Editing templates

[Jen_Wason1]

We are new to Marketo and creating our first sets of emails. We are frustrated with what appear to be the limitations of the templates. Are we only permitted to use the modules already available in a given template? We can't add additional modules? I am so accustomerd to using MailChimp to design emails, I just can't believe Marketo is this inflexible -- we must be missing something.

We also are unable to edit the dimensions of any photos we add from our local computer or the design studio.

Any help anyone can offer us newcomers is welcome!

[Denise_Greenb12]

Hi Jen,

I agree with Dan Stevens that your best bet is to find an agency - or a self-service provider because the Marketo-provided templates are not tested often do not pass the test of display compatibility with different email platforms. I have a designer I always use when my clients need email templates built - in part because she tests all her templates in Litmus. It sounds like Joe Reitz has some good referrals too. You need someone who knows Marketo as well as email design and development.

Denise

[Anonymous]

As a software developer, I agree completely with your opinion.

Marketo's interface is full of marketo specific syntax that is cumbersome and restricting.  They have no error messaging, so you really have no ability to debug any error that pops up when attempting to build a template.  This is maybe the worst CMS I have ever used. 

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Well, Marketo is not a CMS

And not a development tool neither.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

If Marketo were classified in software development terms, it is a CMS, just like Wordpress or Drupal.  It is designed for small mom and pop businesses that don't really have the ability to do marketing on their own.  It lacks enterprise features or tools that allow for a great degree of customization.

But, I'll agree it is not a development tool. 

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Sorry to disagree, Marketo is not a CMS and has never claimed to be. It's a Marketing Automation / Lead management solution that happens to offer the possibility to create landing pages. In other terms, it's designed to manage leads, not content. Hence some limitations, shortcuts or lack of functionality.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

I would call landing pages and email templates "content".  It has tools for the composition of new content.  It has an interface for viewing and managing data for large groups of people.  It delivers content to users via email tools.

I don't think the criteria for a CMS is that it does these things well.  Content management system - Wikipedia

Whether moonlighting as a CMS makes you a CMS or not is debatable, but for me, intent is not as important as functionality.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

I don't think the criteria for a CMS is that it does these things well

I agree, but the criteria for a CMS is not that it does a few things that look like a CMS, either.  My car has seats, but this does not make it my leaving room

[Dan_Stevens_]

Marketo's interface is full of marketo specific syntax that is cumbersome and restricting

Marketo's proprietary syntax for LP and email templates provide the enhanced capabilities - like drag and drop modules to create unique email layouts via a single template - when those templates are properly designed/coded by those who are extremely familiar with Marketo template design and the custom syntax.  For example, here's an all-in-one template that we use for all of our email communications:

Yet, Marketo also supports standards-based coding for advanced features like Velocity email scripting (and of course, javascript, CSS, etc.).

It is designed for small mom and pop businesses that don't really have the ability to do marketing on their own.

Actually quite the opposite.  Marketo's customers are SMB to enterprise businesses that have the appropriate staff (either in-house or by working with an agency/partner) to properly implement and customize the environment for the business (including integrating with CRM and other platforms that make up the tech stack - Marketo is often the core platform within the Marketing ecosystem).  Tools like MailChimp, Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor, on the other hand, are geared toward the do-it-yourself types within a business.  Here's a recent report that was published that describes in great detail the differences between the most popular platforms that make up the marketing automation landscape (ironically, if you look at the URL, you'll see that this report is served up through a Marketo instance):

http://downloads.digitalmarketingdepot.com/rs/727-ZQE-044/images/MIR_1602_B2BMrkgAuto.pdf​

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Nice report Dan. Thx for posting it.

[Joe_Reitz]

Adding to the great advice Dan provided above, Email Monks or Grazitti are also great options for fast turn around (and low prices). Both of those agencies are based in India and can turn templates around overnight for less than a couple hundred bucks each. They know Marketo 2.0 syntax really well. 10/10, would outsource again.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Jen, your best bet is to find an agency - or a self-service provider like Knak - and have the appropriate templates created for your specific use-cases.  The ones that Marketo provides haven't been tested fully across all devices, clients (especially Outlook) and are quite limited/dated.  Have a look at the all-in-one template that I posted in this discussion thread: Re: Moving off Marketo Designer

[Tom_Kerlin2]

Hi Jen,

Here is product doc guide that expands on modules: Email Template Syntax - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation

Yes, it's possible to add more modules but you may need make edits in the email template itself and adhere to Marketo's email template syntax.

[JD_Nelson]

It looks like you're working within a template, not creating one. From Design Studio you can find the Email folder with the Templates sub folder. When you create a new template from there you start from raw html. Modules can be fully designed and customized using variables and can be re-used many times per email. The platform really is expansive, so make sure to look around. Here's a doc that can help:

Building Templates: Create an Email Template - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation

Template module syntax: Email Template Syntax - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation

[Jen_Wason1]

Thank you so much for your response! Unfortunately, we are not well-equipped to create emails from scratch using HTML, especially not in the short-term. I just can't believe that a basic set of modules is not available for all email templates, as in MailChimp or other tools. Sounds like our best option right now is to the find a template that contains as many modules as we might need.

But is there a reason why we would not be able to edit image dimensions? Those options are greyed out when we select an image from our computer or the design studio.

[Karyn_Hill]

We ran into this problem when we started with Marketo. We had no funds budgeted for paying someone to create custom templates so I bit the bullet and got myself up to speed. There are still some things I don't know how to do but I've been able to create my own templates, just basing them off of Email Template - Advanced (the most current iteration being 2.0). I found it had a large variety of available modules which I was then able to customize, sometimes substantially, to suit what our graphic designer wanted.

Marketo has its own developers to create custom templates. I don't know how expensive it is to have that done. We're a non-profit and our department has a rather small budget.

To address another issue brought up below, Marketo is clearly designed to be a marketing system, nothing more. Drupal, an actual CMS, has no ability to send emails. It is designed specifically to display and manage content. Marketo's function is to send emails and then examine the results six ways to Sunday. Having the ability to create landing pages with forms on them is a plus. Anyone who tries to use Marketo as a CMS will be deeply disappointed. That would be like using Dynamics CRM as a CMS just because you can create forms and landing pages.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jen,

You most likely can't change the image size in the email editor because the image has a mktoLockImgStyle="True" attribute on it in the HTML. This keeps the image from distorting the layout if its size exceeds the maximum size allowed by the layout.

I'm an email developer who has created custom email templates specifically for Marketo Email Editor 2.0. I occasionally take on freelance projects outside of work. Please feel free to reach out to me if you're interested in creating some custom templates for your team.

[Tom_Kerlin2]

It's possible to edit the dimension of images when you're in the email editor but the image itself needs to be in an editable rich text or image element.

[JD_Nelson]

When you enabled Email 2.0 did you enable the template picker? There are a bunch of starter template to use there. From there, if you edit the raw HTML to 'make it your own' you can then save that as a new template in design studio and continue to expand on it in the future. If, when you create a new email you don't see the template picker, there's an option in admin to enable that.

Email Template Picker Overview - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation

[Jen_Wason1]

I think we've realized that picking the template that has most of what we need and then planning to add what else we need is how we need to proceed. I appreciate you confirming that we're on the right track.

[Cory_Gabor1]

Hi Jen,

Yes, there are plenty of email templates once "Email 2.0" is enabled. When our developer is too busy to work on emails I utilize these a lot and after a little practice, you will see you can actually change them up a decent amount to get close to what you originally wanted. You can take whatever template looks closest to your end product and then make changes to the modules and sections. It allows a low of changes; graphics to text section, or the other way around, etc.

If you run into too many issues using those templates, I would recommend using knak. We used this when we first started using Marketo as well. https://knak.io/

knak. | Responsive Marketo & Eloqua Email and Landing Page Templates

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!