Integrating Marketo and Zoho CRM

[Jim_Stepkoski]

I understand that Bedrock Data has a very good integration piece. However after looking at some of ZOHO's tools, I found this Marketo Extension | Online Help - Zoho CRM

This seems to be a way to integrate Zoho with Marketo for free. Has anyone tried this and how does it work?

Thanks

NEWBY

JIM

[Josh_Hill13]

this looks like the API connector. You should ask Zoho about it. It probably just lets you push and pull data depending on the rules you decide in the connector.

[Zak_Pines5]

Hi Jim,

What you’ll find with this Marketo extension from Zoho is it can do a one-time push of leads from Marketo to Zoho. Some of the typical Marketo-Zoho integration requirements you’ll struggle with is:

1. Updating records (e.g. new data progressively profiled) that already exist in Zoho with new Marketo data
2. Bringing leads added to Zoho into Marketo in a de-duplicated manner (update Marketo records that already exist)
3. Bringing Zoho account data into Marketo for targeting existing customers through Marketo programs / smart campaigns
4. Bringing Zoho opportunity data back to Marketo for reporting

From my experience, these types of CRM plugins tend to not be well supported (see the free Sugar connector) – so when issues arise you’ll have a finger pointing exercise between Marketo support & Zoho support to sort through – not worth it.

Best Regards,

Zak

[Zak_Pines5]

I thought of one more key point Jim - the free Zoho connector is a nightly batch process - so you'd be time delayed in pushing leads from marketing to sales. Generally marketing team wants to get qualified leads to sales immediately, as every minute matters for follow up. Sales teams don't like delays in any "hot" leads, and it's not a good practice for marketing to put time delays into the process for no good reason. - Zak