Pardot Lightning Email Builder – the What, the Why, and the How

Stuck with the same old ways to create an email?

If an email builder lacks a user-friendly template builder or if they have limited knowledge of HTML or another coding language, it may prove to be a huge challenge for marketers. Such challenges could also be faced by Pardot users if they are using the Pardot Classic Email Builder to create emails.

And if we know one thing about Salesforce, it is that they love to innovate and make sure their products stay a step ahead. That’s why in the Winter’21 release, Salesforce made Pardot users happy by introducing the Pardot Email Lightning Builder. This builder will surely keep challenges such as tricky coding, over-dependence on your development team, and more at bay.

In this article, we’ll deep dive into the nitty-gritty of Pardot Lightning Email Builder.

What is the Pardot Email Builder and Why Use it?

The Classic version of Pardot’s Email Builder had its own merits but it had multiple limitations. For instance, just designing an email in Pardot required a certain degree of HTML knowledge. That’s why the new Pardot Lighting Email Builder can be the right fit to meet your email creation needs. It is a responsive email builder with a new interface for you to decide on new ways to nurture your leads and drive revenue.

Pre-requisites for Utilizing Pardot Lightning Email Builder

Before you start creating emails on this builder, you must:

• Enable the Pardot Lightning App
• Set up Connected Campaigns
• Use Handlebars Merge Language (HML)
• Integrate the Pardot Org With Salesforce Professional Edition or Higher in Addition to a Verified Salesforce Pardot Connector

Key Features of Pardot Lightning Email Builder

The new Pardot Lightning Email Builder is packed with multiple features to simplify email content creation, and in this builder, you can create Email Templates or Email Content.

Here are 10 key features that make it a powerful email builder.

1. Drag and Drop Components – This feature is a fan favorite. In this email builder, you can pick the components from a sidebar menu, drag them onto the email builder canvas, and position them as per your wish. This feature is much more convenient than the Classic one, where we only had the move up/move down options.

2. Button Creation – You don’t need to open the source code and play around anymore with styling. Pardot makes it easier for users to create buttons within the interface You can also change the font, style width, padding, border-radius, and much more.

3. Undo – With this feature, you can now undo your action, just in case you have gone wrong at any point.

4. Images With Salesforce CMS – Put an end to Pardot or external file hosting with this extraordinary feature. You can find store and fetch images from Salesforce CMS. This feature is available on all Pardot editions.

5. Add Columns and Rows – No more coding HTML tables! You can easily define the number of columns in a block by using a pop-up menu. Remember, you can only define a maximum of 4 columns.

6. Responsive Templates – Pardot has out-of-the-box templates which are mobile responsive. Responsive templates use CSS to resize your emails when viewed on a phone.

7. Mobile Preview – You can switch between different sized devices for a quick mobile preview. No rendering tests are required here, just like in the Classic version.

8. Personalization HML – You can now launch the merge picker, which shows available fields by an Object, by the sender, or by organization fields. HML is the same merge language used in Salesforce Lightning templates such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, etc. You can also merge data outside prospects data, accounts field, and custom object data.

9. Resend List Mails – By using this Lightning Email Builder, you can send and resend email content quickly and systematically. There’s no need to clone the list email to resend.

10. Partner Components – The Lightning experience allows you to create your custom Lightning Components or download partner-developed components from AppExchange.

How to Set Up the All-New Pardot Lightning Email Builder

Here are the steps to set up the new Pardot Lightning Email Builder to create engaging emails for your customers:

Step 1 – Enable Folders and Enhanced Sharing

• Go to ‘Salesforce Setup’ and use the Quick Find box to search for ‘Lightning Email Templates’.
• Switch on ‘Enable Folders and Enhanced Sharing’.

Step 2 – Setting Up Email

Go to ‘Salesforce setup/Marketing setup’ and use the Quick Find box to go to ‘Email Setup’. This is where you can manage your email settings. Once you enable this, you can:

• Recheck the prerequisites enabling.
• Create email content by configuring the Salesforce CMS channel.
• Create and manage the ‘Use CMS with Email Templates and Email Content’ permission set assignments.

Step 3 – Pre-requisites

In case you don’t have the aforementioned pre-requisites enabled, then click on the ‘Find Out How’ option to learn more about features and considerations for switching them.

Step 4 – File Hosting

Before proceeding, you have to make sure that the Salesforce CMS is visible to the users with relevant user profiles who will be creating the email content.

• Within the given apps> set Salesforce CMS to visible.
• In the object settings, set the tabs to ‘Default On’ in the tab settings. This step is for CMS Home, CMS Channels, CMS Workspaces, and CMS Experiences.

Once you have access to the Salesforce CMS for your team, you can go ahead and configure the file-hosting for the email content.

• Click on ‘Open CMS’ to go into the Salesforce CMS to create a workspace and channel for organizing your Email Content.
• Add a Workspace, e.g. ‘Pardot Emails’.
• Put it in a Channel. If you don’t have one, you can create it here.

Add contributors and select contributor roles for each user

Keep in mind that:

• Admins can remove/add users
• Content managers have access to everything

• Choose default language
• Click on ‘Done’
• You can now Select your channel to use ‘file hosting’

Step 5 – Admin & User Access

With this step, you can manage which user has the access to email templates and email content

• Click one ‘Create Permission Set’ and Salesforce will create the permission set to ‘Use Lightning Content Builder’ with CMS behind the scenes.
• Assign the permission and set it to the right User by clicking on ‘Manage Assignments’.

Once you are done with all the steps, go to Pardot in the Lightning mode and make sure that you can see Email Templates and Email Content in the navigation items. If not, then try logging out in Salesforce and logging in again.

Now that you know all about the powerful Pardot Lightning Email Builder, start creating emails that attract, delight, and engage your customers.

Want to know more about how Pardot Lightning Email Builder can help you level up your email game? Drop-in a line at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you!