become accessible once you acquire it’s $2,000-per-month package.

Pardot Pros and Cons

Similar to other marketing automation tools, Pardot has its fair share of upsides and downsides. Weigh-in on this product’s plus and minus and determine if it’s the software that’s for you.

Pros

• The “Lead Deck” Feature – The Pardot lead deck feature showcases real-time prospect activity. Whenever a prospect visits your website’s services page, Pardot will automatically notify you via on-screen updates. It will then send that visitor a follow-up email with just one click.
• Easy Customization – Pardot is among the few marketing automation software to allow full customization to its users. This feature ensures that you get the tools you need.
• Superb integration with Salesforce – As said earlier, Pardot integrates really well with the Salesforce CRM.
• Exceptional Customer Support – Aside from its fantastic performance, Pardot also receives a lot of praise for its training and customer support.

Cons

• Doesn’t have many integrations – while Pardot’s marketing automation platform does offer native integration with most CRM (Salesforce in particular), it only has a total of 32 third-party applications, a significant number when you compare it to other automation tools like Marketo.
• A/B testing is only available to Pardot PRO users – some important features of Pardot are only accessible in its PRO bundle, priced at $2,000 per month. Other features include dynamic email content and AdWords integration.
• API is only for PRO users only – Again, in combination with its limited number of apps, the API feature is only accessible for the PRO bundle, so you either pay or be forced to use Pardot with limited capabilities.

Despite its expensiveness, Pardot is a potent marketing automation software that can get the job done and more. However, we wouldn’t recommend it to SMBs, especially businesses who are just starting to transition to automation. There are other capable tools out there that are half the price and offer almost identical features as Pardot. But then again, it’s still an amazing software worth trying.