Third-party Marketo training

[Amy_Goldfine]

I met someone who said that her company uses an agency's training course (Marvel Marketers) to train new employees on Marketo, instead of having them do Foundations training (or whatever Marketo is calling it these days). Considering our poor experience with Marketo services these days, this is very appealing to me! Curious what other peoples' experiences has been with Marvel or other companies.

[Chris_Johnston]

Hi Amy, it really depends on the situation I would say. Realistically, Marketo Core Concepts (the new name), is a good course, but it's designed to be really introductory. Are you hiring people who have never heard of Marketo because that is really where I would suggest the target market is for the course. Marketo is actually adding a lot of free online training in Marketo University that I also think would prove beneficial as the starting point before any paid education.

Where a partner like Marvel (full disclosure, we here at Salytics do it as well) really adds value is if they are already working with you in your system and understand your needs. That way the training can be tailored more specifically to your instance and help train for the job they are doing, as opposed to being introduced to a product that your organization uses. If you are not working with a partner, the value add is not nearly as high, though the benefit of 1 on 1 would come through.

Also of note, Marketo Professional Services and Marketo Education are 2 completely separate units, so if it is Marketo Services that you are disappointed with, I'd be careful not to push that ill-will on the Education team, who in the last year have been doing some amazing things.

**Note, I know of Marvel Marketers, but have not had any interaction with them to share insights as to how they run their training or how good it is.

[Amy_Goldfine]

Good insight, thanks Chris. We're looking at hiring someone for email marketing who has dabbled in Marketo, and has used Pardot and Eloqua, but she really needs a full-scope understanding of the platform. However, we aren't looking to do a full engagement with an agency, so it might not make sense (or be cost-effective) to use an agency for training. I am glad to hear that you have a positive view of Marketo Education, as Support and Services have not met our expectations recently.

[Chris_Johnston]

If someone has used Pardot and Eloqua, I wouldn't recommend Core Concepts or any training really. I would more direct the training to the free Marketo Docs and if you have budget, add a Consultant Agency for a few hours to help fill in the gaps as more of a Q&A as opposed to formalized training. We are Service Partners on all 3 platforms, the concepts learned in Core Concepts will translate and so while it may save some clicking to figure out where things are, I can't imagine it providing the value you are looking for. It will just be a matter of Googling and reading through Welcome to Marketo Docs - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation to really understand how Marketo works.

The other area I would focus on is Marketo Certified Expert Exam Preparation

The prep really helps to focus on where things are and how Marketo uses the different naming conventions. An experienced Marketing Automation professional without Marketo experience should really be able to use those 2 areas and be an MCE in 2-3 weeks in our experience.