Challenge

Like most companies, our client wanted to fully leverage their Marketo investment, but simply didn’t have the capacity to do so. Although they already had Marketo implemented, they needed a trusted partner to help them learn the ins and outs of Marketo that would allow them to fully scale.

While many MERGE clients require help with large, complex projects, this client specifically needed a little bit of help across the board. From implementing proper lead source tracking to data hygiene and consent management, they had gaps that were preventing them from growing and reaching their full investment. What sounds like a simple, quick-fix actually requires the expertise of an experienced marketing operations agency that knows how to fully leverage marketing automation platforms to see true growth and scalability.

For example, our client had eight engagement programs in place. When this happens, it’s likely people are part of multiple engagement programs at once, resulting in them getting very similar emails, reducing the control over the communication strategy, and causing some program members to receive too many nurturing emails over a short period of time.

Outcome

MERGE quickly jumped in to help our client achieve value realization from Marketo, starting with foundational Marketo training. The goal was to provide our client’s users with an accelerated path to Marketo mastery. This focused two-day course was designed to provide the most essential knowledge and to promote learning through hands-on experience.

 

MERGE designed the training so that our client’s users would leave with a clear understanding of the Marketo platform and the ability to perform standard marketing activities while following best practices. The two-day training program covered topics such as email programs, A/B tests, program tokens, nurture programs, reporting, smart campaigns, and much more.

With each topic area, MERGE delivered an easy-to-follow recipe containing screenshots and scenarios for users to leverage on an ongoing basis. For example, the topic for folder structure and organization included samples to reference. In this example, a sample program folder structure was shared for a webinar event program.

 

During an active discussion with our client’s team and while diving into their Marketo instance, MERGE began to notice areas where our client could optimize their marketing operations. MERGE worked with our client’s team to prioritize the following work: lead source tracking, communication limits, data cleansing, and reporting dashboards.

In addition to troubleshooting and optimizing the items above, MERGE also got to work developing program templates, adding progressive profiling to forms, and helping our client implement their new brand requirements across email and landing pages.

MERGE reviewed our client’s current engagement program and provided a technical design document to consolidate the different nurture programs into one in order to offer a more controlled, structured, and cohesive experience to its audience based on the content the person interacted with or her position in the customer journey. Here’s an example of the engagement program streams:

 

Results

Sometimes, it’s the combination of several small things that can drive the most impactful change. In this case, it was unlocking minor issues within our client’s Marketo account that ultimately made a big difference in their day-to-day operations. By cleaning up their data, implementing proper lead source tracking, fixing their consent management preferences, and improving their program templates, our client is able to get closer to fully leveraging their full Marketo investment.

Ultimately, MERGE was able to improve the client's internal structures which allowed them to grow and begin to see their full Marketo investment come to fruition.