Sure, sometimes you manage the launch of an exciting new integration. Or maybe you have planned and executed a top notch webinar debuting a new product or service and are just waiting to see all the new demo requests roll in. During those times, the world of marketing automation feels like a thrill ride. However, sometimes the job means revisiting those projects again months later to check on their long term performance. While this process is certainly less glamorous than managing the original launch, it is every bit as crucial. The rides in your amusement park are going to break down unless the maintenance team makes sure they stay in working order.
Wear and Tear
In any amusement park, you will find a crew whose job it is to walk the park looking for wear and tear. If you want to be considered a top tier destination, you need to keep everything looking and functioning great. Outside of typical guest use, sometimes through no fault of the park, something like a storm can damage equipment. Likewise, a top tier Marketo instance will have staff that reviews that instance regularly. Even if a program was launched perfectly, over time, small pieces of the design may start to malfunction.
A very common source of these little problems is integrations, particularly the CRM integration. While the CRM and Marketo administrators should be working in concert with each other, sometimes these platforms get siloed. On the Marketo side, you should be watching for sync errors with your CRM frequently. For instance, if the SFDC team decides a new field is required to create a SFDC record, old Marketo forms may no longer be gathering enough information for the new records to transfer into SFDC.
Outside of integrations, there are certain kinds of programs that are just never permanently finished. Scoring programs are a great example of these. Your scoring program should be undergoing refinement into perpetuity. Through the proper reporting framework, you should be monitoring your audience’s behaviors on a very granular level. With this level of detail, you can and should reevaluate the relative values of each kind of behavior. As an example, Apple and Google will continue to enhance their privacy protections. As they do, the predictive value of email opens will likely go down. Scoring programs should be updated accordingly.
Updating the Experience
Sometimes maintenance is about more than just keeping up with wear and tear. After technology has advanced, the park owners may want to take advantage of something new to deliver a better experience. Adobe is constantly releasing new updates and features to the Marketo Engage platform. Implementing these new features can have significant impact if you take the time to incorporate them into your already existing programs. One of this year’s new and exciting feature releases is Dynamic Chat. While it can be very useful on its own, Dynamic Chat has implications for a wide variety of programs from possibly taking the place of older, 3rd party integrations or implementing it into a fully realized, cross-channel ABM strategy.
Other times, maintenance is about changing and updating the environment. If the amusement park was built around a license for a set of characters that they no longer have, the ownership will have to change their visual aesthetics. Taking this analogy to Marketo, if new governmental regulations come about, old campaigns will likely have to be revisited to make sure they still comply with the new rules. In Marketo this may mean either changing language on landing pages and emails, or it may mean a change to the way data is managed behind the scenes.
Leadous is the Perfect Marketo Partner
The Leadous team knows Marketo. We are an Adobe Gold Partner specializing in the Marketo Engage platform. Our team has the experience and expertise to guide you through the strategy and implementation of your programs and campaigns. Whether your company needs a helping set of hands, a 3rd party perspective from experts, or some combination of the two, Leadous can help you.
We can help make sure your Marketo instance is in the kind of shape you need to gather the kind of data that allows you to not only successfully launch your exciting marketing plans but to then go back to fine tune their performance later. As new releases update the feature set of the platform, you can trust Leadous and its team of experts will be at the forefront of using and incorporating the new tools.
Get in touch with our expert team today so you can find out more about the value Leadous can bring to your organization – let’s get a ticket and ride.