Feeling Lost? 5 Resources to Turn to When Taking on an Inherited Instance

Natalie_Kremer
Level 6 - Champion Alumni
Level 6 - Champion Alumni

Last updated Date: February 26th 2024

 

Have you started a new job and inherited a currently running Marketo Engage instance with no documentation in sight? There are a lot of helpful resources within your Marketo instance, on your support team, and within your own organization that can provide insight into what is going on in your inherited Marketo instance.  

 

Inside Marketo Engage 

There are some great resources right in your Marketo Engage instance that you can dig into as you start digging in. 

 

First, we’ll start with the ‘Admin’ section that is filled with ways to see what is currently set up and running in your Marketo Engage instance.  

 

To learn more about all the settings within the ‘Admin’ section, Brooke Bartos has a great post about Navigating and Auditing the Admin Space. 

 

Next, your Database Dashboard will show you your total database size and how many marketable people records you have. The System Smart Lists will also detail person records that are Blocklist, Marketing Suspended, Bounced, Duplications and more. 

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Finally, ‘Marketing Activities’ also provides a lot of opportunities to understand what is happening within your Marketo Engage instance.  

 

The Campaign Inspector gives you insights into which trigger and batch campaigns are currently running in your instance. If the Campaign Inspector is not turned on, you can enable it in the Admin section under Treasure Chest. 

 

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You could also set-up Email Performance Reports and Smart Lists to analyze your email deliverability, bounce rates, and more.  

 

Adobe Marketo Engage Status Page 

The Adobe Marketo Engage Statuspage is a great place to learn about current issues Marketo Engage is experiencing including minor issues, maintenance events, and more. Check on Adobe Marketo Engage under the Experience Cloud tab to find a timeline with status updates. Be sure to subscribe to updates by clicking on ‘Manage Subscriptions‘ in the upper right-hand corner so you’re always kept up to date on all the important issues that could face your Marketo Engage instance. 

 

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Marketo Engage Solution Account Manager 

Your Adobe Solution Account Manager(SAM) and other team members can help you dive a little deeper into your specific Marketo Engage instance. Your SAM can answer many important questions about what’s been purchased (including any add-ons), your database limits, key contacts at your account, and can also help set up any additional training for you or your team. To find out who your Marketo Engage contact is, email your SAM or the Customer Care Team at mktccare@adobe.com. 

 

Marketo Engage Support 

Make sure you’re an authorized Support contact either on your own or by contacting Marketo Support. If you are requesting to be added as an authorized contact, make sure an existing authorized contact makes the request.  

 

Support can also provide insight into previous cases your organization has submitted which can shed light on where potential issues may lie. They can also share who else is an authorized Support contact at your organization and you can add them to your list of internal stakeholders to contact.  

 

Internal Teams 

Perhaps your greatest resource when diving into an inherited Marketo Engage instance is your own internal team. No matter the size of your Marketing Operations team, there are several resources within your own organization that can provide insight into what is happening in your instance. 

 

Stakeholder 

Ask them about 

Web Development Team 

     Are the proper security protocols in place, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC? 

     Is Munchkin Code implemented on your website? How is it managed? 

MOPs Team 

    Does the team use any tokenized Program templates or a Center of  Excellence? 

     What is the campaign creation process (including intake and quality assurance/testing)? 

     What on-going campaigns are running in Marketo Engage? 

CRM Admin 

    What fields sync between your CRM and Marketo Engage? 

     What is the CRM structure (Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, other Custom Objects)? 

     Are add-on features integrated (MSI, Sales Connect, etc.)? 

     Are there other 3rd party platforms (events, surveys, etc.) integrated with CRM or Marketo Engage? 

Sales Team 

     What is the lead qualification process including lead scoring, hand-off, and SLAs? 

     What is the Lead Lifecycle? 

     What are their expectations of Marketo Engage? 

     Who are the key Sales stakeholders? 

Leadership 

     Who are stakeholders on the leadership team and how do they interface with the MOPs team?  

     What are important KPIs/metrics for leadership? 

     What type of reporting or readouts does leadership expect? 

 

By setting up a series of fact-finding meetings with the appropriate internal stakeholders, you’ll begin to shed light on everything at work in your Marketo Engage instance. Ashley Langford’s blog on starting in a new instance has great pointers for the questions you should ask in these meetings. 

 

Next Steps 

Now that we’ve covered a variety of ways to learn about your inherited Marketo Engage instance, let’s walk through your next steps to get started.  

1. Spend time deep diving into your Marketo Engage instance 

  • Review the ‘Admin’ section including ‘Integrations’, ‘Users/Roles’, and ‘Email Settings’.  
  • Explore your ‘Database’ section including total database size, marketable records and more. 
  • Analyze the ‘Campaign Inspector’ and set up Email Performance Reports and Smart Lists to understand your email deliverability. 

2. Connect with Adobe 

  • Sign up for system status alerts 
  • Connect with your Customer Success Manager 
  • Get set-up as an authorized Support contact.  

3. Get to know internal teams at your organization 

  • Set-up meetings with your counterparts across Web Development, CRM and Sales teams to learn how you can support them and how you can best work together.  
  • Deep dive into your MOPs team to understand what is going on in your Marketo Engage instance, what is set-up and any current processes that are in place.  
  • Meet with the leadership team to understand important relationships and key reporting and metrics they will rely on you to provide. 

What are your go-to resources when you come into a new instance with no documentation? What key stakeholders do you turn to for help? 

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2 Comments
Chelsea_Kiko
Level 6 - Champion Alumni

Awesome insight, Natalie Kremer‌ ! I use the campaign inspector to see what is going on, then look at individual ops or live programs to see how it operates, is performing, etc. etc. and I will take some test members and dig through activity logs to get a feel for the program and how I can make it better or tweak it if needed. Love this blog post! (also loved Ashley Langford‌ 's post too.

Amanda_Scigaj2
Level 1

I inherited an 7-year-old instance, and in a previous life would do assessments of existing MA platforms. I'd add that Audit Trail and Admin Audit Trail in the Admin Panel is super helpful to reverse-engineer items when needed. I usually run a 'healthcheck' on the different tiles, especially our data completeness to get a picture of what's going on. 

One helpful thing to check is Support Tools; you get there by navigating to https://app-xxx.marketo.com/supportTools/index (the xxx is where you put in your destination for your particular Marketo instance