Tom Ryan

Marketing Cloud Next Advanced Edition Unpacked

If you already use Sales Cloud, Account Engagement, or Marketing Cloud Engagement, you may know this product as Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition. Salesforce now positions it as Marketing Cloud Next Advanced Edition, the higher of the two core-platform editions within Marketing Cloud Next. This guide explains what Advanced Edition includes, how it differs from Growth Edition, and how it fits alongside Salesforce’s existing marketing products.

HubSpot Claude Skills for Repeatable Marketing Processes

HubSpot Claude skills turn one-off AI prompts into repeatable marketing processes. A practical guide for leaders scaling operations and proving ROI.

Pardot Certification Retirement: What This Means for Account Engagement Users

HubSpot Lifecycle Stages: Are You Setting Them Up Wrong?

How Teams Overcomplicate HubSpot Custom Properties

There are two ways most HubSpot users handle custom properties. The first is avoiding them entirely because the platform already feels complicated. The second is going in without a plan and creating sixty fields with inconsistent names, several of which duplicate each other and most of which are never reliably populated. Whether you fall into the avoidant or abundant approach, both can leave you with a problematic HubSpot account.

Why Your HubSpot Contact Database is Costing You ROI

Marketing Automation Consulting: Results from Real Clients

If you're weighing up whether to bring in outside help for HubSpot or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the question you're really asking isn't what a marketing automation consultant does; it's what they will deliver in terms of tangible business outcomes.

How to Choose a HubSpot Development Agency & Prove ROI

HubSpot has spent years earning its reputation as the marketing platform you can run without looping in a developer, and for everyday campaign work, it works perfectly. However, there are many cases where a HubSpot development agency can take you from basic use to running the platform as a complex and complete revenue engine.

Why Your HubSpot Reporting Doesn't Add Up (& How to Fix It)

There’s nothing more frustrating than when HubSpot reporting doesn’t align with true outcomes. When your dashboards are saying one thing, but financial reports show differences in sales and revenue, or when campaigns aren’t getting attribution for sales-qualified leads when you know for a fact they were the source of the opportunity.

6 Issues We Find in Salesforce & HubSpot Portal Audits

HubSpot Lead Scoring Best Practices & Examples

It’s easy to assume your HubSpot lead scoring is functioning as it should, but if sales reps are pushing back on lead quality, or you’re struggling to prove marketing influence on pipeline, your scoring isn’t accurately surfacing leads worth pursuing.

Marketing Cloud Next vs HubSpot: Which Platform Fits Best?

There’s a trend in the conversations we’re having with marketing leaders these days. Teams that have been using Salesforce Account Engagement (Pardot) or Marketing Cloud Engagement for years are looking at alternatives, and this typically leads them to two options. Either they stay within the Salesforce ecosystem by moving to Marketing Cloud Next (one of Salesforce’s ‘on core’ marketing platforms), or they switch to HubSpot.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next: Is it Time to Move?

If you've been using Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) for a few years, you'll know the product roadmap has stayed very, very still. Feature requests from years ago haven't arrived, leaving workarounds as permanent fixtures. Many marketers feel as though the platform they invested in isn't keeping up with what teams need it to do.

HubSpot Hidden Fields Explained: When & Why?

Most leaders reviewing marketing performance in HubSpot will eventually find themselves asking whether the data tells the full story. Even if you’re successfully tracking form submissions, original source, campaign associations, and revenue attribution, there are moments when you wish you had just a little more context around how that contact arrived in the system and what influenced them. This is where HubSpot hidden fields are useful.

How to Manage Duplicates in HubSpot (& Prevent Them)

In almost every HubSpot audit we run, we uncover duplicate contacts or companies. Most of the time, teams aren’t even aware there’s an issue. The database has grown alongside new sales reps, new integrations, new forms, and somewhere along the way, a contact was created twice. Or a company record was duplicated because the domain was formatted slightly differently. Once you know duplicates exist, how do you go about managing them?

Is Your Email Marketing Compliant? HubSpot & Salesforce Tips

Email compliance is one of the biggest risks marketing teams face. Whether you’re using HubSpot or Salesforce tools, it’s crucial to know the data rules in Europe, the UK, and North America. I’ll be the first to admit, this usually means concentrating hard on a blog that reads like legislation, so I’ll do my best to keep it straightforward. To be clear, this isn’t legal advice!

Complete Guide to HubSpot Form Tracking for Proper Attribution

To implement HubSpot form tracking properly, you need more than a form on a page. Accurate attribution depends on UTMs, cookies, fields, lifecycle logic, and (where relevant) Google Tag Manager and cross-domain tracking. There’s no denying that HubSpot handles form creation and submission capture well out of the box, but reliable campaign-to-revenue reporting only happens after these are in place.

Pardot to HubSpot Migration: What Marketing Leaders Need to Know

For a long time, choosing a marketing automation platform felt like a fairly settled decision. Once you were in, you planned to stay there for years. For Salesforce customers, that confidence has started to wobble.

Marketing Automation Migration: Effort, Timeline & Cost

Considering a marketing automation migration? Understand effort, timelines, and cost, with practical guidance for marketing teams.

When is Marketing Automation Platform Migration Right?

A marketing automation platform migration is rarely an easy decision. It tends to surface at the exact moment marketing leaders are already under pressure: targets are tight, leadership wants clearer ROI, and teams are stretched thin just keeping campaigns live.

Boosting Lead Conversion in Salesforce Account Engagement

To improve lead and sales conversions in Salesforce Account Engagement, focus on three core areas: clean data and strong integrations, shared lifecycle stages between marketing and sales, and targeted nurture journeys in Engagement Studio. Reliable field mappings, consistent scoring and grading, and a smooth automated handoff help ensure leads reach sales at the right moment. Combined with personalisation, intent signals, and clear reporting in Salesforce, these steps create a predictable, measurable path to higher conversion rates.

A Marketer's Guide to HubSpot Lead Management & Tracking

A practical guide to HubSpot lead management covering lead definitions, scoring, handoff, clean data, segmentation, integrations, and reporting. Learn how to build a clear, reliable process that improves lead quality and accelerates sales cycles.

How to Implement Custom Salesforce Marketing Cloud Reporting

To implement custom Salesforce Marketing Cloud reporting, start with clean data and consistent tracking across campaigns and journeys. Define the ROI questions you need to answer, map how Marketing Cloud data flows into Salesforce, and build dashboards that show campaign influence, journey performance, and revenue impact. Choose an attribution model that fits your sales cycle, validate the insights with stakeholders, and refine your marketing based on what genuinely drives pipeline and revenue.

Timesaving HubSpot Workflow Examples Every B2B Marketer Needs

If you work in B2B marketing, chances are your day rarely goes to plan. You’re building campaigns, fielding requests from sales, responding to “quick questions” from leadership, and trying to keep reporting on track, often all at once. With so many competing priorities, repetitive admin tasks end up eating into the time you’d rather spend on creative and strategic work. This is where HubSpot workflows can make a huge difference to your day.

How to Measure HubSpot ROI [Free eBook]

Launching an eBook on HubSpot ROI, campaign reporting, attribution, and AI readiness.

Are HubSpot Implementation Specialists Worth the Investment?

HubSpot is known for being intuitive. The interface is clean, the tools are easy to find, and most teams can figure out the basics without too much trouble. So when you first open a new HubSpot portal, it’s natural to think implementation will be straightforward. After all, why bring in HubSpot implementation specialists for something that looks manageable?

Salesforce Integration Companies: When To Hire vs DIY

Integrating Salesforce with other systems should, in theory, be fairly straightforward. Data goes in, data comes out, and everything syncs as expected. But marketers know it doesn’t work that simply. The dilemma for many teams is: do you build the integration in-house, or work with Salesforce integration companies that specialise in this exact type of work?

How to Choose the Right HubSpot Integration Partner

Choosing the right HubSpot integration partner matters more than the software itself. A strong partner won’t simply connect two platforms. They’ll give you the foundations to support everything else: automation that runs as expected, insights you can act on, and full confidence in your ROI numbers.

How a Softr Client Portal Transforms Customer Experience

Benefits of Custom HubSpot Development for Marketing Ops

If you’ve used HubSpot for a while, you’ll know it’s great at simplifying marketing operations. But as your setup grows, so does the complexity, and you can quickly hit limitations that stall your automation strategy. That’s where a HubSpot development company can help.

How to Master the HubSpot Salesforce Sync

A lot of marketing teams are using HubSpot Marketing Hub, whilst their sales teams are operating out of Salesforce Sales Cloud. This is a perfectly reliable setup as long as the HubSpot Salesforce integration between the two is maintained. One of the challenges we often hear is related to Lead Assignment and how/when HubSpot can create records in Sales Cloud. Lead Assignment via the HubSpot-Salesforce integration is what we will cover in this blog.

Pardot vs HubSpot & Why Teams Are Switching [Webinar]

HubSpot Salesforce Field Mapping Best Practices

When HubSpot and Salesforce don’t align properly, reports are unreliable, sales complain about poor-quality or incomplete leads, and marketing teams struggle to prove the impact of their campaigns. Not to mention senior leadership questioning the numbers being presented. In many cases, these problems can be traced back to something that seems simple on the surface but has huge implications if not handled well: HubSpot Salesforce field mapping.

How to Manage a Successful HubSpot API Integration

The 7 Sins of HubSpot Data Migration (& How to Avoid Them)

Migrating your marketing automation platform is one of those projects that should never be underestimated. Whether you’re moving from Salesforce Account Engagement (Pardot) or another platform to HubSpot Marketing Hub, the goal is usually to simplify your tech stack, reduce friction, and prove more marketing ROI with less effort. And you will get there… so long as you give your HubSpot data migration the due diligence it deserves.

7 Common HubSpot Salesforce Integration Issues

The integration between HubSpot Marketing Hub and Salesforce CRM (aka Sales Cloud) should create a seamless connection between lead generation and revenue reporting. But more often than not, the native HubSpot Salesforce integration comes with issues, particularly when marketing teams are trying to achieve more than the basics.

How to Ensure a Successful HubSpot Integration

Integrating HubSpot Marketing Hub with the rest of your tech stack isn’t a backend task for IT. It’s a strategic move with direct consequences for how effectively your team can prove marketing ROI, secure future budget, and run campaigns without technical roadblocks. Whether it’s syncing data between platforms, streamlining marketing project management, or powering attribution reporting, a successful HubSpot integration is essential to productive marketing.

Marketing Automation Mistakes Costing ROI: Set & Forget

There’s a common misconception about marketing automation: that once it’s set up, it can be left alone to generate results in the background like a slow cooker. Unfortunately, that approach is one of the most costly marketing automation mistakes teams can make.

Track Campaign Delivery with the HubSpot Harvest Integration

For busy marketing teams, tracking staff effort versus sales output is easier said than done. You might be running high-performing campaigns, but without a reliable way to measure time and resource allocation, you won’t have a complete picture for proving ROI. This is where a custom HubSpot Harvest integration can help.

Unlocking Marketing ROI with Aircall & HubSpot Integration

Call data belongs in your CRM. You can be tracking campaigns in HubSpot, managing activity across channels, reporting on pipeline influenced… but if your call data is sitting somewhere else (or worse, not tracked at all!), then you’re working with an incomplete picture. This is why marketers need Aircall and HubSpot integration.

HubSpot Asana Integration: Setup, Limits & Custom Builds

HubSpot is designed to simplify marketing processes, but even with automations in place, there’s still the back-and-forth of briefing teams, managing deadlines, and chasing updates. If you’re using Asana to keep things moving internally, you’re already halfway there, but with HubSpot and Asana integration, you could streamline marketing management even more.

HubSpot Migration Made Simple eBook

Managing a HubSpot migration is no easy task. From planning to execution to ongoing optimisations, there are a thousand things to consider and plenty of risks to anticipate. But with the right guidance, a migration doesn’t need to be complex. You just need to know the best approach and have an expert on your side to offer support.

HubSpot vs Salesforce for Enterprise Marketing + Video Demos

Choosing between HubSpot and Salesforce is one of the most common decisions enterprise marketing teams face when looking to scale lead generation, demonstrate ROI, and get more done with less technical complexity. It’s no small task and often results in comparison fatigue and confusion.

How to Choose the Right Salesforce Partner for Marketing

If you’re a Marketing Manager or Director using Salesforce platforms, there’s a good chance you’re grappling with a lot. From campaign planning and reporting to proving marketing ROI and keeping stakeholders happy, there’s no shortage of priorities. Add to that the technical side of managing marketing automation - data models, journeys, integrations - and it’s easy to see why many teams look for external support.

Benefits of a Marketing ROI Framework (& How to Implement)

For many marketing managers and directors working with Salesforce Marketing Cloud or HubSpot, proving the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activity is one of the most consistent challenges. You are juggling campaign performance, marketing technology, audience journeys, compliance, and reporting, all while fielding questions from the C-suite like: “What did we actually get from this?”

13 HubSpot Marketing Hub Features You Won’t Find in MCAE

How to Add HubSpot Lists to Salesforce Campaigns

When marketing and sales teams operate in silos, opportunities slip through the cracks. Leads generated by marketing may not reach sales promptly, and sales might lack context about a lead’s journey. Or worse, qualified leads sit untouched because the sales team doesn’t know how warm they are.

5 First-Class Salesforce Marketing Cloud Case Studies

Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs Mailchimp for Growing Businesses

Choosing a marketing automation platform that can grow with your business isn’t easy. Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs Mailchimp is a common comparison, and while both platforms are popular, they serve very different needs. To help you make the right choice, here’s how they differ.

Salesforce Foundations: A Guide for Marketers

If you’re a Salesforce marketer juggling multiple tools, limited time, and increasing pressure to show ROI, the idea of activating something new probably feels like a tall order. Salesforce Foundations promises a free, powerful set of features that connects different clouds and unlocks advanced tools like Data Cloud and Agentforce. But with unclear feature lists and scattered help articles, it’s easy to overlook its value.

5 Steps to Marketing Cloud ROI [Webinar Replay]

The dream situation for Salesforce marketers is aligning Marketing Cloud with Sales Cloud - and other tools - in a way that proves undeniable value. By value, I mean tangible business results, such as revenue and return on marketing investment. In fact, getting future budget without proving Marketing Cloud ROI is nearly impossible.

How to Use Salesforce Prompt Builder Successfully

Knowing how to craft effective AI prompts is key to getting the best results, whether you’re using Salesforce Agentforce or a third-party tool. Clear, detailed prompts help you create Agents that perform exactly as needed, and Salesforce Prompt Builder lets you manage all your prompt templates in one place.

Tips for Better Salesforce Lead Management with Agentforce

Getting new leads into your Salesforce marketing platform - whether it’s Marketing Cloud Engagement, Account Engagement, Growth, or Advanced Edition - is just the first step in delivering ROI to the business. But converting those leads can be challenging without a solid Salesforce lead management strategy.

5 Salesforce Marketing Cloud Journey Examples to Boost ROI

Salesforce Marketing Cloud gives you endless possibilities for automating customer journeys. With Journey Builder, you can welcome new subscribers, follow up with event attendees, nurture leads, and much more. But instead of exploring every potential use case, let’s focus on the Marketing Cloud journey examples that will impact your bottom line the fastest.

9 Real-World Agentforce Examples & Use Cases

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Salesforce customers should be using Agentforce to manage boring, repetitive business processes and increase productivity. But sometimes, it takes an outsider to share real-world Agentforce examples and use cases to trigger ideas and inspiration. Enter this blog post.

10 Signs Your Salesforce Implementation Has Issues

Getting a martech proposal over the line takes time and patience. So, when you’ve waited months for C-suite or budget approval on your dream Salesforce marketing platform, it’s tempting to rush into implementation, launch campaigns, and hope to prove ROI faster.

Pros & Cons of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Segmentation Tools

How Agentforce Guardrails Protect Your Brand

It’s natural to approach artificial intelligence tools with caution. In fact, it’s the right thing to do. Every now and then, we hear a horror story about AI gone wrong, witnessing the fallout that has PR and marketing teams scrambling into damage control mode. When it comes to Salesforce AI, Agentforce guardrails protect your brand from having this worst-case scenario.

Free eBook: Agentforce & Einstein for Marketers

You might have heard about Agentforce, Einstein, and for a short period of time, Marketing GPT - three powerful AI tools within the Salesforce ecosystem - but how do they actually work, and more importantly, how can they make marketers’ lives easier?

Marketing Cloud + Agentforce: What’s Your Strategy?

If this is the first time you’re realising you need a Marketing Cloud Agentforce strategy… don’t panic. Most Salesforce customers are in the same boat; scrambling to figure out how Agentforce can benefit their Marketing Cloud activities - and the business overall.

How to Build Salesforce Agentforce Agents for Marketing

Salesforce Agentforce agents offer an excellent way to streamline your marketing processes. These AI-powered assistants are designed to take over repetitive tasks, manage large volumes of data, and enhance customer interactions, all while working alongside your marketing team.

Agentforce vs Einstein: What’s the Difference?

AI is revolutionising how marketers work, and Salesforce has been leading the charge with its AI offerings for marketing automation. If you’re already using Einstein for Marketing Cloud, you might be wondering how Agentforce fits into the picture. Is it a replacement? An upgrade? Or something entirely different?

Salesforce Agentforce: Why All the Hype?

Marketing Cloud Growth vs Advanced Edition: Which is Best?

When you’re choosing a marketing automation platform, it’s important to find the best fit for your business’s goals and growth stage. Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers two powerful ‘built on-core’ options - Growth and Advanced Editions - each with unique strengths to support different marketing needs.

Why MarCloud Loves Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition

At MarCloud, we’ve always been huge fans of Salesforce and the incredible tools they offer across the entire customer lifecycle. From supporting brands in lead generation to enabling meaningful, ongoing customer relationships, Salesforce has consistently delivered innovative solutions that empower marketers. But with Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition, Salesforce has taken things to a whole new level.

Personalisation in Salesforce Account Engagement [eBook]

Gone are the days of starting an email with ‘Hi [firstname]’ and expecting this level of personalisation to engage prospects. Consumers expectations have changed - and this isn’t a bad thing! Properly personalising the customer journey allows marketers to build better relationships, convert more leads, and increase sales value. For Salesforce Account Engagement customers, perfecting personalisation is possible, with the right guidance.

Perfecting Pardot Personalisation in 2 Minutes [Cheatsheet]

The demands on modern marketers are greater than ever and often, sophisticated personalisation can suffer as a result. By ‘sophisticated’, I mean personalisation efforts that span the full customer lifecycle, delivering an integrated and impactful experience for your customers at every touchpoint. Pardot personalisation at this level is entirely possible but sometimes overlooked or written off as “too hard”.

Why Marketing Cloud Advanced is a Game-Changer for Marketers

How Salesforce Combats Generative AI Concerns

A recent Salesforce State of Marketing Report found that 88% of marketers worry about missing out on generative AI’s benefits, with sales and service teams not far behind. Nonetheless, they also have concerns around data integrity, accuracy, and more. Fortunately, when it comes to AI in marketing automation, Salesforce is a leader.

MarCloud Academy for New Salesforce Talent

Getting into a Salesforce career is more challenging than ever, yet the demand for Salesforce talent continues to grow. There’s a huge opportunity for those with an interest in consulting, marketing technology, and working in fast-paced environments, if they can secure the right level of training and experience.

What is a Data Extension in Marketing Cloud?

Marketers using Salesforce Marketing Cloud don’t need to be data scientists. However, there’s no denying that you can do more with Marketing Cloud Engagement when you understand the ways and whys of data modelling. One of the first questions we receive when a client is inexperienced with the platform is: what the heck is a ‘Data Extension’?

Marketing Cloud Growth Launches in EMEA

The newest Salesforce marketing automation software, Marketing Cloud Growth, was released in North America in early 2024 and now, its highly anticipated EMEA launch has arrived.

Salesforce Career Paths: Which is Right for You?

Demand for Salesforce talent isn’t slowing. With a global ecosystem, and generative AI tipped to boost company performance further, adoption of Salesforce software continues to increase. This means now is an excellent time to consider Salesforce career paths.

Managing Marketing Cloud Cookie Consent

In case you aren’t aware, cookie consent is mandatory in most countries and applies to any business that processes the personal data of its website visitors. This is why you see a pop-up on nearly every website you visit for the first time. It’s a necessary step in complying with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Getting Started with Revenue Operations & Salesforce

‘Revenue operations’ or ‘RevOps’, for short, is a relatively recent business term. It speaks to the idea of aligning all teams - sales, marketing, customer service, legal, finance - in order to generate maximum revenue for the business. This has always been important, of course, but now it has a name and a dedicated function within enterprise businesses.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs HubSpot: What’s the Difference?

There are plenty of big names in the marketing automation world, but two of the biggest are Salesforce and HubSpot. If you’re searching for a marketing automation solution, it’s likely both of them are on your shortlist.

3 Predictions for Marketing Cloud by MarCloud’s CEO

Reasons Marketers Struggle with Pardot ROI Reporting

Proving return on marketing investment is the ultimate goal for any marketer and Account Engagement (Pardot) makes doing so much more achievable. However, accurate Pardot ROI reporting depends on a whole host of factors.

Introducing Marketing Cloud Training by MarCloud

Contrary to popular belief, when consultancies give away the ‘secret sauce’ of marketing automation, they are not shooting themselves in the foot. In our experience, publishing resources that guide customers using platforms like Marketing Cloud only serves to benefit us both. After all, you can’t trust somebody who hides what they do behind smoke and mirrors, right?

The Importance of Pardot UTM Parameters

Let’s start by saying that UTM parameters sound way more technical than they are. We’re not talking about a piece of code or script that requires a developer or your IT team to get involved. UTM parameters can be created and used by all marketers and when it comes to Account Engagement (aka Pardot) they’re vital, for a few reasons.

Pardot User Roles Explained: From Default to Custom

Whether you’re implementing Pardot (now called Account Engagement) for the first time, or onboarding a new team member who needs access to Pardot, you’ll need to understand the various Pardot user roles and permission sets.

New Account Engagement (Pardot) Specialist Exam by MarCloud

True expertise in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) comes from spending a large amount of time and dedication on the platform.

Quiz: Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs Pardot

To help you uncover which is the right platform for you, Marketing Cloud Engagement or Pardot (Account Engagement), we've created a quick and fun quiz!

A Guide to Salesforce Marketing Tools [eBook]

Marketers can be easily forgiven for being confused about which are the right Salesforce marketing tools for their business.

How to Automate Lead Assignment for Salesforce Platforms

Lead assignment in Salesforce is crucial for making sure sales-ready leads reach the right person to make contact, at the right time.

Making Sense of Marketing Cloud Connect

We can help you manage Salesforce Sales Cloud with Pardot and other systems front of mind. Ensure your marketing ecosystem is working well!

A Guide to Pardot SEO: Dos & Don’ts

Just because pages are created in Account Engagement (Pardot) doesn’t mean they don’t form part of your overall website SEO.

5 Reasons to Use Einstein for Marketing Cloud

In the Salesforce ecoystem, Einstein for Marketing Cloud is an AI tool that analyses and provides insights about both your audience and marketing activities.

How Connected is Your Marketing Cloud Customer Journey?

To help plan and execute an effective Marketing Cloud customer journey, MarCloud Founder, Tom Ryan, put together the ultimate handbook.

Marketing Cloud Webinar: Marketing on One Platform

Recently, I hosted a Marketing Cloud webinar that demonstrated how to run your entire marketing approach via integrated Salesforce products.

Where to Begin: Your Martech Solution or Strategy?

Just like the chicken and the egg scenario, there are two ways to approach digital marketing: martech solution-first, or strategy-first.

Pardot Domain Setup: A Step-by-Step Guide

Clients or consultants don't need to be anxious about their Pardot domain setup. It's pretty easy when you know what to do. Here's a guide!

How to Set Up Your Pardot Tracker Domain

Implementing Pardot (now called Account Engagement) comes with two types of domain setup, one of which is what we call creating a ‘tracker domain’.

What is B2B Marketing Analytics Plus?

We love to rave about B2B Marketing Analytics for Pardot. What some users don’t realise though, is that there is a superior version of B2B Marketing Analytics available too: B2B Marketing Analytics Plus.

5 Reasons To Use Pardot Advanced & Business Units

There comes a point in time when the Pardot Plus edition reaches its limits. When this happens, it’s usually time to upgrade to Pardot Advanced. See some common scenarios that illustrate when you might need to upgrade.

How Many Marketing Automation Specialists Do You Really Need?

Depending on the scope of your activity now and into the future, it’s likely you’ll need an entire team focused solely on your automation activities. This is because there are many skills required.

What is Pardot Engagement Studio? Basics to Brilliance eBook

Whether you’re an old hat at Engagement Studio or you’re just getting started – we’ve created a free eBook resource to help you go from basic to brilliant.

How Long Does it Take to Learn Pardot?

Newbies to the Pardot platform face a steep learning curve. Despite its great user experience and ease of navigation, there are so many features and possibilities for sophisticated marketing automation within Pardot, it’s easy to be overwhelmed

Reduce Pardot Automation Rules With Conditional Completion Actions

Thanks to Conditional Completion Actions, we’re able to greatly reduce the number of Pardot Automation Rules required for Grading.

Creating Email Templates for Dark Mode: Marketing Cloud & MCAE

How relevant is dark mode to your email campaigns? Very! So why you might go to the effort of making an email template for dark mode?

Top Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio Features

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio is capable of much more than you probably think. At MarCloud, we have personal favourite features that take client campaigns from standard to sophisticated.

Is Pardot a CRM? (& Other Implementation Questions)

If you’re just starting down the Pardot (aka MCAE) implementation road, perhaps you find yourself asking is Pardot a CRM? Do I need both Pardot and a CRM?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: An Eloqua Alternative

You may have already heard that Oracle is laying off hundreds of its employees primarily focused on the advertising and customer experience group. This could massively impact Eloqua customers and for some, it will be the beginning of a search for Eloqua alternatives.

MarCloud Shortlisted for B2B Agency of the Year

We’re thrilled when our hard work is recognised in the wider industry. That’s why we’re happy to announce that MarCloud is shortlisted for B2B Agency of the Year in the 2022 UK Agency Awards!

MarCloud is Now ISO 27001 Certified!

MarCloud have reached a significant milestone in achieving our ISO 27001 certification - an internationally recognised and credible standard of client data management and security!

What Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Means for Consultancies

It's time to say farewell to 'Pardot' and hello to 'Marketing Cloud Account Engagement'! Let's take a look at what the name change means for Marketing Cloud consultancies and freelancers alike.

Are Pardot & Marketing Cloud Account Engagement the Same?

Salesforce have announced that Pardot will now be known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. So does this mean that the platform will stay the same? What changes can we expect?

Pardot is Renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

The name ‘Pardot' will soon be no more - Pardot is changing its name to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. Find out what this means for you and your team using the platform.

What Do Salesforce Pardot Consultants Actually Do?

What is a Salesforce Pardot Consultant, and why consider engaging one for your business? We share the daily tasks and support a consultant can provide.

7 Useful Marketing Automation Tips

Seven tips to help you get the most out of your marketing automation platform - from content creation, to organisation!

Campaign Influence: How MarCloud Uses Pardot

Instructional blogs can sometimes be a little theoretical. So to give you a better idea of how to make the most of Pardot, we show you how MarCloud uses Campaign Influence.

A Pardot Introduction for Beginners [Video]

Learn more about your Pardot account, what you should be looking at, and how to use it - so you can spend more time taking advantage of Pardot's clever tricks and features!

How to Set Up a Pardot-Only User

Whilst managing all of our users in Salesforce is now the holy grail, occasionally, we may need to create Pardot-only users. This post contains a step-by-step guide to make life easy for you.

The Pardot Business Units Implementation Guide

Your go-to comprehensive Pardot Business Units Implementation Guide with considerations and exercises to ensure you're set up for success.

4 Ideas for Marketing Cloud Interactive Email Forms

When used strategically Marketing Cloud Interactive Email Forms can be hugely powerful for prospect engagement. Here are four of the ways we like to use them.

How to Use Salesforce Marketing Cloud & Pardot Together

Depending on your core marketing channels, for any business it can actually be very effective to use both Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Pardot for great results.

How to Prepare for the Pardot Lightning Landing Page Builder

Much like the Lightning Email Builder released towards the end of 2020, the new Landing Page Builder means the way we build landing pages is about to get a whole lot easier.

Managing Non-Profit Volunteer Recruitment With Pardot

When it comes to managing non-profit volunteer recruitment activity, it’s certainly not something that should be taken lightly. Here are four ways Pardot can support your efforts.

SaaS Marketing Automation: Webinar & Live Demo

If you’re a business that operates under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, then this webinar will demonstrate the technical applications of setting up and maintaining lead capture and prospect nurture journeys for better business outcomes.

Pardot Webinar: Marketing Through the Customer Journey

Watch as we held an exclusive webinar that walked Pardot users through best-practice marketing automation strategies and talked about what other customers are doing to achieve results within their vertical.

Pardot Marketing Calendar for Account Hygiene [DOWNLOAD]

Even with all the right tools, it can be hard to keep track of when you need to do everything. Not with the free Pardot marketing calendar.

How to Organise Your Pardot Account Like a Pro [EBOOK]

We make it our mission to ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing automation activity. Here's how to keep your Pardot account organised!

MarCloud Shortlisted for B2B Marketing 2021 Martech Awards

In the B2B Marketing 2021 Martech Awards, MarCloud has been shortlisted for two awards! As well as sharing the news, this is an invitation to join us in the live Martech Awards ceremonies on LinkedIn this 24-25 March.

An Epic Example of Pardot Dynamic Content for Blogs

Just for fun, we've created a blog that's entirely made of Pardot dynamic content. It's not great for SEO but it's a great example of creatively using dynamic content. Fill in the form below to choose which blog content you want to see! 

B2B Marketer’s Handbook: Pardot Grading & Scoring That Works [EBOOK]

Having the ability to grade and score prospects in Pardot is one of the most exciting features. Download this free Pardot Scoring & Grading Handbook to guide your own models and plans, including real world examples.

Pardot Grading & Scoring Worksheet [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Understanding how Pardot grading and scoring works is different from being able to plan and implement customised models. The Pardot Grading & Scoring Worksheet is an interactive tool for marketers to use to plan their own models.

Pardot Lightning Email Builder: Webinar with Live Demo

In previous blogs, we’ve run through the main capabilities and setup steps for Pardot’s new Drag-and-Drop Email Builder. Recently, I was invited to co-host a webinar with Pardot specialists so users can see first-hand how the feature works.

MarCloud Consulting Wins Global PR & Marketing Excellence Award

MarCloud Consulting has been awarded Campaign of the Year’ in the 2020 Public Relations and Marketing Excellence Awards! Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, in recognition of quantifiable business results.

What Do We Need For Great Pardot Lead Generation?

The end-to-end process of lead generation can feel like having a dozen balls in the air at once, particularly when it’s done 100% manually. Pardot lead generation automates the repetitive parts, if we have the right basics in place.

Why Outsourced Marketing Automation Services Should Be Agile

Finding marketing automation services can be an overwhelming task. As automation software continues to become a necessity, there are plenty of new providers cropping up to help businesses capitalise on their technology investment.

Automation as a Marketing Career Path: Q&A With An Expert

When it comes to choosing a marketing career path, there are plenty of options. From the creative side of copywriting, web and graphic design, to strategy and account management, there are specialist roles in all sorts of areas.

Pardot vs HubSpot vs Marketo - What’s the Difference?

These three automation software are consistently in the top 10 rankings by G2 and other reputable sources. In the interest of helping you understand how; Pardot vs Hubspot vs Marketo, compare, let’s discuss their differences.

A Complete Guide to Pardot Campaign Reporting & Multi-Touch Attribution

Achieving accurate Pardot campaign reporting is a challenge many marketers face. So I started this  blog post intending to clear up some questions about campaign attribution that I get asked frequently

The Pardot Audit Checklist: Your Guide to Success

Ready to run a Pardot audit on your account but not sure where to start? A Pardot audit is essential to keeping a healthy account. So, we’ve got a handy Pardot Audit Checklist right here that will guide you through each step.

How To Embed Dynamic Content On Your Website

Pardot's dynamic content is super useful for emails and form thank you content but did you know you can use it on your website too? Watch our video on how to use Pardot dynamic content on your website.

Pardot Business Units: What You Need to Know

Pardot Business Units is a great new feature to help larger organisations structure their marketing teams and manage data. It's key to think about how best to structure your account before jumping in! We break it down for you here.

Pardot Connected Campaigns

Pardot Connected Campaigns align Pardot campaigns to Salesforce campaigns and means there's complete alignment for your reporting across both systems. If you're not using this, take a look at how to turn it on and why it's so powerful.

Pardot Layout Templates: The Ultimate Guide

First things first – why do you need Pardot Layout Templates? I get asked this question a lot and I'll go over that in this blog. Read on for a comprehensive guide to developing responsive Pardot Landing Pages, Forms and Emails.

Pardot vs Marketing Cloud: What’s the Difference?

When you compare the features of Pardot, with the features of Marketing Cloud, you’ll see a lot of the same functionality. So when it comes to Pardot vs Marketing Cloud, what are the difference

Top 10 Marketing Automation Online Resources We Love

Your daily dose of marketing automation tips and guidance from experts with great online resources. If you have a desire to really diversify your understanding of this tech and become advanced in automation theory too, read on.

The Best Pardot Feature List For Marketers 2019

Here is our Best Pardot Feature List’, published for any marketers currently considering Pardot! We give you 11 of the best features you need to know about to ensure you're getting the most out of your marketing automation investment.

Why Pardot? MarCloud Founder Tom Ryan Shares His Story

When choosing between various marketing automation tools for your business, you’ll likely ask yourself; why Pardot? In this blog you'll learn why Pardot is the automation platform of choice for MarCloud Founder Tom Ryan.

Pardot Reporting & Proving Marketing Attribution Using Salesforce

Setting up the best marketing attribution model in Pardot can help you to prove which campaigns are contributing towards conversions and won deals in Salesforce. Level up your Pardot reporting with this tool!

9 Features to Look For in a Marketing Automation Platform

Here's how to determine which features you actually need to produce engaging content, capture and nurture leads, and create a more sophisticated approach to your marketing activity.

Benefits of Pardot Forms vs Form Handlers + Tips

In Pardot (now called Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) you have two options for creating forms. You can use Pardot form handlers or Pardot forms using an iframe. Which you choose, is dependent on your business needs. Before deciding, you should be aware of the benefits of Pardot forms vs form handlers because, in our opinion, Pardot forms are the better long-term option.

Why B2B Marketing Automation is the Key to Demonstrating ROI

The power of a full-scale b2b marketing automation software to help you demonstrate ROI can't be debated. It allows you to show the journey of your prospects from their initial touchpoint online, to their moment of conversion.

Pardot Agency vs. Freelance Consultant: Your Options Explained

As if getting to grips with Pardot wasn’t testing enough, finding external support comes with challenges! Get help deciding whether to recruit a freelance consultant for your Pardot requirements or employ a go-to Pardot agency.

Pardot Automation Rule Criteria for Number Fields

Don’t you just hate it when you want to quickly find a sentence from the Pardot documentation that validates what you thought, but what you thought would take 2 minutes eventually turns into an endless searching. Let's go over how to save time.

The Most Common Salesforce Pardot Integration Mistakes to Avoid

If you're just about to do your Salesforce Pardot integration, stop and read this article first! I will share the most common Pardot Salesforce integration mistakes and also explain why these need to be avoided.

Pardot Quick Start Basics: 6 Steps to Get You Running Smoothly

Pardot quick start packages usually aim to get you up and running fast, so you can begin automating marketing processes. However, for those who would rather do this work in-house, getting started with Pardot is potentially challenging.

What to Expect from Your Pardot Partner

Don't get caught up with a Pardot partner that can't deliver what you need. As you venture into the MA world or seek to upgrade your automation capabilities, consider these points when choosing your support.

What is Pardot & is it Right for Your Business?

Pardot is a Salesforce marketing automation software that has a broad range of features that makes running and measuring marketing campaigns from a single place easy. Learn what Pardot is and how it can help your marketing team.

Pardot & Salesforce Email Marketing - Opting Prospects Back In

The Pardot Engagement Studio is a powerful piece of marketing tech that can transform your marketing campaigns and automate the customer journey. This blog covers the process needed to opt somebody back into Salesforce.

How to Approach Pardot Lead Nurturing With The Engagement Studio

The Pardot Engagement Studio is a powerful piece of marketing tech. This article looks at the marketing methodology behind it and how you can use this tool to send the right message to the right people at the right time.

Preparing For The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - Guidance For Marketers

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and it is the Europeans policing and protection for the processing of personal information of individuals. If you were confused by all the grey areas, here's a simplified guide for marketers.

Pardot Campaigns Quick Audit: Visualising the System

An audit of your Pardot campaigns gives you a chance to take a step back, breathe, and gather your thoughts. Following this, it gives a new perspective. Here I cover how to do a quick audit of your Pardot set up by visualising what you need.

7 Benefits of Pardot Landing Pages

Pardot landing pages provide many benefits and can be as flexible as you need them to be. By the end of this guide we hope you feel more equipped to make a confident decision about which landing page tool you're going to use.

Ideas For Your Next Pardot Engagement Studio

The Pardot Engagement Studio is a powerful piece of marketing tech that can transform your marketing campaigns and automate the customer journey.

Pardot Reporting: How To Justify Your Marketing Spend

The goal for any marketer is to be able to build marketing campaigns, track performance and show leads generated as a direct result of marketing to the rest of the business. Let's go over how Pardot reporting works.

Account-Based Marketing Ideas For Pardot's Engagement Studio

With Pardot's Engagement Studio, Accounts Based Marketing has become much easier to implement as users are able to build out a flexible framework that you can tailor to each account. Let's go over it in more detail.

Pardot Marketing With the Engagement Studio: An Overview

You've invested in Pardot and now have access to numerous features and functionality with powerful capability. How do you even begin drawing up a plan? Here's some useful advice to spark ideas on drawing up a solid plan.

How To Convert More Leads With Marketing Automation Tools

Inbound marketing is even more effective when combined with marketing automation. In this article we cover both in detail and outline how you can convert more leads by combining the two together in your marketing efforts.

Pardot Content Regions 101

Pardot content regions can be used to save time and ensure your templates are secure and replicable. Here we take a look at Pardot best practice with some practical examples to get you fully clued up on how to use content regions.

Understanding the Pardot Engagement Studio

Need ideas for your next Pardot Engagement Studio? Get inspired and learn how to manipulate the tool by reading our overview of the Engagement Studio here. In this article, we ensure you have the tools to grasp the basics.

Integrating your SaaS platform with Salesforce and Pardot

Take a look at how your SaaS platform can integrate with Salesforce and Pardot with this free systems architecture diagram designed by Macram. The illustration visualises the SaaS platform, Salesforce, Pardot systems architecture and more.

Using Blended Pardot Lead Scoring & Grading In Your Pardot Strategy

Scoring & grading can excel your Pardot strategy to the next level. In this blog you'll learn more about a blended scoring & grading model and how to follow best practice. Read on if you're ready to excel your strategy and gain some tips.

Best Practice Pardot Tutorials: Managing Data with Pardot & Salesforce

I've put together this quick Pardot tutorial for managing data between Pardot and Salesforce because it’s not always the case that the reports I've mentioned accurately reflect the true scenario. It includes a visual illustration of the two.

How to use Pardot Repeat Automation Rules

Pardot Repeat Automation Rules are a game changer and can revolutionise the way your marketing automation tool is set up. Learn how to use them here.

Infographic: Getting To Know the Pardot Lifecycle Report

Need help understanding the Pardot Lifecycle Report? Wondering; what is a Pardot MQL? How does Pardot define a SQL? Get up to speed with the different lifecycle stages with this helpful, free infographic from MarCloud.

Why Custom Code Your Pardot Landing Page Templates

If there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this blog, it’s that Account Engagement (Pardot) landing pages are as versatile as any other landing page platform. They can be as flexible as you need them to be - especially when you use custom code rather than the drag-and-drop page builder.

The Pardot Implementation Guide For Marketing Managers

Choosing to implement Pardot as your marketing automation platform of choice is a big decision as it takes a lot of time researching and planning how the platform will fit within your organisation. Read through our comprehensive guide.

Pardot Retargeting in the Engagement Studio - What You Need To Know

Pardot retargeting. It's a thing. With the Engagement Studio, it's opened doors for how you engage with prospects. It’s time to harness the power of Pardot retargeting using the Engagement Studio. Read on for a comprehensive guide.

12 Brilliant Pardot Tips From a Certified Expert

Pardot tips to help you get the most out of your automation platform. Start optimising your marketing activity with these quick wins and useful tricks!

Pardot Integration With Salesforce CRM For Streamlining Sales

Salesforce & Pardot are perfect partners and their integration is remarkable. Find out what its all about here and why the pair work so well together.

Perform a Pardot Automation Audit & Start Getting More Value

A Pardot audit will allow you to understand the areas in which you are performing well and identify where you need to improve. Get to grips with it here.

Optimising Sales Processes With Pardot Scoring

Marketing automation can be the key driver in optimising sales processes for your business. Here's an example of how this can be set up in Pardot.

3 Reasons You Should Audit Your Pardot Marketing Automation Account

Find out what a Pardot audit actually is, what it really means to you and the actionable recommendations that come subsequently. A must read for Pardot users!

Four New Year Resolutions for Your B2B Marketing Automation Strategy

It's the time of year when marketers begin to consider their goals for the new year, how to improve their marketing automation programs, and what new nurture programs they can create. Here are four new year's resolutions for your BSB marketing automation strategy.