Marketo Review by Daily User

Marketo is currently used by corporate marketing as the only function. We use it to manage our lead database as well as host programs (events, lead nurturing and engagement, company email announcements, etc). We have it integrated with Salesforce CRM to connect with our sales teams as well as Good Data for our reporting purposes. For myself, I'm in Marketo daily -- whether it's looking at data, creating campaigns, or checking on past campaign performance.

The most important lesson I've learned is to take advantage of Marketo's resources. The resources available, like Mentoring Sessions and Community, are pretty robust and make learning on your own really easy for specific questions you have. Community has been one of my biggest assets, and going to free events in my local user group has improved my knowledge of the tool vastly.

The more I token-ize programs, and use snippets and segments, the more advanced I feel. These tools really allow for personalized marketing content and triggers add on a whole new layer of targeted marketing that one can achieve with Marketo. The best use case I have is running global email campaigns in different languages through one email program. We used segments to divide our database into different countries, snippets to personalize the content and languages within the email, and tokens within the email body itself to personalize the email even further. Though one email send, we were able to deliver a personalized, global email in different languages.

Reach out to the Community as much as possible! There is such a strong network of passionate Marketo users out there that are willing to answer questions. Often times, the question you have has already been answered in Community. I self-taught myself Marketo mostly through reading articles and asking questions on Community. Also take advantage of the webinars/events/Summit if you can.

As stated in my prior response - I've learned almost everything from Community. I'd say 70% of my initial knowledge came from using the Community. I continue to grow my Marketo knowledge by attending Summit and events, and with my local user group. Learning from smart marketers is the best way to grow your knowledge base.

I've been using Marketo at three different companies: I've implemented a new instance, come on in a mature instance, and inherited an instance that wasn't implemented properly. The biggest tip/trick I would give you is to keep your instance organized. The hardest times I've had using Marketo in the three scenarios above are when the instance hasn't been organized. The better your organization (think of it if an outsider looked in), the easier it is to optimize and make changes.