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Marketo’s August Release Review

September 5, 2013 By Josh Hill

Email Settings - Step 1

In keeping with our mission to share with you the best ways to use Marketo, I will go through some of the latest feature updates. There were some big ones this summer including Engagement Programs, Text Only Emails, and even new View as Webpage tokens. Engagement Programs were groundbreaking, but many of the other updates were longstanding gripes we all had with Marketo. With these new ways to handle testing and old triggers, Marketo users everywhere save their time for awesome nurturing planning.

Let’s take a look at some of the new features.

Text Only Emails in Marketo

Sending a nice, non spammy email in a simple text format was just not possible before. You had to send both HTML and text, or just HTML. Naturally this can cause issues with Spam filters as well as make it harder to create an email that looks like it came from a sales person. (btw, I decided I do not like those fake emails).

With the new text only email feature, you can now enter any email, change Email Settings to “Text Only” and type up a friendly email without all the trimmings.

This is an easy step to take:

  1. Create a new email.
  2. Press “Edit Settings”
  3. Check “Text Only”
  4. Save.

Remember, anything you put in the HTML side is ignored.

Email Settings - Step 1

Email Text Only - Step 2

Trigger Campaign Cleanup

I wish I had thought of this one! In the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo, I mention that the best practice is to clean up Marketo every 6 months. Cleanup involves archiving old events, webinars, etc. Cleanup should also include deleting old assets and turning off listen campaigns. Now Marketo prompts you to do this every quarter, giving you a 1 week warning. So if that whitepaper expired a year ago and no one has filled out the form in 6 months, that trigger is being deactivated. That’s service! The part Marketo didn’t mention is that shutting down unused triggers speeds up the system for everyone.

Trigger Campaign Cleanup is now best practice – and automated! Here’s what mine currently looks like. Good thing I checked since all  of my trigger systems are going offline today.

Trigger Deactivation

New System Tokens!

For a very long time, a common newbie question has been “How do I move the Unsubscribe Link?” and its follow up, “How do I move the View as Web Page Link?”

View as Web Page: In the past, you had to go to Admin > Email and adjust the defaults, being careful to avoid changing the actual token link code.

%mkt_webview_url%?mkt_tok=##MKT_TOK##

Dan Reed posted a View as Web Page solution several months ago that allowed you to use the token however you wanted.

a href="http://[LandingPageCNAME.YourDomain].com/index.php/email/emailWebview?%mkt_webview_url%?mkt_tok=##MKT_TOK##"

Marketo just made this super easy by letting you use a single token anywhere in the email to generate the correct URL for View as Web Page. Instead of Dan’s solution, just drop this code into your Text version or in the URL on the HTML side. You can easily drop this into any Email Template, just remember that any existing emails based on that template will be put into Approved with Draft.

{{system.view​AsWebpageLink}}

This token works the same way Forward to Friend does.

Similarly, Unsubscribe links were a bit hard to deal with. We could have used a couple of solutions.

  1. Dan’s solution should work for Unsubscribe links as well.
  2. If you created a Subscription Management page, you can edit the system-wide default to that page. Go to Admin > Email and replace the link and text with your page’s URL. Just remember to copy the existing text and save it somewhere!
  3. You can remove the system default and code the link you want into your Template. Of course, you better place a link to your Subscription Management page or else!

The new, better way is to use the unsubscribe system token!

{{system.unsubscribeLink}}

Just drop that into any URL or text email and you’re done!

Take a look at how to do this since this isn’t done in the docs:

View as Web Page System Token 1

View as Web Page System Token Step 2

And look at your handiwork:

View as Web Page System Token - Step 3

That’s it for today! Remember to sign up for future updates because we’re going to talk about Engagement Program testing as well as more discussions with marketing automation agencies. Be ready for the Fall push with Marketo!

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo Engagement Program and Nurturing Testing

September 3, 2013 By Josh Hill

test-stream-new-lead

[Updated: I re-read this and my original point did not come through, so I will make it clearer. Cheryl was kind enough to point some of that out too.]

In the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo, I discuss how to test a nurturing program by laboriously cloning the Program, changing the Wait Step times to 2 minutes, and then running a whole series of tests. This work is absolutely necessary to ensure your nurturing program is running as intended. You wouldn’t want to suddenly send 6 emails in 6 seconds, would you? Or set the lead to MQL after one email click? Right, so you need to take the time to test everything.

The good news is you can skip some of the tedious work with Engagement Programs. Since the system obviates the need for complicated Traffic Cops, the need to test various transitions is largely gone. The new Test Stream function for Engagement Programs takes a small step out of the testing process. Instead of building a “loading workflow” to add some test leads, you can do this straight from the Engagement. The caveat is this is a “live test” that runs the entire length. I agree this saves a step or two on testing an Engagement, however, it doesn’t let you test this in an hour. As Cheryl Chavez at Marketo pointed out, this is primarily a tool to help you test a live Engagement.

So if you are testing a new Engagement system, this tool may not help because it will take more than an hour to do. Here are some interesting things I found out:

  1. Cadences are Still the Same: Your Cadence will still be the same as in the live version…because it is still a live Engagement. If you plan to test the Stream, I recommend changing the Cadence to Every 1 week each day to speed it up. Unfortunately, this won’t allow you to test the system in 10 minutes.
  2. Test Leads: if a lead was previously Exhausted or a Member, they will not get the Test Cast.
  3. Test Actions: if you have two or more Streams, you need to take the specific actions to force the Transition Rule to trigger. This is fine, but you need to remember this. And you won’t get the chance to do this until the Cast sends you enough emails to take action on. This step is the same as what I previously wrote about in the Guide. This is also true if you are testing a sister campaign that would pull the Lead out and set it to MQL.

Let’s take a look at how to do this.

Step 1: go to your Engagement Program

Step 2: select Test Stream from the Program Menu.

Step 3: select (or create) a Test Lead to use from the pop up. Note the cool Cobalt Interface.

test-stream-new-lead

Step 4: receive first Cast.

test-cast-email-view

 

 

 

 

Step 5: take relevant actions to activate any Transition Rules (or other goals).

test-stream-transition-rules

Step 6: Review logs by going to Engagement Program > Members.

Step 7: Click on Test Lead (the Lead will look like a normal Member).

Step 8: review log. Click on the “Deploy Test” campaign name to unlock the secret Program.

test-stream-lead-log

Step 9: Look at the Deploy Test Program secret Results tab.

test-stream-deploy-test

That’s pretty much all there is to Testing Streams in Engagement Programs. If you discover anything else, let us know below!

And remember to sign up for future updates – there’s a free gift involved that’s sure to help you.

[Updated: April 21, 2016 for links]

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

An Interview with Ryan Vong of Digital Pi

August 26, 2013 By Josh Hill

An Interview with Ryan Vong of Digital Pi

Today I interviewed Ryan Vong, CEO of newly created marketing automation agency, Digital Pi. I’ve known Ryan for a couple of years now thanks to our work with the Marketo Community. With his varied work and new partners, I am sure his firm will help any marketer succeed with their chosen platform.

How did you get started in marketing automation?

I remember sitting in the original Marketo office ready to interview with some of the folks there in the early part of 2009 nervous that I was going to mispronounce the company name.

After several rounds I just asked if I could see the product and within the first few minutes I was hooked. I used to run the interactive team at a brand agency. During that time, most of our clients were just starting out with interactive advertising and campaigns and it quickly became apparent that while we excelled in building top of the funnel campaigns most of the leads were sifted through and the rest lived in a database never to be remembered because they were no longer net new leads. In some of my presentations, I would have sales people just yell out “all these web metrics look great, but is there anyone on there I can call?” As someone who requires clarity, the tools in place at the time were just not cutting it and opening the Marketo demo somehow put all the pieces together. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Why did you decide to start your agency?

During the past year I worked with marketers at dozens of companies helping them get their marketing automation configured and running optimally. Along the way I discovered that there’s a pressing need for a new kind of digital marketing consultancy. There’s a big need out there for an agency that really understands the technology down to the weeds – and just as important knows how to help businesses articulate and translate their marketing strategy into data and applications that do what they want them to: generate revenue.

Tell me about your approach to client engagements.

We start by asking questions and listening carefully to the client. We want to understand their perspective on the situation and what they want to accomplish. The situations provide context, and they can be quite different.

For example, if a company just lost their Marketo expert, they probably are most concerned with maintaining continuity first, and then exploring how to optimize, improve, or expand their deployment.

Another example is when a company has setup their marketing automation, and time passes while the business change or grows, prompting them to take a fresh look at their deployment. Their needs are quite different.

Every customer engagement has this in common: we have to be really good at asking questions, listening, and figuring out what the problem is and how best to solve it. This approach is good for us too, in that it helps us determine if the company is a good fit for Digital Pi. Our clients are really smart, busy marketing professionals. We aim to make them heroes by helping them do great things.

What’s your favorite platform?

For me, Marketo is the platform I’ve spent the most time in so I guess you’d have to call that my favorite. Others on our team are proficient in other marketing automation platforms as well. As we grow, I expect to build a team that can handle any of the major platforms. As the tools keep getting better and consolidation continues, the platform you choose won’t matter as much as how you use it.

What’s been your favorite engagement so far?

They really are all different. What makes an engagement fun are the people you’re working with. I’ve had the good fortune of working with great people at every engagement so far. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be more for the challenge and scale it presented: the CA Technologies global roll-out. Great people with a great vision for where they want to take marketing automation on a grand scale.

How many people do you have on your team?

We are a specialized group of five dedicated experts focused today on marketing automation. We’ll continue to expand to meet the growing demand, but I want to be vigilant in bringing in the right people at every step of the way. Our success will rely on the individual consultant’s ability to deliver the goods and wow customers.

Why should people choose you?

Digital Pi is where the rubber meets the road for marketing automation.

We roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of making marketing automation do what you want it to do. We are very, very good at what we do. We’re in the trenches alongside our clients analyzing their needs, forming a vision, and executing the vision in the form of marketing automation. We are marketers who have worked at startups, enterprises and everything in between. The Digital Pi team knows what it means to be a marketer in the real world where there’s never enough time, pressures come from all sides, and everyone has different idea for what marketing should be doing. Getting marketing automation right in a lab is one thing, doing it in the real world where marketing lives in a business is an entirely different animal. Our knowledge of the context of marketing makes us really good at focusing on the right problems and solving them efficiently. Oh, and one more thing. We’re fun to work with 🙂

Which areas do you specialize in?

Making marketing automation do what you want it to do is number one. Marketo is our primary platform today, and we support SilverPop and Pardot with more platforms coming as we ramp up. We view marketing automation platforms as a natural point for integration with other business processes whether it’s your CRM, a data warehouse, e-commerce or your own SaaS. More and more, we see marketing automation becoming an aggregator of distributed behavioral data and the mechanism to act on that data in real time. That’s a really complicated way of saying automate every behavior you can get your hands on. Think of the possibilities for triggering beyond fills out a form, or clicked on a link. The possibilities are endless.

Do you have a Package or Pricing Summary?

[I’m summarizing them here – Josh]

Digital Pi offers several marketing automation consulting and implementation services such as:

  • Marketing Automation Check-up
  • Marketing Automation Implementation
  • Training
  • Operations Management – outsourced ops
  • Consulting

What kinds of firms would find you the most helpful?

Companies of any size considering marketing automation, or already deployed that need to optimize or re-visit how they’re using it today. We’ve served startups with less than a dozen employees, mid-sized companies and global software enterprises.

What do you do for fun?

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I geek out on marketing technology and seeing what I can make it do. But if I’m not doing that, I’m hanging with my family

What’s the best way for marketers to get in touch?

Email us at info [at ] digital-pi.net or visit our site.

Filed Under: Marketing Automation

An Interview with Marketing Automation Leader Sam Boush

August 21, 2013 By Josh Hill

LeadLizard FunnelI had a chance to catch up with marketing automation guru Sam Boush, President of LeadLizard.com. He has built his team from scratch, creating an impressive capability across several platforms. As an enterprise marketing automation consigliere, LeadLizard is well positioned to help firms make the most of their systems to deliver revenue.

Tell me about your approach to client engagements.

When we engage with a client, we first make sure we’re a fit for each other. There are a lot of things we look for in a client in the same way they look for specific things in us. We target enterprise accounts – with revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars or more – because they have the internal resources to work well with us, and often have a really good understanding of the space already, which makes it easier for us to deliver high-quality demand generation solutions.

We also want our clients to have Eloqua, Salesforce.com, Marketo, Pardot, or Act-On. What we offer is a best-practices approach to using these tools, not just so our clients can get more out of their marketing automation or CRM platform, but also so they can get more out of their entire demand generation efforts. We specialize in these tools, which makes us unique.

What’s your favorite platform?

Well, any of the ones I just mentioned are great. It comes down to finding the right platform for the individual organization. Cost isn’t the only factor. If you’re a billion dollar organization – and we work with several – it’s usually Eloqua, though sometimes Marketo or Pardot. But that’s not to say one is the only choice for enterprise organizations. It comes down to their demand generation efforts, the other tools they’re integrating, the internal resources they can bring to bear, and a whole host of other factors.

What’s been your favorite engagement so far?

We’ve had so many extremely successful engagements. I love the advanced forms we’ve done for Box. Tibco really uses us heavily for their Tibbr team. Our work with Avid recently was nominated for an Eloqua Markie.

Our clients really love working with us and I know our team really enjoys our clients. We have maybe twenty active accounts right now – more I think. And there’s really not a single one that isn’t great in its own way.

I guess I’m really happy with WisdomTree, because they’re in the financial services space, which is a space we’re moving into rapidly. Most of our clients are in technology (software, hardware, IT, etc.) so having worked with WisdomTree for about a year – and really doing great things for them – has opened us up to doing a lot more work in finance.

How many people do you have on your team?

We’re up to 12, but hiring all the time. In fact, we’ve been interviewing for an Account Manager position this week, and as soon as that’s filled, we’ll interview for another open Demand Generation Architect position.

Which areas do you specialize in?

If it touches on a marketing automation or CRM platform, we probably do it. Just some of what we do: lead nurturing, lead scoring, advanced systems work, integrations, reporting, systems audits, system migrations, sales enablement, revenue performance management and managed services for Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot and Salesforce. We really do a lot – that’s certainly not a complete list. But really, we help marketing teams accomplish their goals using the demand generation tools they have.

What’s the best way for marketers to get in touch?

Send an email to info[at] leadlizard.com and I, or someone on my team, will get back to you right away.

Disclosure: I have an affiliate agreement with LeadLizard, but that has nothing to do with the links on this page 🙂

Filed Under: Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Agency Roundup

August 19, 2013 By Josh Hill

Revenue Cycle

Revenue CycleIn the next few weeks, I am chatting with the top demand generation, marketing automation, and Marketo experts. With the rapid changes in Marketo and the marketing automation landscape, it can be hard to keep track of the technology, let alone who can help you make the most of it.

Quite a few of the interviews are with people whom I’ve worked with in the past couple of years as Marketo and demand gen experts. I respect their skills and marketing acumen. These aren’t pitches for their services, but rather my way of helping you understand the kinds of services out there to help you make great things happen with Marketo.

Here’s a quick overview of the firms and experts I am interviewing in the coming weeks:

  • Sam Boush at LeadLizard is a good friend and one of the better known multi-platform marketing automation agencies out there. LeadLizard will help your team determine the best way to build campaigns, reports, scoring and marketing programs.
  • Ryan Vong at Digital-Pi. Many of you will know Ryan as a Marketo Champion, Expert, and the Silicon Valley MUG Leader. He’s just opened his own agency and I am excited to learn more. Digital Pi offers marketing automation training, implementation, and operations outsourcing.
  • David Carnes at OpFocus, Inc. David’s a good friend and mentor to me. His firm started in his basement and now he has a thriving Salesforce and Marketo service firm to help you build closed loop marketing systems. OpFocus is ideal for those who need expert implementations of Salesforce and marketing automation. David’s team has also built tremendous SFDC Apps.
  • Rhoan Morgan at DemandLab. Rhoan is one of the top marketing automation consultants in the Northeast. Rhoan’s team covers the complete range of demand generation activities from Marketo Operations, Sales Alignment, Content Creation and Testing, and Revenue Management.
  • Madhu Gulati at Show Me the Leads came right out of Marketo and into marketing automation consulting. Her expert team is ready to help across a range of SFDC+Marketo needs. Madhu’s team also helps with design services and RCA. When you hire Madhu, she will help you build a complete closed funnel system.
  • Alex Pelletier. You may know Alex from the Marketo Community and Marketo User Summits. He’s one of the premier practitioners of Revenue Cycle Analytics. He’s also a good friend. Alex also works with Google Apps, AdWords, and HubSpot and is ideally suited to a full funnel solution.

When you look for a marketing automation consultant, you will want to know many things, including pricing. I’ve written about marketing automation engagement fees before. My take on 2013’s pricing is that most firms are staying about the same. My fees are still $145/hr for training or consulting. I expect most of the full firms are charging $150-250/hr. You may still be able to find inexperienced Marketo users for $75-100/hr, however I’m not certain that’s always a good idea. Most consultants will offer packages of hours or projects.

Other than price, it is good to explore your other factors for hiring a demand gen/marketing automation consultant. Here are a few questions to ask:

  • What is your technical capability?
  • Can you help me with connect Salesforce, Marketo, and my other database?
  • Do you offer content creation?
  • Can you be an extension of my team, since I’m overstretched?
  • Are you able to do a project instead of hourly?
  • Are you familiar with migration from X system to Marketo?
  • Are you available for onsite work? (Personally, I have no issue with a remote consultant. I’ve never met most of my clients in person. I do know some people prefer an onsite consultant, or at least an in person meeting).
  • Can you provide references?
  • Which firms have you worked with?
  • Are you comfortable doing X, Y, and Z?
  • Can you spend an hour or two with me to determine our needs?
  • Is this your full time gig? (this is important if you anticipate the project is large or requires work day discussions).
  • Check their LinkedIn profiles for recommendations.
  • Check out their online profile with the keyword “reviews”.

Remember, a real consultant will tell you up front if they are a good fit for your needs or if they should recommend someone else. If you get the sense they are not comfortable or don’t seem to have the right experience, try to find someone else.

Some consultants (like me) will offer a money back guarantee. LeadMD is famous for their “twice your money back” guarantee. I suspect most consultants do not offer a particular guarantee. You are welcome to ask about it. The people that I know and work with above will definitely work with you until you are happy with the results, regardless of any guarantees.

Stay tuned for interviews with each consulting team! And share your experiences with us below.

Image: flickr user servantofchaos

Filed Under: Marketing Automation

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