Pardot Winter ’21 Release Note Highlights

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The Pardot Winter ’21 Release is packed full of new features including an updated email builder, new Pardot API version 5 (beta), additional analytics/reporting, easier syncing in the prospect sync error page, updated tracker domain, WordPress plugin changes, and much more.

New: Pardot Email Builder Experience

One of main complaints from Pardot admins was the email builder interface. For some, it’s clunky and not very intuitive compared to other, newer, email client interfaces like MailChimp for example.

Well, the Pardot product team heard you. The updated experience was previewed at Dreamforce in 2019, and now finally introduced in the Winter ’21 Pardot Release.

The first requirement to understand: the new builder can only be accessed via Lightning. Otherwise, the most noteworthy updated functionality items are:

  • Components are now drag and drop, making email creation much more intuitive.
  • Images are sourced from Salesforce CMS now, instead of hosted in Pardot.
  • Rollup metrics are available on email content and email template records, allowing for an aggregated view of performance everywhere they’re used:

A full list of email builder updates can be found here: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter21/release-notes/rn_pardot_eilex_parent.htm

Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Marketers rely on reporting for clearer lead attribution and ROI calculations, which is why Pardot continually updates their analytic offerings. Feature updates include:

  • For those using utilizing the Einstein Attribution model, you can now chose an opportunity lifecycle stage as a milestone. The added flexibility allows for marketers to hone in on specific points in the sales cycle, making for a more accurate representation of success for Einstein to calculate.
  • Improved performance of Pardot prospect custom fields across analytics apps, by duplicating data into a new dataset, allowing it to be updated separately from large datasets. This is a beta feature currently, so use at your own risk.
  • More accurate email open and click through rate calculations. The added confidence in metrics can be attributed to expanded filtering exclusions from suspected security scanners.
  • Clearer definition of labels and widgets in B2B Marketing Analytics. Additionally, there is now a “help” button that shows documentation related to the dashboard.

A full list of analytics and reporting updates can be found here: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter21/release-notes/rn_pardot_analytics.htm

Marketing Assets and Domains

In this release category, emphasis was placed on tracker domains and the WordPress plugin integration.

As you may or may not already know, tracker domains allow for branded hosted Pardot links. Up until this release, there was a manual setting that needed to be configured to allow assets to load on a secure link (SSL). Now, there is a setting that allows for tracker domains to automatically validate with SSL certifiates enabled:

Additionally, you can now customize more asset types with the tracker domain. Now, you can serve customized links for forms handlers, dynamic content, social posts and multivariate landing page tests.

For WordPress, there is now an updated Pardot plugin. With the newly released user syncing requirements, the plugin now reflects those. You now have to se SSO to authenticate the plugin:

Additionally, the updated plugin allows for the use of widgets to place a form or dynamic content anywhere a sidebar appears. Or you can embed them in a page or post using a shortcode or the Pardot button on the Visual Editor’s toolbar:

The full list of marketing asset and domain updates can be found here: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter21/release-notes/rn_pardot_marketing_parent.htm

Add Lists from Salesforce Contact Related List on Accounts

This is a considered a very useful feature update to many in the Pardot world. Now, from the contact related list on account records, you can directly add records to Pardot lists, without ever leaving Salesforce. Here’s how you would add that button:

Easier Syncing in the Prospect Sync Error Page

If you’ve ever made your way to the Prospect Sync Errors page you know it’s a pain to resync every prospect with an error. A new option allows admins to trigger prospects with resolved errors in bulk to resync with Salesforce. Here’s the option in Pardot:

Pardot API Version 5 (Beta)

Keep in mind that at the time of this article being written, the feature is only in beta. It can be enabled in the Pardot account settings page, but should be done with caution (and probably tested in a sandbox or training account).

For more technical Pardot users this may come as good and bad news. The updated version offers new endpoints, but also requires developers to make tweaks to existing third-party integrations. For instance, if you connected Engagio or Drift with Pardot via API, you would want to make sure the connections are still functioning with the updated API.

We won’t attempt to dive into details, but encourage readers to check out the official Pardot API Documentation page.

What was your favorite feature update?

Documentation