Pros & Cons of Marketo -- My Thoughts & Review
May 11, 2019
Pros & Cons of Marketo -- My Thoughts & Review
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Marketo Lead Management
- Marketo Analytics
- Marketo Web Personalization
Overall Satisfaction with Marketo
We were introduced to Marketo as an alternative to our existing marketing solution. We gave it a spin as a way to enhance how we collect and qualify B2B leads. Since it integrates well with Salesforce and other CRM platforms, we decided it was worth our time. Marketo allowed us to bring most of our digital marketing and sales efforts into one hub where we could easily nurture and manage the sales process digitally before qualifying leads. It was primarily used by our digital marketing team and sales team to bring them in sync and improve our digital sales process.
- The workflow functions of Marketo are among the best in the industry. You are able to build advanced lead qualifying and sales processes using Marketo and automate tasks that are often done manually.
- As a B2B platform, Marketo is able to integrate with CRM programs like Salesforce and allow you to take the sales journey. It has the necessary features for seasoned marketers to use, like lead scoring and programs that can track and manage different marketing events and functions.
- Lead scoring is a huge pro, especially in today's digital marketing and sales. Marketo’s lead scoring system allows your sales team to qualify a lead before pursuing, saving you valuable time and money. The nurturing program is a huge time saver, as you can nurture leads and then qualify them based on what you think.
- Centralized marketing information. With Marketo, you can view all your digital marketing results in one place. Whether you are using email, landing pages, mobile advertising or forms (which, by the way, Marketo has a lot of to choose and customize), you can easily view this information from within the dashboard.
- Pricing -- Marketo is clearly designed for a premium market, and most people will not be able to get in at the price point it starts from. This is a con especially for small businesses who do not always have the resources to invest in a solution like this.
- Analytic reports within Marketo are not the greatest. I feel that there is more data you can view, and smart lists do not always work as they are supposed to.
- It must also be said that Marketo does have a steep learning curve, and in some cases, you may need to hire a specialist to help you with the integration process. This can add to your cost.
- Customer Service
- Lead Management
- Prospecting / New Business
- Other
We used Marketo as a way to qualify which leads to pursue. Using the forms and nurturing process, we are able to find new and qualify new customers across many different decision points. The nurturing tool allowed us to prospect new business and achieve our goal of quality leads by guiding them through systematic content. We also use landing pages to collect lead information and start the customer journey process to qualify our lead prospects. Marketo’s lead quality score allowed the digital marketing team to be able to manage and identify key decision makers as leads, and using data provided we were able to focus our marketing efforts better.
HubSpot and Marketo are designed for larger marketing teams, but Marketo has more marketing options whereas HubSpot can sometimes feel more like a content marketing tool. You can build mini-websites that you can use for A/B testing. You can also build and optimize content for different audiences with HubSpot. One highlight of HubSpot is the ability to personalize content to specific leads. Marketo feels more like a digital marketing suite of tools than a content marketing suite. ActiveCampaign is better suited to small business and links messages and email marketing into one. You can also run your CRM from within ActiveCampaign.
10,000 to 25,000