Texting Solution for Marketo

[Anonymous]

Hello,

We are looking to integrate an SMS texting solution which we can leverage to market to our database.

What kind of tools have others in the community used or implemented that work well? Which ones are recommended and work well with Marketo? What are the challenges that you've come across?

I'd love to hear your insights as we start to consider some solutions.

Thank you!

[Kevin_Weisenber]

We have looked into Vibes as a solution in the past which may work for you. Their integration was rather impressive and seemed easy to use. We ultimately didn't move forward with them so I cant speak to specifics but that decision wasn't because of their solution offering.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they were another option. I've reached out for a demo but I suspect

they will be too expensive.

On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 12:43 PM Kevin Weisenberger <

[SanfordWhiteman]

What countries/regions are you servicing?

[Anonymous]

Canada and USA only.

On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 12:49 PM Sanford Whiteman <

[SanfordWhiteman]

In this geo area Twilio rules the day. It's not the only provider, but they're both dominant and well-liked, so you can't go wrong.

[Anonymous]

One other thing I will add is that we need the ability to send SMS messages to people in our database independent of triggers. Relying on a webhook does not allow for this as far as I understand.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

we need the ability to send SMS messages to people in our database independent of triggers. Relying on a webhook does not allow for this as far as I understand.

Sure it does. You use an easy batch-trigger pair. Batch calls Request Campaign, trigger triggers on Campaign is Requested and calls the webhook.

The abiding concern with webhooks is daily volume. In reality, you can send more outbound webhooks in a day then you can receive inbound API calls, as long as the remote webhook endpoint is responsive. But it's not unlimited. How many SMSes are you talking about in a day?

[Anonymous]

Interesting. So would it work for the following use case?

1) Create a smart campaign with a smart list targeting over 1k leads in database.

2) Flow "request Campaign"

3) "Campaign is Requested" > Send message.

Would all the leads get the message?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Awesome. I guess I have some testing to do
Thank you all. I'll update this with my results.

[Anonymous]

I've heard the Twilio integration with Marketo isn't great since it's based

on webhooks. Any insights on that?

On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 3:45 PM Sanford Whiteman <

[SanfordWhiteman]

I've heard the Twilio integration with Marketo isn't great since it's based on webhooks. Any insights on that?

Any integration that requires an individual outbound request (sending a single email at once) can't be better than a webhook. Webhooks, given that they only make a single HTTP request, offer ​higher ​performance than a service that requires an identity/auth request first, for example.

Yes, webhooks operate only in the context of a single Marketo lead at a time, so when you're dealing with true bulk SMS that's a different matter.