We all face the potential that disaster can strike at any time. From your coworker shorting out the Keurig coffee maker resulting in office burning down to large scale natural disasters like hurricanes and floods, there is always a chance there will be a disruption at your organization. Your marketing skills will ensure you will survive any disaster, but how will your contact your customers and let them know what to expect? You just need to use Pardot’s operational emails.

What are Pardot Operational Emails? 

You know Pardot as a powerful marketing email tool, but it also can send out non-marketing emails. Pardot operational email feature lets you send non-marketing communications to prospects, even if they have unsubscribed from your marketing emails. Operational emails can be used on list emails, not Engagement Studio or other automated emails (so no way to schedule a doomsday email about the invasions of giant spiders from space).

How To Turn On Operational Emails?

1. Open the Account Settings page.
   • In Pardot, click  and select Settings.
   • In the Lightning app, select Pardot Settings.
2. Click Enable Operational Emails.

So What Are Non-Marketing Emails?

For example, non-marketing emails can be:

• Critical Changes Requiring User Intervention (such as contact support about open orders)
• Shipping Information
• Terms of Service Notification
• System Status Emails
• Internal Company Emails
• Confirmation Emails
• Service Disruption Alert

Can you add marketing materials to non-marketing emails?

No. Because operational emails will reach all of your customers (including those who opted-out), you need to adhere to strict non-marketing rules not to violate spam laws. So don’t include any coupons on bug spray when you alert your customers the main office has been eaten by giant space spiders.

So What Can I Do About The Spiders?

Find a huge glass and a mammoth piece of paper or hope the hardware store carries a super-size bottle of bug-off…