marketo management tips

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to MarketoP a g e | 1Managing Your Marketo

Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo

© 2013. Josh Hill. Licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike with Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Visit http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com for more on marketing automation.


Chapter 1. Managing Your Marketo

At a Glance

Overview 3

Naming Schemes 3

Organizations of Folders 13

Archiving Assets and Campaigns 21

Deactivating Old Things 23

Chapter Review 24

Recommended Resources 25



Overview

Great, you purchased a Marketo License! Now you are on your way toward becoming a Rockstar.

Rockstars, believe it or not, are organized. They leave nothing to chance and they practice disciplined rocking, er, Marketing. Setting up Marketo to function well should be one of your first actions before using the system for your big marketing push.

I promise you a few minutes of thought and careful setup will save you hours and days later.

Naming SchemesOne of the first things Marketo suggests to new users is to devise a naming scheme for your various programs and assets. I agree. I have seen several options over the years and recommend one or more of the following. Please feel free to modify this for your business, but keep in mind the reasons I chose these methods over others.

Keep the name clear and memorable so if you ever leave the firm, others can start where you left off.

Naming is also important because it can help you find assets while you setup filters or triggers. In particular, the creation of Smart List reports and Reports becomes much easier when you can use a filter like

Visited Web Page Web Page CONTAINS “webinar”

instead of finding every single webinar you want to include. While Marketo does allow searching of names of assets, the functionality is limited because it works best on the first few letters or numbers (which is why dates are so important).

Marketing Campaigns & ProgramsFor dated activities, I prefer the Leading Date Method:

YYYYMMDD Descriptive Name Goes Here

YYYY MM DD Descriptive Name


http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp


Good Example

20122008 TradeShow Las Vegas Attended

20120315 Cloudforce SF Lead Swap

For child campaigns in Programs like a webinar you can also use these:

1 – Invitation Flow

2 – Thank You Flow

The advantage here is you clearly mark the order of steps for your Program. Nurturing, webinars, and events benefit from using a number system.

Another good example is from Brian Wood of Radisys who adapted SEO style naming for his nurturing programs. Note also his clear naming for Smart Lists and Static Lists.


http://www.radisys.com/

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Advanced%20Nurturing%20Slides


Bad Examples (Don’t do this!):

Trade Show Las Vegas-Upload May 13

May 12 2020 Social Rock Attended – JDH

12202011_My List Created By Joe

Under_scores_are_unneccessary_and_break_search

It’s true; any dashes should have a space. Underscores are totally unnecessary because they break the search function on each section. For instance, if you type in

Use Trade to find any trade show, Marketo will ignore any names like Trade_Show_2010

Data Management and Lead ScoringThese campaigns manage data changes and are not inherently dated campaigns. I recommend names to be specific about what they do and when.

CXO Title Scoring for Product X

White Paper Scoring – Batch

White Paper Scoring - Triggered

Inactive Leads – 30 Days

Lead Source Changer – PPC to AdWords

Employment Range Fixer – (10-19) to (Under 20)

EmailsEmail Templates should have a name such as

EIU Event Template 2012 – Approved

IBM AdWords Template 2012 – Approved



Emails are dated material and should always used the leading date method:

YYYYMMDD – Tim Geithner Webinar Invitation

20120922 – Best Guide to Industry Ever Promotion

One exception is for Sales Alerts. Most firms use one of these schemes:

Alert – Lead Assigned to You

Sales Alert – Lead Revived by Nurturing

Landing PagesLanding Pages are special cases because they also include URL slugs for SEO.

Marketo Name: names for Development and Approved Production Pages

Naming for Templates Under Development:

Template 1 Column – 2012 – Testing

Naming for Templates Permitted for Use:

Template 1 Column – 2012 – Approved

Another method, pioneered by Eric Hollebone, is to use all lowercase titles with dashes. Doing so aligns the Marketo Name and SEO Slug as well as allows Marketo’s search function to operate better.

Descriptive-name-is-great

20120922-industry-webinar-registration

Search Engine Optimized Name

SEO is an entire industry in its own right, so this is a short recommendation on SEO in Marketo because I see almost no one properly handling this. When you first create a new Landing Page and start to type in the Marketo Name, Marketo automatically uses this text in the page slug. This is wrong.


http://test.hollebone.ca/


Go to the Landing Page Slug and change the name immediately. I recommend doing this right the first time, but you can always use URL Tools to adjust it later. The name should always look something like this:

http://go.yoursite.com/[PAGE SLUG]

http://go.yoursite.com/how-to-use-marketo-forms-webinar-20120922.html

Do not use

20120922 Dreamforce Party Test 2 because that becomes

http://go.yoursite.com/20120922DreamforcePartyTest2.html

The dashes are critical because this is the standard way Google and Bing expect to parse keywords. A few tips I’ve learned are here, but keep in mind that your SEO agency or SEM/SEO Manager should handle SEO.


http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo


1. Keep important words at the start of the page slug just like you would work with a sentence or paragraph with Strunk & White .

2. Keep names in lowercase.3. Use keywords in the page slug and make sure those keywords appear in the copy. For instance a page selling

economic data should have the slug Russia-economic-data-forecast-2015.4. Remember people do look at URLs in text emails and in the browser bar just as much as computers do. Having

a poorly worded slug or a sinister sounding slug will not help you gain trust. For instance, AB Testing requires two pages, so it is good to make sure your Test Group URL and Page Slugs are not obviously testing something.

FormsNaming forms is simple since you should have a limited number of forms you can re-use for various purposes.

JDH Standard Form (this is the form I usually use)

JDH PPC Form (special form with code to help track PPC info)


Caution: Do not make Forms inside Programs. You’ll see why later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style


JDH Live Event Form (live events require different registration detail)

JDH Webinar Form (short form for webinar sign ups)

You can use the Leading Date Method here, however, you should almost never need to create a date specific form.

Smart ListsSmart Lists require more description than dates, although you are welcome to use Leading Dates especially if you were using the smart list as a report substitute.

Since you will use many of these lists across the system, be sure to be clear when naming them so they will be easier to search for, and to select.

Descriptive Name - Special Criteria

Good Examples:

Test Names Exclude List

House Suppression List

Customers by Product – Product 1

Blank Country and UK

Lead Activity in Past 6 Months

20120214 Valentine’s Day Contacts



Bad Examples

MKTO Filter 1

Inferred Product interest-UIJ

My List 26

ListsStatic Lists have many uses in the Lead Database as well as local Lists in Programs. Sine we also use Static Lists as upload tools, it is vital to use Leading Date so you and others know the original upload time. If you discover an error later, or just want to keep track of files, this is the best way.

In the Lead Database:

YYYYMMDD Descriptive Name

[Date of Upload/Event] Descriptive Name

Good Example:

20122008 Trade Show Las Vegas Attended

20120315 Cloudforce SF Lead Swap



Bad Examples (Don’t do this!):

TradeShow_Las Vegas-Upload May 13

May 12 2020 Social Rock Attended – JDH

12202011_My List Created By Joe

In a Program:

Descriptive Name List so it appears as Program Name.Descriptive Name List

Since we will use local lists to build Nurturing Programs, using the right naming scheme is vital.

ReportsReports in Analytics can be named in a similar fashion to Smart Lists or Static Lists.

Descriptive Name

YYYYMMDD – Descriptive Name

Leads by Month – Webinars

PPC Landing Page Activity – Past 180 Days



Search ToolsMarketo recently updated the search tools on Marketing Activities, Design Studio, Lead Database, and Analytics to allow you to find by type of item, not just name. If you adopted a clear naming scheme, as described above, your Search box and filtering tools should help you even more.



Organization of FoldersFolder organization is important because some people will need to go through the folder tree. The other key reason is many Reports, such as Campaign or Program Reports, use the Folder Tree Selector to choose groups of campaigns to report on. If you set this up correctly, it will be much easier to choose the right data.

*There is a known issue where you can create a deep folder structure, but when cloning, Marketo will only show you 1 level deep. Do not be deterred by this minor bug; just get your structure right.

Marketing ActivitiesSince this is your main work area for your team, it is vital to decide on a solid naming scheme before getting too far. Marketo’s initial setup is a good starting point. Here are a few suggestions for you. This is an overview of how you might organize your folders overall:


https://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000IEnNAAW



for Programs, you might follow Marketo’s new template system, or create your own. Marketo’s approach works well as a starting point. I usually use a similar system, grouping Local Assets by Type and Campaigns together with a numbering system.

Design StudioDesign Studio has 5 areas, two of which have Templates, which are seen across the system. When collapsed, this is how your Design Studio looks.



Landing Page Folders

I recommend creating a Dev and Production section for your Templates. Train your team to use the Production Templates and to name Dev and Production Templates differently to avoid confusion.

For other pages, I use Year – Subject or Year – Channel most of the time.

You can also create a series of Archive folders for deactivated pages.



Form Folders

Forms require just Archived, Dev, and Production. Again, remember to name Dev and Production Forms differently so they are distinguished in the other menus.

Emails Folders

Emails are similar to Landing Pages. You may have more channel or dated folders. Don’t forget Sales Insight and Alerts if you use them.



Snippets

Snippets can also use folders.

Images and Files

You should create a folder list like these so images and files are easier to organize. These folder names do not impact actual URLs, but I like to use the SEO naming method here anyway.



Lead DatabaseLead Database also ends up being the most disorganized very quickly. One tip I learned from Marketo is to use topic and Username folders to organize both kinds of lists. For instance, you may have universal lists driving newsletters or Customers, or even lead scoring. You should place those lists in one place whenever possible. The other kind of list is created on the fly for a report, or someone builds a campaign that uses that list.

System Smart Lists cannot be changed.



Smart Lists

Here is an example of a Subject and Team Name folder system.



My Lists (Static Lists)

The same rule applies here because you will have these scenarios:

Someone who uploads a series of lists. Lists uploaded for a campaign “System Lists” created by campaigns to make counts run faster.



AnalyticsThe Analytics report folders contain the default reports and each type of report can live in its section or it can live at the top folder. Since you can only create sub-folders of the report type folders, keeping custom reports at the top level quickly makes a big mess.

I recommend creating User only sub-folders for each report section. You can still use search to find these reports, but organizationally you will find it easier if each user keeps her reports in her user folder. Why? Because you will probably ask a person for a report and that person will become responsible for just that report.



Archiving Assets and CampaignsYou can also Archive old assets of any type using the Archive feature of folders. Once a folder, program, asset, or campaign is inside an Archive, it is no longer visible to Search and it looks all filed away Do keep in mind Archived campaigns are not deactivated. The logic will still work, so if you plan to archive an active campaign, you should consider deactivating it first.

Here is a summary of what happens when something is Archived:What Changes What Does Not Change

Asset is no longer visible in search. Results will return the collapsed Archive folder.

Global search still searches Archived folders.

Assets no longer appear in auto suggest. Active trigger campaigns are still active.Templates are no longer available across the system for new assets.

Data is available in reports.

Pages cannot be added to new Landing Page Tests.

Filters in Analytics will still see the archived asset.

Sub-folders are also archived (and vice-versa).Archived sub-folders cannot be un-archived unless parent folder is un-archived.

To create an Archive, follow these steps:


Caution: archived, activated trigger campaigns are still active.

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000Kzc4


Step 1: Create a folder named Archive – Campaigns

Step 2: Right click on the folder and select Convert to Archive

Step 3: Move assets or other folders to this Archive – Campaigns Folder

Step 4: Optional: convert sub-folders to archiveI recommend creating an Archive Folder in Marketing Activities, and each section of Design Studio.

Deactivating Old Things“But it’s still good!” - Grandpa

As I work with different clients, I encounter users with newer instances and users with older instances. In each case, both compile a legacy of active triggers, scheduled batches, and old assets. These collected items make it harder to see what is currently important and what is safe to remove.

You may have pages with old offers still visible online to people. Pages and emails may have old branding or addresses listed. Your new intern may have found that great offer from 2009 to resend to 10,000 people—except that Forrester report is from 2008 and no one cares.

Don’t let this happen to you. Establish a regular procedure for deactivating and unapproving old stuff.



Turn off Triggers and Batches

When What ProcedureAfter Every Webinar Webinars: After every webinar, turn off Registration flows. If you switch

to an On-demand trigger campaign, set that up now.After Events Events Turn off party or roadshow registrations whenever you reach

capacity, or the day of the event.Quarterly Data

Management campaigns

Review to see if the flow is still required and it is functioning properly.

Quarterly Autoresponders Review content and turn off unnecessary flows.Quarterly Lead Scoring Review to see if the flow is still required and it is functioning

properly.Monthly Lead Scoring

MQLAdjust threshold as needed.

Unapprove Old AssetsOld emails, pages, and lists can clutter up things and eventually confuse people. Once a year (or twice), hold a clean up day with pizza and just get it done.

When What ProcedureEvery 2 Months Emails Remove unused or test emails.Every 2 Months Pages Remove unused or test landing pagesEvery 6 months Pages Review pages and offers; turn off ones that are stale.Every 12 months Templates Review templates for updates to your site and styles.

Unapprove templates no longer used or Archive them.Every 12 Months Forms Archive or delete stale forms. Unused Forms can be deleted.Every 6 Months Smart Lists Clean up the Smart List folders. Look at the Used by tab to

help remove unused lists or move them to a more logical location.

Every 6 Months Static Lists Carefully review lists and delete ones that are no longer useful for reporting or flows. Deleting a list does not do anything to the Leads in the list.

I wrote a few other tips on the blog, where I recommend to always default to Not Publish to Sales Insight. This will save your Sales Team from being confused by hundreds of emails.


http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com/care-and-maintenance-of-marketo-554/


Chapter ReviewSelf-Quiz

Archived campaigns can still be visible in Reports: True or False?

Organizing Folders is a …

Deleting an asset or campaign is A. Permannent B. Recoverable C. Cannot be done.

Recommended Resources

Marketo Documentation Archiving Anonymous Leads after 90 Days

More on Archiving Inactive Anonymous Leads

Sales Insight Email Folder Organization

Archiving Assets


https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000Kzc4

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L4zM&src=comm

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L60J

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L60J


Marketo Community Email Templates

Opt Out of Archiving anonymous leads after 90 days

Data Counts and Anonymous Leads Archiving

Advanced Nurturing Deep Dive 2012 with Brian Wood of Radisys

Create Folders in RCA – Idea

Design Studio Folder Level Limitation

Programs and archiving

ExpertsSEOmoz Beginners Guide to SEO

A Marketo Filters and Flows Text Notation Method – Josh Hill


http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com/marketo-filter-and-flow-actions-text-notation-method-353/

http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PMxuAAG


https://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000HVw0AAG

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L61g&src=comm

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PTP5AAO

https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PQX6AAO

https://community.marketo.com/marketodiscussiondetail?id=90650000000PRneAAG

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