Pardot Operational Emails: 7 FAQs on How & When to Use Them

Pardot Operational Emails: 7 FAQs on How & When to Use Them

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Are you trying to send something to opted out prospects in Pardot and wondering if operational emails could be a fit? This article breaks down everything you need to know.

1. What are Pardot operational emails?

Operational emails allow you to send critical information to a prospect even if they have previously unsubscribed.

This feature is great if you send legal notices, invoices, shipping confirmations, or internal company emails out of Pardot, but can greatly impact your sending reputation if it used for Marketing emails.

2. What is considered operational email?

Operational emails fall into two categories:

Transactional, meaning the prospect has initiated the transaction.

A few examples would be things like:

  • Shipping notices
  • Event registration confirmations
  • Order confirmations
  • Invoices

Relational, meaning the email contains critical information on how you do business with the prospect.

Examples of relational emails include:

  • Critical system changes that require prospect action
  • Terms of Service notices
  • Legally required notices
  • System outage notifications

3. All of our information is mission critical, can we send everything as operational?

With great power comes great responsibility. Use operational emails in Pardot wisely.

Remember, sending Marketing emails to unsubscribed prospects violates most SPAM laws and goes against the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Permission Based Marketing Policy.

If you’re going to send something out as an operational email, it should contain no — as in ZERO — marketing content.

4. What is NOT allowed in operational emails?

Any email containing promotional, non-critical, or non-transactional information is considered “Marketing” and should not be included in an operational email.

Examples of marketing content include:

  • Product announcements
  • Event and webinar invites
  • Permission Passes
  • Surveys
  • Company newsletters and announcements

5. Got it. How do I enable operational emails?

This feature has to be enabled by a Pardot Admin. Once it is, it will be available for use in list emails. To enable this feature:

Step 1: Within the Account Engagement Lightning app, select the “Account Engagement Settings” tab.

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select “Enable Operational Emails.”

Step 3: Review the Operational email restrictions notice and click Enable. It will look something like this:

6. Who can send operational emails?

Only Pardot Admins and custom user roles can send Operational emails.

If you have access to send Operational emails, you will see this option under Basic Info when setting up a List Email.

7. What if I’m not sending as a list email — Can it still be operational?

There are a few quirks to keep in mind about how this can be used in other areas of Pardot:

  • Autoresponders sent from a Form or Form Handler will send to unsubscribed prospects.
  • Autoresponders sent from an Automation Rule will not send to unsubscribed prospects.
  • Emails from Engagement Programs cannot be sent as Operational… but you can vote for this feature to be added in the Trailblazer Community.

How are you using operational emails?

What other questions do you have about operational emails in Pardot? Are you trying to evaluate whether a specific use case is operational?

Let’s hear it in the comments!

Note: This post was updated on March 24, 2023.

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  • Erin Duncan is the Account Engagement Product Director at Sercante. Erin is 8x Salesforce certified and has 12+ years of experience as a Salesforce and Account Engagement Admin. She is the leader of the Atlanta B2B Marketers User Group, the leader of the Pardashian Slack group, and a Salesforce Marketing Champion.

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