Sitecore & Marketo Integration

[Anonymous]

We are migrating our website to Sitecore this year. Any tips for integrating Sitecore with Marketo? Best practices? Does anyone continue to use Marketo landing pages, or do they embed the form on a Sitecore page?

[Dan_Stevens_ · Accepted solution]

Today, our integration consists of the following:

• Munchkin tracking code placed on every page (using Google Tag Manager, which manages our other tags/scripts, such as Google Analytics and Demandbase)
• Every form on our site is a Marketo embedded form.
• For every piece of content (and activity) that we want to track across our 23 country sites (and global), we create a dedicated program in Marketo.  We've scaled our programs so that it tracks activity across multiple country sites (we used to create a program per country per content).

We still use Marketo landing pages - primarily where there's a single call-to-action and we need to keep the focus on the CTA.  Especially since our website pages can be quite long with a variety of content to consume (for example: Sitecore | Avanade).  Usually, they're used for PPC and paid advertising campaigns.

We're still working on getting xDB installed/deployed - which will enable us to do more advanced Marketo integration (e.g., bring in Marketo behavioral data for known leads to provide a highly relevant/personalized customer experience).  This will also allow us to start taking advantage of some of the analytics capabilities in Sitecore that aren't available in Marketo.  In fact, we're relying less on the analytics/reporting in Marketo and instead using the API to pull all relevant data (leads, programs, activities, etc.) into a central data warehouse where we have a set of custom dashboards and drill-down reporting - way beyond what RCE can provide.  We're using SQL Server and Power BI for this.

[Anonymous]

This is great, thanks Dan. Few Questions:

For the Munchkin Tracking Code, you place a code on every page through Google tag manager? What is the benefit of that?

For Marketo landing pages, do you use them for email nurturing campaigns? Or do you send them to a sitecore page with an embedded marketo form?

Appreciate the help!

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Rachel - the main benefit of GTM is the ability to quickly deploy and manage scripts/tags without having to manually edit each and every page where they're required.  Back in the day, many of us who administered websites would use "include" files and place these references at the bottom of every page of our site.  Then when we needed to edit the code/content (e.g., something as simple as a year (2017), to something more complex like the inclusion of advertising tracking code), we simply updated a single "include" file and those updates were immediately reflected on all of our pages.  GTM is like an "include" file on steroids - as it allows you to deploy/manage specific tags across specific pages of your web properties.  For example, we include GTM on both our Sitecore pages and Marketo LPs.  But since Marketo LPs already include Munchkin by default, we have it turned off within GTM (and only use it to serve up the Google Analytics and DemandBase tags on Marketo LPs).  You can learn more here: Why Google Tag Manager - Analytics Help and here http://developers.marketo.com/blog/integrating-munchkin-with-google-tag-manager/.  Just be aware that using GTM has some minor downfalls, as explained by Sanford Whiteman​ in this thread: Re: Adding Munchkin to GTM.

Most of our nurturing campaigns drive users to our Sitecore pages (especially since we can provide unique experiences using custom URL parameters - e.g., ensuring the main CTA is contained within the top hero banner; or immediately start the video referenced in any URL).  Another use-case for Marketo LPs are for event registrations since those pages are often short-lived and easier to deploy using Marketo LPs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan. Are you using the personalization functionality of Sitecore?  What analytics capabilities are you using in Sitecore that are not in Marketo?  Do they assist with lead management? 

[Dan_Stevens_]

Rachel, we're not using any of the personalization or analytics features today.  Both require xDB (Sitecore Experience Database) to be setup properly.  We're just not there yet.  We migrated from SharePoint to Sitecore a couple of years ago - as part of a multi-phased effort.  Initial phase was to do a "simple" platform shift.  Then came a complete redesign - which was launched last year.  And this year, we're focused on personalization (for example, by using the DemandBase Sitecore Connector that will provide us with company-level data - e.g., Industry - that can be used to personalize the experience).

One of the features we're anxious to use is the enhanced campaign analytics/reporting - especially when we're promoting campaign content across multiple channels and using a variety of UTM parameters/combinations.

[Anonymous]

Hey Dan -You were so helpful before, hoping you can help me with some more Sitecore/Marketo questions

We are trying to decide whether to host our email landing pages on Sitecore or Marketo. I know you embed your forms on your Sitecore pages, are they separate landing pages on Sitecore that are specific for email traffic?

Do you notice any downfalls hosting landing pages with Sitecore vs Marketo? Do you miss out on any lead scoring?

How do you set this up within Marketo? Do you create Web Form programs and use separate forms for each piece of content on your site? How do you track where the lead is coming from effectively?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Rachel.  We use both Marketo LPs and Sitecore pages as the landing destinations for the CTAs in our email (moreso the latter).  For us, there are no issues/downfalls.  One of the main differences in terms of the trigger campaigns - when a gated content form is used - is the importance of using the "Referrer" constraint for the most reliable tracking of form submits.  "Referrer" in this regard is the page that form sits on (not the page that drove someone to this page).  And since "Referrer" evaluates EXACT values, we always use the "contains" operator (since the URL could contain variable UTM parameter values) - and for us, we have central content programs that are tracking engagement, regardless of source/channel:

In terms of lead scoring, our central lead scoring triggers score leads just fine using this approach.

If we have an email campaign that's promoting a specific piece of gated content on our website, there are two programs involved:

one to track email conversions (clicking the link in the email):

and another that tracks content engagement:

We use centralized Marketo forms (not one per program) - thus the reason for the "Referrer" constraint that I described above.  For proper channel attribution, we also use UTM parameters extensively using the approach discussed here: First, Last and Multi Touch attribution for UTM parameters and auto tagging emails and the multi-program approach that I just mentioned.  For example, 1,000 people may have achieved success in the centralized content program; 250 were as a result of the email campaign, 600 from inbound web activity, and another 150 from a LinkedIn InMail campaign.

[Anonymous]

Hey Dan Stevens Another sitecore/marketo question for you. SInce you use Marketo forms on your sitecore pages, how do you handle the pre-form fill functionality not working on external sites? I saw this article: http://developers.marketo.com/blog/external-page-prefill/.

Thoughts on this? What are you currently doing?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Rachel - we don't use the pre-fill functionality on the embedded forms on our website.  Even if the capability worked for embedded forms (without the customization), we would only use it sparingly due to some of the strict privacy laws in certain countries around the world.