Tips for newbie implementing and managing Marketo for the first time

[Josh_Pickles]

I don't have a version that I am able to share, but I can certainly summarise some of sections.

Campaign Info

• Summary, measurables etc

Significant Dates

• Changes & updates

Campaign Detail

• List details, suppression lists, dynamic content requirements etc

Meeting Notes

[Lisa_Forson]

Hi Josh - thanks for the great response! I already had it in mind to create a campaign library of sorts, which gives people in the business somewhere to refer to if they want to know who we were targeting, what the email looks like etc. So that's more external facing. But what you do with your documentation is a great idea, especially the change log. Really helps to keep a bit of an audit trail. Thanks so much!

[Josh_Pickles]

It's been especially useful for those who are new to the business and are trying to figure out the history behind campaigns and programs that exist within Marketo and it's meant we're not asking as many unnecessary questions in an attempt to understand how something operates. The changelog is the most useful part for me picking up projects I've not been involved in from the beginning.

[Lisa_Forson]

That's great, such a good idea! Thanks!

[Amy_Goldfine]

Yes, document, document, document. We also have a "changelog" where you have to log every time you change an operational program or database smart list, including why you made the change.  Saved me quite a few times.

[Jay_Jiang]

Design a folder structure in Marketing activities that make full use of tokens. Tokenise as much as you can and anything that might change (e.g. your cname, your registered office address, your company phone number, your favourite football team - you get the idea...)

[Amy_Goldfine]

Oooh yes, look up Universal Tokens, they're great.      

[Nadia_Milani]

Love this question. I'm a Marketo admin at a large enterprise company. Previously, I had experience implementing Hubspot at a start-up/small company, which was a very different experience due to platform (right?) and size of database. We implemented Marketo almost a year ago. I would say the following things are really important, relative to large enterprise B2B business with legacy data infrastructure : 

- IT resourcing. I think it's important to engage IT with detailed requirements, if you have an IT team. i.e. Marketo is much more than just initial CRM sync. If it's possible to get a dedicated resource, that you can engage throughout Marketo launch, the faster you will scale.

- Become besties with your CRM admin, if you have one. The data that you input into Marketo will be relative to the sync and the fields you allow to flow in. Lot of the fields are useless (depends a bit on your CRM, instance, and how clean your CRM is). Blocking the field data not required, will improve sync and potential errors. It's best to go through exercise of identifying which fields you need with implementation, vs. post sync. Also, if your CRM contact database is large and not updated - pushing  all data into Marketo can get your contact #s much higher than anticipated (not favorable). I agree with previous comment about custom fields. The business may ask for this field and that field, but be choosy. 

- Lock down naming conventions/taxonomy for folders, emails, UTM codes. If there are multiple Marketo users, make sure everyone follows them. It will help for reporting purposes and campaign management. 

- Marketo for some organizations can be an investment. Showing early wins i.e. more revenue, better engagement through nurture campaigns (i.e. CTR, Opens), more traffic to site - helps C-suite understand value. This might mean you have to partner with your insights team if you use i.e. Adobe, to generate deep insights on your campaigns. 

- Build your team. Depending on how many campaigns you're deploying, you may need to hire more resources i.e. you do emails, find an automation specialist who just manages sync optimization, engagement programs, landing pages. Depends on what your team needs to output - but having one person do everything may not be possible. Marketo is not just an email platform. 

- If your data infrastructure is complex and operationally your business is matrix-y - I highly recommend a implementation and/or optimization partner to hit the ground running. It will really help you get the most of the platform and help onboard your team. 

- The design studio in Marketo is good, but not amazing. If you or someone on your team has the opportunity to learn how to code in Marketo (HTML) - all the better. It will help you create better, customer friendly templates. 

Happy to connect with more tips. Feel free to message. 

Nadia

[Liam_Darmody]

This was an awesome response - thanks for putting so much thought into it. 

[Nadia_Milani]

Thanks @liamdarmody!