[Coffee Break] 01/18/24 - Inheriting a Marketo Instance as a Marketo Admin

[Jon_Chen]

This Coffee Break is now over. Thanks to all who attended! Please check out all the questions and responses our amazing Champions posted in the comment section below. Be sure to stay tuned for upcoming Coffee Breaks on more Marketo Engage topics.

 

About this event

Inheriting a Marketo instance as a new or experienced administrator can be challenging. There's a lot to manage, from understanding Marketo program structures and naming conventions to auditing data cleanliness. Join our coffee break on Inheriting a Marketo Instance to get answers from the latest cohort of Marketo Champions - where they'll share solutions based on their collective experiences as best-in-class marketers. Be sure to register now for event reminders and a calendar invitation!

This text-only event takes place on the Marketing Nation Community. Post your burning questions, hot tips, key takeaways, and let’s chat about them! Our experts will be interacting live for that hour.

For some guidance, here are some example questions and topics you can ask these experts about. Remember, if you're curious about ANY of these, don't hesitate to ask them during or leading up to the Coffee Break session:

• Which key stakeholders should be involved in an audit?
• What are some "best practice" auditing goals?
• How is person source and acquisition program being updated?
• When should you archive?
• Have any triggered campaigns been turned off accidentally?
• What is currently being stamped for lead lifecycle and what should be? (and why should you care)
• What should I be looking for during my audit?
• How do I keep track of what I find during my audit?
• What do I do after I complete my audit?
• How many admins do you have in the instance? Should they all need to be admin?
• Do you have a robust Privacy Policy operational program in place for UK, Canada, Brazil Australia, USA, India to name a few?
• Does your Segmentation cover all the company needs – regions, sub regions, languages, products/services, endusers/partners?

Additionally, be sure to check out some of these resources on Auditing an Inherited Instance:

• Marketo Engage Inherited Instance Audit Checklists
• Tips and Tricks for Auditing an Inherited Instance
• Comprehensive Guide to Navigating and Auditing the Admin Section
• My Marketo Engage Morning Routine

IMPORTANT NOTES

Please note this was a TEXT-ONLY event, meaning that there will be no webinar, video call, or recording. All questions and answers occurred on this thread! 

[Maria_Cruz1]

How do I keep track of what I find during my audit?

Keeping track of your findings during a Marketo audit is crucial for effective analysis and implementation of changes. Here are some steps and tips to help you organize and document your Marketo audit:

1. Create a Document: Use a document or spreadsheet to record your findings. Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel are commonly used for this purpose.
2. Define Audit Categories: Break down your audit into categories such as Email Campaigns, Landing Pages, Forms, Smart Campaigns, Data Management, Integrations, etc.
3. Audit Checklist: Create a checklist for each category. This could include specific items to review or questions to answer. For example, in the Email Campaigns category, you might check for proper segmentation, content relevance, and email deliverability.
4. Record Configuration Settings: Document the current configuration settings for each element you are auditing. This includes things like email settings, form settings, workflow configurations, etc.
5. Note Customizations and Templates: If there are custom templates, scripts, or other elements in use, make note of them. This is important for understanding the unique aspects of your Marketo setup.
6. Document Campaign Performance: Analyze the performance of past campaigns. Note metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and any A/B testing results.
7. Check Data Quality: Review the quality of the data in your Marketo instance. Look for duplicate records, incomplete information, and any issues with data integrity.
8. Collaborate with Stakeholders: If you are working in a team, collaborate with other stakeholders involved in the audit. This could include marketing managers, sales representatives, or IT personnel.
9. Include Recommendations: Provide recommendations for improvements based on your findings. Include suggestions for optimizing campaigns, enhancing data quality, or implementing best practices.
10. Timeline and Priority: Assign a timeline to each category or task and prioritize based on criticality. This helps in managing the audit process efficiently.
11. Regular Updates: Regularly update your documentation as you progress through the audit. This ensures that you have a real-time view of the status and findings.
12. Final Summary: Provide a final summary that highlights key findings, recommended actions, and potential areas for future improvement.

By following these steps and maintaining a well-organized document, you can successfully keep track of your Marketo audit and facilitate effective decision-making based on your findings.

What do I do after I complete my audit?

After completing your Marketo audit, the next steps involve analyzing your findings, implementing necessary changes, and optimizing your Marketo instance for improved performance. Here's a guide on what to do after completing a Marketo audit:

1. Review Audit Findings: Thoroughly review the documentation of your audit findings. Ensure that you have a clear understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
2. Prioritize Recommendations: Prioritize the recommendations based on their impact and urgency. Identify quick wins and long-term strategies for improvement.
3. Develop an Action Plan: Create a detailed action plan that outlines the steps required to implement the recommended changes. Assign responsibilities to team members if you're working in a collaborative environment.
4. Implement Changes: Begin implementing the changes identified during the audit. This may involve updating email campaigns, refining landing pages, optimizing forms, or adjusting workflows.
5. Monitor Performance Metrics: Once changes are implemented, closely monitor the performance metrics of your Marketo campaigns. Track key indicators such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall engagement.
6. Iterate and Test: Continuously iterate and test different elements of your campaigns. A/B testing can help you identify the most effective strategies for content, design, and timing.
7. Data Cleanup: If data quality issues were identified during the audit, initiate a data cleanup process. Remove duplicate records, update incomplete information, and ensure data integrity.
8. Training and Documentation: If there were gaps in knowledge or skills identified during the audit, provide training to your team. Update documentation to reflect any changes in processes or configurations.
9. Communicate Changes: Communicate any significant changes to relevant stakeholders. This could include marketing teams, sales teams, or other departments affected by the modifications.
10. Monitor Integration Points: If Marketo is integrated with other systems (e.g., CRM), ensure that integration points are functioning correctly after changes. Address any issues that arise.
11. Document Updated Configurations: Document the updated configurations and settings in your Marketo instance. This serves as a reference for future audits and ensures consistency in your marketing processes.
12. Evaluate and Report: Periodically evaluate the impact of the changes made and report on the success of the optimizations. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure improvements.
13. Plan for Ongoing Optimization: Recognize that optimization is an ongoing process. Plan for regular reviews and updates to ensure that your Marketo instance continues to meet the evolving needs of your marketing strategy.

By following these steps, you can transform the insights gained from your Marketo audit into actionable improvements, leading to a more effective and efficient marketing automation setup. Regularly reassess and adapt your strategies to stay aligned with industry best practices and changes in your business environment.

[Jon_Chen · Accepted solution]

 For an additional resource on auditing an Instance, check out this Admin Checklist on the Experience League website!

[robynhatfield]

What does your lead lifecycle look like in your new instance?

When you inherit a Marketo instance, it's important to dig into the lead lifecycle. Most instances will have a lead lifecycle set up (in the Operational programs).

Lead lifecycles can have different stages. A common setup is: MCL (Marketing Created Lead), MEL (Marketing Engaged Lead), MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), SAL (Sales Accepted Lead), SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), Customer, Disqualified, Recycle.
Note: you can have many variations of the lead lifecycle and stages.

Questions to ask:

1) How is my current lifecycle set up for stage transitions (moving from MCL to MEL, MEL to MQL, etc.)?

2) How is data stamped? Am I date stamping? Am I stamping the campaign and campaign type at the movement into each stage?

3) How are qualified leads being passed to sales? For MQLs, are we sending alerts, setting up tasks, sending a Slack message?

4) Ensure all relevant smart campaigns are activated (and weren't accidentally shut off).

5) After a lead is passed to sales, how are we recycling it back to Marketing (do we have a trigger to recycle)?

6) Are scores reset when someone is recycled? Make sure the program is set up to 'listen' for activities in the CRM that are then passed to Marketo.

7) How are we handling disqualified people (people that are not valid leads/contacts for our business)? Do we have a process of removing them from being scored or removing them from being in the lifecycle? Is there a plan to remove these from the database completely?

[Zoe_Forman]

Compliance and Consent - areas to check

If you are working in a Country or region that has privacy policies and requires explicit consent  to receive communications such as UK, Canada, Brazil Australia, USA, India to name a few

You should have an up-to-date and robust Privacy Policy operational program in place.

• Do your forms that are gathering leads comply with local legislation? - displaying legal text (in local language) and checkboxes.
• Do all emails have Unsubscribe links in place? - and within your email templates/snippets
• Is there a preference centre? where people can choose which communications they want to receive from you ( Events, Blog, Training, newsletters) or select their preferred language as well as easy opt-out
• Has your legal team signed off on the Privacy Policies and are all policies up to date?

[alysha_khan23]

Hello folks! Here are some answers to common questions that come up during an audit:

How do I keep track of what I find during my audit?

Use a spreadsheet to keep track for your findings as you go through your audit.

For each finding, note down what you found, where it is in Marketo, potential concerns or implications and give it a rating in terms of urgency (i.e. how important it is to fix) and difficulty (i.e. how easy or hard it is to fix).

What do I do after I complete my audit?

Use your notes to identify low-hanging fruit that can make a big impact and knock them out quickly. Then use the rest of your findings to create a roadmap for your marketing operations team. Make sure to account for how your audit findings can also support your company’s revenue goals to create an even more impactful roadmap.

[Zoe_Forman]

If you have just inherited an instance, one of the first things to consider is who else is there.

• What are people's roles? Do they have all the access they need or more than they need? Does someone in Analytics need access to the Design Studio? limit Run once campaigns, and limit who can change roles and permissions.
  
  
• How many Admins do you have? Not everyone should be an Admin - set some guard rails or levels of experience such as being certified with Adobe Marketo Marketo Certified Expert and X number of years experience in Marketo and Admin knowledge.

[lillyfalcon]

Hi @alysha_khan23, @Zoe_Forman, @robynhatfield, @mariacruz_1

My first questions are about archiving best practices. I have inherited an instance with 1000+ archived assets over the past 10 years suitable for deletion (stored across Marketing Activities, Design Studio and Database). It seems like a huge task to tackle manually (we have a small team) so we are exploring bulk deletion via API

1. but there’s mixed opinions in the forum about whether this can be done 

2. even if we could, do we still have to unapprove each asset manually 

3. if we couldn't use API (or too risky), is our next best option unapproving in bulk 30x assets at a time using Design Studio?

4. for images, can we see if the file is in use before deleting?

My second question is about managing exhausted Engagement Program members. Are there any reports available in Marketo that could show us exhausted data for all live programs. We have access to Revenue Explorer. 

 

And the last question is about duplicate lead management. We seem to have a quite a few duplicate leads with field name Updated at but the date / time seems to be the same. These leads share the same custom object. Have you seen a similar scenario before? 

Thank you!

Lilly

[Zoe_Forman]

@lillyfalconregarding your question about duplicate lead management.

Do you have some specific details about the field name Updated date/time seems to be the same.

Which custom object?

[Zoe_Forman]

@lillyfalcon, another tip would be to break this down and look at 3 or 5 years at a time rather than tacking ten years of assets at once. Or focus on a specific segmentation - region, product, program type (nurtures, blast emails, newsletters).

Don't try to eat the elephant all at once!

[Zoe_Forman]

Hi @lillyfalcon, welcome to the Coffee Break and thanks for your questions,  regarding your question on archiving best practices. Generally, we agree that deletion manually is best rather than API.

The reason behind this is that you can review the assets  and triage them:

• Could use again - evergreen content, so keep
• Old or discontinued products or services, then delete manually
• Create an archive folder  - save fo rthe next round of archiving or deleting

We will add some more detail in additional posts

[Maria_Cruz1]

@lillyfalcon for your question regarding exhausted contacts, I recommend leveraging a Smart List. You can include a variety of Engagement Programs within the Smart List and add extra criteria if you want to dig more into the data. Here is a great article on how you can do it: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/marketo/using/product-docs/email-marketing/drip-nurturing/us...

[alysha_khan23]

Hey @lillyfalcon! For images, there is a Used By tab under each image where you can see where the image is used within Marketo. Two caveats:

• If that image url is used somewhere else outside of Marketo (website for example), the Used By will not show this.   
• If the asset is unapproved, it may not show up under the Used By tab

[Zoe_Forman]

Will you be working in a new Marketo instance in 2024?

Then this Coffee Break  18th January  - Inheriting a Marketo Instance as a Marketo Admin, can help you align you thoughts, plans, actions and act as a checklist, reminder or a chance to ask questions to our experts.

Sign up here

Coffee breaks are text only, questions will answered live during the hour, but you can ask questions in advance and come back online later in the Community to see your reply if you are not available during the session.

SIMPLE REQUIREMENTS TO PARTICIPATE

• Must be signed into the Marketing Nation Community during the 1-hour period
• Must post an Adobe Marketo Engage question or comment on Inheriting an Marketo Instance
• Must tag any or all Inherited Instance experts in your question (@Maria_Cruz1, @Zoe_Forman, @robynhatfield, @alysha_khan23)
• You can ALSO post your question or comment to the Q&A session in advance if you are unable to attend the live event
• Please note this is a TEXT-ONLY event, meaning that there will be no webinar, video call, or recording. All questions and answers will occur on this thread!

 

[Zoe_Forman]

Will you be working in a new Marketo instance in 2024?

Then this Coffee Break  18th January  - Inheriting a Marketo Instance as a Marketo Admin, can help you align you thoughts, plans, actions and act as a checklist, reminder or a chance to ask questions to our experts.

Sign up here

If you cant make it send your question in advance and check back after the coffee break to read your answers.