Until now, we have created a Form in Pardot to capture prospects in the database. Over time, based on your marketing efforts, you may have hundreds or thousands of prospects in your Pardot database.

Companies send multiple marketing emails to convert prospects into customers. Rather than send same marketing email to all your prospects, you can send relevant content by segmenting your prospects into different email lists. This is especially useful for businesses that have a variety of offerings, and therefore, need to communicate to different prospects.

Lists can be used to send list emails or to build Engagement Programs, in Pardot. You can ask your prospects about their interests when they fill a Form; or, based on your prospects’ geography or job title, you can create multiple lists to send relevant information to them.

For example, if you are running a small business that offers Salesforce consulting services, as well Salesforce online training, ask your new prospects what kind of information they would be interested in receiving when they either sign up on your website or buy some services from your company. 

Using Lists in Pardot

There are several different types of Lists in Pardot as listed below:

1. Dynamic List
2. Static List
3. Segmentation List
4. Public List
5. Email Test List
6. CRM Visible List

In this article, I will give you an overview of different types of Lists in Pardot. Then, I will show you how to create a Dynamic List and explain why you may want to use a Dynamic List instead of another list, and vice versa. In my next article, I will focus on the features and functionalities of Segmentation List.

Dynamic lists offer a flexible way to organize prospects in Pardot and automate your marketing actions. You can build these automatically refreshing lists based on prospects who meet certain criteria. For example, you have created a list called Current Prospect. Currently, Raj Malhotra is part of this list. You are sending marketing contents to members of this list. However, just yesterday, Raj became your customer after purchasing your services. As a result, Raj is no longer a prospect but is now a customer! Since Raj is now a customer, you do not want to send Raj a marketing email that is targeted towards a prospect. To auto remove Raj from Current Prospect list, you have to first define this list as a dynamic list and then set criteria for membership.

Static lists are a way to manually organize a set of prospects and group them together. Once a static list is created, the list members will remain the same unless you add or remove prospects manually. Prospects can be added to static lists using one of the following ways: 

1. Manually
2. At the time of imports
3. Automation Rules
4. Segmentation Rules
5. Through prospect table actions

Email Test List allows you to create a list that will be used for internal testing. 

Public List should be created only when you want to make the list available on Email Preference Center. Public List allows your prospects to add or remove their name from the list by using Email Preference Center page. 

CRM Visible list allows users to add to or remove prospects from your CRM. This option is available only if you have a verified CRM connector between Pardot and Salesforce.

Business Use Case

Let us start with a business use case. David Haditsch is working as Content Marketing Manager at GurukulOnCloud. At GurukulOnCloud, they are running their first campaign to promote their products and track activities of visitors and prospects on the corporate website.

GurukulOnCloud has hundreds of prospects in their Pardot database. They are planning to send marketing emails to prospects whose Job Title is Director. GurukulOnCloud wants to accomplish two things simultaneously – (i) create a list in Pardot; (ii) and, make sure that prospects can be automatically, added or removed, from the List based on their Job Title. 

Solution for the above business requirement

To solve the preceding business requirement we will use Dynamic List. By using Dynamic List prospects can be automatically added or removed, as prospect data changes.

To create a dynamic list in Pardot, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to Marketing | Segmentation | Lists
2. Then click on the + Add List button to add a new list, as shown in the following screenshot:
3. The next step is to enter few details, as mentioned below:
   1.  Name for new list – for this scenario, enter List of Directors as name
   2. Select a Folder where you want to save the list – for this scenario, select Brand Awareness (If folder does not exist, create one)
   3. Add Tags to organize your list. In this scenario, enter Brand Awareness as a tag. If you want to learn more about folders and tags then, refer to this article Overview of Folders and Tags.
4. If the list will be used for internal testing, then select Email Test List checkbox. However, we are not going to select this option because a test list cannot be used as a Dynamic List. 
5. We want to create a Dynamic List. Therefore, for our current scenario, select Dynamic List checkbox, as shown in the following screenshot:As ours is a Dynamic List, it is not possible to make the List available for Salesforce CRM by selecting CRM Visible checkbox. CRM Visible List allows prospects to be added to, or removed from, your CRM. As a result, once you select Dynamic List checkbox then, CRM Visible checkbox will be not visible on the setting page. 
6. If you want to make your list inactive at some point in the future, then select Archive Date. Archiving lists moves them to the Archived List view on the List table in Segmentation. Archived lists cannot be used for list emails. For current scenario select Archive Date is 2019-06-22. 
7. If you want to make the list available on Email Preference Center, then select Public List checkbox. For current scenario do not select this checkbox. We will discuss Email Preferences Center option in the upcoming article.
8. When finished, click on the Set Rule button to set criteria for the Dynamic List. 
9. The next step is to define the rule criteria. To add or modify rule criteria, perform the following actions
   1. First, select a Match Type. Below are the match types Pardot offer 
      1. Match All: – It will return results that match ALL of the criteria.
      2. Match Any: – It will return results that match any of the criteria. 
   2. In our scenario, select Match All as we have only one rule criteria – Job Title equals Director 
   3. To add the individual rule click on + Add new rule button, and use fields to define the criteria as shown in the following screenshot:
   4. To remove rule criteria, click on the trash icon. 
10. Optionally, you can click on the Preview button. Then Preview Matches to see which prospects match the rules. You can share the preview with other Pardot users by sending them the link.
11. Once you are done with all the changes, the final step is to click on the Run Rules button, to save the list and run the rule. 

Deleting a List

Sometimes, you may need to delete some extra or unnecessary lists. By deleting a list, Pardot will move it to the Recycle Bin. If there are any Prospects associated with a deleted list, they remain in the system. To delete a list, perform the following steps: 

1. Navigate to Marketing | Segmentation | Lists.
2. Click on the gear icon next to the list you want to delete, as shown in the following screenshot:
3. Then click on the Delete option, as shown in the preceding screenshot. 

–> Standard Edition accounts can have up to 50 active Dynamic Lists; Pro and Ultimate Edition accounts have unlimited Dynamic Lists. 
–> It is possible to make Dynamic Lists as public and display them on your Email Preference Center where prospects can opt-out of the List if they choose.
–> When using the account or opportunity rule criteria, the Dynamic List will match only those prospects that have an associated opportunity or account. Prospects without an opportunity or account will not match the list.

In my next blog, I will take a deeper dive by showing you create and manage Static list in Pardot.

Proofreader: - Munira Majmundar