An Enterprise platform - with an Enterprise time commitment
Updated October 22, 2019
An Enterprise platform - with an Enterprise time commitment
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Marketo Analytics
Overall Satisfaction with Marketo
Used by the marketing department in a shared services model for the entire organization.
Specifically, we use it for:
Email marketing (batch and blast)
Email marketing (automated nurture paths)
Web content (operational delivery of assets + forms)
Database cleanup (standardization of fields, etc. before passing to CRM)
Webinars (via GoToWebinar integration)
Live Events (landing pages / registration / post-show assets)
Specifically, we use it for:
Email marketing (batch and blast)
Email marketing (automated nurture paths)
Web content (operational delivery of assets + forms)
Database cleanup (standardization of fields, etc. before passing to CRM)
Webinars (via GoToWebinar integration)
Live Events (landing pages / registration / post-show assets)
- Marketo's token functionality is excellent for reducing workload and eliminating repetition.
- Marketo's integration with SFDC has been seamless for us with no technical debt.
- Marketo's web activity reports have been a big hit with our executive team to showcase who we're bringing in from our target market.
- Marketo's visual reporting is awful. We've defaulted to Salesforce because Marketo's out of the box reporting is so limited without a big upsell
- The UI is lagging behind competitors, as is sorting and searching assets. Hoping the new UI that's been announced addresses this.
Marketo was selected before my tenure began at FMI, and I inherited the instance.
Coming from HubSpot, the UI adjustment took a bit - HubSpot is a more attractive package at first glance. However, Marketo has a much deeper level of functionality underneath the surface and I was quickly able to realize ROI with features like tokens, integrations into other platforms and the ability to clean our database via smart campaigns.
Coming from HubSpot, the UI adjustment took a bit - HubSpot is a more attractive package at first glance. However, Marketo has a much deeper level of functionality underneath the surface and I was quickly able to realize ROI with features like tokens, integrations into other platforms and the ability to clean our database via smart campaigns.
25,000 to 100,000
Adobe Marketo Engage Feature Ratings
Learnings & Advice
The biggest successes out of Marketo have come from standardization, process and repeatable templates.
My number one recommendation would be establishing standards early, and enforcing them at every turn. Marketo gives you tools like tokens, segments and landing page and email templates - use them!
The more you can standardize common use cases, the quick you can execute campaigns. As an example, we took the build time for a live webinar program from 4 hours to 45 minutes. Huge time savings and reduces errors with the use of tokens!
My number one recommendation would be establishing standards early, and enforcing them at every turn. Marketo gives you tools like tokens, segments and landing page and email templates - use them!
The more you can standardize common use cases, the quick you can execute campaigns. As an example, we took the build time for a live webinar program from 4 hours to 45 minutes. Huge time savings and reduces errors with the use of tokens!
We use tokens to create fully template programs in a box. We use this method for webinars, speaking events, gated web content resources and our various email promotions. By using tokens, our marketing managers who aren't as experienced in the platform can simply plug in the values from the campaign brief we provide them and never see a lick of code or the WYSIWYG editor.
Using tokens in this way requires a lot of requirements gathering and upfront work, but the rewards are huge.
Using tokens in this way requires a lot of requirements gathering and upfront work, but the rewards are huge.
My number one thing on a fresh instance would be establishing naming conventions from the start. Choose your folder structure carefully, and use a logical naming convention for your programs to make searching easier.
We use YYYYMMDD - BUSINESS UNIT - PRACTICE AREA - PROGRAM TYPE - SHORT DESCRIPTION.
We use abbreviations for the business unit, practice area and program type.
With a good naming convention like the above, I can search for every program by business unit, practice area or program type abbreviation, which greatly speeds up my work.
We use YYYYMMDD - BUSINESS UNIT - PRACTICE AREA - PROGRAM TYPE - SHORT DESCRIPTION.
We use abbreviations for the business unit, practice area and program type.
With a good naming convention like the above, I can search for every program by business unit, practice area or program type abbreviation, which greatly speeds up my work.
The Marketo community is the first place I turn to when I want a gut check on program setup, a look into what other practitioners are doing in their instances, or to learn methods in Marketo I wouldn't have thought of myself.
It contains a wealth of information and experts that most platforms make you pay for - use it every day and be glad for it!
It contains a wealth of information and experts that most platforms make you pay for - use it every day and be glad for it!
Here are my top 5 tips:
- Create naming conventions ASAP and stick to them. Like yesterday.
- TOKENIZE ALL THE THINGS! Tokens make campaign creation and execution soooo much easier.
- Use segments to slice and dice your database. They're more efficient than smart lists in many cases, especially when creating mailable / un-mailable segments.
- Schedule smart campaigns that will affect large swathes of your database in the middle of the night on the weekend. Our most data-heavy processes run at midnight on Sunday morning.
- Document everything! You should have a playbook or campaign brief for every client-facing process or program in Marketo. It helps with training new users or stakeholders and forces you to organize all your thoughts.