At Adobe (virtual) Summit, Karan Hari — GlobalLogic India Limited hosted a session on the importance of regular maintenance and audits of your Marketo instance [The Audit Doctor: How to Keep Your Marketo Engage Instance Healthy]. He covered the many benefits of performing an audit and the pitfalls of not maintaining your Marketo instance regularly.
But Marketo instances can be big and unruly, an audit might uncover a plethora of problems that you didn’t even know could exist. The resulting list of action items can seem insurmountable and scary; where should you even begin? How about at the beginning? Tackle the basics first, then move onto the big projects.
Archiving
Archiving Marketo programs and deactivating unnecessary or retired campaigns is a perfect place to start. The task of archiving might seem arduous, but it will give you a deeper sense of what is in your instance, what needs to stay in your instance, and what can go. When you complete an archiving process, your instance will run faster, look cleaner, and generally feel more manageable. Remember that archiving isn’t just a post-audit activity, and it isn’t just for Marketing Activities; create an archiving cadence that spans your instance to keep your lead generation machine fit and functional.
Naming and Folder Structure
Set your instance up for ongoing success by keeping it organized. You don’t reach into your sock drawer every morning for a pair of pants, and you shouldn’t reach into a live events folder to find an onboarding nurture campaign in Marketo. Create a folder structure that aligns with your organization, and make sure it accounts for next year. Marketers often forget that programs they create now may outlast their tenure in the position; set your successor up for success with the naming structure you put in place.
Program Templates
Program templates are the key to your marketing operations scalability. You need program templates to be in a strong position to begin taking on the bigger projects. Make sure your program templates align with your new naming and folder structure, and then validate all the details: the responsiveness of email and landing page templates, the global alignment of forms, and the campaign flow steps with acquisition program/lead source/program status properly set when needed. Program templates can definitely be a rabbit hole of additional projects, so just like an overall audit, start at the beginning with the single program template you’ll need most often.
Big Projects
Once program templates are in a solid (never finalized) position, get started on the big projects like global data management and sync programs, subscription management centers, new integrations, scoring revamps, lifecycles, etc. Don’t forget to revisit your basics throughout the completion of these projects as well. Everything in Marketo is related, so stay on top of the downstream impacts of your bigger project initiatives.
Keeping your Marketo instance aligned will be an ongoing and iterative process. Scoring effects lead lifecycle, lead lifecycle effects segmentation, segmentation effects nurtures, nurtures effect scoring, and so on. The number of cause/effects in Marketo is endless, so the best thing to do is stay organized, keep your instance clean, and make sure you’re executing the basics first.
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