Katie Collier, Implementation Specialist at Pardot, shares her expertise on creating naming conventions for all of your assets and campaigns in your marketing automation tool.
If you recently implemented a shiny new marketing automation tool, then you probably don’t want to do anything that would mess it up, right? Trust us, that’s the last thing we want either! On Pardot’s implementation team, we’ve worked with a range of clients — some who have used marketing automation for a long time and others who are new to automation — and a common theme we hear is that clients really wish they had set up a naming convention from the beginning.
When starting with a new system, it’s a great time to get organized and stay organized. Naming conventions are the best way to ensure your content is easy to find for continued use — whether you’re a power user of your marketing tool or the intern popping in to create a quick template. Creating an internal naming convention that the entire team will use is the easiest way to maintain an organized marketing automation system.
Take a look at a few of the benefits of putting naming conventions in place below:
1. Streamlined Organization
We’ve all been there — you open your Email Templates and you think…. where did the template that I just created go? What was it called? With naming conventions, you’ll have a streamlined view of all your assets. This clear organization also allows for quick filtering to find exactly what you’re searching for.
2. Insightful Reporting
Organized naming conventions allow you to report on the correct asset and easily identify which asset is performing best against similar assets. Likewise, you can strategically update your messaging as needed from these reports.
3. The Right Message, Every Time
With simple, clear naming conventions on your marketing assets, you can be sure the correct message goes to the correct audience every launch. Also, other team members can quickly find the right element in your marketing automation tool.
Not sure where to start? Here are some examples of naming conventions that we recommend to our clients:
Email Templates
Format: Topic/Offering_Audience_Date
Example: XYZ Webinar Invite_ XYZ Contacts_Mar2015
Example: Monthly Newsletter_All Prospects_Jan2015
Lists
Format: Type of Prospects_Purpose/Use_Date
Example: Telecom Contacts_Drip Program_FY15Q1
Example: All Contacts_List Email_FY15Q2
Landing Pages
Format: Topic/Offering_Date
Example: X Product Promo_FY15Q4
Example: Training Resources_FY15Q1
To get started with creating your own naming conventions and review more examples, check out the Pardot Knowledge Base Article on Best Practices for Naming Conventions and our naming conventions worksheets below!
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How are you using naming conventions at your company? We’d love to hear what works for you in the comments!