Pardot Engagement Studio is a powerful tool that streamlines the process of engaging with prospects and customers by automating a series of actions triggered by specific events or user activities. This visual workflow builder allows you to effortlessly design multi-step campaigns tailored to your audience.
For instance, imagine you operate an e-commerce store specializing in outdoor gear. With the help of Pardot Engagement Studio, you can develop a program that sends targeted emails to prospects expressing interest in camping equipment on your website.
The first email could welcome the prospect with an exclusive offer for first-time buyers. The second email might provide valuable camping tips and a link to an informative blog post about camping gear. The third email could serve as a reminder, featuring a special package deal for camping essentials.
Each email is triggered by the prospect’s actions, such as browsing specific website pages, adding products to their cart, or completing a purchase. By utilizing Pardot Engagement Studio, you can automate your engagement with prospects and customers, delivering a highly personalized and efficient experience.
In this article, we will guide you through the process of setting up a Pardot Engagement Studio campaign with step-by-step instructions. By following these comprehensive steps, you’ll be able to create a highly targeted and efficient marketing campaign that resonates with your prospects and customers.
Step 1
To begin setting your engagement studio select Automations from the top menu.
Step 2
Now from the side menu click on Engagement Studio
Step 3
To create a new Engagement Studio click on the blue Add Engagement Program button.
Step 4
You will need to give your Engagement program its own unique name. Add the engagement program into a relevant folder. It is good practice to include a detailed description of your engagement studio so that other members of your team will understand the purpose of the program.
Lastly choose the recipient list for your engagement program. This is the list of prospects who will receive the emails that you send through your engagement program.
Step 5
If you have a suppression list you can now add this in. For example, you may have already set up a dynamic list that automatically adds anyone who has been mailed in the previous seven days. You could then use that list as a suppression to prevent your prospects from being overmailed.
Step 6
Now set the period during which you want emails to be sent. If you want emails to be sent to your prospects as soon as they reach a certain stage in the program regardless of the time or day, then you can unselect the Send emails during business hours only.
If you only want prospects to receive your emails during a specific timeframe that you have defined, then you will want to check this box. You can then decide the Business Days; these are the days of the week you want emails to be sent. Typically you will keep Saturday and Sunday unselected. Next choose the start and end day for a business day, 9am to 5pm would be a standard setting here. Finally, choose the time zone that most of your prospects do business in.
You have an option to allow prospects to enter the program more than once. For most email programs you will want to leave this unselected.
Step 7
Now you need to start adding steps to your engagement program. To add a step click on the + icon enclosed in the dotted circle.
You can now choose the type of element you want to add. One of the most important elements when setting up an engagement studio is adding the emails you want to send. To do this select the Action – Do something option.
From here you will have your Actions menu. Into the search box enter Send Email. You will now be able to add in the email template that you want to send. From the drop down menu under Send prospect choose the email template that you want to send out.
You can then choose when you want your prospect to receive the email after completing the previous step in your program. If you want the prospect to receive the email as soon as they reach this stage in the program, then check the Immediately option. If you want to keep the prospect at this step for a certain number of days before they receive the email, then choose the Wait option. You can then define the number of days you want them to wait before receiving the email communication. You can also choose a specific date when you want the prospect to receive the email. If you want this option then select the On Date option.
When you are happy with the options you have chosen then click the Save button to move onto the next step in your program.
Step 8
Another type of element you can add to your engagement program are Triggers. Triggers evaluate whether a particular action has taken place, and depending on the outcome you can send your prospect down a particular path in your program. A standard trigger to add to your engagement program would be Email Open. This allows you to evaluate whether a prospect has opened your email. You could then send them a different email depending on whether or not they have opened the previous email.
When setting up an Email Open trigger you will need to designate how the engagement program should take to evaluate whether the email has been opened or not. For example, you might want to set up an evaluation period of 5 days. If the email is opened within that time period, then the prospect will proceed immediately to the next step in your engagement program. If they do not open the email within 5 days, then they will be sent down the other path of your engagement program.
Step 10
The third type of element is a Rule. Rules allow you to evaluate whether a particular statement is true or not. An example of a Rule element is to evaluate whether a prospect is a member of a particular list.
Depending on whether a prospect belongs to a particular list, you can send them down different paths of your program.
Step 11
When building a complex engagement program you can save time by duplicating parts of your engagement program. To do this you need to first select the steps in your program you want to duplicate. You do this by clicking on the Select button at the top of your engagement program.
Step 12
Now check the empty round circle of the steps that you want to duplicate.
Step 13
Add an element where you want the selected steps to be placed. Then from the add element menu choose Copied Steps. This will show the number of steps that are going to be copied over. When you select this option the steps will be copied in at that position.
Step 14
If you want to end a particular path in your engagement program click on the + icon to add an element. From the add element menu choose End.
This will end that particular path of the engagement program at that point.
Step 18
You are also able to test your engagement program before starting it. To do this click on the Test tab at the top of the screen. You can enter the date that you want to test your prospect entering the program. If you have date sensitive steps in your engagement program, then you should set this date, as the one that you will have the actual engagement program go live.
Pardot will then demonstrate your prospects’ progress through the engagement program with a highlights orange line.
Step 19
At the left of the engagement program is a test log. You can see at which date a prospect will reach a certain step in the engagement program.
Step 20
When you have completed the setup of your engagement program, the final step is to click on the Start button. You can then choose whether you want the engagement program to begin immediately or at a designated future date and time.
