Strong enough for IT, but made for a Marketer
Updated March 30, 2016
Strong enough for IT, but made for a Marketer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Global Enterprise
Modules Used
- Marketo Lead Management
- Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics
Overall Satisfaction with Marketo
Marketo is a program that seems small and lightweight until you really get under the hood and discover it's a beast of a powerhouse. Having worked with other marketing automation tools in the past, I really appreciate how Marketo is built and designed around marketers, not IT folks. You don't need to know database design, HTML coding or JavaScript - but if you do, the possibilities are endless. I've been able to rapidly develop, deploy and copy programs for engaging nurture marketing programs, content downloads, webinars, trade shows, digital ads, paid search, contact us pages and numerous other channels. The tools in Marketo make the job of ETL to our CRM simple and easy to understand. Marketo was designed to be a marketer's tool. Leads are easily scored and dispositioned.
Pros
- Innovation - creating an easy-to-use marketing automation tool that's designed for marketers, not IT, but with powerful capabilities for power-users.
- Listen to customers - a very involved community where users can reach out to each other for support and guidance.
- Improve - continuously enhancing the user experience.
Cons
- Power - the servers sometimes seem unable to keep up with the work.
- Stability - while seeing the program improve is exciting, I'd like to see them hit a point where less improvement is needed.
- Offline Client - to be able to work when I'm not online.
- Engage and grow customers over time
We have seen a lot of funnel creation and growth thanks to Marketo. While marketing is contributing less overall than sales in terms of net revenue and customers, we're attracting higher worth customers. The average marketing generated lead is worth about 15% more than a sales generated lead. That's substantial. And marketing is contributing about 15% of the total direct revenue. Most of these are leads looking for US, not just referrals. This is a great way to help people find us.
I worked with Adobe Campaign when it was Neolane, up until right after it sold. I still miss the functionality of it but it was extremely complicated to use. That said, there was nothing you couldn't do with it except quickly and easily deploy a campaign. I think that the ease of use of Marketo makes it more suitable for a marketing department than Campaign.
250,000 to 1 million
Adobe Marketo Engage Feature Ratings
Using Marketo
150 - Global marketing users truly across the world. Mostly marketing, some IT. Overall, we probably have close to 500+ users when you put in all of the sister companies of mine. It's marketing, sales, IT, business development, revenue marketing, and demand generation.
20 - My "customers" come from all backgrounds. Some of them have been using Marketo for years, others are brand new to Marketing Automation. While it definitely helps to have a background in HTML, Email Marketing and workflows I find that it's not totally necessary. I've been able to create program templates to turn new users into Marketo Mavens rather quickly.
- Demand Generation
- Awareness
- Funnel Velocity
- Decrease form requests
- Lead scoring and attribution
- Operation programs
- Very good ROI - we're able to help new customers find u
- Lead Sharing - we can get leads from other sister-companies
Evaluating Marketo and Competitors
Yes - Not sure - I was brought on afterwards
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor Reputation
- Third-party Reviews
The entire enterprise made the decision to switch to Marketo to standardize. We wanted something easy to use but powerful, and from a company that we felt would grow. We wanted simplicity but elegance.
I wouldn't change it, but then again I wasn't part of the committee.
Marketo Implementation
- Was not
- Part of
- Implementation
Marketo Training
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
I find that the Marketo Community does an excellent job at helping new users. I've personally responded to dozens of requests for help and have become a strong acquaintance with other power users.
Configuring Marketo
Work with IT to set up SPF / DKIM keys. Make sure you have people on-board that know what they're doing and have experience working with Marketo.
No - there is no facility to customize the interface
No - the product does not support adding custom code
Marketo Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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 |
Yes - We have a service contract that gives us access to higher level support when needed. We're a truly global 24/7 organization and we're stretching the limits of what can be done so we need to make sure the needed support it available at all times.
Most recently we've been facing issues due to the growing size of the userbase using Marketo and that we're global so there is no "good time of day' to run large imports which kick off a lot of workflows. They listened and have engaged their engineering team to take a look at what's going on and we're working on a plan to fix the occasional problem.
Using Marketo
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Easy to quickly send out an email campaign
- Easy to create a segmented targeting list
- Easy to create an email, landing page or form
- Creating custom reports
- Looking for non-standard metrics
- Trying to do deep dives into program performance
Marketo Reliability
Integrating Marketo
- Webex
- MadisonLogic
API connections can take a little time, but the WebEx integration was very smooth.
- Reporting
Do not know
- File import/export
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- Javascript widgets
Nothing else
Build in test time.
Relationship with Marketo
Was not part.
Was not part of negotiation.
Upgrading Marketo
Yes - Marketo makes their releases overnights and doesn't always warn us ahead of time. There have been a few instances where things didn't go absolutely smoothly but they were quick to respond and fix the issues.
- Automated Reporting
- Microsoft Browser support
- Lead dashboard
- Template improvements
- Landing page / email improvements
Comments
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