Which type of Pardot training is right for your situation?

Ok, so you have the power of Pardot at your fingertips. But there’s a lot of training involved before you can make the most of it.

You have to equip yourself and your team with everything they need to gain confidence and take ownership of Pardot. 

There are two main avenues available to you for Pardot training: self-service and direct training. While Salesforce provides self-service options like Trailhead, it can be overwhelming. That’s where direct training comes into play. 

Direct training gives your teams the chance to learn from seasoned experts who understand day-to-day marketing tasks and can tie that in with the capabilities of Pardot. 

In this article, we’ll walk through the considerations you should make to find the best training for Pardot admin and users. 

Why people benefit from formal training to learn Pardot

Some people are self-driven doers who crush their professional goals by immersing themselves in technical topics. But, the rest of us need guidance through structured training sessions.

Pardot lives under the Salesforce umbrella. That means you can find tons of Salesforce Trailhead modules to learn how to do specific tasks in Pardot. And you can also turn to the Pardot technical documentation to understand all the features.

In fact, you can guide yourself through:

• 177 free-to-view Topical Office Hours Webinars 
• 40+ Pardot user groups 
• 500+ Pardot blog articles across themes like AMB, AI, lead gen., etc.
• 38 downloadable guides
• 19 Pardot-related Trails
• 800+ help and training articles 

These resources are perfect for people who are able to dedicate themselves to self-guided learning. And they’re also great for providing solutions to everyday Pardot challenges. You can even use Pardot consultant blogs, like The Spot for Pardot, to supplement Salesforce learning resources.

However, formal training gives Pardot users and admins an interactive learning experience to gain a specific skill set rather than self-guided exploration of topics in small bursts. So people who benefit from structured learning are more likely to be successful with Pardot when they attend formal training.

Why training increases user adoption of a tool

You can implement a tool and allow users to explore it in their own time. But that’s not a great way to get everyone on the team up to speed in a reasonable amount of time. 

The tech gurus on the team know how to find their way around the tool while others will need guidance through training. In fact, early adopters can become super users quickly after getting a boost from structured training. And they can use that knowledge to guide their peers through the tool, which is the general idea behind the Train the Trainer strategy.

The goal of any technology training initiative is to increase user adoption of the tool. User adoption is a fancy way of saying the user knows how the features work and feels confident using the tool to complete their work. 

You can get more users to adopt the tool by handing them the right resources they need to be successful in Pardot. That can mean getting Pardot admins and users enrolled in a training program.

Direct Pardot training courses for individuals

Taking a structured approach, formal training courses are perfect for getting a holistic view of a specific Pardot topic in a short amount of time. When we say ‘individualized training,’ we mean Pardot training courses that are available for anyone to take and are offered externally from a third-party educator. 

For example, military veterans who join Merivis cohorts to learn Salesforce and other cloud computing skills are taking courses as individuals. Or anyone can sign up to attend virtual Pardot Training through companies like Udemy or Sercante.

They are joining the courses under their own volition, and their current employer is not involved in shaping content for the training.

There are advantages to taking individual courses versus coordinating a company-wide training program to learn Pardot. However, it’s not perfect for all situations. 

Here’s a closer look at which situations call for individualized Pardot training plans.

When does it make sense to take Pardot training courses as an individual?

Taking Pardot training courses on your own allows you to take only the courses that are relevant to your professional goals. That’s why taking individual courses makes the most sense if the ultimate goal of Pardot training is personal rather than departmental or company-specific.

However, the benefits of taking Pardot training courses as an individual go far beyond the personalization perspective.

Here are some other reasons people attend individual Pardot training courses:

• Your or a team member wants to become a champion or owner of a specific Pardot function or area.
  For example, your company may need someone to take ownership of Pardot B2B Marketing Analytics or Pardot Business Units management and select a team member to attend courses on those topics.
• You need to set the schedule on your terms. Scheduling time for a whole department to attend ANYTHING can be tricky. This is especially true for remote teams in varying time zones.
• You want to connect and build relationships with a community surrounding a topic. Attending Pardot training courses that aren’t offered by your company allows you to network with external people who do the same type of work as you. Joining a Pardot support community is extremely beneficial in the long run for solutioning, career advancement, or simply connecting with like-minded people.

Company-Sponsored Pardot Training Programs

Investing in a training program for all employees at a company who use Pardot will ensure you’re allowing the tool to reach its fullest potential. Pardot can do so much more than basic training can teach. And giving employees the education they need to use the tools means your company is making the most of its investment.

Company-sponsored training programs can look different depending on the needs of the team, size of the company, other technology tools in use, and industry challenges. 

When does it make sense to coordinate company-wide Pardot training programs?

Learning how to use Pardot through company-wide training initiatives offers many advantages depending on the situation. Perhaps the greatest benefit is that it contributes to the success of the company as a whole rather than focusing on individual goals.

So determining whether your team should participate in Pardot training as individuals or as a team depends on several factors. 

Here’s why company-wide Pardot training initiatives are a good choice:

• You want to train your employees to use features that are specific to company goals. You can get a third-party company to tailor your program to your company’s specific needs. This can be a time saver if you want to focus your team’s time on a specific set of skills rather than asking them to attend generalized training.
• You have concerns about training related to time management. Delivering tailored training courses to all members of your team saves time for them because they are getting only the information they need. Also, company training can alleviate scheduling concerns because timing is on the company’s terms.
• You would be lost in Pardotland if certain team members left the company. Providing company-wide Pardot training allows your team to have multiple people who possess a specialized skill set. This can save the team if a tech guru leaves the company.
• You want to level-set all members of your team. You can create harmony among all members of your team if everyone has at least basic knowledge of how to complete company-specific tasks in Pardot. Then everyone can take ownership of their work and lighten the load for coworkers who have advanced Pardot skills.

Decision Tree: Which type of Pardot training is right for your situation?

Now that you’re familiar with the types of Pardot training available, you can use that information to make a decision. Use the following decision tree to determine which type of Pardot training you should get for yourself or your team.

Get help with Pardot training challenges

Not sure what training you need to undertake? It’s always a good idea to reach out to people who have been there. Check with other Pardot pros through the 40+ Pardot user groups filled with people who want to connect and help others in the community.

Connect with Sercante to set up a no-obligation training assessment session. We’ll help you evaluate your situation and make recommendations that make sense for everyone involved.