Certifcation Roadmap - Poor Prep Training

[Anonymous]

I am a bit frustrated. I am new to MKTO, no experience at all. I am in training to become certified. MKTO recommends using the certification roadmap; however, I am finding too many topcis unsearchable or an error message where the article will not populate. I learn best by doing, but this is a word test and therefore I need to study. So I am disapointed I cannot locate the information MKTO says I need to know.

[Kim_Allen]

Hi Jessica,

Welcome to the Marketing Nation, first of all! For the certification, I believe they do recommend a certain amount of time of using Marketo before testing, this is because what you touched on, learning from doing and being familiar with the platform.

Then I'm guessing you are working off this: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoCertification?id=kA650000000GuZW
I'd also recommend the videos with little quizzes: https://community.marketo.com/marketocourses

I get the error message sometimes, I believe they're swapping out the help articles as they've had many new releases etc. But there are still many resources in the video section and if you just search the community!

Kim

[Anonymous]

Hi Jessica, 

Kim has made some great points, and you should certainly take a look at the material she has provided you. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me if you need anything further. If needed, I can even create a support case for you and track the issue to resolution. 

Welcome to the Marketing Nation! 

Best regards,
Chris

[Josh_Hill13]

Jessica,

Not sure which articles are missing. They've been swapping out alot as Kim noted and some articles are very old now and have disappeared. Not sure why though!

You can take a look at my Guide - although it does not cover the newer features: http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com.

I'd say maybe 70% is useful as you go toward certification. The thing with getting certified is you do need experience with the system before signing up for the test. I have seen several people try to do this test after4-12 weeks of "studying" only to fail.

I would go through the course in this way:

1. Basic Videos
2. Try stuff in Marketo
3. Get stuck? Go to Intermediate Videos
4. Try stuff in Marketo
5. ready for more interesting stuff? try next videos.
 

At this point, I would come to the Community and do searches for particular questions you have. There is a video, article, or discussion about your question.

My sense is that you need about 6 months of training and use to pass the test. Using the system for 1 year and a little bit of studying will also work.
 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Kim and yes that's the doc I am using. I am reviewing this document, the video and the quizzes. I am a stickler for organization and logic. If the document has a topic then the topic should match the topic when I search MKTO. It's not at all uniformed and that bothers me becuase this is just a matter of being consistent. But I am well aware training programs across any company is not always perfect. I will connect with my internal trainer and she can help me understand what I need to know about topics I can't find here.

[Anonymous]

Chris under the Data Management article it references Finding Junk Leads, Working w/duplicate leads, finding competitors. These links do not open. I recalled during Foundations classes I was doing some basic stuff and these articles opened then. But today they don't. I need to rereview to make sure I have a full understanding.

[Anonymous]

I have to strongly support what others have said - the absolute best practice for the Marketo Certification Exam is a lot of time using the tool. At least 6 months, but I would recommend a year. I was using Marketo for a year before I began studying for the exam - and I used the roadmap basically as a guide to what topics I wanted to explore more deeply and then researched on my own - and don't think I would have passed if I hadn't had that year of experience inside the tool. Many of the exam questions are framed in such a way that you don't just have to know how a function works, you have to know how to "get there from here and what happens from there." That's deliberate, as Marketo wants its MCEs to demonstrate strong practical experience IN the tool.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Hi Jessica,

Please take a look at these articles and let me know if they are helpful. I was able to find these by going into the Marketo Community and searching in "Help Articles."  At times, you may need to then look under the "Resources" tab.

Finding Junk Leads: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoResource?id=kA650000000GwizCAC

Find and Merge Duplicate Leads: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000Kyu3CAC

Finding Competitors as Leads in your Database: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoResource?id=kA650000000GtnmCAC

Best regards,

Chris