Concerns about role evolution from strategy to Pardot-focused work

Are the emails via Pardot actually working to create expansion opportunities or helping retain existing customers?

If they’re not doing one of those, then what’s the point of them?

Where I’m going with this is — if the emails are helping achieve one of those 2 goals, then I’d advocate for a PT Pardot person to help you execute on the emails and give you time back to do new, strategic types of work.

Thank you for the quick response!

Some of the emails are helpful to the two goals you mentioned but some are simply to help communicate to customers for the CSMs. Also, some of the emails and content being asked to share with customers are simply to share more information about the customer conference we had a few weeks ago. We have a full time email marketing manager but she’s shared that she only does prospect emails only and I am to now take over all customer marketing emails…

Have the emails that support those 2 business goals shown any value to achieving those goals?

End of the day, I’d get a PT Pardot pro to help you execute this because that’s a lot and not a ton of time to only spend on emails.

Sorry, I can’t be more helpful to you, !

Please don’t apologize as this is helpful! So thank you so much.

The emails haven’t been really shown value BUT also leadership isn’t really looking at metrics a lot and have pushed back on me working on much else besides emails even when I shared the value of working on other projects…

Overall, I’m just a bit disappointed as I wasn’t hired to send emails and happy to be a team player but I’m not interested in being in Pardot all day or as much as I am. It also doesn’t seem to be helping my career and experience.

I’ll ask for some PT help and see if that will be received.

Again thank you for the insight. I’m happy to hear that I am not the only one thinking that’s a lot of time just to be doing Pardot.

Ok, a few things I'd consider:

1. I'd get clarity from a leader. Just because a peer says "I don't do that" doesn't mean it can't be negotiated. Clarity in general in your role seems like it might be helpful.
2. Also, maybe there's a way to get some Pardot tips/tricks that would help you scale with repeatable processes that would let you schedule out a bit. Spend a day on Pardot setting things up for a week or two?
3. Finally, in the same thought of planning ahead, maybe build out a strategy that you can show to leadership about being intentional, purposeful, and impactful in the emails. If there's a way you can "own" that program, that could be a place to grow and show initiative.

Oops...hit send too fast!

Thank you I will try to get clarity because as of right now, I’ve gotten that the priority is emails and the entire marketing team should function more like an agency taking requests. What do you suggest I do if I don’t get clarity in the coming weeks or keep getting push back to simply send emails?

I can try to learn more in pardot, I’m terrible at it lol and since salesforce hasn’t invested in making it better at all, it seems tricky. So I’ll try learning some tips and tricks externally. Do you know anyone who is an expert or could suggest some resources?

And yes, I’ve built a deck with a strategy and editing it as we speak. I’m not getting a ton of face time with the team leads sadly so will keep pressing on that.

Thanks so much!

I'd keep trying to find a way to turn your work into something you can make better. It sucks to feel stuck and devalued, and that your role isn't what you thought it would be. But if you can carve a space to make a difference, you can feel good about that. And if not, you can track your work and update your resume. 🤷
I bet the Salesforce Trailhead has something on Pardot. I've found a lot of platforms have live or on-demand training. It does them good if you know how to use their stuff and keep using it. 😄
And even if you can't get in front of leadership, you can use that deck to remind yourself that you're working with a purpose, and show that your work is intentional. Or again, add to your portfolio/resume.
Finally, if you can't get in front of marketing leadership, can you work with CSMs or CSM leadership? Let them know you're working on a strategy and would like to collaborate with them.
❤❤

Thanks Sarah!

Yes I will focus on continuing to try and make a difference but will keep in mind if I’m not making progress that it’s ok cause it’s still great experience to add to my resume and portfolio.

I look into salesforce trailhead, I’m a HubSpot marketer and mailchimp if it wasn’t obvious lol thank you!!

CSM leadership has been vacant since about June and hasn’t been replaced. The team leads do want me to send emails for them as they say they lack capacity to do customer outreach to their customers.

Again thank you so much!

What happened to me at Forrester was somewhat similar except I was laid off. So, how to add value while you are in this position and make it interesting. My thought is to dig into the data

What are overall open rates and open rates by type of communication and roles.

Have you done any customer contact segmentation or looked at inapp messaging to complement emails.

This is the self-serving suggestion. What shape is the customer database actually in. If air call is like most it’s ok at best and this impacts revenue as well as the groups that need to communicate with customers.

Happy to talk 1-1 or attend my webinar on this topic on Oct 29. Go to repetitos.com/workshops to register

Thank you Irwin! Just registered and can dm you on LinkedIn to connect 1:1 on a call in the next week if that works :)

Next week looks good and look forward to connecting.

- First off, I agree Pardot could be much more user friendly. But, working within that tool - can you turn some of the requests into automated and scalable programs? For example, find questions that CSMs get frequently. Turn those into tips that can be sent via email/newsletter.

Create an automated email journey for customers who are onboarding or renewing. Automate an email to celebrate other milestones based on data.

I saw you mentioned that marketing should act as an agency. So, perhaps you can approach each request with a consultative eye. Advise teams if email isn't the best way to reach a specific segment, but maybe a community post is. Or both.

Do you have an option to expand into other comms channels. For example, if there are conversations that CSMs are having frequently, can you turn that into a scalable webinar or a post on the community. Are you able to partner with your social team to target messages to customers via LI.

All this will feed into engagement, which you can eventually correlate back to renewals, NPS, etc.

Also, maybe there’s a way to create templates for similar “asks” from folks in the org to make the program scalable and a form to take-in all the information and assets to build out the program.

Love that so many people have so many great ideas!! Thank you so much.

So because I was originally hired to focus on growth and the company is starting to launch new products, I think I can build and automate a drip campaign but not the one off requests I get for customer emails such as outages or simply sending blogs posted when they go live which I don’t suggest since the blogs don’t provide customer value.

I suggested an onboarding email journey, created a deck for it, and I created and onboarding email journey in the past for a company in 2020 and was told no multiple times but can try again.

We don’t have a community per se, I’m working on inviting customers who attended our customer event to the LinkedIn group created exclusively for them and working to create content that is relevant and hoping to convince leadership to make the group for all customers to be more effective. As far as acting as an agency, I’m getting a lot of pushback with consulting and told to fulfill the requests being sent to the team and myself versus sharing my expertise but I keep sharing just in case at some point I’m heard. :)

Ironically I asked about other comms channels last week and this week. The CSMs are for some reason having difficulties being open to partnering with me, with leadership having been gone, and instead have voiced since about July, they only want my support in sending their emails but I’ll talk to my manager to see if she can help me reach them.

I have a meeting with the social media manager today so I can ask her today.

Thank you so much again!

I haven’t got a lot of similar asks yet which is a bit different than I’ve experienced but will keep that in mind.