Are there some step-by-step guidelines on how to implement this - I've seen a lot of discussions on the importance of ensuring that SPF / DKIM is in place to increase email deliverability but I haven't seen any realy instruction - and is this something that we would do on the administrative level within our Marketo account? Please advise. Thank you.
There are many posts on this Community, so you should start with a thorough search.
The Marketo docs themselves are somewhat sparse, though there are some supplementary blog posts. Josh also has recommendations here.
From the start you should determine if SPF is necessary at all for your Marketo subscription. Unless you are paying extra for the (non-default) branded sender option, SPF has no relevance. And setting up SPF incorrectly (breaking an existing SPF record in a failed effort to incorporate Marketo, or creating a broken SPF record) will create side effects for your non-marketing email.
In contrast, DKIM is always recommended, and since Marketo expects you to use a Marketo-specific DKIM key and DNS entry, getting it wrong doesn't have side effects (you can make Marketo-generated emails look like spam by messing up DKIM, but you should not worry -- unless you mess up really badly -- about collateral damage to non-Marketo email).
To set up DKIM correctly, you need to have access to, and understanding of, your DNS control panel and access to Marketo admin. It's a two-sided process.
That being said, the DKIM setup itself and the basic SPF are fairly simple. You can find it under Admin > Email > DKIM
Just follow the instructions and give the codes to IT to add to DNS.
At a minimum DKIM will remove that thing in gmail where it says "via mktomail"
After the setup, you can follow these instructions to check that it has been set up properly.
Go to this page: http://dkimcore.org/tools/keycheck.html
Enter m1
Enter the domain that you send email from in the domain name.
Eng