Build a in-house Marketo team

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Thanks Josh! Great info!

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Thank you all! These are all very helpful. How do you think about hiring a developer or someone with strong technical/coding skills?

I'd like to get one but here are my concerns:

- Developers are very expensive

- It's more likely to get one who knows how to code but doesn't know Marketo

- I just hired one full-time person. If my 2nd hire is a developer, this person will also need to perform basic Marketo tasks such as building email campaigns, manage the database, etc. This will be at least 70% of his/her daily tasks. My concern is it'll not be satisfying for someone with a strong tech background.

How do you think about it? We are working with a strong Marketo agency. it seems to me it makes more sense to outsource the dev work?

[Anne_Angele1]

There are certainly strong Marketo users that also have developer backgrounds (I have worked with a couple!) but if you don't anticipate a large need and you have an existing relationship with an agency, you may not need a FT developer/Marketo role. You may be better off looking for a strong Marketo user with other skills you'll need more frequently.

[Josh_Nowak]

Hi Huihsing,

I have faced similar challenges as you are having over the years where you want to hire someone who knows the marketing automation platform well whether it is Marketo or otherwise, but to the point that Grace Brebner and others have brought out, people who have worked with Marketo in the past are not necessarily the technically minded people who can solve the new problems you are going to come up with.  The bulk of the work we have at my company is the more outside of the box tasks as people generally don't go to an agency for help with the work they are able to handle in house, unless it is just to solve a problem with bandwidth.

We have had a lot of success over the years in hiring people who satisfy the skills requirements (html, responsive, JavaScript coders) and but who have not worked in a MAP at all.  In general if a person can learn to code then they will be able to learn to do what they need in Marketo.  It is much easier to find these people as well as there are many more of them out there.  You are right to be concerned about keeping a developer intellectually satisfied in the long term.  My advice here would be to be honest from the start and make it clear what the work is going to entail.  It also helps though if there is a career development plan you can offer.  So in a scenario where you hire a developer just out of school who can tick a lot of the skills boxes for you, their initial vision for their career track may not have included working in Marketo but there is a lot of employment opportunity and need for people like these who both know Marketo and who have a strong technical background.  As Grace mentioned earlier these people are unicorns so it is a great opportunity for your potential hire as well.  Part of our success has been in coupling people at various stages together, junior developers with more senior people working in the MAP.  This has helped us to avoid the potential errors a more junior person will make, and help with the development of the resources.  If you don't have the variety and volume of work to make this possible though it could be challenging to replicate this.

30% of the time working on interesting technical tasks should be enough to keep a developer challenged and engaged with the work, you just need to make sure you have a clear development path laid out for them or they will eventually leave your company and bring their unicorn magic elsewhere.

I hope this helps.

Josh

[Phillip_Wild]

We have a similar situation: global centre of excellence, marketing automation out of one timezone to serve 5 marketing offices scattered around the world. I totally agree with the "everyone knows the basics, but they each have a specialisation" approach. Technical skills are key - you must have them somewhere in your team otherwise you will never do truly great things.

[Minna_Pacanowsk]

I think there's two key areas - the set up and flows and then the email templates and coding.

I think you need one logical person to set up campaigns, emails, check flows, schedule emails. People who learn quickly and understand how the program works. They should also understand how Marketo works with the CRM (usually SalesForce) to ensure data remains in shape (no duplicates, create fields in SF rather than Marketo etc). They should also be able to use Marketo's Email Performance and Email links performance reports.

Then you need someone who has experience in coding, on a basic level, so they can make updates to templates. I think it's worth outsourcing for the initial templates you require, a few types of emails (standard, events, webinars) and Landing Page s(registration page, confirmation page, standard). Including a spot for a photo banner allows you to update the email each time to cater for that specific event.

[Riz_Alvi]

Hi Huihsing,

It really depends on what kind of campaigns you will be executing and what kind of budget you have. Without knowing details, I suggest following:

1. One person who can setup campaigns - Marketo Certified helps but not needed

2. A technical resource who is good with some coding, APIs (REST and SOAP) and graphics (photoshop)

3. All-rounder who is crossed trained above two roles and maintains data integrity with CRM

I recently setup a team from scratch and had to be creative with onshore and offshore resources. Working out flawlessly. Feel free to reach out.

Thanks!

Riz

[SanfordWhiteman]

2. A technical resource who is good with some coding, APIs (REST and SOAP) and graphics (photoshop)

Nobody needs to be good at SOAP.

But more important, the chance that you get a single person who's actually "good" at client-side JavaScript, HTML and CSS (especially HTML email), server-side architecture, and Photoshop is roughly nil. They're going to be "passing" at at least one of those... and one of those skills is likely in the process of falling off. Remember, people don't know what they don't know, and in a team with one tech person, they won't be mentored.

Of course this person may work out fine, it's just a fact that if they really were good at two full stacks they wouldn't be around for long in-house.

[Huihsing_Kiang3]

Thank you all for the awesome feedback. Appreciate you share the experience and knowledge with me.  Looks like my best bet is to find a unicorn or someone who has the potential to become one with a certain type of technical training or background. Feel free to share your tips/tricks for a successful "unicorn hunt". : )

[Riz_Alvi]

Hi Huihsing,

I am not sure what your situation is but if you are open to an offshore resource, I know a person for you. She is good at coding but you need to train her on Marketo.

Good luck.

Thanks!

Riz