The Challenge
A Marketing VP entered Global Data Center Provider with a lot expected of her. In addition to the standard trials of adapting to a new company culture, she was also stepping into a newly created position: VP of Demand Marketing.
While the Marketing VP’s career helped her define the role, and while her experience poised her for success, there were a number of unknowns. Perhaps most critically, she inherited an existing instance of marketing automation platform (MAP) Marketo Engage. The VP knew Marketo would be essential in achieving key goals for her department; she also knew from previous experience that the tool, if not properly configured, could not be utilized to its fullest extent. This, in turn, could impact time, effort, and budget in attaining departmental objectives.
After internal discussion, the VP decided to seek a third-party opinion on the state of her company’s Marketo Engage instance. Having worked with Digital Pi in her previous position, she reached out for a MAP assessment, hoping to better understand what was going on “under the hood” of her instance. If she could understand her system’s integrations, she could make educated decisions around the tool and how her team could leverage it. Was Marketo ready for what she needed it to do?
Investigation
The Digital Pi team began with a 4-week assessment, consisting of a full instance inventory and interviews with the primary user. The inventory included an analysis of key fields and functions of Marketo Engage. This part of the assessment analyzed both boolean data, like whether fields were empty or filled, as well as field data, like whether or not data values were used consistently.
Areas Assessed
- Assets
- Channels
- Lead Source
- Acquisition Program Assignment
- Lead Lifecycle
- Scoring
- Privacy
- UTM Parameters
- Reporting
- Revenue Attribution
The assessment also looked at the configurations of fundamental Marketo functions like campaign deployments, programs, triggers and automations, forms and templates, integrations, and other key features of the MAP.
With its proprietary Marketo analytics tool, OMEGA, Digital Pi was able to gather in-depth data about how the MAP was running, consequently identifying deployment issues, bottlenecks, and configuration errors.
Digital Pi documented each element of the assessment in a workbook for the client’s personal reference. The team also compiled summaries and crucial discoveries in a presentation, where the findings were compared alongside Marketo Engage best practices. At the VP’s request, Digital Pi first presented their findings to her team, and then to her company’s executives.
“Seeing the facts for what they were was eye-opening. Seeing all of the data laid out made it clear that we have a long road ahead to optimize our Marketo instance. However, this assessment has given us the necessary data to do it.”
Beyond the Assessment
Workbook in hand, the Global Data Center Provider realized that its Marketo data was robust but lacking standardization. Moreover, its MAP assessment revealed that there were sizable opportunities to more effectively leverage powerful Marketo features. Among Digital Pi’s recommendations, the team noted the following as the most critical opportunities to address to make the most of their instance.
Automate processes to ensure completion of fields, save manual time and effort, and avoid human error
- Leveraging Lifecycle functions and automated lead and contact status changes helps to track lead progress and ensures that each lead is moving through the funnel appropriately.
- Automating AQLs avoids manual review and input.
- Creating rules to automate lead source collection and acquisition program assignment ensures that these fields are filled accurately and in real-time.
Ensure integrations are properly configured to create better data collection practices, collect more data and make better business decisions
- Putting best practice data collection processes in place eliminates duplicate record creation.
- The better the data integrity, the better the analytics. Housing data directly in Marketo ensures that prospect and customer information is accurate and current, and that changes to the data are recorded in a history log should an audit become necessary.
Standardize data and scoring systems for meaningful and reliable data analysis
- Standardized lead scoring systems ease qualified lead handoffs from Marketing to Sales at appropriate thresholds.
- Standardizing field values by implementing dropdowns or picklists consolidates user choices, making data patterns clearer and more reliable.
After reviewing the findings, the Marketing VP said, “Seeing the facts for what they were was eye-opening. Seeing all of the data laid out made it clear that we have a long road ahead to optimize our Marketo instance. However, this assessment has given us the necessary data to do it.”
Why Digital Pi?
Data Center Provider needed an objective and data-based third-party assessment of their Marketo Engage instance and its marchitecture, but they also needed something to compare it to. Digital Pi’s MAP assessment was the perfect choice, as it includes extensive discovery and data-gathering
through the lens of the Gold Standard. From Digital Pi’s MAP assessment,
Data Center Provider was able to ascertain an understanding of its MAP’s existing condition, as well as data to shed light on ways to improve it. Digital Pi’s MAP assessment gave Data Center Provider a path forward.