Highly intuitive.
Updated August 21, 2019

Highly intuitive.

Jennifer  Robertson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Small and Medium Business

Modules Used

  • Marketo Lead Management
  • Marketo Sales Insight
  • Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Marketo

Marketo is used by almost our entire organization. It works together with our CMS to track the buyer journey, automate perpetual nurtures, track multi-channel success, capture ROI, and much more! Marketo is the foundation to our marketing strategy and success!
  • Very user friendly. Easy to get up to speed and train others how to use it. Similar to SFDC in the fact that it is intuitive.
  • Increasing marketing efficiency. It's so simple to clone landing pages, emails, programs, and campaigns that it makes us very proficient.
  • It makes up for deficiencies in SFDC. Sometimes there are limitations with SFDC workflow rules that Marketo can handle. It also allows a deeper view into each lead that would not be available in SFDC without Marketo.
  • Provides valuable lead information, visibility, and tools for Sales.
  • Marketo has a great native integration with SFDC. It's easy to set-up and troubleshoot if an issue arises.
  • Sometimes it can be very slow. Sometimes just finding a value on a pick list takes much longer than it should. Sometimes it can take a long time for a list to run. Database size and quantity of database activity can play a role on speed. Some of this was due to years of accumulated anonymous lead data that was clogging up system. These are now archived automatically after 3 months by Marketo. This helped, but we still have periods where it is slow when we work with clients with large databases.
  • It would be nice to be able to assign priorities to smart campaigns to help control race conditions.
  • RCA stage accuracy could be improved by making the model intuitive enough to correctly handle merges.
  • If a SFDC administrator makes a mass update, this can cause backlogs in the system. For example, campaign triggers or alerts can be delayed by a couple of hours.
  • Product Launches
  • Upsell
  • Cross-Sell
  • Lead Management
  • Prospecting / New Business
  • Other
We use Marketo to drive sales and growth in new business and existing business. We also use Marketo as our lead management foundation to allow us to capture multi-channel interactions and associate that activity to the buying journey, qualified leads, and ROI. We use Marketo in a way that lets us automate complex, perpetual nurture and tracking to not just improve conversions and ROI, but to also personalize a person's experience with our brand based on their consumption, buying stage, and areas of interest.
The main decision was between Eloqua and Marketo . We did consider some other systems, but these were the main contenders.

We called references and the general consensus was that Marketo more user friendly and capable of what we needed. Their references were generally happier than Eloqua references. This feedback was probably the determining factor is choosing Marketo.
Would highly recommend Marketo.

Adobe Marketo Engage Feature Ratings

WYSIWYG email editor
9
Dynamic content
8
Ability to test dynamic content
7
Landing pages
8
A/B testing
7
Mobile optimization
8
Email deliverability reporting
9
List management
10
Triggered drip sequences
8
Lead nurturing automation
8
Lead scoring and grading
10
Data quality management
10
Automated sales alerts and tasks
10
Calendaring
Not Rated
Event/webinar marketing
9
Social sharing and campaigns
Not Rated
Social profile integration
Not Rated
Dashboards
Not Rated
Standard reports
10
Custom reports
Not Rated
API
9
Role-based workflow & approvals
Not Rated
Customizability
Not Rated
Integration with Salesforce.com
9
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

Learnings & Advice

With the company I am at now, all of the implementations we've done for our clients perform above industry benchmarks! We successfully launch Perpetual Demand Generation programs for not just our clients, but also for ourselves! The most important lessons I've learned are:
1) If you are new to Marketo or Marketing Automation, bring in an expert or a partner to help you get on your feet so you get the most out of your investment
2) Over the last 6 years, I've really learned how to streamline Marketo builds to maximize system performance and minimize man hours! It's important to think before you build. It's worth the time up-front to set up a solid foundation that you can build on top of moving forward.
I have worked with members of my team to use Marketo's API to automate fulfillment email creation and sends. No more manual email creation or testing! No more program creation to send the email when the form is filled out. No more waiting on the content team and Marketo team to communicate and wait on each other to release new content - everything is automated via API!
If you are new to Marketo or Marketing Automation, bring in an expert or a partner to help you get on your feet so you get the most out of your investment! Implementing Marketo is very easy - it's true - and anyone can do it! However, you really need a good foundation and lead management plan to get the most out of the product and prove success. Marketo should be used for a lot more than blasting email campaigns, and an expert or partner can make sure you don't get stuck in that category!
I dove into the world of Marketo starting in 2011. Everything I know I learned from their online training and the Marketo community. When I reference Marketo Community, it's more than their online community. Their user groups, champion program, and events have also aided my learning. I am now a Marketo expert, and I did it all through their free tools, online community, and networking. This knowledge has helped me not just do my jobs, but also grow my career!
Always check the activity log. The Activity Log is so powerful! Most people know they can look at the activity log to see what has happened to a record. However, I commonly see people that don’t realize you can click into the number on the left of each row to get additional details. Was a form filled out? Clicking that number on the left of the row will show you all the form fields, as well as the data that was put into them during the form fill. It also shows the parameters, referrer, Client IP, device, and browser. Web page visit? You can see the parameters, URL, referrer, client IP, device and browser. Did a Data Value change? Clicking that number on the left will show you the old value, new value, change reason, and source of the change. If the change came from SFDC, you can see the SFDC ID of the record. New Lead? You can see where it came from. Email bounce? You can see the Bounce code details.

Using Marketo's core features

  • Channels
  • Programs
  • Forms
  • Smart Campaigns
  • Lead Scoring
  • Lead Sourcing
  • Lead Nurture
  • Ability to use Triggers: Other marketing automation platforms can't do that (like trigger an action off of a data value change). This is so powerful, and in my opinion it is necessary!
  • Unlimited fields: At least I haven't reach a maximum yet, but I'm sure if I went super crazy they might have something to say about it!
  • Ease of use: Marketo is intuitive, easy to navigate, and easy to do things quickly
I wish I had started using the email program a little sooner. When it first came out, the functionality was limiting compared to the default program, so I tossed it aside never to look at it again for some years. Today I'll use the email program to embed an email send within another program.
I mainly used the community to learn the entire platform. In my earlier days, I was in the community every single day looking for people trying to figure out how to use the platform. I was very excited when Product Docs got built out! I'm still in the community a lot, but not every day!
Marketo has a tighter and faster integration with SFDC. Marketo has extreme capabilities when it comes to how to run and trigger actions you want it to take. Marketo has a great community and great users that collaborate and network. Marketo support is also pretty good (most of the time). Marketo has a long list of partners and plug-ins as well. Lastly, their API capabilities have improved over the years (and looking forward to more improvements to come)!
There is a history list that shows all the items you visited recently. Marketo has a folder structure that is easy to navigate (if you set it up correctly). Marketo has clear places to work on different areas of the platform, and you don't have to go to a lot of different places or tabs to get to everything you need.

Using Marketo

46 - One person in the marketing department uses all the modules.
One person in the marketing department uses the lead management and RCA modules.
Four people in the marketing department use the lead management module and Sales Insight. 40 members of the sales team have access to use Sales Insight - some use it a lot, while others use it a little.
1 - It's just me in house, but we also have an agency (Spear Marketing - our implementation partner) which does a lot for us. We use them for support too. When it comes to supporting Marketo, it really helps that I am a certified SFDC administrator. It helps me know how the the two work together and what is possible using the two together.
  • The primary process is marketing campaign management: We use Marketo for all forms, landing pages, emails, and campaign responses. All lead information is captured on Marketo landing pages and forms, which is then pumped directly into SFDC.
  • Our sales department also depends on Marketo Sales Insight for lead data when prospecting.
  • We also use Marketo for reporting and alerts. We report and alert on certain web behaviors to improve sales and retention.
  • We use Marketo for workflow that SFDC cannot always handle, such as updating fields or sending alerts based on certain record inputs.
  • We use reporting of certain behaviors in Marketo to watch for possible client cancellations, increasing retention.
  • There is a lot of reporting available in Marketo that we do not currently use. In the future, I see us gearing towards more of that reporting.
As stated, the volume of marketing campaigns that we can build and push out is dramatically higher than we could ever achieve without the tool.
It also seems like it would be a pain to switch.
  • Within 2 years of implementing Marketo, we realized a 135% increase in opportunities created, and a 148% increase in opportunities won. In order to support that increase in opportunities, we expanded our sales team in excess of 200%. Within the first 2 years of implementing Marketo, we doubled the size of our marketing department and increased the marketing budget by 73% to support new marketing demands.
  • The sheer quantity and efficiency of campaigns that we can put out, along with associated reporting for each, is dramatically higher than we could ever achieve before Marketo. We could not continue at our current pace without Marketo. This is the primary reason we renew.

Evaluating Marketo and Competitors

We were using Vertical Response and other lightweight tools, but they were not really competitive tools.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Analyst Reports
Product features and usability were the most important factors. We needed a product that had all the functionality, but was user friendly and easy to learn. We wanted to get up and running quickly.
We would not change anything. We are happy with our decision.

Marketo Implementation

I was not with the company then, but am under the impression it went smoothly.
  • Professional services company
We used a Marketo partner: Spear Marketing.
Not sure - I was not at the company when Marketo was implemented, but am told it went well.
  • We would recommend hiring an experienced team over implementing in house.

Marketo Training

  • Online training
  • Self-taught
Marketo is a powerful product and is capable of so much, but training is really basic. It's not nearly advanced enough. If you don't have time to dig into the system and learn its capabilities on your own, you will never quite be able grasp all of its capabilities. The training needs to cover a lot more.
I took the online training, but it was very basic. I learned most of Marketo through self-teaching just because there is not a lot of advanced online training. I would recommend using all the online resources they have available, but there is a lot you have to learn on your own.

Marketo Support

The support team is very responsive and they can usually solve any problem we encounter.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - We don't really need it. We do not have a very high volume of support issues and can handle most problems in house.
Yes - Some things we have reported were fixed by the engineering team on Marketo's end. Of the bugs we have reported, I would say none of them were of an extreme nature.
There was one time we were trying to figure out how to change the visibility around a web activity report. The support team informed us that what we were trying to do was not possible at this time. They said they liked the idea, though, and told us to put it up on the Marketo community. As soon as we did, the support team backed the idea. It hasn't been implemented yet, but it was nice to know that they do listen and support what their customers are trying to do.

Using Marketo

Usability is a real strength. It is very easy to learn and train others on the system. The UI is quite intuitive, especially for anyone who already uses SFDC.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Setting up programs to sync with SFDC campaigns is very easy.
  • Cloning programs/assets is very easy and saves a lot of time.
  • For us, since we have RCA, keeping RCA stages updated is difficult due to record merges.
  • Getting Marketo reports to match SFDC reports can sometimes be difficult - you have to find the discrepancies in order to make sure the reporting is working as intended.
  • Territory updates sometimes take a long time in Marketo.
Yes - They do not currently have a mobile interface, but it is coming soon.

Marketo Reliability

We look at scaleability in a few different ways. First, the speed while using Marketo has remained relatively the same as our database has grown. Though I would say Marketo is slow at times, it has not gotten slower over the last few years. If anything, it has improved, and they are working to improve it. Second, the amount of programs we have developed in Marketo has exponentially grown as well. Marketo has allowed us to drastically increase our output without having to drastically increase our headcount.
There are performance issues that make it seem like it's down sometimes. The backlog of campaign triggers etc. can be a real issue. The issue is probably more around performance than uptime.
There is definitely some latency. As mentioned earlier, it sometimes takes much too long to perform simple tasks like selecting values from a pick list.

Integrating Marketo

Integrates easily with SFDC. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is because sometimes there is a backlog between the two systems.
  • SFDC
Standard. Out of the box integration.
  • File import/export
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Mass updating in SFDC can backlog the sync between SFDC and Marketo. Any mass updating should be done at the end of the day or later.

Relationship with Marketo

Their customer support team is always available and responsive when we ask for help. They stay in touch and make sure we are using Marketo to it's fullest.
They are pretty tough when it comes to negotiating free Marketo University training at the Marketo User Summit. We have negotiated free passes to their User Summit, but no discounted training. We have also negotiated a discount for the Revenue Cycle Analytics module one year, but this was because our experience of using it during the first year was unacceptable. The product had a lot of flaws. We think they probably released it too early and then ultimately gave us a discount.
Do not hesitate to reach out when you have a question. They will do whatever it takes to keep you satisfied. Your relationship with the people at Marketo does not end after you purchase the product.

Upgrading Marketo

Yes - We have upgraded our Sales Insight product while with Marketo. It went easily with no down time.
  • New features and functionality were available with the latest Sales Insight Release.