The Project Plan: Your Itinerary for Success in Marketo Engage

This blog is part 1 of our Gold Standard blog series about setting your marketing up for scale using the Gold Standard. The Digital Pi Gold Standard framework consists of a series of foundational processes and corresponding deliverables focusing on strategic marketing as well as technical and campaign operational services. 

Taking a road trip this summer? It sounds simple enough. But if you’ve ever gone on a road trip, you know that for best results, you can’t just wing it. A well-planned trip has key stops to hit, well thought out routes, a budget, timelines, and of course, a good roadmap. Similarly, if you’re embarking on a journey to implement or get the most value from an incredibly powerful but intricate tool like Marketo Engage, it is best approached with the same philosophy; a solid plan will yield the best experience and highest value.

As the first foundational element of the Gold Standard, the Project Plan becomes the itinerary and roadmap for its successful implementation. The Project Plan identifies your specific needs, establishes business objectives, and lays out KPIs that will be used to indicate success. In this way, it aligns your team with the Digital Pi service team and acts as the single-source of truth on implementation expectations for both the Digital Pi team and your team to refer back to as the Gold Standard is introduced.

Structurally, the Project Plan is delivered as a PDF document that links out to supportive detail documents which break down each major milestone. While it provides key target dates as well as an outline for the landmarks on the path to success, the Project Plan is built to accommodate even detours and roadblocks and is presented in a dynamic format allowing for major changes in timelines, deliverables, scope, roles and responsibilities.

The Project Plan includes:

  • Project schedule – establishes a timeline for key Gold Standard milestones
  • Project details – defines the scope of the work to be performed based on your team’s needs, linking out to any supporting detail documents as necessary
  • Project responsibilities – clarifies which parties will be accountable for which elements of Gold Standard implementation

A good travel companion always clears the plan with their partner. On the road to the Gold Standard, your marketing team will have a kick-off call with the client services team, where a preliminary version of the Project Plan is presented for review and approval. Your MOps team then has the chance to validate the plan and request changes as necessary. After the kick-off call, the service team modifies the plan accordingly, and the final product is delivered as a PDF.

Ultimately, the Digital Pi Gold Standard is built around establishing best practices and forward-thinking strategy in Marketo Engage to optimize its use based on the specific needs of your organization. The Project Plan is where these needs are established and accounted for, it is the cornerstone upon which all else is built. Each piece of the plan contributes to a final product with the flexibility for your marketing team to scale up or scale back as necessary.

You’re Ready to Hit the Road!
With your itinerary in place and roadmap in hand, you’re ready to go!

Once your Project Plan is established, the Digital Pi service team will shift focus to the next foundational element of the Gold Standard – Systems Setup. It is during this phase of implementation where the client services team establishes best practice configuration in your Marketo Engage instance.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the Gold Standard here or contact us at hello@digitalpi.com.

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