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Lead Behaviors, Not Lead Scores

April 8, 2013 By Josh Hill

In a previous post, I decried regular lead scoring, favoring instead Audience Filters and clear Behavioral Triggers for a marketing qualified lead system.

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine who now needed to integrate another service line into the scoring system. She wanted to create a new field “Product 2 Score” and a whole separate list of workflows to handle these leads. While there are some legacy process reasons for separating these leads, this is the exact scenario that prompted my earlier article. If you find yourself creating special scoring scenarios, then the scoring concept is just broken.

Let’s say you have 5 products, but the audience for each one overlaps 95% of the time such that you can technically market any of these 5 products to the whole market and expect some success. Only the lead’s behaviors and self-identification will help you narrow the actual product interest before the hand-off to sales.

Why bother having 5 scoring fields with 20 scoring flows (100 campaigns!) when what you actually need is better behavioral tracking and response tracking for your marketing programs? In other words, stop sending Products 1, 2, and 3 when the Lead only responds to Products 4 and 5. If the Lead buys Product 5 now, they may still need Product 2 at a later point if they responded to the Product 2 program.

Even if each Product has its own audience by functional area, you still don’t need scoring to help you. Simply setup Smart Lists or filters to help automate audience segmentation by Product. Then watch what each group does over time that leads to a sale. Then build the workflows to send promising Leads (marketing qualified leads) to Sales at the optimal times. All of this is based on behavior patterns, not abstract scores and unnecessarily complex workflows.

Since my original post, I had conversations with people about what they do and came up with possible models for marketers.

Lead Lifecycle/Buying Stage Triggers: you’re probably planning or already using these to move people through your Revenue Cycle Modeler or existing lead flow. Why not take the scoring triggers out of this and use the content engagement for your early stages? Your late stage leads are already with sales, so you can worry less about them.

Content Offer Hybrid Model: The Hybrid, two-stage content offer suggested by David Meerman Scott: 1 piece is  a free download, the other webinar or more detailed paper requiring registration. In this model you get interest, sharing, and highly targeted engaged leads.

What is an Marketing Qualified Lead Worthy Trigger?

An MQL worthy trigger is one where the lead has taken the actions that indicate strong interest in your service(s). This is instead of a score threshold trigger. Such triggers could be

  • More than 1 form fill out in 5 day period
  • Responded to that juicy content offer by downloading and sharing it.
  • Or more likely, a Call Now – request for contact on a form or via a demo request.

In Marketo, such behavior triggers may work even better with Programs than some Lead Scoring systems because Progression Statuses are based on behaviors. So you might end up with 3 or 4 “tracks” for a generic system:

  • Call Now Request: a demo, an explicit request.
  • Multiple Form Fill Outs in a Short Period: at least 2 fill outs where Call Now was not an option or selected.
  • Multiple Views or Downloads of specific offers:
  • High Value Offer Download.

I’m very curious who else has given up on traditional lead scoring. Let’s discuss below.

And remember to sign up for email updates! 

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo Summit Here I Come

April 1, 2013 By Josh Hill

I am very excited to attend the 2013 Marketo Summit thanks to my friends at OpFocus.

This is a very special Summit for me not just because I have so many new Marketo enthusiast friends, but because this the first time a Marketo Guide is available – the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo. If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you to consider it for your automation reference needs. If you are new to Marketo, it is a MUST HAVE.

If you are at the Summit, let me know by email: jdhill [at ] marketingrockstarguides.com or @jdavidhill. I am keen to help anyone who needs Marketo help or to swap Marketo stories. For those new to Marketo, I recommend finding me on April 9 at 12p at the special Birds of a Feather lunch.

Prepare your Marketo Schedule. – all times are PDT.

My Schedule at the Summit

April 8: Marketo University Day.

OpFocus - Salesforce ConsultantsI will be at the hotel all day. You can find me nearby, at Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop, or at the Marketo Reception and Expo where I will be at the OpFocus booth.

5:00p – 8:00p – EXPO at the OpFocus Booth

April 9: Summit Day 2

7:30a – 8:45a – EXPO at the OpFocus Booth

11:50a – 1:00a – Marketo Lunch, I am leading the List Management and First Email Campaign Table for New Users – Join us and share your questions and stories!

2:35p – 3:50p – Advanced Forms, Imperial A

3:50 – 4:55p – SFDC Dashboards or Omnichannel Marketing

4:55p – 5:45p – Marketo Reports – Imperial B

5:45p – 6:45p – EXPO at the OpFocus Booth

April 10: Summit Day 3

7:30a- 8:45a – EXPO at the OpFocus Booth

10A – 11a – How to Build a Content Marketing Machine – Ballroom 4

11:10a – 12:00p – Advanced Nurturing, Ballroom 4

12:00p – 1:00p – EXPO at the OpFocus Booth

1:10p – 2:00p – Deploying Marketo Across Product Lines, Imperial B

3:40a – 4:40p – EMEA and Canada Privacy Rules – Imperial A

4:40p – 7:00p – Free time/Dinner

Looking forward to meeting everyone and having a blast in SF.

Disclosure: OpFocus sponsored my attendance at the 2013 Summit and provided some support for the Marketo Guide.

Filed Under: Conference Reviews

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo is Here!

March 21, 2013 By Josh Hill

Marketo

[Update: the guide is open sourced – Mar 21, 2014]

Marketing Rockstars Guide to MarketoThe Guide is now here! You can put my knowledge of Marketo to work for you. This Guide explains how to actually use Marketo as a marketer. Take what you learned during Basic Training and the great Marketo videos to the next level with what’s in this Guide.

This Guide is designed to help you use Marketo more effectively for actual marketing. Learn what works and why it works in easy, step-by-step instructions, complete with detailed screenshots of actual Filters and Flows.

Example of Step by Step

Who is the Guide For?
It’s for fellow marketers. And for fellow Marketo users. I heard from hundreds of users that they were lost between training and doing their jobs. I read hundreds of Community posts with the same requests. So I know there is a need for clear, detailed help.

New Users: 0-6 Months: just starting Marketo? You probably need scoring, data management, flows, and reporting. But how do you do that? It’s in the Guide.

Experienced Users: 7-18 Months: forget something? Or need to quickly check a flow? Consult the Guide for new ideas when your team is ready. You can hand your copy over to  new team members too.

Masters and Admins: Sure, you know more than this Guide offers. Take advantage of a nice, searchable copy to find that one thing you just can’t remember. Thumb through the reference section to make sure you know exactly what that Filter Constraint does.

Buy Now: PDF $47.00 (if you don’t have PayPal, you can Press Use Credit Card).

If I valued the hours I put into this, I would have to charge you for $59,000 of consulting hours. Now all my knowledge is yours right now for $67. And if you love the feel of paper like I do, you can even get a print edition very soon.

Buy Now: PDF $67.00

A note on Marketo Certification: while this Guide is not endorsed by Marketo as a study Guide, I can tell you that roughly 80% of what’s on the test is in this Guide. I used my own Guide to prepare for the test and found the only major topic not covered by the Guide is using Marketo for PPC. You should use all the materials available and closely follow the study topics Marketo recommends.

“Josh has produced a practitioner’s guide to Marketo that should be required for anyone that touches the system. It goes well beyond the basics and provides key foundational knowledge that will accelerate revenue for your organization.”
–Ryan Vong, Marketo Expert & Champion

OpFocus - Salesforce ConsultantsI also want to make a special thank you to David Carnes at OpFocus. David has been a business mentor and supporter of this Guide from early on. David Carnes is one of the earliest and most well known SFDC Admins and his team works with Salesforce and Marketo. I highly recommend his services.

About OpFocus, Inc.

OpFocus was founded in 2006 with the goal of helping companies run their businesses better. OpFocus is a dynamic and fast-growing consulting group that delivers business solutions to clients by customizing applications such as Salesforce.com, Marketo, and other integrated tools. OpFocus takes pride in their work, and look forward to growing alongside customers and devising solutions to the new challenges they face.

OpFocus partners with sales, marketing, and support teams in a broad range of verticals to implement new applications or build upon existing systems to better meet the needs and reach the goals of clients.

MarketoI also want to thank the fine folks at Marketo for their help and encouragement. Especially to Marketo master, Jep Castelein, for his advice over the past few months. And of course Heather Watkins and Liz Couter for their kindness and assistance. And to Rod Cherkas for his help and invitation to be a Certification Beta Tester. There are many more acknowledgements inside the Guide. Take a look because you might find a new employee or vendor to help you with your marketing operations.

More acknowledgements

  • Ryan Vong, Marketo Consultant.
  • Andrew Hull of Elixiter
  • Robbie Mitchell, Marketo master.
  • Sam Boush, President of Lead Lizard
  • Nic Zangre and Jason Long at The Pedowitz Group
  • Chris Hokannsson at OneRedBird
  • Alexandre Pelletier

Purchase the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo Now.

Buying the Guide FAQ:

1. Why should I buy the Guide? Didn’t I receive training from Marketo?

Sure, and the Marketo training was pretty good, right? Now that you have the basics down, what you need now is to know how to build workflows for your business. I show you how to develop static list generators, Segmentations, and even Nurturing flows.

2. Marketo Community works pretty well for me, why do I need your Guide?

I love the Marketo Community too. In fact, I’m one of the biggest users. While newer features tend to have detailed videos and instructions, other features do not. And you still need to sift through dozens of articles to find out how to do certain things. The Guide organizes the best of the documentation and discussions, topic by topic, to help you find what matters faster. The Guide also contains several key requests from users: Reference to SOAP API and the Complete Reference to Filters, Flows, and Triggers.

3. Whatever, my Marketo Admin will help.

Really? What if they aren’t around? Why not become a Marketo Admin yourself? There are several chapters dedicated to being an Admin, including Preparing for Integration, How to Administer Marketo, and Data Management. Help yourself and become a guru and get that raise now.

4. My business is so different from everyone else’s, so no Guide will help me.

Yep, no Guide will ever tell you how to perfectly manage Marketo for just your business. Only you can do that. What I do in the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo is show you how you can leverage Marketo for your business. Yes, you will still have to do that hard thinking and the hard work of creating the right set of workflows and I make it easier by showing you how I did it and how others did it and even a few tricks that will certainly be relevant for you. Try it. There’s a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

5. I’m a Marketo Certified Expert, SFDC Admin, 65th Level Dark Mage. Been doing this since 2007. What can you possibly offer me?

First, that’s awesome! Why didn’t you contribute to the Guide?

Second, Reference Guide. This is the ultimate, on your desk or desktop Guide to Marketo. Thumb through it to find new ideas. Or use it for the helpful reference materials at the end of each chapter. One chapter alone will save you hours of searching and is easily worth $67: Filters, Flows and Triggers: the Complete Reference.

6. I bought the Guide and found it to be useless. Where’s my money?

I’m sorry to hear that. I provide a 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you’re not satisfied for any reason, just email me within 60 days of purchase at refunds [at ] marketingrockstarguides.com and I will refund your money in a day or two. Note: if you purchased the Print Guide, you must go through Amazon.com for your return. I cannot handle those returns.

7. Can I share the Guide with my entire team? It’s an easy to use PDF.

No. If you need multiple copies for your global (or not so global) marketing team, please purchase multiple copies. The purchase page provides an option for any number of licenses. You will still receive 1 download, but then you can send it out to the number of teammates you are licensed for. Let’s be honest here, your firm is paying for this and the cost is pretty minimal compared to the Marketo Summit, let alone what you pay Marketo each month. I’m sure you’d want your customers to do the same for you, so do the right thing by me too.

8. Can I use this Guide to study for Marketo Certification?

While this Guide is not endorsed by Marketo as a study Guide, I can tell you that about 80% of what’s on the test is in this Guide. (Look for yourself at the study topics). I used my own Guide to prepare for the test and found the only major topic not in the Guide is Using Marketo for PPC. Of course, that means you should study using all the materials available. Do not hold me responsible if you do not pass the Certification Exam because I cannot make any claims that it will definitely help you pass or not pass.

9. What about a Printed Guide?

This is not available. Design choices and the limitations of print on demand made it impossible to offer you a nice print version at a reasonable cost. You are welcome to print out a copy for yourself at your preferred copier.

Thanks for reading! I hope you are ready to purchase. If not, I understand. You aren’t ready to take action. If you have any questions, email me at marketo.guide {at} marketingrockstarguides.com. I’m here for you.

[4/11: updated to reflect regular pricing of $67]

 

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo Email Tips & Tricks

March 11, 2013 By Josh Hill

Emails are a basic component to any marketing automation tool, especially Marketo. Since there is already so much documentation on how to create an email, I thought I’d share a few of the harder to find tips and tricks here.

Organization and Naming Emails

While this was covered earlier, I want to make sure you understand just how important naming and organizing emails are to your successful use of Marketo. Here is a brief reminder:

Good Examples
20120101 Marketo Promo to Product Enthusiasts
01 – Whitepaper Download Nurturing
Alert – Lead Reached a Milestone
Newsletter Email Template - Production
Bad Examples
Send Alert – 1
December 26, 2012_Promo_Holiday_Sales
Josh Email to Various

Editing an Existing Template in Marketo

Unapproved and/or Unused: If you discover an error on a Template which is not used by any Email, then you can Edit Draft and make the necessary changes. Remember to re-approve the Template so the changes appear everywhere.

Approved and in Use: Generally this is a terrible idea. There is a known issue where editing a used Email Template forces dependent Emails into Approved with Draft, but the Draft will be blank!

Technically your data is still present and recoverable—if you DO NOT APPROVE the affected Emails. To recover the Email:

  1. Open the Draft
  2. Go to Edit/Replace HTML
  3. You should see the orginal content, press OK to restore the original html. This will not work of the email was altered or already approved with the new template changes.
  4. Press Save
  5. Preview the Email Draft
  6. If all is well, re-approve the Email.

Program Local Emails vs. Design Studio

I recommend placing generic Alert emails or Sales Insight emails in Design Studio in most cases since they are often used across Programs or Campaigns. Program specific emails should be local assets at all times. Templates always reside in Design Studio.

Forward to Friend is Available

The oft requested Forward to a Friend Link was released in December 2012 to much acclaim. To use this System Token, simply place this token anywhere you wish the Forward to Friend link to appear.

{{system.forwardToFriendLink}}

For a Text email, simply use the token. For HTML, remember you can place this token in the URL dialog box whenever you select text or an image to create a hyperlink.

Email Analytics

Email Analytics are available in several locations, which are summarized here. Please see my Email Reputation chapter and How to Use Analytics for further details:

  • Campaign Email Tab: this will show you email performance for emails used and sent in this campaign any time it was run.
  • Analytics > Email > Email Performance Report: you can modify this report to show the dates of activity and emails you prefer to view. This is a vital report and I recommend becoming familiar with it.
  • Analtyics > Email > Email Link Performance: this report shows the links clicked within an email which was sent out. If the link was never clicked, it will not show up here.

Email Format Testing

This topic is more critical when creating an entirely new Email Template or possibly testing content against Spam Filters. There are a few methods to determining if your email will view as intended on as many email viewers as possible. Remember, your audience is the most important component here. If 90% of your database uses an enterprise email address and MS Outlook, then worry the most about getting the email to render in Outlook. More likely is your database has a mix of personal and corporate emails with some on Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo!; MSN/Hotmail; Apple Mail, and even Groupwise.

If you can use an outside service to test, you normally send the Test or an email to a pre-set list of test accounts. These won’t count against you for spam reputation, so fire away. Here are my favorite tools:

  • IBM Deliverability Package – this is re-sold by Marketo.
  • ReturnPath can test templates and real emails against Spam Assassin and dozens of email viewers.
  • Spam Assassin: normally included in other services, you can also use it directly to see if your content and html are likely to trigger common spam filters.
  • Litmus.com has a wide variety of tools, including Inbox Inspection for a low monthly cost.
  • EmailOnAcid.com  has a free option for 3 clients and a low entry cost for more. Great tool.
  • Mailchimp’s Inbox Inspector: if you already have a paid account (very cheap), you can preview your email template in dozens of viewers.

If you enjoyed those tips you’ll find many more in the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo, coming soon. There’s a special offer for members of the email list. So sign up today.

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo Landing Page Tips and Tricks

March 5, 2013 By Josh Hill

I put together a short list of cool things you can do with Marketo Landing Pages. Take a look.

Favicons

These are cool little icons you see on web page bookmarks and browser tabs. See mine up above? They are useful for brand recognition as well as helpful reminders of what is going on in each tab on a browser. Many people have 10 or 20 tabs open at once, leaving room only for an icon. It’s so fast and easy, there’s no reason not to.

Step 1:   Create or Find a Favicon.ico file

Which is 16x16px in size. Ask your designer for help. Or visit this site. or this one. [thanks Paola]

Your web team may already have one, so either ask them or pull it from the site yourself by doing View Source and looking for the code below.

Take that link and download the file, or copy that link for Step 3.

Step 2:   Upload the .ico file to Marketo’s Images and Files section.

Perhaps under a folder called website-images

Step 3:   Add the following tag to your template between <HEAD> and  </HEAD>

<link rel=”favicon” href=”http://go.yoursite.com/favicon.ico”>

NOTE: this must be in the base URL as shown. Where yoursite.com is the link to your favicon.ico file which must be in the root directory as shown.

More favicon tips.

Video on Marketo Pages

When Marketo introduced the YouTube integration, some of these tips became outdated, but some are still useful depending on your goals.

  • Video Use on Pages
  • Search Articles on Video
  • How to Use Video on Pages
  • Embed video on a Marketo page
  • More options on embedding video
  • More How to Embed Video
  • Tracking video and plays on Marketo Pages: Discussion 1 | Discussion 2

Remember to sign up for future updates because you don’t want to miss my special Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo offer exclusively for list members.

[Updated: October 3, 2018 with new options]

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

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