Hi Leticia,
To answer your question directly: Yes. No doubt about it.
I was very frustrated at how much effort was required to set up campaigns in Marketo compared to other platforms I've used - and I'm very technical for a marketer. However, I was able to invest time to figure out ways to streamline program and content creation so that we could scale our marketing processes. It's worth the time and effort to either learn how to do it yourself or find a reliable party to help you.
Here is the path I've taken to get there. Maybe it can help point you in a good direction:
1. Landing pages: I followed Sanford Whiteman's instructions on how to embed Marketo forms into landing pages created in our CMS: Form Pre-Fill. External sites. No limits. You're welcome. They pre-fill, progressively profile, and play well within Marketo programs. Sanford is the truth.
2. Email templates: I learned how to create custom modules in Marketo's email templates. Email Template Syntax - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation. It was a lot of trial and error, but in the end I have a couple template emails that allow us to combine modules that handle almost all of our layout needs. I only occasionally need to revisit the templates to account for new designs. This allows me to stick with Marketo as my email editing tool which is essential to our workflow. Otherwise I wouldn't use Marketo.
3. Program creation: I figured out how to set up programs and use tokens to make cloning existing programs a snap. Grégoire Michel (another good person to follow, as is Josh Hill) points out that Marketo does a great job of preserving the relationship between assets in a program (smart campaigns, emails, forms, reports), which is true. Also learning how to leverage program tokens makes cloning very flexible - I use some tokens like a checklist to fill in for things like URL of the downloadable offer, campaign tracking values, etc. I don't think this makes Marketo more powerful, though. It just makes it work about as well as modern platforms when creating new programs.
So it took some doing, but now I have a solution that is scalable. In then end, it's totally worth the effort. Marketo is a powerful tool, but you are right - you need to code or have coders to make it really work well. The trick, I've found, is to invest up front in figuring out how to set up your programs, templates, and CMS integration for scalability.
Good luck!
) and I do know what efforts it takes to do it (and I am a fast learner, with an engineering backgound and 20+ years of marketing experience). Hence my recommendation to get some real help. The time saved on the learning curve is really worth the money.
.png)