Build a in-house Marketo team

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Hi all,

I'm building an in-house Marketo team from scratch. Starting from early next year, we'll be expanding to support 5 divisions instead of 1. Currently, I have one specialist under me but I've been asked how many more I'll need with what kind of qualifications. For those managing or leading a Marketing Automation team in in-house, can you please advise how you structure your team and what talents do you keep in your team?

Thanks a lot!

Huihsing

[Grace_Brebner3 · Accepted solution]

I recently discussed this at a customer engagement session in Auckland so I can share a slide on this topic...

Firstly, disclaimer - this isn't true for everyone and will vary depending on the structure of your team and organisation. But I can say that most of the super users I know meet most of this criteria. So it's a good starting point if you are looking to make a team of super users who are dedicated to Marketo, and not just one person to write emails, one person to handle logic, one person to handle reporting, etc. I call people who meet this description marketing automation unicorns - because they are rare and majestic creatures, and thus the image (which was actually a gif, but you can use your imagination there).

I've also been asked on the back of this whether I would prefer people who have past experience in Marketo or a fresh grad with this skill set. My honest answer is that I would prioritise these skills over past experience; I would rather train someone in the system from scratch who does have the right skills, than have someone with experience but not these skills. Having used Marketo doesn't automatically qualify you to be good at it, to be blunt.

If they've got these skills and the experience then I'd snap them up.

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Thanks Grace. I agree with you. I'd rather train a newbie who can learn fast instead of someone who has Marketo experience but got stuck with the old habits.

Regarding the skill sets, do you feel like if the coding skills are necessary? Also, I've asked if it's necessary to hire a Marketo developer who can write a script on the site and handle more technical stuff. How do you think about it?

[Jay_Jiang]

If you don't have an in-house resource with coding skills, you will be limited in the kind of business problems you will be able solve. or just be able to solve at a slower pace if you decide to outsource.

Depending on how complex your martech stack is, getting the most out of web technologies nowadays usually does mean utilising APIs and webhooks, Marketo is no exception.

[Grace_Brebner3]

I agree with Jay; it's really important to have creative people in your team but without exception the people who I see doing the most bold, exciting and effective stuff with Marketo are the people with technical people either in the team or supporting it.

I don't think that every user must know how to code fluently, but fairly advanced HTML, CSS, Javascript and/or API skills is like the magic bullet skill that I really love to see in people. Generally I find that people who have some basic html understanding work better in the email/lp editor. Plus having the skill often speaks to having the right personality/mindset for picking up many of the complex parts of Marketo quickly.

I do think that people who are involved in the strategy and problem solving really benefit from understanding (again, if not being fluent in) velocity, APIs, etc, simply because they significantly broaden the solutions toolkit. Almost every time I've ever thought something couldn't be done in Marketo I've quickly been proven wrong with some of these features.

Practically speaking, I find that lots of day-to-day requests move faster when people in the team can do dev work themselves. Like many businesses, our dev teams are stretched thin and relying on them can slow things down. Honestly, I'm also nitpicky. Especially when it comes to templates. I know the Marketo syntax better than any of our in-house developers do, and while our developers are fantastic, they're really web developers. Email is still html, for sure, but it's really a different ball game to general web development - the rules are different, they're constantly changing, and it's just damn tricky. A lot of the time it's simply more efficient for me to handle as much of it myself as I can.

I would broadly think that you would need to be at a pretty large scale to have a dev resource exclusively dedicated to Marketo, thus why I think most of us find ourselves playing that role as required, or pulling in ad hoc external support as required. If you're not sure about whether this is required I'd personally consider looking at a Marketo partner who can provide this support as required until it becomes clear that the need is there for a dedicated role.

[Jay_Jiang]

In general, there are people who are policy/process driven and are great at coming up with frameworks, best practices. Then there are people who are technically driven and are great at solving problems. You need a mix of them.

Another way of approaching it is what does your remit include? You find the skills for the team, you be the glue. Data integrity - find someone who understands database architecture, data hygiene best practices. Email marketing - find a full stack graphics designer + html/css developer.

[Vineela_Maram]

Hi,

I  agree with what Jay and Grace mentioned in their posts. If you are a global company, i would definitely recommend you to hire or train existing Marketing folks on Marketo in each region/business units(at least on the basics- how to create an email and program, list uploads, smart lists etc) based on your org structure as they work closely with Demand Gen and field Marketing teams. I would also recommend you to get someone trained on Marketo and CRM(that you use) (in most instances Marketo admin doesnot have indepth knowledge about their CRM instance/s) who can be that go to person to help answer or address your teams(including web,field marketing,demand gen,Analytics etc) questions and come up with better processes for your organization. In most organizations, they often work in silos and it is hard and challenging when people have to navigate or reach multiple folks to get their answers and fix things if needed.

Thanks,

vineela.

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Yes. That's what I'm doing right now. I'm training a group of Marketo users who will be dedicated to their region/brand. My team will also be responsible to support them.

[Anne_Angele1]

I manage a team of consultants vs. working client side, but the concept is probably comparable - I like to have a team of people who can all do the basics (put together an email campaign, create a web content program, very basic HTML, lead scoring, etc) and then have a mix of "specializations". For example, I have a team member who is incredibly strong in coding and can build a template from scratch or deal with custom API issues. I have another who has a strong background with SFDC and can handle lots of lead management, data transfer issues, etc. This way there are several people who can handle the majority of projects we are tasked with, but when something a little trickier comes up, we have someone who we can pull in with more experience in that area.

[Josh_Hill13]

all of these are good things to consider when building a centralized team.

You will also want a plan to do hub and spoke eventually because you cannot possibly support global teams from one time zone.

For methods on how to size properly, it'll be up to you and the number of teams you support.

Marketing Operations Team Size Calculator - Marketing Rockstar Guides