If you’re just getting started with Marketo it’s easy to put folders and naming conventions in place, but even if your existing instance is a mess, you can still use these tips and tricks to get organized. You might have folders that don’t make sense or vague campaign names, but you can follow these steps to help add structure to Marketo, no matter what stage you’re at in your usage.
FOLDER STRUCTURE
Start by thinking about how your business is structured and how it makes sense to group your campaigns for your folder structure. Depending on the complexity of your business, you may have only a handful of folders or 100s.
Think as granular as you can – is it by Business Unit or Department? In our case we have a few high-level folders for Central Marketing, Product Marketing, Platform Marketing, etc. and a more granular breakdown within that.
Then think by time frame to break it down even further. It makes sense for us to break the year into two key parts – Spring and Fall – since we work with higher education institutions and that’s how our campaign seasons run. Depending on your company and the amount of campaigns you’re going, it might make sense to categorize on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Here is an example of one of our folders and the internal structure:
We also have two other key folders within each of these main folders:
- Archive Folder - By breaking out the year into sections, it’ll make it easier to find your campaigns and archive them as they are completed. Click here to learn more about how to archive your folders.
- On-Going Folder – We keep an on-going folder to separate those campaigns that are always running like website forms, landing pages and reporting.
PROGRAM NAMING CONVENTIONS
Think about how Program Naming conventions can work with your folder structure.
First, make sure your naming conventions are easily searchable and identifiable. A Program named “Sale Campaign” probably won’t jog your memory if you have to go back and search for it. But one called “CM19F – End of Year Close Out Sale” will help you find when it was created and what it’s about.
For our naming conventions, we use the same Business Unit and Time Period from our folder name, along with the Campaign Name used when it’s submitted.
- Example: CM19F – Back-to-School Instructor Campaign
You could also add specific codes to your naming conventions to identify certain types of emails or even exclude certain emails from your reporting:
- “AR” for auto-responder
- “EM” for a standard email
- “OPER” for an operational email
If you want to have more advanced naming conventions including things like region, channel, etc. you could also use a Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel document with formulas to input your campaign values and have your Program name generated.
How are you using Folders and Naming Conventions? Share your ideas and best practices in the comments!
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