Totally biased post here, but given many of our customers have recommended our company (Revenue Pulse) in this thread, I feel the need to add this to the conversation:
Although it seems pretty straightforward, the amount of times that we have come in to recode something by another agency who was a so-called 'Marketo Expert' is quite staggering. Although I agree that the syntax is relatively straightforward, when agencies who have never been in the Marketo Marketer's shoes in the sense of how they will want to edit or use the template try to add variables and elements, it typically turns into a big mess. Or, they just put HTML in everywhere which renders the point of the template useless. We've even seen cases when nothing is visible in the landing page itself other than the elements and variables, and only when the page is previewed does it show up.
IMO, it just makes a lot more sense to work with a company that has done this hundreds of times and will be able to get you exactly what you want right out of the gate. You might save initial dollars going with 'any web development firm', but chances are there is going to be a lot more back and forth and time expense than just going with someone who specializes in this type of development.
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