Marketo Landing Pages & Forms vs Non-Marketo Landing Pages

[Anonymous]

Currently, we host our landing pages for gated content on wordpress and use an embedded Marketo form. We are looking into changing this approach but I want to be sure to understand a few things:

1. The only time prefill on a form will work is if it is part of a Marketo free form or guided landing page, not if you use the embed code correct? However, progressive profiling works either way?
2. What is the benefit of using Marketo landing pages as opposed to hosting them on our website (aside from above)?
3. If we choose to use a landing page that isn't hosted on our cms, is setting up a redirect on our website the best way to direct users to this landing page?
4. All of the gated content on our website uses a marketo embedded form hosted on a cms landing page. In Marketo, we have separate web content programs and local forms for each piece of gated content despite the forms having the same design and fields. When making a mass change to our download forms, I have to update each form individually which is very annoying but if we just use one universal web content form hosted in the design studio that we embed onto our cms landing pages, how does Marketo determine which piece of content to send if the form isn't specific to the web content program?

[SanfordWhiteman]

1. The only time prefill on a form will work is if it is part of a Marketo free form or guided landing page, not if you use the embed code correct?

Correct, unless you use custom code (note there is no commercial/LaunchPoint app that does this correctly, regardless of claims... it has to be done by a professional developer).

However, progressive profiling works either way?

Correct. ProgPro is totally supported for embedded forms.

What is the benefit of using Marketo landing pages as opposed to hosting them on our website (aside from above)?

Not just one benefit but several.

• Complete control over template and author experience (while CMS templates may need to be created by IT staff)
• Support for {{lead.tokens}}, {{my.tokens}}, and segmentations
• Support for pURLs
• several more, but I have to get back to work

If we choose to use a landing page that isn't hosted on our cms, is setting up a redirect on our website the best way to direct users to this landing page?

I wouldn't say a redirect is ever preferable to steering people directly to your LP domain. It's more work and is literally slower (more HTTP and DNS requests). Why wouldn't you link to pages.example.com?

All of the gated content on our website uses a marketo embedded form hosted on a cms landing page. In Marketo, we have separate web content programs and local forms for each piece of gated content despite the forms having the same design and fields. When making a mass change to our download forms, I have to update each form individually which is very annoying but if we just use one universal web content form hosted in the design studio that we embed onto our cms landing pages, how does Marketo determine which piece of content to send if the form isn't specific to the web content program?

When you use a named Marketo form (mktoForm element) on a Marketo-hosted LP, you can override the follow-up URL on a per-page basis.

You can also use a {{my.token}} to set the content URL for the program, then output this into JavaScript (this is usually the way I do it).

[TBlane_McMichen]

Sanford,

I was just reading your response and I agree with your reasons for using a Marketo landing page over a CMS page.  I was not sure that the answer to the first question is complete.  I have embedded forms on pages hosted on a CMS, and I had to include the Munchkin Code for the form confirmation text to appear when submitted.  I know that it is required for the confirmation text, but won't prefill work also?

[Steven_Vanderb3]

Sanford's answer is complete.  Pre-fill will not work when the form is embedded on non-Marketo pages without a developer writing custom code.  It is documented here Embed a Form on Your Website - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation  and there is a developer blog post on how to make it work with custom code external of Marketo http://developers.marketo.com/blog/external-page-prefill/