A majority of customers find their consultants to be their most valuable resource during their Marketo onboarding. However, we also know your time with them is limited. Check out the following advice - most of it sourced from Marketo consultants themselves - on how to optimize your onboarding experience right from the get go.
What are some of the pitfalls I should look out for during onboarding?
- Users that don’t look at Marketo learning resources or take Marketo-recommended trainings before working with their consultant will often end up spending valuable consulting hours trying to understand basic Marketo concepts. Take some time to check out the Marketo University free trainings, Marketo University Online, or purchase the Marketo Core Concepts course.
- Start thinking long-term about content you’ll be using for your Marketo programs. Which type of email and landing page assets will you need? Are you producing creative assets from scratch or repurposing content from previous marketing campaigns? Creating those Marketo program may seem far away now, but waiting on creative assets can often be an unforeseen bottleneck.
- Build out your Marketo documentation as you set your instance up instead of trying to document it all after your implementation. This makes the task of recording your Marketo admin choices much easier and helps you make informed decisions throughout your implementation.
- Because Marketo often pulls in data from a CRM (and sometimes pushes out to it, too), data quality can have a huge impact on your Marketo implementation. If you have the time and resources available, clean up your data before integrating with Marketo.
- Many companies don't have clearly defined, consistent processes to manage lead handoffs between marketing, telemarketing and sales. If they do, they often only have them for prospects, and not for existing customers that research additional products. Take the time to connect with other teams and map these strategies out while you’re building in Marketo to ensure you will get the most out of your use of the platform.
- Be sure to involve your leadership in the implementation right from the start. Leaders that are hands-off won’t always understand the capabilities of Marketo, whereas leaders who are involved and invested in Marketo can help set you up for long-term success.
How do I make the most of my consulting hours?
- Be sure to complete the recommended Marketo trainings before getting started with your consultant. That way, you can spend your time working through your implementation and not on Marketo basics.
- Submit support tickets on your own - it’s good practice, plus you won’t be using your consulting hours for this.
- Make sure you’ve contacted the teams that need to get involved early. You don’t want to get on a call with your consultant and be waiting on a deliverable from IT or Sales Ops because they didn’t know they had a role in onboarding Marketo.
- Set some time aside to do a bit of learning on your own each week. Check out the Marketo Product Docs and Marketo University videos.
Where should I go if I need help during my onboarding?
- Ask your consultant for instance-specific questions.
- Note: Asking your consultant for help outside of your regular meetings will generally eat into your consulting hours
- Submit a Support ticket on the Marketing Nation Community.
- Check out the:
- Marketo Product Docs - how-to guides on Marketo features
- Marketing Nation Community - open forum with blog posts, product discussions, Q&A with fellow users, and the Support portal
- Support Office Hours - available to customers with the appropriate Marketo Launch Pack; regularly scheduled time to bring your questions to Marketo consultants
- Note: These are only available to customers who have purchased a Marketo Launch Pack. You must register before each session in order to attend these office hours.
- Partner Blogs - our extensive partner ecosystem is a huge asset for Marketo users. Search through Marketo Partners’ sites and blogs for additional tips
- Peer Content - sometimes typing out your question in Google will bring up some awesome content from other Marketo users!
A huge thank you to the Marketo Professional Services Consulting team for sharing their knowledge and advice with customers!
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