Behind the Scenes: Kalmar’s Journey to Pardot and Digital Transformation

 

This session provides an exclusive look at Kalmar, a B2B manufacturing leader, and its journey from reactive, product-focused marketing to a data-driven, centralized, and automated digital strategy using Pardot. The speaker, Jenny Leine, shares the five critical steps and lessons learned from their multi-year transformation.

Key Takeaways

 

• Pardot is the Core: Kalmar structured its entire digital marketing operation around Pardot after realizing it was the natural choice due to Sales already using Salesforce.

• The Transformation: The goal was a shift from being a “brochure factory” to developing a multichannel customer experience, moving from mass advertising to targeted, data-driven communication.

• Scalability Over One-Offs: The core principle is to pay for things once by creating reusable blueprints and templates that can be easily replicated and localized.

• In-House vs. Outsourcing: The only truly critical function to keep in-house is the ownership and the development roadmap; most execution and technical support can be outsourced to partners.

• Continuous Process: Marketing automation is an ongoing journey that requires constant training, optimization, and collaboration with Sales.

The 5 Critical Steps to Success

 

Step 1: Selecting the Suitable Tools and Setup

 

After determining that lead generation was the main goal in a B2B context, Pardot was chosen as the central platform.

• Core MarTech Stack:

  • Pardot & Salesforce: The foundation, driven by Sales already using Salesforce.

  • Episerver CMS: Website management, connected via Pardot form handlers and API.

  • GoToWebinar: Webinar platform, chosen for its easy, out-of-the-box integration with Pardot.

  • Qbank: Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, easily integrated with Episerver.

  • Google Tools: Used for advertising, analytics, and daily collaboration.

Step 2: Building the Base and Process

 

This stage focused on building internal competencies and establishing standard processes for the long term.

• Training and Lobbying: Started with training the speaker, followed by the central marketing team, clarifying what marketing automation is to the entire organization.

• Establish Standards: Focused heavily on setting up standards that scale later:

  • Naming convention for assets (crucial for searchability).

  • Folder structure and campaign hierarchy.

  • Template library (defining how many templates are truly needed).

• Simple Use Cases: Started with basic activities (newsletters, event communications, simple drip campaigns) to build early wins and train staff.

• Collaboration: Implemented a project team structure for campaigns, forcing marketing, sales, and other functions to sit at the same table to define roles and commit to the process.

Step 3: Defining the Campaign Process

 

Kalmar defined a 7-stage basic process to ensure clear commitment and documentation for every campaign:

1. Define: Agree on targets, messages, and document all details.

2. Create Assets: Build necessary content (emails, landing pages, videos).

3. Define Lead Responsibility: Immediately assign the team responsible for follow-up before launch.

4. Inform Teams: Share materials internally to prevent surprises.

5. Build and Launch: Execute the campaign in all channels.

6. Lead Management: Forward leads to Sales, monitor, and optimize.

7. Debrief: Review results, share successes, and document lessons learned to prevent repeating mistakes.

• Lean Campaign Model: Developed a standard “go-to plan” for quick actions: 2-3 email rounds, complemented by social media and Google, all leading to a single landing page with a clear CTA (e.g., Contact Us or Download).

Step 4: Scaling Up and Focusing on What Works

 

Scaling is about putting resources toward data-proven tactics, not just what the team likes to do.

• Multichannel Shift: Moved resources away from pure email marketing toward a multichannel approach.

• Webinar Success: Webinars proved to be one of the most valuable lead generation tools. They scaled from 4 per year to approximately 10 per quarter.

• Content Reuse: Reutilizing content is essential for scaling. The strategy is to turn any new content asset (article, conference presentation) into a webinar or other reusable format.

• Advanced Programs: Built on the basic model by adding personalization, longer nurturing paths, and developing the lead process in the background.

Step 5: Collaboration and Outsourcing Balance

 

The balance between in-house resources and partners is crucial for managing workload and skill gaps, especially for small teams.

• In-House Focus (Must-Keep): Ownership, development roadmap, content creation, basic campaign execution, and reporting/data ownership.

• Outsourced Focus (Best-for-Partner): Technical support, development requiring coding, specialized analytics support (SEO/SEM), and advanced campaign building when scaling overwhelms internal staff.

• Team Building: Hosts Pardot User Days with partners and users to focus solely on training, sharing experiences, and benchmarking.

The Sales/Marketing Funnel (Manual Reporting)

 

Before having a real-time dashboard, Kalmar tracked campaign results using a simple manual funnel view:

• Cost

• Awareness (Total people reached)

• Engagement (Clicks, downloads, form fills)

• Conversion (Leads generated, Leads converted to Contacts, Opportunities generated)