In January 2022, we surveyed 200+ Marketo experts on their goals, challenges, and strategies in our inaugural Marketo User Study in partnership with Adobe.
The data revealed that 58 percent of respondents plan on increasing their utilization of Marketo in the following year, yet 32 percent struggle with measuring work efficiency.
So, how can Marketo experts increase their Marketo utilization in a way that’s both efficient and effective?
If you guessed frameworks, you’re right on target.
Building a Marketo framework is the most efficient way to scale marketing operations. The challenge is that building effective frameworks isn’t always easy and can eat away at your time.
That’s why we’re letting you in on a secret: the core ingredients to a successful Marketo framework.
We’ve worked on more than 1,500 projects in Marketo. With nearly 10 years of intense documentation, insightful debate on the best approaches for a Marketo build and consistently helping clients understand how to fast-track success, we’ve hacked the code to build an effective Marketo framework.
In this blog, we’ll review the five principles of a great framework and provide examples for building a solid Marketo foundation.
How to Build an Effective Marketo Framework
We’ve identified common themes amongst marketing operations teams and Marketo users – and these themes have fueled 20 frameworks that are designed to scale.
We refer to these frameworks with the acronym SCORE. When creating a framework, it must be:
S - Scalable
C - Cohesive
O - Organized
R - Reliable
E - Efficient
Now that you’ve learned the foundation of what a framework should look like, how can you approach the build?
The Five Principles of a Marketing Operations Framework
Principle 1: Must be scalable
Your framework must have a solid marketing operations structure designed to take on the needs of the future, not just today. This means modifying programs, adding product lines, or increasing data flows are easy (and intuitive) to do.
Principle 2: Must be cohesive
All program parts must work together as a whole and comprehensive logic must be apparent throughout. Things like intelligent retries and safety nets enable problems to fix themselves for a very user-friendly experience. Who doesn’t want that?
Principle 3: Must be organized
Every aspect — from naming conventions to descriptions to tokenization — must consider user convenience and the need for speed.
Principle 4: Must be reliable
Marketo instances should be designed for performance – even with heavy loads and evolving conditions. Your instance should be minimizing the following:
- Email misfires
- Missing sales alerts
- Sync errors
Principle 5: Must be efficient
Ready-to-use, pre-tested solutions are customized to your needs. Frameworks should always be maximizing resources while accelerating impact.
Pre-Tested Marketo Frameworks at Your Fingertips
Without an extensive history of working in Marketo, it’s challenging to formulate a pre-tested framework. That’s where an agency partner can jump in.
MERGE’s SCORE architecture – with nearly 20 frameworks to select from – does just this.
Now that you’re armed with the basics of a great framework, let’s dive into the core functional needs within marketing operations:
- Data management and system integration
- Lead management
- Demand generation
- Reporting and analytics
We’ve developed frameworks for each of these functional needs.
Data and systems frameworks:
As you know, data and systems are the foundation of marketing operations. You’ll want to leverage a framework to build a solid Marketo infrastructure and integrate Marketo with your CRM.
- CRM integration – salesforce or Microsoft dynamics
- Data quality
- Website and email integration
- Marketo admin set-up and organization
Lead management frameworks:
How should you qualify prospects for a successful handoff to sales? Three frameworks to consider are:
- Lead lifecycle
- Lead scoring
- Subscription center creation and configuration
Demand generation frameworks
How can you capture interest, engage prospects, and accelerate your sales pipeline? Start by creating frameworks for the following:
- Contact Form
- Email Blast
- Gated Content
- Lead Nurturing
- Live Event
- Tradeshow
- Webinar
- Email and landing page templates
Reporting and analytics frameworks:
How can you optimize your marketing campaign with best practices in Marketo analytics? Utilize these frameworks to supercharge your marketing campaigns:
- Lead source tracking
- Multi-touch attribution
As you can see, there is a great amount of opportunity to leverage frameworks to scale your marketing operations. Just remember – you’ll want to use programs that are pre-tested, quality-assured, and customizable to meet the specific requirements of your organization.
Take your Marketing Operations to the Next Level
Are you frustrated with the outcomes of working with another Marketo partner? We invite you to book an introductory call with us. Let us demonstrate how we’re different and what results we can achieve together. Get in touch.