Can you use Pardot (now known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) without having Salesforce? You can answer this question from two angles – an organizational standpoint and a user standpoint.
From an organizational perspective, it is not possible to purchase Pardot without already having Salesforce. This is because Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is an extension of Salesforce, and this was not always the case. Previously, Pardot was a standalone company before being acquired by Salesforce, and it was possible to use it separately or integrate it with different CRMs. However, now it is integrated with Salesforce, and purchasing Pardot requires having Salesforce.
From a user standpoint, the answer is a bit more nuanced. While it is not possible to have somebody log in to Pardot directly without having a user record in Salesforce, it is possible to give a user access to Pardot without a full Salesforce license. This can be done by creating an identity user, which is a special license that allows for the creation of a user in Salesforce without incurring any cost in the Salesforce system. This user will only have access to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement’s features and not to all the Salesforce features and data. This can be useful for a marketing agency or department staff who only need access to Pardot features such as creating email templates or building out engagement programs.
Want to learn more about how to use Pardot? Check out our Pardot for Beginners course at academy.rotive.io.