One of Pardot’s key functions is to evaluate and prioritize prospects. Pardot uses two main indicators to do this: score and grade. In layman’s terms, score evaluates how much a customer likes your company. A grade is the opposite: it estimates how much you’ll like a customer. To identify which customers will be a good fit, you must know how to interpret and customize these values. This will allow you to focus on prospects with higher potential.
Scoring
Score is a numeric value that quantifies how engaged a prospect has been with your company’s marketing assets. High scoring prospects are often those who have visited your website multiple times, contacted you, or attended one of your events. A prospect’s score will automatically increase or decrease based on their interactions with your company.
Scoring rules can be customized in Pardot by going to Admin > Automation Settings > Scoring Rules. Here, you can fine-tune how different interactions adjust a prospect’s score. Other advanced options include decaying or resetting a prospect’s score if time passes without engagement.
Grading
Grading, on the other hand, measures how well suited a customer is for your company. A prospective customer’s industry, location, or the size of their company can all influence their grade. For example, you may automate Pardot to assign a customer a higher grade if they’re local. Or maybe you increase their grade because they operate in an industry that your company is familiar with.
When prioritizing your marketing efforts, be sure to use both grade and score in your evaluation. But bear in mind, a prospect with a low score but a high grade may still be a good fit for your company and vice versa!
