TrailblazerDX 2024: The Salesforce Conference Recap You Need
Well, we’ve got another TrailblazerDX completed and in the history books, and boy was it a good one. While it seemed like a smaller crowd this year compared to...
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Evolving Your Skills as an Account Engagement Pro
Marketing Cloud Growth Edition is here and its infrastructure represents a fundamental shift compared to Account Engagement. While Account Engagement is “near core,” Marketing Cloud Growth Edition is built...
Evolving Your Skills as a Marketing Cloud Engagement Practitioner
The role of marketers is continually evolving. This is especially true for those working within the Salesforce ecosystem. With the advent of advanced technologies, products, and functionalities to support...
What Marketing Cloud Growth Edition Means for Your Career
There’s some fear in the air. I’m sensing major mixed emotions swirling for many with the announcement of Marketing Cloud Growth Edition and the vision of marketing automation on...
Data Cloud No Cost Edition: Get Ready First
I want to clear up a misconception that I’m hearing in the Salesforce world about the great $0 SKU Data Cloud debacle. As you may recall, Salesforce announced at...
The Marketing Cloud That Broke the Internet (& 5 Key Takeaways)
ICYMI: Salesforce dropped a hot product announcement yesterday. And she’s called Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. There was a flurry of blogs and social postings following the official drop of...
The Big Salesforce Consultant Differentiators: A Recruiter’s View
Let’s just start by stating a few facts: we live in a super-connected, yet totally disconnected world. Nobody wants to go back into the office (yes, I’m going here...
Florida Dreamin’: A Conference Where Soft Skills Shine
In the beautiful sunshine and chill vibes of Clearwater Beach, FL, Salesforce community members of all kinds came together recently for Florida Dreamin’. The Dreamin’ events are community-led Salesforce...
The Art of Delivering Empathetic and Joyful User Experiences
Living in a fast-paced world of technology, it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of innovation and lose sight of the human element. We can occasionally prioritize...
Andrea Tarrell Talks Marketing and AI Trends at the Qualified Pipeline Summit
Sercante and Qualified both went big at Dreamforce 2023. And then they made it even more interesting by teaming up. Qualified joined Sercante at the Home for Marketers at...
Navigating the Tumultuous Waters of AI, Ethics, and Accessibility
Hot take: I’m not ready to hop on the AI hype train just yet. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how the possibilities of AI are there, even if...
Lessons Learned While Delivering Salesforce Training in Spanish
The majority of Salesforce training you’ll find in the world is conducted in English. But things are changing as the platform grows in other parts of the world. We’ve...
Getting Real About Marketing Automation Platform Migration Projects
Migrating from one marketing automation platform (MAP) to another can be nerve wracking. You are bound to be overwhelmed and not know where to start. But I once had...
Salesforce Administrator Certification Exam Tips & Tricks
So, you’ve decided to take the next steps in your career and earn your Salesforce Administrator Certification. Yay! This might be your first journey into the Salesforce platform or...
Playing with the AI-Powered Stensul Email Subject Line Tool
I saw an email pop in my inbox last week from our pals at Stensul. The subject line read “Simple and quick subject lines? The Stensul way it is.”...
The Right Way to Use Statistics in Your Marketing Content
You are 72% more likely to keep reading a blog post when the author uses a data point in the first sentence. That’s because sharing numbers makes it sound...
Why You Should Delete Marketing Contacts Regularly
Like the title says — if you’re a Salesforce user, then you should be deleting your marketing contacts on a regular basis. Okay, hear me out. Of course I...
Explore the Journey to Salesforce Certified
It’s been a few weeks since Andrea Tarrell and I spoke at Salesforce World Tour NYC about the journey to getting Salesforce certified. As someone with five years of...
Salesforce World Tour NYC Recap: December 2022
About a mile and a half west of their Midtown Manhattan office tower, Salesforce hosted their World Tour New York for Winter 2022 at the Jacob Javits Center in...
Podcast Preview: NextThingNow with Guest Andrea Tarrell
We all know constant changes are inevitable in the realm of marketing technology. So, having a pulse on what’s coming and what we know to be true is essential. ...
Breaking into the Salesforce Ecosystem: A Military Veteran’s Story
Merivis recently named Sercante as their “Partner of the Year” for 2022, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a #Merivet AND a #SercanteDragon. In the spirit of...
The Great Resignation: Filling Gaps on the Marketing Team
The Great Resignation has impacted businesses throughout the US for the last two years and more specifically, it has created a talent gap for many departments. Marketing teams in...
9 Essential Rules for Attending Salesforce Community Events
I just returned from an action-packed week at Connections (Salesforce’s banner event for marketers) and I gotta say — it feels good to be back with the Ohana. It’s...
8 Tips for Passing the Marketing Cloud Administrator Exam
Passing the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Administrator exam demonstrates that you have the skills to configure and administer Marketing Cloud products using industry and product best practices. And having that...
How to Pass the Pardot Consultant Certification Exam
You’ve conquered the Pardot Specialist exam* (Yipee!) and you’ve caught the Pardot bug. Next on your hit list is the Pardot Consultant exam, but what does it take to...
A Hot Take on the Pardot Rebrand to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
It’s official — Pardot is going to be called Marketing Cloud Account Engagement going forward. This is a big, bold change. I have a lot of respect for whoever...
Salesforce Name Changes: Pardot & Marketing Cloud Get A Rebrand
Salesforce announced today that they’re changing the name “Pardot” to… drumroll… Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. Along with this rebrand, they’re changing the names of about a dozen products —...
The Spot: A Community Resource for Marketers on Salesforce
Your Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) doesn’t exist in a vacuum. And neither do we. The Spot for Pardot is following a natural evolution we’re seeing in the marketing technology...
How to Conquer Imposter Syndrome in the Pardot World
I seriously felt imposter syndrome as a professional in the Salesforce and Pardot community — but I overcame those feelings by learning everything I could through Pardot training courses...
Celebrating the Success of Pardot Pros
I think we need to do more to celebrate the work that Pardot and Marketing Operations pros do. I’ll explain why. But first, a random story.
How Marketing Automation Saved My Bacon… Twice
I’ll admit it. As a marketing professional, I was a bit nervous the first time that I heard the term “marketing automation.” My first thought was that somebody was...
Thank the Pargods for the Chip On Your Shoulder…
Right before I started Sercante, I had a little career and emotional bump in the road. At the time, it felt catastrophic. Soul crushing. In retrospect, it was a...
The 8 Best Ways to Support Women-Owned Salesforce Businesses
Inspired by the upcoming WITness Success conference, I recently posted a list of Women-Owned Salesforce Partners & ISVs. Spoiler alert: this list isn’t super long, and I’d love to...
An Open Letter to Salesforce Admins: Why Marketing Automation is the Next Big Thing for Your Career
Dear Salesforce Admins everywhere, I realize you may not have had to work that closely with us marketers before. And that not all of us have taken the time...
The Myth of the Failed Marketing Automation Implementation
I’m noticing a trend. People hate their marketing automation platform implementation partners. On at least a weekly basis, a prospective customer or a Salesforce AE with a red account...
When Fear Stops Pardot Pros in Their Tracks
As a Pardot consultant, I run into a lot of people who are stuck. They’re not getting the value they wanted out of the tool. They’re not sure what...
Why Marketing Automation Platform Implementations “Fail”
Okay, real talk time. Not all companies who implement marketing automation are met with wild success and find themselves on the stage at Dreamforce. For every one of those...
Why Marketing Automation Experts Drink: An Adult Coloring Book
In the category of super random side projects, I made a coloring book. Nope, not the kind for the little humans in your life. It’s called “Why Marketing Automation...
When B2B Marketing Feels Like a Trip to the Mall
I went into a retail store a few weeks ago. I should have known better, but I was leaving for a vacation and desperately needed to buy a swimsuit....
8 Tips for Success When Working With a Pardot Consultant
A recent post focused on pros and cons of insourcing and outsourcing Pardot work. The TL;DR of that one: there are great reasons for and against either approach. But...
Stop Saying “I Can’t Because…” to Boost Your Marketing Automation Career
There are a million reasons to not do something. But many of the ones we say out loud are… how do I put this… not real. Let’s talk about...
Top Secret Pardot Project: Burn After Reading
I’m working on a secret project. It involves crayons. Maybe some colored pencils. Very illicit stuff. Okay fine, I’ll just tell you what it is. It’s a coloring book....
It’s a Blogiversary! A Look at the Top 10 Posts from Year 1
Today is a momentous day for this little blog. One year ago today, I wrote and shipped my first post. Since then, I’ve posted 84 articles about the platform...
Elon, Take Some Advice & a Nap, Bro
Ariana Huffington’s open letter to Elon Musk struck a chord with me. I mean… to be fair, she wrote a book on naps, so it was a little self...
13 Scantily Documented Pardot Surprises
The original working title of this blog was “Why Wasn’t This Documented, Abridged Edition.” “Scantily documented surprises” sounded like a nicer way of saying the saying the same thing....
On Salesforce Events & Time Well Wasted
I’m attending Connections and Texas Dreamin’ this week and couldn’t be more excited. When talking about these events with other consultants and business owners, several have dismissed them saying:...
How Much do Pardot Admins & Consultants Make?
One question I frequently get asked is: “What does a typical Pardot admin (or consultant, feeelancer, et. al) make?” Now THERE’S a loaded question. The myth of the “typical”...
10 Reasons Listicles Represent the Best & Worst of Digital Marketing
Listicles. I hate them. Truly despise them. But then also kind of love them. If you’re not familiar with this buzzword, a listicle is an article that — you...
Salesforce FY End: 7 Ways Pardot Admins Can Get a Screamin’ Deal
One unique quirk about Salesforce is that their fiscal year ends January 31. According to Benioff’s Behind the Cloud, this move was to better align with customer buying patterns...
Let’s Banish Good & Fine
“Hey, how are you?” “Doing good, how are you?” I think I’ve had that conversation approximately a gajillion times. My New Year’s resolution is to STOP already, and I’d...
7 Gifts to Win the Eternal Affection of a Pardot Admin
Wondering what to get that marketing automation guru in your life? Well, unless you can bundle up some inbound leads… here are some gifts that are sure to please:...
Tell Me to “Make it Pretty” One More Time
Seriously, do it… I dare you. Public service announcement: Great marketers don’t make things pretty. They make them strategic. They make them compelling. They make them generate revenue. They...
5 Pardot Influencers I Can’t Get Enough Of
One of the things I love about the broader Salesforce community (our #Ohana) is the generous knowledge sharing that goes on. It’s incredible – in addition to their “day...
On Finding Flow as You Advance in Your Career
Ironic: the farther I get in my career, the less I get to do some of the things I love and get to that elusive “flow state.” (Alright maybe...
I Have an Email Marketing Crush on CB Insights
I’m on so many email newsletters. It’s frankly ridiculous. But somehow, I can never find it in my heart to scroll to the bottom of the message and hit...
I’m Over the “Me Too” Tools
Not going to call out specific products here, but lately I’ve had a few folks in the Salesforce ecosystem call my attention to new market entrants with an eyeroll-inspiring...
Pardot Admins & the Lurking Impostors
Pardot Admins are some of the most humble people I’ve worked with. “Well, we’re just doing the basics.” “We’ve probably set it up all wrong.” “We don’t know...
Is It Worth It To Get Pardot Certified?
This is an awesome (but tricky) topic that was suggested by Ian A. It’s kind of a loaded question. You meet people all the time who are certified in one...
Can We Just Admit the ABM vs. Inbound War is Made-Up?
“The world has changed.” “The old playbook is fundamentally broken.” “The way we do business has radically transformed.” Yeah okay, these are true in some cases. But they are...
A Surprisingly FAQ: How Do You Pronounce Pardot?
Exactly like it’s spelled, dammit. PAR-DOT. Every time I hear a marketing automation “expert” utter the word “Par-dough” I want to bang my head against my desk. It’s not...
Real Talk: 5 Surprises When Implementing Pardot
This is an excerpt
