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Tricky to use, but ultimately the most powerful!
Updated August 23, 2019

Tricky to use, but ultimately the most powerful!

Daniel Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Standard

Modules Used

  • Marketo Real Time Personalization

Overall Satisfaction with Marketo

We use Marketo for email, automated nurture campaigns, sales and business development alerts, reporting, and lead scoring. We currently use Marketo integrated with NetSuite, a non-standard CRM integration through the Muv connector platform. I have also used Marketo with Salesforce which provides a huge advantage given the rapid sync and additional CRM features it provides.
  • Total customization if you know what you are doing. Nearly all automation techniques can be achieved, but it can be difficult to learn.
  • All-in-one platform for demand generation, operations, designers, and more.
  • Great step-by-step learning materials available for the basics.
  • Wonderful targeting capabilities. I love smart lists and wish that CRM systems were as easy to segment databases.
  • Huge learning curve for new users.
  • Somewhat outdated interface when compared to other automation platforms like HubSpot.
  • No visual workflows for nurture programs.
  • Product Launches
  • Upsell
  • Cross-Sell
  • Lead Management
  • Prospecting / New Business
Really we, as any other business, are trying to sell more. Obviously we want to keep our customer base informed, and Marketo is great for that, but the real strength is in being able to see where leads are in your funnel, target them based on their anticipated needs, and deliver the right message.
Marketo is much more difficult to work with than HubSpot, but in my opinion has many more ways it can be configured and used to manage lead databases. Obviously, a huge advantage of Marketo is its robust integration with Salesforce, but for teams who are new to marketing automation and want to get off the ground floor quickly without hiring an expert, I'd recommend HubSpot.
100,000 to 250,000
B2B
[It's] great for companies who are somewhat advanced in their marketing operations and looking to expand. For example, if you are simply doing email blasts and want to do more such as managing lead lifecycle or scoring leads based on web activity, email activity, and content consumption then Marketo is a great option.

Adobe Marketo Engage Feature Ratings

6.9
WYSIWYG email editor
4
Dynamic content
7
Ability to test dynamic content
7
Landing pages
4
A/B testing
8
Mobile optimization
7
Email deliverability reporting
9
List management
9
Triggered drip sequences
7
8.0
Lead nurturing automation
8
Lead scoring and grading
9
Data quality management
6
Automated sales alerts and tasks
9
7.0
Calendaring
7
Event/webinar marketing
7
4.0
Social sharing and campaigns
4
Social profile integration
4
8.0
Dashboards
7
Standard reports
9
Custom reports
8
9.5
API
9
Role-based workflow & approvals
9
Customizability
10
Integration with Salesforce.com
10
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

Learnings & Advice

Marketo can be a tough nut to crack at times, but over time usage becomes more natural and rational. If you've ever taken a basic computer science course or used Salesforce in a meaningful way you should have no problem. I had the opportunity to go to a few Marketo summits and it's a great way to learn (and fun too). If budget is tight on your Marketing team, take advantage of the online community and ask a lot of questions. Also YouTube is your friend!
Marketo can be used to communicate with your users rather than forcing business or sales development personnel to send emails manually. You can set up triggers based on lead aging or based on lead scoring and use plain text formatting so that emails seem more organic and reception is usually higher than traditional marketing emails.
Spend plenty of time thinking about use cases and making sure the data you sync with Marketo is clean. I've put together dashboards and advanced nurturing campaigns only to find out our poor data management in CRM or from poorly executed data enrichment exercises means targeting is limited. As cliche as it sounds, garbage in garbage out!
Marketo has one of the richest communities. I've worked in Marketing Automation consulting and those that are Marketo Champions are somewhat of rockstars in their own right. It takes a good bit of work to get Marketo Certified, but it's worth it if you want to specialize. In the end, I didn't want to have such a narrow focus in my career, but have a lot of respect for those that do.
If you can set up a sandbox environment to build and test campaigns before you launch, definitely do so. It's a great way to learn and will keep your production environment much cleaner and easier to manage. Other than that, become active in the Marketo community, ask a lot of questions, and join a local Marketo User Group (MUG) if there is one in your area and you want to learn creative ways others are using Marketo.