Featured Discussion: 3 Things Executives Need to Know When Switching to Marketo

[Anonymous]

Upon encountering several sub-optimal Marketo implementations, I’d like to share considerations that Senior Management should review prior to adding Marketo to the arsenal of marketing tools. 
 
1.     Marketing Talent. Advanced email, lead management and automation capabilities will cause learning curve on your marketing team and some employees may not be receptive to a shift in their day-to-day responsibilities.

2.     Technology Implications. Marketo touches many parts of the organization, exposes any existing inefficiencies and data issues, and creates additional requirements for your systems’ architecture.

3.     Change Management. Invest time to ensure success of your implementation and learn what automation can do for business in terms of reporting and advanced capabilities. Don’t overpay for something you underuse.
 
I found that ignoring these puts an organization at risk of incurring extra cost, poor reporting and organizational design / collaboration issues. Would you share pointers of what you thought made Marketo implementation successful? Are there any specific tips or tricks you would suggest?
 
This discussion is part of the Marketo Community Featured Discussion program. If you are interested in submitting a topic for a future Featured Discussion, or if you would like to lead a future Featured Discussion, please email community@marketo.com.

[Anonymous]

All are very good advice! What I don't think gets paid enough attention is change management. For many organizations, marketing automation and the core disciplines that make it work - personas, content, etc - are fundamentally very different than the company may be used to operating. Such change is not easy and certainly does not happen overnight. In addition to all the aspects mentioned above, planning for and managing the training, briefs, collaborations and changes in mindset over an extended period of time will aid in the liklihood of a successful implementation.

[Anonymous]

Make sure your Marketing team is educated on important topics such as Email Deliverability to avoid bad consequences at a later date. If you currently don't have a process in place for this, start it now! The sooner the better.

Also, stay up-to-date with the latest best practices/advancements as the Marketing industry is constantly evolving.

[Anonymous]

Preparation is key.

Ensure you have planned your approach, mapped out initial engagement programs, have read up on lead scoring using Marketo and have your first pieces of content ready.

If you get the preparation right you can have Marketo up and running and fully operational in a short space of time, and start reaping the rewards that Marketing Automation can bring.

[Anonymous]

Sales and marketing leadership must be aligned and have common goals. They must agree on what the definition of a marketing qualified lead and sales qualified lead is and agree upon a process to identify and process those leads.

[Anonymous]

9. Mobilize assets around the implementation team. Yes, you can have Marketo up and running and ready to execute campaigns within a matter of days, but not if everything is left to the person or team doing the implementation. They'll need IT support to update DNS records, etc. They'll need design support to create templates for landing pages and emails. They'll need web support to implement tracking scripts wherever required. They may even need dev support to integrate with any existing service providers or online assets. If you're prepared for these requests, your implementation will go MUCH more smoothly.

[Anonymous]

8. Think Big. Have your team design a project intended for 3-5 years, not for a shorter term. If you're not yet, but planning on expanding the languages you communicate in, build language into the core of your implementation. Never limit data integration. If you have two silos of data you'll never know which is truthful. Expect to grow, don't leave your team pressed against artificial limits. 

[Anonymous]

7. Involve your sales team early. A big component to an effective marketing automation system is the handoff between marketing and sales. Your sales leadership must be invested and onboard with the idea of marketing automation, and be willing to drive their team to integrate it into their sales processes. By listening to your sales team and identifying their needs that Marketo may help address, you're setting yourself up for success. 

[Anonymous]

6. Specifically for people moving from Eloqua: There are siginificant differences in how Marketo thinks about the data model, automation and analytics that can significantly increase the scope of your initial implementation. Be sure to speak in-depth with someone who understands both systems to make sure you are not taking anything for granted.

[Michelle_Tizian]

5. Data hygiene.  We had to look at our data and establish some rules to remove useless records in our CRM and Marketo whom we can't even really market to anymore and they were just taking up valuable space in both systems. 

[Anonymous]

4.  Sales goaling will likely be impacted. 
I have found that once marketing automation comes up to speed, you may get fewer leads, but these leads should be more highly qualified.  The implication is that sales may need fewer leads in order to reach their goals.  But this shift may take months before the true results will be seen and the implications may take even longer to interpret.