Introduction:
Account Engagement, formerly known as Pardot, is a powerful marketing automation tool widely used by Salesforce customers. Since its acquisition by Salesforce in 2007, it has been integrated deeply into the core Salesforce platform, providing unique opportunities for architects to optimize their Account Engagement instances. This guide explores the complexities of Account Engagement, focusing on data quality, app performance, and leveraging the Salesforce Well-Architected Framework.
Real-Time Opportunity Insights in Salesforce
Writing this guide posed a challenge due to the complexity and numerous nuances of Account Engagement. While the order of topics might be debatable, the aim is to provide valuable insights into the advantages and quirks of Account Engagement.
Salesforce’s Well-Architected Framework: An Overview
The Well-Architected Framework, developed by the Salesforce Architect team, covers key considerations for optimizing Account Engagement:
- Scalability:
This involves optimizing the data model and managing data volume to ensure that the system can handle growth efficiently. - Performance:
Focuses on optimizing throughput (the amount of data processed within a given time) and reducing latency (the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction). - Availability:
This entails assessing risks and implementing strategies to mitigate failures, ensuring the system remains operational.
We’ll start with the data model, then move to throughput and latency optimization, and finally, risk assessment.
Account Engagement Data Model
Account Engagement’s data model aligns closely with Salesforce, enhancing its appeal and functionality. The key components of the data model include:
- Prospects:
These are known individuals in your database who generate activities such as email clicks and form submissions. Prospects are crucial for tracking engagement and personalizing communications. - Visitors:
These are unknown sessions on your website. They become known prospects once they are tracked and identified through actions like form submissions. - Assets:
These include emails, forms, landing pages, and other elements that prospects interact with. Managing assets effectively is vital for maintaining high engagement rates. - Campaigns:
Connected Campaigns unify Account Engagement and Salesforce campaigns, providing a seamless view of campaign performance across both systems.
How does Account Engagement integrate with Salesforce Core?
Standard Out-of-the-Box Connector:
The standard connector facilitates seamless integration between Account Engagement and Salesforce, ensuring data synchronization and consistency.
- Syncing Objects:
Prospects sync to Salesforce lead/contact records. Deletion in Salesforce triggers deletion in Account Engagement, maintaining data integrity. - Shared Objects:
Shared objects reduce redundancy and simplify data management. Campaigns serve as an excellent illustration of this concept.
- Field Sync Behavior: Users can choose the winning value for fields (Salesforce, Account Engagement, or the most recently updated record), ensuring data accuracy and consistency.
Custom Object Sync:
Higher editions of Account Engagement allow syncing more Salesforce objects, enabling more complex data relationships and richer data insights. However, these custom objects must have relationships to contacts, accounts, or leads.
Asset Sync:
Assets sync from Account Engagement to related Salesforce campaign records. This ensures that all engagement data is captured and available for analysis within Salesforce. Asset and prospect sync queues are separate, allowing for efficient processing.
Throughput Optimization
Optimizing throughput is crucial for ensuring that Account Engagement can handle large volumes of data and interactions without slowing down.
Account Engagement Optimizer:
This built-in tool identifies redundant automations, active Engagement Studio programs, and prospect data changes that impact processing power. By using this tool, users can streamline processes and improve system performance.<
Bulkification by Design:
Account Engagement processes requests in batches to enhance efficiency:
- Connector Sync: Prospect records are synced in batches of 200, reducing the load on the system.
- Throttling: Automated actions are limited to maintain processing speed and prevent system overload.
- Email List Sends: Emails go through a three-step process (staging, sending, and reporting), typically completed within 30 minutes.
Segmentation Queries:
The efficiency of segmentation queries depends on the size of the database, the scope of the query, operators used, and the type of segmentation. One-off segmentations are generally more efficient than recurring ones.
The table below compares the options, as a guide for when to use each.
Integration:
To facilitate seamless integration with third-party systems, Account Engagement offers several pathways:
- Connectors:
These are plug-and-play integrations tailored for specific vendors. They’re relatively straightforward to install but may have limitations when it comes to custom data handling. For instance, the Google Ads connector exemplifies these considerations well.
- External Actions and Activities:
These features enable interaction with third-party systems through Engagement Studio. External Actions allow for direct actions on prospects, while External Activities focus on importing prospect activity data from external systems into Account Engagement. This data then becomes usable for segmentation and automation purposes.
- Account Engagement API:
Introduced a few years ago, the v5 API adheres to modern best practices, providing a robust method to post data into Account Engagement’s objects programmatically.
Latency Optimization:
Reducing latency ensures that data transfers and system responses occur promptly, enhancing user experience and system reliability.
Sharing Model:
Account Engagement supports business units for partitioning prospects, campaigns, and assets. Marketing Data Sharing rules define the criteria for syncing data between Account Engagement and Salesforce, ensuring that only relevant data is shared.
User Permissions:
User roles in Account Engagement are managed through Salesforce Setup. Salesforce User Sync assigns roles based on Salesforce profiles, ensuring that users have the appropriate access levels.
Reporting:
Account Engagement data syncs to Salesforce for comprehensive reporting. B2B Marketing Analytics (B2BMA) provides advanced dashboards and insights, enabling detailed analysis of marketing performance.
User Interface:
The Pardot Lightning App integrates Account Engagement into Salesforce Lightning Experience, enhancing usability. Customizable components allow users to tailor record pages to meet their specific needs.
Pardot Account Engagement Studio:
Pardot’s Engagement Studio is a powerful tool within Salesforce’s Pardot marketing automation platform designed to help marketers create, automate, and optimize personalized customer journeys. It allows users to build complex, multi-step nurturing campaigns with a visual interface, ensuring that leads are engaged at the right time with the right content. Here are the key details:
Key Features:
Visual Campaign Builder:
- Drag-and-Drop Interface: Easily create and manage complex campaigns with a user-friendly, visual interface.
- Real-Time Testing: Test different paths in your campaigns to see how leads will flow through various steps.
Automated Lead Nurturing:
- Customizable Paths: Create multiple paths based on lead behavior, demographics, or engagement.
- Triggers and Actions: Set up triggers based on lead actions (e.g., email opens, form submissions) and automate responses.
Segmentation and Targeting:
- Dynamic Lists: Automatically add or remove leads from lists based on criteria you set.
- Segmentation Rules: Segment leads based on behavior, profile, and engagement data.
Personalized Engagement:
- Custom Content: Send personalized emails and content tailored to the lead’s journey.
- Conditional Logic: Use “if/then” logic to send the right message at the right time.
Reporting and Analytics:
- Campaign Insights: Track the performance of your engagement programs with detailed reports and dashboards.
- Lead Scoring and Grading: Measure lead quality and engagement with scoring and grading systems.
Integration with Salesforce:
- CRM Sync: Seamlessly integrate with Salesforce CRM to align sales and marketing efforts.
- Salesforce Campaigns: Connect Engagement Studio programs with Salesforce campaigns for better tracking and reporting.
Use Cases:
- Lead Nurturing: Guide prospects through the sales funnel with tailored content at each stage.
- Event Promotion: Promote webinars, trade shows, and other events with automated reminders and follow-ups.
- Customer Onboarding: Provide new customers with a structured onboarding experience through an automated email series.
- Re-Engagement Campaigns: Reconnect with inactive leads through personalized, targeted campaigns.
Account Engagement Actions: Adding to Pardot and Engagement Studio Lists:
The Account Engagement package includes convenient quick actions—buttons integrated into record pages and list views for seamless functionality.
The ‘Add to Pardot List’ action does exactly what its name suggests: it allows users to swiftly add a lead or contact to an Account Engagement list directly from their Salesforce record. Alternatively, multiple entries can be added in one go from any Salesforce list view.
Users have the flexibility to assign a prospect to up to five lists simultaneously, while also gaining access to pertinent information from related Engagement Studio programs, where applicable.
It’s worth noting that this feature supersedes the older ‘List membership’ Visualforce section, which we’ve kept here for comparison.
Pardot Automation Rules:
Pardot Automation Rules are a powerful feature that enables marketers to create custom automated actions based on specified criteria. These rules help streamline processes, segment lists, and enhance lead management, ensuring that your marketing efforts are more targeted and efficient. Here are the key details:
Key Features:
Rule-Based Automation:
- Criteria-Based Triggers: Define specific conditions that, when met, trigger automated actions.
- Complex Logic: Use multiple criteria and logical operators (AND/OR) to create sophisticated rules.
Automated Actions:
- Lead Scoring and Grading: Automatically adjust a lead’s score or grade based on their behavior or attributes.
- List Management: Add or remove leads from lists, or assign them to different campaigns based on criteria.
- Email Notifications: Send email notifications to users or leads when specific conditions are met.
- Field Updates: Update prospect fields automatically to keep your database current and relevant.
- Salesforce Integration: Assign leads to sales reps, create tasks, or update Salesforce records automatically.
Real-Time Processing:
- Immediate Action: As soon as a prospect meets the rule criteria, the action is executed in real-time.
- Batch Processing: Apply rules to a group of prospects simultaneously for bulk actions.
Common Use Cases:
Lead Qualification:
- Scoring Based on Engagement: Increase a prospect’s score when they visit high-value pages, download assets, or attend webinars.
- Grading Based on Demographics: Adjust a lead’s grade based on their job title, company size, or industry.
List Segmentation:
- Behaviour-Based Lists: Create dynamic lists that update automatically based on prospect behaviour, such as email opens or clicks.
- Profile-Based Lists: Segment lists based on demographic information like location, industry, or role.
Lead Assignment:
- Sales Notification: Notify sales reps when a lead reaches a certain score or takes a specific action, like requesting a demo.
- Task Creation: Automatically create tasks in Salesforce for follow-up actions based on lead behaviour.
Data Management:
- Field Updates: Automatically update custom fields based on prospect actions, such as changing a lead’s status after they fill out a form.
- Data Cleanup: Use automation rules to standardize data formats, such as capitalizing names or normalizing phone number formats.
Engagement Tracking:
- Website Activity Monitoring: Track and respond to specific website activities, such as visits to high-value pages or prolonged site visits.
- Content Interaction: Track engagement with specific pieces of content and adjust lead scores or trigger follow-up actions accordingly.
Account Engagement (Pardot) Risk Assessment:
Identifying and prioritizing risks ensures smooth operations and minimizes potential disruptions.
Common Risks and Mitigations:
- Prospect Identifier (AMPSEA): Be aware of the behaviours when multiple prospects share an email address. This can lead to data conflicts and inaccuracies.
- Field Sync Behavior: Understand the implications of choosing “most recently updated” as the winning value. This can lead to unintended data changes.
- Custom Object Sync: Monitor flows and data accuracy to prevent errors and ensure reliable data integration.
- Connector Sync Latency: Batch processing may delay updates. Regularly monitor and optimize sync settings to minimize delays.
- Connector Sync Errors: Monitor sync errors promptly and address them to maintain data integrity.
- Redundant Automations: Regularly review and pause unnecessary automation rules to prevent system overload and improve efficiency.
- Throttling: Be aware of throttling during busy periods and plan automated actions accordingly to avoid performance issues.
- Segmentation Queries: Optimize rules and operators for efficient processing. Intricate queries have the potential to decelerate the system.
- Database Limits: Monitor prospect counts and manage storage costs to prevent exceeding database limits.
Summary:
Optimizing Account Engagement using the Salesforce Well-Architected Framework involves a deep understanding of its data model, connector behavior, throughput, and latency considerations. Regular risk assessments and efficient segmentation are crucial for maintaining performance and data quality. By leveraging these insights, architects can ensure a robust and scalable Account Engagement implementation, driving successful marketing automation and enhanced customer engagement.
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