Pardot 101: Where to get Pardot help

I’d like to get this out of the way now–I’m a Pardot fangirl.

I was a marketing geek before working in Pardot, but now I’m on a whole new level. I love talking and learning about Pardot and marketing automation. Translation–I spend a lot of time browsing blogs, twitter feeds, and reading Pardot-related posts on the Salesforce Community.

But I know not everyone who works in Pardot wants to, or has the time to, geek out like that. It can be cumbersome to figure out the online Pardot community.

So this blog post is here to help you find the best place for Pardot help and support. Especially when you’re in a pinch or have a specific learning style.

Start here

In an ideal world, you’d start with a search on the Trailblazer Community and the Pardot B2B Marketing Automation group.

Hopefully, you’d find a post asking about your same situation with an answer walking you through a solution from another Pardot user. You’d follow the instructions and move on with your life.

But that’s not always how it works.

Sometimes you find an answer in a post but it doesn’t solve your problem. So after searching further, you find a workaround (but not a solution) posted in the Community and you add an idea to the ideaExchange, hoping what you need will become a feature in a future Pardot release.

Other times you scour through the Pardot documentation to find your answer. Sometimes you ask the Pardot pros on Twitter (just use the hashtag #pardot). And sometimes, you just have to open a support ticket with Salesforce.

It’s a tricky world.

If your situation isn’t as cookie cutter as searching the community and finding an answer, I’m hoping the resources below will guide you to a resolution.

I need Pardot help and I’d like to… talk to a real human

1. Jump on a Pardot Office Hours call. You can post your question in the Pardot B2B Marketing Automation group beforehand using the hashtag #pardotofficehours. They even have topical Office Hours. Find them all here.
    

2. Don’t want to wait for the next office hours? Just post your question in the Pardot B2B Marketing Automation group. The group is very active and has many regulars who will browse posts and make sure they are answered.
    

3. Can your question wait? If so, I highly suggest hitting up your local Pardot user group. Meeting fellow users IRL has greatly improved my own use of the platform and helped me build a network of Pardot pals. You can find all the local Pardot user groups listed here.
   
   Can’t find your city? Start one yourself! Salesforce can help you find other local users and get started.
    

4. No luck from Office Hours, the community, or your local peers? Take it straight to Pardot support. That’s what they’re there for. You’ll typically get a response in 24-72 hours, depending on the severity of the situation. Go here to submit a ticket.
    

5. And finally...we’d be remiss to not mention that we have real humans eager to talk with you about Pardot too. If you want ongoing access to audit your usage or support your growth on Pardot, drop us a line.

I need Pardot help and I’d like to… read about it

1. Nerd alert! I think Pardot documentation is pretty cool. A lot of questions about functionality can be found here. Plus there are sections for considerations about each feature, helping you before you use a feature. If you want to just dig into the hard and fast facts about how Pardot works, check out the Pardot documentation on the Salesforce Help site.
   
   You can also use Google to find Pardot documentation, but please note Google will still link to the Pardot Help section, which is defunct as of July 16th. It should link you to the documentation’s new location on the Salesforce Help section, but that extra click can get annoying when you’re in a hurry.
    

2. Need to train a new employee or wrap your head around best practices for using Pardot? You’ll want to hit the trails using Salesforce Trailhead. Over the past year or so they’ve been adding more Trails for Pardot. It’s a great spot for beginners. Find them all here.
    

3. The Pardot blog has a full decade of content! (For the curious, here’s the oldest blog post.) There’s a lot of content around best practices here. So if you’re trying to keep your coworkers using the tool correctly, this is where you should go.
    

4. Looking to learn about a brand new feature? You should head over to the Release Announcements section of the Pardot website.
    

5. Did you find out the feature you NEED doesn’t exist? You can see if others have requested it or request it yourself. Do that in the IdeaExchange here. Don’t forget to upvote!

I need Pardot help and I’d like to… watch a video

1. Did you know Pardot has interactive videos? Full disclosure, the interactive videos linked here are showing their age with 00s-era clipart. But I love them anyway. They helped me get through my Pardot Specialist exam and pick up the tool in a pinch. Go here and filter the media type by “eLearning Module” to find all the videos.
   
   Word of caution: Pardot has been migrating its resources to the Salesforce Help section for a while now and they are almost done. These videos might not be available in the near future. Watch them while you can!
    

2. Pardot has lots of recorded content. It’s great for refreshing on how to use intermediate to advanced features or get a glimpse of a feature you might not pay for yet. You can find all their previously recorded webinars here.
    

One link to rule them all

There are a lot of links above. If you want to bookmark just one, I suggest this one: the Pardot Success Center.

My favorite Pardot and marketing automation blogs

The Pardot community is amazing! Just like the greater Salesforce ecosystem, there are many others out there writing content about this platform. Here are some of my favorite blogs that I regularly read:

1. The Spot for Pardot

2. Jenna Molby's blog

3. The Drip

4. I can’t help but include our own full blog section on Marketing Automation and Pardot.

Still have questions?

If you’re new to Pardot and want to keep the motivation going, I encourage you to sign up for our Pardot newsletter. Arriving every other week, it’s filled with a tip or trick to keep you up to date on the platform and inspired. Sign up here.

Get Pardot certified!

This platform has massively changed my career trajectory. I’m pretty excited to see where it’s going. Pardot has opened my eyes to a world beyond Excel and MailChimp. If you feel like this, I highly recommend you consider taking the Pardot Specialist exam. Learn more about getting your certification here.

Do you need some Pardot help?

We not only use Pardot ourselves, but we help you strategize how to use it. If you’re looking for help getting the platform implemented or you need someone to help you keep the momentum going, we’d love to chat.

Our Pardot support offerings