Analytics & Reporting

Collecting accurate data is essential to your marketing strategy so you can continually optimize it to fit your goals. In most cases, companies capture data through form submissions and keep this data in-house. But what if the data collected needs to be shared?

Marketing is ever-growing, so it isn’t uncommon for two companies to collaborate on a campaign or event. But when these companies work together, sharing data can get messy. 

Traditionally, most marketing teams use spreadsheets to pass data back and forth between partners. This begs the question: is it possible to automate the transferring of data when users submit forms? Well, with Pardot, it’s not only possible, it’s simple— and with no spreadsheets necessary.

There are two ways to trigger this kind of automation. In our first post, we walked you through transferring data from a Pardot Form to a Pardot Form Handler. In this post, we’ll walk you through transferring data from a Pardot Form Handler to another Pardot Form Handler.

1. The initial submission is captured via a Pardot Form then data is passed directly to a Pardot Form Handler.
   Two fictitious companies, Utica Paper and Printers Rock are co-marketing an event. Utica Paper is the main host of the event and they leverage a Pardot form for registrations. In the Pardot form’s completion actions, they have added JavaScript code to forward submission data to a form handler. This Pardot form handler is tied to Printers Rock Pardot org. To simplify, this process is a Pardot Form (Utica Paper) > Pardot Form Handler (Printers Rock).
   
   
2. A Pardot Form Handler captures the initial submission and the data is forwarded to a second Pardot Form Handler.
   In this scenario, The Halpert Company, uses their website to host a registration page for an upcoming event. After a form is submitted, they capture data in Pardot via a form handler. The Halpert Company has partnered with Utica Paper on this campaign. They leverage the data forwarding option on Pardot form handlers to send submission data over to Utica Paper immediately after a form is submitted. To simplify, this solution is Pardot form handler (Halpert Industries) to Pardot form handler (Utica Paper).

Scenario: Pardot Form Handler to Pardot Form Handler

1. Create Pardot Form Handler in the primary org
   Under this scenario, The Halper Company created a Pardot form handler to capture event registrations from their website form. Their web team has configured the site to post data to this form handler after someone submits. This form handler contains all the information their team wants to track within Pardot.
   
   Pro Tip: only mark the email field as required. Leave all other fields optional on the form handler. Let the website form handle which fields are required when the user completes the form.
   
   
   
   
2. Create the Pardot form handler in the secondary org
   The second company in our scenario is Utica Paper. They would create a form handler with identical fields to capture data in their instance. The secondary company will send the form handler endpoint URL to the primary company.
   
   Pro Tip 1: The external fields names must match exactly to how they’re defined on the primary company’s Pardot form handler. 
   
   Pro Tip 2: Use the HTTPS encoded URL to capture data. (see screenshot below)
   
   
   
   
3. On the primary company’s Pardot form handler, do these things:
   
   a. Check the ‘enable data forwarding to the success location’ box. (see A in screenshot)
   
   b. Change the Success Location dropdown to ‘specific url. (see B in screenshot)
   
   c. Paste the endpoint URL from step 1 in the field (see C in screenshot)
   
   
   
   
   
4. (optional) Update the secondary org’s Pardot form handler with a success location.
   This step depends on if the Thank You page a user sees is controlled by the form handler or the original source. In many cases, the thank you page an end user sees is controlled by the website form (outside of Pardot) which is why most form handler’s are in the kiosk mode.
   
   If the form handler controls the thank you page, that page will be ultimately controlled by the secondary companies Pardot form handler. With the Success Location set to ‘specific url’, the secondary company would input the thank you page link into the ‘success location’ url box.
   
   Pro Tip: Set up a custom redirect in the primary company’s Pardot for the thank-you page. That way if the link needs to change, the primary company’s admin can easily update it.

Final step: TEST EVERYTHING! Don’t skip this step – trust us, your future self will thank you. Testing will ensure that data is being captured and passed between the two Pardot instances.

The last thing you want is to launch a shiny new campaign to find out a week later your data was not captured properly.

Check out our post on how to use the format above to pass conditional completion actions through a Pardot form. If you need Pardot help or training, check out some of our mini-courses and bootcamps, or contact us to speak with a consultant. Sercante can help you maximize the investment of your Pardot instance.

Capturing data is a key piece of any marketing strategy. It’s imperative that you capture the right data so you can continue improving your marketing efforts. Pardot is the vehicle we see many companies use to capture form submission data, but what if that data needs to be shared?

As marketing grows, it’s become more of a common place for two companies to work together on a campaign or an event. The tricky thing is sharing data. Traditionally, marketing teams use the spreadsheets – oh, the dreaded spreadsheets – to pass over data to their co-marketing partner.

Is it possible to automate the distribution of data when a user submits a form? With Pardot, it’s surprisingly easy to do away with spreadsheets and move to a completely automated system.

There are two ways to trigger this kind of automation. We’ll go into detail on both of these options, but first here’s a 10,000 ft view of each. 

1. The initial submission is captured via a Pardot Form then data is passed directly to a Pardot Form Handler.
   Two fictitious companies, Utica Paper and Printers Rock are co-marketing an event. Utica Paper is the main host of the event and they leverage a Pardot form for registrations. In the Pardot form’s completion actions, they have added JavaScript code to forward submission data to a form handler. This Pardot form handler is tied to Printers Rock Pardot org. To simplify, this process is a Pardot Form (Utica Paper) > Pardot Form Handler (Printers Rock).
   
   
2. A Pardot Form Handler captures the initial submission and the data is forwarded to a second Pardot Form Handler.
   In this scenario, The Halpert Company, uses their website to host a registration page for an upcoming event. After a form is submitted, they capture data in Pardot via a form handler. The Halpert Company has partnered with Utica Paper on this campaign. They leverage the data forwarding option on Pardot form handlers to send submission data over to Utica Paper immediately after a form is submitted. To simplify, this solution is Pardot form handler (Halpert Industries) to Pardot form handler (Utica Paper).

Let’s dive into the details…

Scenario: Pardot Form to Pardot Form Handler

1. Create Pardot Form in the Primary Pardot Org
   Utica Paper created their Pardot form to capture form submissions.
   
   
   
   
2. Create a Pardot Form Handler in the secondary Pardot Org
   This is where Printers Rock created a form handler inside Pardot. They include fields for all the data points they’d like to capture. All fields should be left as optional except the email address field. As a final step, Printers Rock sent over the form handler endpoint url and a list of field names (see red box in screenshot) to Utica Paper, so they would know where to map the data to.
   
   
3. Connect the Pardot Form to the Form Handler
   Utica Paper incorporates the field names from Printer Rock into a JavaScript post. This gets tricky so let’s take it step-by-step:
   
   a. Copy / Paste the following JavaScript code into the Thank You code section on the Pardot Form.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var email = encodeURIComponent(‘%%email{js}%%’)
//Update the src URL below to match the destination form handler endpointdocument.write(‘<iframe src=”URL_HERE?email=’ + email + ‘” height=”1px” width=”1px” />’);

//Update the location URL below to point to the Thank You pagewindow.location = “http://pardot.com/”;
</script>

b. Within the JavaScript code, replace the URL_HERE (highlighted below) with the form handler URL. In our example, Utica Paper would paste the endpoint url that they received from Printers Rock. 

Important: make sure you use the secure HTTPS link. 

c. Within the JavaScript, update the final destination URL. Replace the highlighted text with your thank you page link. This is the page users will be directed to after the form is submitted.

d. Save and test! Submit a test through the Pardot form. The expected behavior is that the submission will be captured in the Pardot form and the Pardot form handler will display a submission too (email only). Your browser should redirect to the link you updated in the previous step. If anything does not fire correctly, review the above steps again to make sure your configuration matches.

Now you have a fully configured script that will pass the email address to a form handler url. Optionally you can add in additional fields to capture in this submission. To do so, navigate back to the Pardot thank you code section. You’ll want to add in additional variables, one for each additional field you’d like to send to the form handler. First add in the variable tags and then update the encoded url framework.

Variable Tags

var email = encodeURICompenent (‘%%email{js}%%’)

1. Copy the line you see above, hit return, and paste it as a new row.

2. Replace email (1) with the field name that’s defined on the form handler. In our example, this is the data sent over from Printers Rock in Step 2.

3. Replace email (2) with the Pardot field name. This is the field name in the Pardot instance that’s tied to the Pardot form. You’ll want to navigate to the field itself in Pardot to find the field ID (see screenshot below).

Update the Encoded URL

Right before the circled plug button, add the following:

+ ‘&formHandlerFieldName=’ + variableName

• The Pardot form handler field name is the external field name listed on the form handler. Make sure you create one without spaces. Replace ONLY the highlighted part with the field name, leave the quotes, ampersand, and equal sign.
  
• The variableName is the name you created in the Variable Tags section. If you followed the suggestion, this will match your Pardot Field Name. 

Note: Replicate the Variable Tag and Update Encoded URL section for each field you want to sync to the Form Handler.

Final step: TEST EVERYTHING! Don’t skip this step – trust me, your future self will thank you. Testing will ensure that data is being captured and passed between the two Pardot instances. The last thing you want is to launch a shiny new campaign to find out a week later your data was not captured properly.

Ready for more? Check out the second post on how to pass data between two Pardot Form Handlers. OR check out our post on how to use the format above to pass conditional completion actions through a Pardot form.