Marketing Automation to drive business growth
Updated August 06, 2019
Marketing Automation to drive business growth
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Standard
Modules Used
- Marketo Lead Management
Overall Satisfaction with Marketo
We are using Marketo to replace legacy systems for email marketing and sales follow-up in addition to building out more intelligent marketing campaigns to guide prospects through our funnel. Presently, the teams using the system are Marketing, IT and Creative. Because several teams are using the system, buy-in is made much easier and ensures that there are direct positive effects for the work that each of these three departments drive. Though lead generation will always be something we work on, that is not the immediate concern, rather, we are using Marketo to improve lead quality and lead conversion rates. The reporting abilities offered in Marketo will also help enable actionable insights that span marketing and sales efforts.
- Support marketing and sales alignment by offering a system for the marketing team that pairs well with the sales systems of use.
- Lead scoring programs that help prioritize the sales team's time, enabling them to do what they do best, sell.
- Calendar feature that assists the internal teams in knowing what is going out when; for a company that relied on Excel sheets... this is a much easier, more fluid option.
- The system look and feel is a bit clunky; I've used other marketing automation platforms before that were much "prettier" and easier to navigate. Once you get past the organization of the system - the what and where of things - you'll be jumping around swiftly to what you need.
- There is a new email editor which is a BIG win from where the email editor was previously. For previous users of MailChimp for email marketing, Marketo offered some challenges in building email templates and managing regular updates to those templates. I envision if I created this review a few months from now, email would be on the "what Marketo does well" list.
- As users of the Agency model, it is frustrating to maintain independent logins to the systems without being able to login once and toggle between instances.
- Product Launches
- Upsell
- Cross-Sell
- Customer Service
- Lead Management
- Prospecting / New Business
We are trying to generate new business while retaining current business, in addition to reigniting business that otherwise went cold. Marketo enables us to do this with smart, intelligent programs that capture and utilize data to trigger sequences to push sales forward.
- Attract the right customers
- Engage and grow customers over time
- Measure marketing investment
- Plan and coordinate marketing across your team
We have introduced methodologies for the sales team that have not been used before. The implementation of lead scoring offers streamlining that is much needed to keep the sales team focused on what they do best and enable the true function of the marketing team to shine - obtaining and pre-qualifying leads.
- Pardot and Infusionsoft
I'm including experience with Infusionsoft as it offers pulled back functionality for marketing automation. The more closely comparative system is Pardot. I've used that before and it was a much prettier system to use, from a user perspective view. Marketo offers a more robust set of marketing automation functionalities and features that support enterprises. I also find Marketo is more on the cutting edge as a leader in the MA space and has a community to support it.
25,000 to 100,000
Adobe Marketo Engage Feature Ratings
Learnings & Advice
Immediate success was seen in implementing the system for an annual campaign that otherwise would have taken much more effort to compile, draft and execute using previous/legacy systems. The biggest lesson has been ensuring executive buy-in and team adoption to really drive continued use of Marketo.
I don't think we're doing anything incredibly out of the box, but we are able to do A/B testing with all campaigns, every time, which is new to us and has proven incredibly eye opening. It's an easy add to any campaign and speaks volumes to the efficacy of your promotion and message.
Build in plenty of time for your implementation and rollout internally. It is a big system to implement and a lot to learn for any user. Have a phased approach and reiterate on it throughout implementation. Spend time going through training and getting involved with the user community early, they are your allies!
They are THE BEST resource for training, troubleshooting, brainstorming and system updates. Jumping in to the community head first is the best way to get acclimated with Marketo and make your company's use the best it possibly can be. This is THE resource for continued learning and skillbuilding for you and your team.
Marketo requires an organized structure so you'd be best to map out your efforts before implementing. Having executive buy-in is critical and I've found that showing process flow outside of Marketo is better suited for the executive type to see what is happening to whom, when and why.
Using Marketo's core features
- Programs
- Email Templates
- Forms
- Landing Pages
- Lead Scoring
- Segmentation
- Reporting/Analytics
- Email templates
- Landing pages
- Segmentation
Scoring would have benefited us earlier on to help distribute leads more effectively.
All that we dove into, we deferred to the community for insight, learning and tips. I found some users of the community who were very responsive and who knew a lot about a lot. I enjoyed the forums and articles and the gamified tool for learning about the system and having a little fun while at it.
Marketo does campaign execution better than other systems. It is compartmentalized in a way that helps creative minds drive down to execution in a process-oriented way. Reporting is also a key differentiator, it allows insights that are actionable.
The folder-style approach and usability. It helps me walk through process visually and keep campaigns structured and organized.