Any digital market knows that webinars are a great way to connect with potential customers, but like any marketing effort, the big question is… “How can we report on ROI?” If you’re using Cisco WebEx to host webinars, Pardot as your marketing automation platform, and Salesforce Sales Cloud as your CRM, then you are in the right place! This article will show you how to set up a framework that automates your customer outreach, qualifies hot leads, and provides ROI reporting capabilities in Salesforce. This allows your sales team to focus on the most important opportunities, and also identify which marketing efforts are generating the most revenue.
Prerequisites
The process described in this article assumes that the main applications at play (WebEx, Pardot, and Salesforce) are already connected. If your company uses these applications, but they are not yet integrated, then check out the links below to begin the setup:
Webinar Campaign Playbook Overview
This playbook is intended to account for all of the key components you would likely want to include in any webinar campaign, regardless of industry. Using the Pardot’s Engagement Studio, we can create an automated process that sends invitations, offers webinar registration through a Pardot Form/Landing Page, tracks attendance, sends a post-webinar invitation to view the recording, and another offering a meeting with a specialist. All of these steps are possible with the use of standard Pardot tools and the Pardot WebEx Connector.
But what about ROI? Possibly the greatest aspect of this process is that all levels of engagement are tracked within Salesforce Campaigns, and any closed-won deals tied to those campaign members can be associated back to the campaign using standard Campaign Reports in Salesforce. With minimal customization to a Campaign in Salesforce, you are able to lay the groundwork to track the entire lifecycle of your audience member’s engagement with the webinar marketing campaign.
Webinar Campaign Roles
Since an automated webinar campaign will likely be a team effort involving multiple members, roles have been included to aid in delegation of tasks. The deliverables assigned to each role cover all the required components of the webinar marketing campaign from creative content to technical setup. When the setup is complete the vast majority of the process will be automated.
Let's look at the roles and responsibilities. Of course, a single person can be responsible for more than one role (or even all roles). This is just a way to break apart the necessary components into logical sections. The downloadable playbook describes the deliverables in greater detail, and should be used as a starting point to test, edit, and refine as you see fit.
- Campaign Manager / Quarterback
This is a generic term for the role responsible for managing the entire effort by signing off on the deliverables of the other roles and giving the greenlight to launch the campaign. - Sales Manager
The Sales Manager identifies the need for the Webinar Campaign. This role is responsible for coordinating the details of the webinar event, as well as working with the marketing team or any 3rd party resources to generate and approve the creative content (copywriting and images) for the various assets involved. - WebEx Administrator
A WebEx Administrator is required to create an event with details provided by the Sales Manager (Name, date/time, description). *If the WebEx Administrator’s is not the same WebEx Administrator used for the Pardot WebEx Connector setup, it is required for the connector user to have access to the event in WebEx for proper Pardot functionality. - IT/Web Administrator
Web Administrator resources are not always necessary, but if needed, this role would be responsible for creating assets that require knowledge of HTML/CSS or updates made to the company website. Responsibilities would include tasks such as creating new Pardot Layout Templates, new email template structures, or adding Pardot Form embed code to the company website. - Salesforce Administrator
A Salesforce user with the “Marketing User” checkbox selected is required to create and customize the Salesforce Campaign. This is not necessarily a Salesforce Administrator user, however, a Salesforce Administrator is required to grant this permission to their own user or other team members’ users. For the purposes of this playbook, the role will be referred to as the “Salesforce Administrator” because that person will be responsible for all of the Salesforce configuration pieces.
Webinar Campaign Assets
There are many individual assets and configuration updates required to automate this Webinar Campaign Playbook. Below is a list of these assets grouped by system.
WebEx
- Create a Webinar Event in WebEx
- Make sure the event date is in the future
- Make sure the WebEx Connector User (used to set up the Pardot-WebEx Connector) has access to the event. This is required for information to pass between systems properly.
Salesforce
- Create a Salesforce Campaign using the standardized naming convention agreed upon by the company’s Sales and Marketing teams.
- Customize Salesforce Campaign Member Statuses to the following:
- “0 - Needs Sent to Pardot List” - (default)
- “1 - Invited to Register”
- “2 - Registered”
- “3 - Attended” - (responded)
- “4 - Viewed Recording” - (responded)
- “5 - Requested a Meeting” - (responded)
Pardot
- 3 published Pardot Email Templates
- “Register for Webinar”
- “View the Recording”
- “Meet with a Specialist”
- 3 Pardot Forms
(Including Form Completion Actions to manage Campaign Member Status update, Assignments, Tasks, Notifications, etc.) - “Registration Form”
- “View the Recording Form”
- “Meet with a Specialist Form”
- 3 Pardot Landing Pages (not necessary if the forms named previously will be embedded on company website pages)
- “Registration LP”
- “View the Recording LP”
- “Meet with a Specialist LP”
- 1 Automation Rule
(This is required to update Campaign Member Status based on webinar attendance) - 1 Engagement Program
(The Engagement Program is the glue that holds the Webinar Campaign together and automates the process).
Webinar Campaign Process
By now, you may be wondering “How does it all work?”. The full details of the configuration are described in the Downloadable Playbook, but here are the key events listed in chronological order, starting with the role responsible for that step:
- Sales Manager - Identify the need for an upcoming webinar and determine webinar details
- WebEx Administrator - Create a Webinar Event in WebEx
- Salesforce Administrator - Create a Salesforce Campaign
- Update Campaign Member Statuses
- Salesforce Administrator / Pardot Administrator - Define your audience
(this can be managed in Salesforce, in Pardot, or a combination of the two) - Manage Campaign Membership in Salesforce
- Add Prospects to a List in Pardot
- Sales Manager - manage and approve creative content (images and copy for Email Templates and Landing Pages). Provide the approved creative content to the Pardot Administrator (by providing approved content, updates to Pardot assets are reduced and the process runs more efficiently)
- Pardot Administrator - Create Pardot Assets using approved content
- Campaign Manager/Quarterback - Check all assets and configuration and approve campaign for launch
- Pardot Administrator - Launch Engagement Program
- Invitations to Register are sent automatically
- Pardot Administrator - Pause Engagement Program
- WebEx Administrator - Host Webinar Event through WebEx
- WebEx Administrator & IT/Web Administrator - Download Webinar Recording / Upload to Public Video Hosting platform (ex. YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia)
- Pardot Administrator - Update the “View the Recording Form” Thank You Content with the video embed code (this allows the Prospect to view the recording as soon as they submit the form). This could also be accomplished by redirecting upon form submission, but by gating the recording, you are able to capture the contact info of anyone who wants to see it.
- Pardot Administrator - Resume Engagement Program
- Post-webinar follow up invitations to “View the Recording” are sent automatically
- Offer engaged Prospects the opportunity to “Speak with a Specialist” automatically
- Sales Manager - Track Campaign engagement in Salesforce and manage Lead/Contact outreach
- Salesforce Administrator - Attribute closed-won deals to the Salesforce Campaign using Campaign Reports
Webinar Campaign Recommendations & Wrap Up
All of the named assets may seem a bit overwhelming, but fear not - this is why we test! The downloadable playbook includes a detailed checklist grouped by role, as well as a “Test Script” template. Before launching your first webinar campaign, it is critical that your team creates at least one “mock” webinar so that everyone can get familiar with the requirements of their role.
The “Test Webinar Campaign” should be a team effort. Every asset and configuration should be created for the test, including the WebEx webinar event. True understanding only comes after going through the process (likely more than once). Mistakes will be made, but don’t worry - after following the test script and reviewing the results, the end-to-end process will be much more clear to everyone. Another great aspect is that after a full end-to-end test with all the bells and whistles, when the time comes to set up an actual webinar campaign, the majority of the work will already be done. Instead of creating so many assets, you will be able to simply copy/duplicate the test asset and make minor adjustments.
The Downloadable Playbook is intended to be a starting point for teams to update and refine to best suit their business needs. This is not the “be all and end all” of WebEx-Pardot-Salesforce webinar marketing. The main intention is to demystify how these systems can work together to ultimately generate ROI Reporting in Salesforce and make more informed, data driven decisions.
