One of the things I like to do here at MRG is to help new Marketo users get up to speed as fast as possible. As more marketers make the transition from older forms of direct marketing, online marketing, and digital marketing, the demand for understanding the systems like Marketo will only increase.
But what happens when the vendor docs, support, training, and forums aren’t enough? Not everyone is a born marketing technologist or even “techie” who can pick up the concepts and features quickly to build a whitepaper collector.
The good news is you can visit a site like this one, or one of my many friends in the marketing tech consulting world. Of course, it is hard to know what (and whom) to listen to. I speak to many new and fairly new Marketo users and one of the common challenges is showing real ROI in the first six months.
And what is the biggest impediment to ROI?
Hint: it is not reporting on the funnel.
It’s training.
In a survey I conducted in June, 51% of respondents said that needing to show ROI on Marketo was their top concern, while 50% said “getting campaigns out faster” was their next top concern.
The good news is you can absolutely hit both of those with the same stone: good, focused training. What are the keys to learning Marketo well enough to be effective at your job? The answer is not reading the docs, it’s understanding how to build the things in Marketo that help marketing activities.
The Top Ten Things You Need to Know to Get Moving Today with Marketo
- Understand what Marketo is and how it works
- Get the Word Out with Emails
- Optimizing the Word with AB Testing
- Let Leads tell you who they are – Forms and Pages
- Acquisition: The Whitepaper Collector – Programs, Campaigns, Filters
- Live from your office – the Webinar System
- Butts in Seats – the Roadshow System for Success
- Are they done yet? Baking Leads with Scoring.
- The Sync – Get Leads into your CRM
- Show Your Work – Reporting on ROI with Marketo.
What about everything else I talk about on this blog? Get to that after you understand these top ten marketing activities. Or better yet, hire a consultant to help you work through the implementation process so you can focus on learning what really matters for showing executives that Marketo is worth it.
Need help? Let me know: hello [at] marketingrockstarguides.com.
More Resources for Marketo Newbies
Some links may require a Marketo Login.
- Be a Marketing Automation Rockstar (RingLead and Josh)
- Beachhead Marketing by Steven Moody
- marketo.com (advanced techniques and programming)
- Etumos by Edward Unthank
- Icon Glossary from Marketo
- Icon Glossary from Perkuto and me
- Josh Hill’s Slideshare
- Knak.io (for email templates) by Pierce Ujjainwalla
- Yesler (LeadLizard Blog)
- Marketo Documentation
- Marketo Nation and Marketo Whisperer
- Marketo’s Newbie FAQ List
- Perkuto’s Blog
- RevEngineMarketing by Jeff Coveney
- ShowMeLeads by Madhu Gulati
- Marketo Summits of Yesteryear – many slides and videos from the past are superb ways to do more and learn more.
- Templates from Marketo
Useful tips as usual Josh. Thanks.
In addition to these excellent sources, see if the lessons I learned, or Marketo gotchas I come across can help someone.
Rajesh