Now imagine looking at the whiteboard and reading the following statement:

“Beat your customers, NOT your competitors.”

Does that sound crazy to you? 

Well, consider this: Today’s 24×7-online customer doesn’t just think ahead of you, they act ahead of you. Your, the marketer’s, job is no longer to keep up; it’s to keep ahead, wait at the finish line for your customers to reach there. 

It’s the difference between having to find and call a customer rep to have a product demonstrated and seeing the rep already stationed at their desk, waiting for you. 

That’s what Marketo’s AI-enabled predictive content feature makes possible. You want to be there before the customer, subscriber, or contact gets there. It’s about being relevant. About locking in the exact pattern match.

We’re certified Marketo experts, and we’re going to show you how Marketo’s predictive content can create relevant experiences for your audience across channels.

• Personalizing with Predictive Content in Marketo Engage
  
• Not cryptic fortune-telling!
  
• Beyond the basics: Advanced features
  
• Benefits beyond engagement
  
• Predictive Content ≠ certainty!
  
• Prepare to predict, predict to prepare

Personalizing with Predictive Content in Marketo Engage

Image source: Marketo

Marketo Engage, now part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, uses Predictive Content powered by Adobe Sensei to tailor content recommendations. Here’s how it works:

• Content discovery and tagging: Marketo identifies and tags your content for AI-driven recommendations
  
• Machine learning algorithms: Marketo analyzes user data, clicks, and trends to predict preferences
  
• Recommendation channels: Marketo displays content via:
  • Recommendation bar: Highlights relevant content on your website
  • Email marketing: Embeds personalized content in emails 

Not cryptic fortune-telling!

Predictive Content in Marketo isn’t just fancy guesswork. It leverages machine learning algorithms that constantly learn and improve. 

Christopher Penn, co-founder and chief data scientist at TrustInsights.ai, divides the predictive process into these five steps:

1. Pull: Extract data from its source
   
2. Prepare: Clean, refine, and prepare the data
   
3. Pick: Determine what to predict
   
4. Predict: Execute the prediction
   
5. Plan: Develop a data-driven strategy

Marketo’s Predictive Content functions according to a similar archetype. Here’s a peek under the hood:

• Data gathering: Marketo collects various data points about your audience. This includes demographics, website behavior (pages viewed, time spent), email engagement (opens, clicks), and content downloads
  
• Content analysis: The system analyzes your existing content library. It considers factors like content type (blog post, white paper, video), topic, keywords, and performance metrics (engagement rates, conversions)
  
• Pattern matching: The algorithms identify patterns between user behavior, content type, and desired outcomes (e.g., downloads, form submissions).
  
  For instance, it might discover that visitors who read a specific blog post about social media marketing are more likely to download a related white paper on choosing the right social media platform for their business
  
• Predictive modeling: Based on the identified patterns, the algorithms create sophisticated predictive models.
  
  These models anticipate which content piece is most likely to resonate with a particular user based on their profile, past interactions, and the current context (e.g., the webpage they are viewing, the keywords they searched for)

Beyond the basics: Advanced features

Marketo’s Predictive Content offers some advanced features to further personalize the experience:

• Dynamic content: You can personalize specific elements within a recommended content piece. For example, the headline, image, or call to action (CTA) could change based on the user’s profile and interests.
  
  Once again, imagine a blog post about social media marketing that displays a CTA to “Download our guide to creating Facebook ads” for users who have shown interest in Facebook marketing, while displaying a CTA to “Learn more about social media strategy” for users who are new to the topic

(Dynamic content and predictive content are two different things. Predictive content is automated and controlled by machine learning while Dynamic Content is set up manually by marketers through rules and segments. Predictive Content offers personalization based on predictive analytics and user behavior; Dynamic Content personalizes content based on predefined criteria and rules)

• A/B testing: You can test different variations of the recommendation bar or email content to see which performs best with your audience. You can test different layouts, headlines, CTAs, and even the content selection algorithm itself. This data-driven approach ensures you are delivering the most effective recommendations possible
  
• Content categories: You can group your content into categories (e.g., product type, industry, buyer persona) to ensure recommendations stay relevant within specific topics. This is particularly useful for organizations with a large content library that covers a broad range of topics

Benefits beyond engagement

While increased engagement is a key benefit, Predictive Content can also:

1. Streamline the buyer’s journey

By delivering the most relevant content at each stage of the buyer’s journey, you can guide prospects smoothly through the sales funnel.

Picture a prospect who reads a blog post about the challenges of marketing automation. Predictive Content might then recommend a white paper that compares different marketing automation solutions, followed by a case study showcasing how a similar company successfully implemented marketing automation. This targeted content delivery nurtures leads and moves them closer to a buying decision.

2. Optimize content investment

Predictive Content helps you identify which content pieces resonate most with your audience and deliver the best ROI.

By analyzing engagement and conversion metrics associated with recommended content, you can focus your resources on creating high-performing content that drives results. You can also identify content that may be underperforming and revamp it to improve its effectiveness

3. Boost lead nurturing

Predictive Content delivers targeted content that educates and nurtures leads, increasing their chances of converting into customers. By providing content that addresses their specific needs and interests, you can build trust and relationships with potential buyers, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates

Predictive Content ≠ certainty!

Predictive analytics does not guarantee success. The best it can do is “measure potential outcomes.”

There’s a divide between who’s measuring and what’s being measured. Predictive modeling relies on static data to do its job. By “static” we mean a data point that exists within a closed system at any given point in time. That’s the “who’s measuring” part.

But human behavior doesn’t operate in an airtight system. It is given to external, uncontrollable influences. So, what’s being measured is in a flux. 

Imagine Marketo’s Predictive Content feature recommended a piece of content to a particular subscriber. The recommendation is based on behavioral data. Sure; Mr. X has been signaling intent for this topic. But what if the same subscriber read an industry report which suddenly changed their perspective on that topic?

What about personal circumstances? Moods? Shifts in work priorities? 

There can be any number of such coffee spills to ruin those exact lines on the map. Predictive AI is not a magic bullet; but who needs magic to make things work? You want to make the winning bet to come out on top. And predictive modeling is just that. 

Prepare to predict, predict to prepare

We’ll leave you with a few pointers to get started with Predictive Content in Marketo Engage. As a first step, ask yourself these questions:

• Do we have a sufficient amount of good content?
  
• Which ones are our highest-performing content pieces?
  
• How do we create categories for our content?
  
• How many content pieces should we start with?
  
• How are we going to leverage analytics? What are we measuring? 

If you should still feel stuck, you might want to read more on how predictive analytics can transform marketing across channels. 

Better still, you can get in touch with our Marketo specialists. 

The post What is Predictive Content in Marketo? appeared first on Email Uplers.

Over time, this journey becomes a complex latticework of interactions. The touchpoints change, and priorities and preferences evolve. Successfully navigating such complex journeys of multiple customers is wishful thinking at best. 

Enter Adobe Engagement Map, which makes campaign navigation, strategizing, and execution simpler and more intuitive. You can take our word for it. As a certified Marketo Engage partner, we utilize the Adobe engagement map in our daily campaigns. It enables us to enhance our campaign efficiency, resulting in more on-point interfacing, deeper engagement, and increased subscriber lifetime value.

In this post, you’ll learn what an Engagement Map is and how to leverage it to make your campaigns more efficient, targeted, and results-driven. 

• What Is An Engagement Map?
• Leveraging Engagement Maps
  • Channel Optimization
  • Multi-stage Nurturing
  • Automated Lead Scoring
  • Dynamic Content Delivery
• Engagement Map Best Practices

What Is An Engagement Map?

The Engagement Map is a visual intuitive representation of Smart campaigns. The Map is an exhaustive, dynamically updated top-level view of your campaigns.

Launched in 2023, the Engagement Map offers a clear picture of overall campaign logic. Earlier, the user had to have “several tabs open in the browser and flip back and forth between the smart list and the flow,” says T. Blane McMichen, Marketo Business Consultant. However, with the introduction of the Engagement Map, users can see the flow of an entire Smart campaign at once. 

“Now you can see the flow of your smart campaign, BUT it is not limited to the local Flow tab of the current smart campaign. It includes details of requested campaigns with their own end points, and executable campaigns that expand and return to the parent flow,” McMichen adds. 

The following is an example of an Engagement Map in Marketo Engage. As you can see, each flow step is visible, describing the actions taken.

Image Source

“The thing is — understanding your customer base can be very challenging. Even when you think you’ve got a good read on them, the journey from awareness to purchase for each customer will always be unpredictable, at least to some level,” says Aaron Agius, content marketer and cofounder of Louder Online. The Engagement Map can reduce this “unpredictability” to a certain degree. 

The Map shows the entire customer journey, from intent to purchase and beyond. This eliminates potential blind spots. Since all the touchpoints are visible at one place, you can analyze subscriber/customer behavior at each stage. This enables you to understand what information they seek, what actions they are likely to take, and where potential drop-off points might exist. 

For more information, refer to Marketo’s documentation on the Engagement Map.

Leveraging Engagement Map in Adobe Marketo Engage

1. Channel Optimization

Any decision point related to multichannel marketing will be displayed on the Engagement Map. For example, if a new subscriber doesn’t open the first welcome email, a decision point indicating that a Facebook retargeting ad has been triggered to remind the subscriber to check their inbox will be visible on the map.

2. Multi-stage Nurturing

You can plan a multi-stage nurturing sequence using the Engagement Map. After you’ve sent the welcome email, or a series of welcome emails, you can segment subscribers based on behavior, which can include opening emails, clicking on a CTA button, clicking through to read a recent post on your blog, and so on. 

In the following example, you can see that the nurturing sequence is initiated when the subscriber clicks on a voucher. 

The sequence then branches out into four conditions as shown here. 

Each condition anticipates a potential action on the recipient’s part. A corresponding action on the sender’s part will be triggered upon a condition being met. But it’s just one instance of condition precedents. As the campaign proceeds, there will be several other such precedents in response to subscriber signals. At any point in time, you can revisit previous patterns for retrospective insight and validation. 

Read more: How To Accomplish Lead Nurturing Using Marketo Engagement Programs

3. Automated Lead Scoring

The Engagement Map is integrated with Marketo’s lead scoring system. Actions taken within the map can be assigned scores, depending on which you can prioritize leads that are more engaged and sales-ready. 

“Lead scoring,” explains Jonathan Chen, Senior Community Manager at Adobe, “is important for businesses as most ‘new’ leads into an automation system are not sales-ready. They don’t want to get a phone call from a salesperson 30 seconds after downloading their first whitepaper from your site! Lead scoring is designed to help you see who the most active leads are and who is engaging with you.”

The following is an illustration of automated lead scoring in Engagement Map. 

Note that the assigned score will not be visible on the Map. Marketo assigns a score between zero and 30 points, zero being indicative of no interactions yet on the part of the anonymous lead. The score is assigned on the basis of subscriber demographic attributes and behavioral characteristics. 

In fact, it may vary across different marketing channels as well. “For example, an email response could be 28 points, while a website visit could be 10 points, and a Google search for your company’s name or product could be one point,” explains Mark Simborg, Content Marketing Associate. Scoring is subjective to the degree that your interpretation of a prospect’s behavior strongly aligns with your brand’s definitions and standards of progress. 

4. Dynamic Content Delivery

The Map can trigger the delivery of dynamic content. For example, based on a subscriber’s location (pulled from a signup form), a decision point can display a region-specific personalized offer in the welcome email. 

In the below sequence, the trigger is initiated upon the website visitor filling out a signup form. Following which, a welcome email is sent to the new subscriber.

Next, the sequence shows two conditions for two locations. If the subscriber is based in New Zealand, a specific type of email is sent. But if the location is Melbourne, a different email is sent. If neither of the conditions are met, the sequence moves on to the next step. 

“A lead may only be a member of one segment in each segmentation, and will be a member of the first one that it qualifies for in each segmentation. If it does not qualify for a segment, then it will be a member of the Default segment, and will receive the default content for any given piece of dynamic content using that segmentation,” says the Marketo Developer documentation. 

Read more: Marketo Email Editor and its Functions – A Guide 

Engagement Map Best Practices

1. Start with Simple Campaigns

Since you’re new to Marketo Engagement Map, avoid building complex workflows immediately. Spend time getting used to the interface and functionality. Read up on the terminology; understand the purpose of each feature; identify limitations. 
For a detailed discussion of the Engagement Map, refer to this Engagement Map webinar conducted by Chris Fowler and Alex Seabrook of Marketo.

2. Identify Your Campaign Goals

Before building your flows, ask yourself, What do I want the campaign to achieve? 

Formulate your campaign goals clearly. This is because your decisions about triggers, filters, conditions, and flow steps will be based on your goals. Below is an instance of a trigger campaign. The flow is initiated in the event of a click. 

3. Follow Clear Naming Conventions

“Having good organization is a key piece of a successful Marketo Engage instance as it sets the groundwork for easy navigation, intuitive Programs and accurate reporting,” says Marketo Certified Expert, Natalie Kremer. 

As demonstrated in the earlier examples (see below image), each campaign, trigger, flow step, and decision point adheres to clear naming conventions. 

This fosters at-a-glance clarity and, over time, allows you to quickly review maps, saving time and effort, especially when managing multiple clients and complex journeys. For teams, well-described flow steps ensure that other members can quickly understand the map. 

4. Utilize The Slide-out Panel

The slide-out panel contains additional information on triggers and flow steps. Take advantage of the panel to access detailed information and edit settings without navigating away from the Map. Significantly, any relevant warning necessary to the execution of the campaign will also show up in the slide-out panel. You can view these red flags and, if needed, optimize your workflow accordingly. 

Learn more about the functionalities available within Engagement Maps. 

5. Utilize The Export Function

The Export function (see image below) comes in handy when you need to share campaign workflows with others. The Export feature allows you to download an image of the campaign visualization. Use it to explain your campaigns to relevant stakeholders and also to document your marketing efforts. 

Hire Marketo-certified Experts with Email Uplers!

We are Marketo-certified experts. Our team comprises Marketo-certified associates, developers, campaign managers, automation experts, and migration specialists. Hire ready-to-go, affordable Marketo experts without long-term contract commitments. Depending on your email marketing needs, you can bring on resources either full-time or part-time. Get in touch with our Marketo pros today! 

The post How to Leverage Engagement Map in Adobe Marketo Engage appeared first on Email Uplers.

Efficiently managing marketing operations, campaigns, and workflows in Marketo

-with Miray V, Marketo Solution Architect and Sr. Marketing Operations Manager, Qualcomm.

A marketing platform’s intuitiveness depends not only on its software features, which can be manifold yet misapplied, but especially on how well and smoothly those features align with a marketer’s vision in today’s landscape. The real test is how effectively it helps marketers navigate the complex terrain of marketing, sales, and customer touchpoints.

Marketo not just meets the standard in both areas, but raises it. We caught up with Miray V, a Marketo Solution Architect at Qualcomm, to explore the platform’s unique strengths and subtleties, providing insights that can empower marketers like you to use Marketo more strategically. Over to her!

In the realm of marketing automation solutions, Marketo stands out as a robust platform. In your expert opinion, which domains or types of businesses do you believe Marketo is particularly well-suited for, and what key attributes or functionalities make it a standout choice in those contexts?

Miray V : Marketo is widely recognized as a powerful marketing automation platform, especially for B2B companies and sectors such as technology, healthcare, and higher education. These areas often require detailed strategies for managing and nurturing leads, a task at which Marketo excels.

I believe a key strength of Marketo is its extensive lead management features. It provides sophisticated tools for segmentation, lead scoring, and nurturing, enabling businesses to effectively engage with prospects throughout different stages of the buying process. This is particularly important for B2B organizations, where sales cycles can be lengthy and intricate.

Moreover, Marketo’s excellent integration with various CRM systems is crucial for ensuring that marketing and sales teams are synchronized. This integration helps both teams to access consistent data, facilitating a more collaborative and effective approach to converting leads into customers.

Marketo provides valuable insights into campaign effectiveness and consumer behavior, enabling companies to make informed decisions and continuously refine their marketing tactics.

With its comprehensive features like advanced lead management and seamless CRM integration, Marketo is an ideal solution for businesses aiming to enhance their marketing automation strategies, particularly in complex sales environments and customer interaction scenarios.

Can you explain how we can leverage predictive analytics and machine learning within Marketo to enhance lead scoring and predictive marketing efforts?

Miray V : In my opinion, integrating predictive analytics and machine learning within Marketo not only enhances your marketing strategies but also maximizes the robust features of Marketo itself. We can leverage these new technologies i n many ways in Marketo, but here are some that come to mind:

Enhanced Lead Scoring

Utilize Marketo’s dynamic lead scoring capabilities by incorporating machine learning models that analyze historical conversion data. This approach allows you to refine how scores are assigned based on a lead’s likelihood to convert, making the scoring process more nuanced and predictive.

Segmentation and Targeting

Leverage Marketo’s advanced segmentation tools to group leads based on predictive analytics. This enables you to create more focused and effective marketing campaigns. For instance, Marketo can automate the sending of personalized emails to segments predicted to be most receptive at times when they are most likely to engage.

Personalization at Scale

Marketo’s personalization features can be enhanced with machine learning to analyze data from user interactions across multiple channels. This analysis helps in crafting customized messages and content that resonate with individual preferences, which can be automatically distributed through Marketo’s campaign management tools.

Automation of Nurturing Tracks

Marketo’s automation capabilities can be configured to trigger specific nurturing tracks based on the predictive scoring and segmentation. This means leads receive content and interactions that are most likely to move them down the funnel, based on their predicted behaviors and preferences.

It is important to keep in mind that in order to implement and/or use advanced features, you need a solid integration of Marketo with CRM and other data sources. These integrations offer a comprehensive view of each lead and customer, enhancing the data that powers your predictive analytics models.

Is it necessary to re-enter client secret keys in Marketo when they undergo renewal or are the credentials automatically updated to reflect the changes?

Miray V : The client secret in Marketo is essentially a password used to secure communications between your Marketo instance and other applications. It’s part of the OAuth authentication process, which helps to ensure that only authorized applications can access your data. Think of it as a key that unlocks your Marketo data for trusted applications. You need to keep this client secret safe and confidential to protect your data’s security. If any application that integrates with your Marketo instance undergoes a renewal that includes updating their client secret, you will need to manually update the new client secret in your Marketo settings. This ensures that the integration remains functional and secure, maintaining a proper connection between the services.

What steps can be taken to prevent a Marketo form submission from updating the existing data in the Lead Source field?

Miray V : Every organization has a different approach to managing Lead Sources, which represent how a lead initially enters the database. It’s crucial not to overwrite this field when other actions are taken, as the Lead Source provides essential historical context for each lead. When a person fills out a form, there are specific steps you can take to ensure that a Marketo form submission does not update the existing data in the Lead Source field

Field Blocking in Admin Settings

• Access the Admin section of your Marketo account.
• Select Field Management.
• Locate the Lead Source field in the list.
• Click on the field name to view its details.
• Opt to block field updates and choose the sources from which updates should be blocked, such as form fill-outs. This action prevents any forms from updating the Lead Source field.

Use of Hidden Form Fields

• When creating or editing your form, incorporate a hidden field for the Lead Source.
• Assign the default value of this hidden field as the existing value of the Lead Source field, using tokens (e.g., {{lead.Lead Source}}) if the value needs to be dynamically inserted.
• Since the field is hidden, it remains unchangeable by users, and submitting the form with this field ensures the original value is preserved.

Conditional Logic in Smart Campaigns

• Set up a Smart Campaign that activates upon form submission.
• Implement a filter to verify if the Lead Source is already populated.
• In the Flow step, configure a Change Data Value action to update the Lead Source only if it is currently empty or under specific conditions, ensuring updates occur only when appropriate.

JavaScript Customization on Forms

• If you’re proficient with JavaScript, you can directly modify the form’s behavior on your webpage.
• Develop a script to assess the Lead Source field’s value when the form loads. If a value is present, the script can either eliminate the field from the form or disable it, thus preventing any modifications.

Regular Audits and Data Management

• Conduct regular audits of your data management practices to ensure there are no unintended updates to critical fields like Lead Source.
• Develop a script to assess the Lead Source field’s value when the form loads. If a value is present, the script can either Establish alerts or reports to inform you of any unexpected changes to the Lead Source field.

Implementing these measures will help you effectively control the updating process of the Lead Source field in Marketo, ensuring that this vital data remains intact and accurate.

What are the best ways to leverage Marketo for lead nurturing, including drip campaigns, lead progression, and content recommendations to move leads through the funnel?

Miray V : Marketo offers robust functionalities for lead nurturing, making it an invaluable asset for guiding leads through the sales funnel. Understanding the differences between Drip Campaigns and Engagement Programs and choosing the right approach based on your company’s needs is crucial for optimizing the lead journey.

What are the advanced email deliverability and anti-spam strategies that we can implement within Marketo to ensure our emails reach the inbox and avoid being marked as spam?

Miray V : I am glad you ask this question, implementing email deliverability and anti-spam strategies in Marketo requires careful planning and execution. Here are some key points to keep in mind to ensure your emails not only reach the inbox but also engage your audience effectively

What are the current trends and innovations in marketing automation that we should take into account when utilizing Marketo to enhance our competitiveness and elevate our marketing initiatives?

Miray V : This is a great question. In the rapidly evolving world of Marketing Operations, it’s crucial to leverage the full capabilities of Marketo to stay ahead. I believe there are 2 key areas to focus on to elevate your Marketo instance

AI and Machine Learning

By leveraging AI and machine learning within Marketo, marketers can automate complex processes, make data-driven decisions, and deliver more personalized, effective marketing campaigns that resonate with their audience and drive conversions.

Content Personalization

Dynamic content personalization is a trend that continues to grow. Marketo enables the customization of content displayed to different users based on their preferences, behaviors, and past interactions, making your communications more relevant and engaging.

In what ways can Marketo be leveraged to implement account-based marketing strategies with a focus on personalized messaging and targeted initiatives at the account level?

Miray V : Marketo allows you to score accounts based on criteria that indicate their likelihood to buy, which can be customized to reflect the unique attributes of your target accounts. This helps in prioritizing and tailoring your marketing efforts to the most promising accounts.

• Use Marketo to segment accounts based on specific criteria and employ dynamic content to create personalized campaigns that resonate with each segment.
• Utilize Marketo’s automated workflows to nurture leads at the account level, ensuring timely and relevant engagement to guide them through the sales funnel.
• Engage target accounts across multiple channels seamlessly while using Marketo’s analytics tools to track campaign effectiveness and refine strategies for improved outcomes.

How does the implementation of a smart list contribute to account-based marketing in Marketo, and what steps can be taken to set up and optimize its use? Additionally, how does leveraging a smart list enhance the effectiveness of email marketing within an Account-Based Marketing strategy?

Miray V : First of all I want to say the smart lists are essential in Marketo various marketing strategies beyond ABM .I think biggest contribution of the use of the Smart List for ABM is to ensure Enhanced Targeting ; Smart lists help in refining the targeting process by using filters to select accounts based on specific criteria such as industry, company size, engagement level, and past interactions. This ensures that marketing efforts are concentrated on the accounts that are most likely to convert, increasing overall campaign efficiency.

How can AI be effectively applied in Marketo for businesses, and have you experienced benefits from utilizing AI tools in Marketo automation, enhancing your marketing optimization efforts?

Miray V : There are numerous AI applications used for Marketo, but I want to focus on how using AI tools has revolutionized lead scoring for optimal results. In the modern marketing landscape, traditional lead scoring often falls short in delivering quality leads to the sales pipeline. By leveraging AI to analyze historical data and identify patterns, businesses can predict which leads are most likely to convert. This capability allows companies to prioritize their efforts and tailor follow-ups more effectively. Employing AI in this way not only streamlines the process but also enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing campaigns, ensuring that resources are directed toward the most promising lead.

As we come to the end of this interview, our readers would like to know if there are any lesser-known but beneficial Marketo tools that you’ve embraced but aren’t widely utilized. Additionally, what tools do you wish Marketo to introduce in the times to come to streamline and expedite certain processes?

Miray V : Absolutely, I’m glad to share some insights on that. I’d like to highlight Marketo Sales Insight, which I believe is a powerful feature but tends to be underutilized. This feature enhances the alignment between sales and marketing teams by providing sales representatives with real-time insights into the behavior and interests of leads and customers. Sales teams can see which marketing materials a prospect has interacted with, which can inform more personalized and effective sales strategies. However, despite its potential to streamline and enhance sales efforts, Sales Insight is not as widely adopted as it could be.

Looking ahead, I would love to see Marketo introduce more advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Specifically, tools that could predict customer behaviors and automate content personalization at a deeper level would be fantastic. This would not only streamline the marketing process but also significantly enhance the precision and effectiveness of our campaigns.

To use Marketo to its fullest potential, you need an accurate, detailed understanding of the platform. And now you know what’s in the box to think outside of it.

Watch this space for more insightful conversations in the next quarter. Till then, happy marketing!

The post Expert Interview Series: Part 12 appeared first on Email Uplers.

Suppose you want a Fortune 500 company to hire your services. Would you expect it to happen in a matter of weeks? But you can shorten a nine-month sales period to six or seven months. Remember, you are never meant to hurry to close a deal. But where possible, you should optimize for minimum resource wastage and holdups. 

Enter lead nurturing. Done right, it can make conversations easier. An educated prospect is a confident prospect. It will also help you prioritize high-intent leads. We will learn how to do that in Marketo. We are Marketo-certified experts and we have firsthand experience of how Marketo lead nurturing can streamline the sales process. In this blog post, we will look at the following:

• What is lead nurturing in Marketo
  
• How to create a nurture program in Marketo
  • Create an engagement program
    
  • Add streams
    
  • Configure transition rules
    
  • Set stream cadence
    
  • Engagement score
    
• 3 best practices for lead nurturing in Marketo

What Is Lead Nurturing in Marketo?

Lead nurturing in Marketo is the process of building relationships with prospects at every stage of the sales process. 

“On average, half of leads in any given system are not yet ready to buy,” Marketo states. So how do you build relationships? By active listening. This enables you to provide relevant information to your prospects. You provide value in exchange for their trust. If they can trust you, they would consider buying from you. This is the whole lead nurturing process in a nutshell. 

In Marketo, this process takes various forms. It works through streams, cadences, engagement triggers, branching, and smart campaigns. 

How to Create A Nurture Program in Marketo?

In Marketo, you will build a nurture program through the Engagement Program. You will engage with prospects by sending them relevant content through streams. 

Next, you will set up Transition Rules to move prospects from one content stream to the next. Marketo has a number of default Transition Rules. You will also create smart campaigns to add prospects to your nurture program and to track program success. 

Finally, you will set up the cadence for your emails. This will tell Marketo when to send out the emails. In the first cast, Marketo will send out the first email in the stream. In the next cast, Marketo will send out the second email in the stream, and so on. 

Tracking program success is crucial. How will you know if your lead nurturing program was a success? The answer is through Engagement Scoring. Marketo takes in multiple metrics to calculate a single measure of engagement on a scale of 0-100. 0 represents no engagement. 100 represents active engagement. So here is the entire workflow in sum.

It was important to get a general idea of the process before going into the details. Now that you are aware of the workflow, let’s start by creating an Engagement Program. 

Create An Engagement Program

Learn how to create folders in Marketo. Once done, follow these three steps to a create an engagement program:

• Log in to your Marketo account. Click Marketing Activities

• Select the folder in which you want to create your engagement program. Then click New. Select New Program from the dropdown

• Name your Program. Select the Program Type. Click Save

You have successfully created a new Engagement Program in Marketo.  Next, you need to send targeted content through streams.

Add A Stream

Marketo allows you to add up to 25 streams to your engagement program. Follow these easy steps to add a new stream:

• Click Marketing Activities

• Select the engagement program you just created. Then, click the Streams tab

• Click Add Stream

That’s all! Suppose you added two streams for two segments. The first stream sends emails relevant to those at the top of the sales funnel. You can call the stream ‘Early Stage.’ The second stream sends emails relevant to those at the middle stage. Call it ‘Mid Stage.’ 

If a prospect matures, you need to move them out of the first stream, right? You don’t want to send a welcome email to a matured lead. This is what transitioning is all about in Marketo. So, it’s now time to set up the Transition Rules.

Set Up Transition Rules

Transitioning can’t happen in a vacuum. You need to define rules so that the system can understand when to shift a lead to another stream. Here are the steps:

• Go to Marketing Activities. Select your engagement program, and click Streams

• Click Transition Rules for the stream you want the lead to move to. (In our case, we want the matured lead to transition to the Mid Stage stream.) Click Edit Transition Rules

• You should see the following popup. Drag and drop your chosen trigger onto the interface. In this case, we want the lead to move into the Mid Stage when it is added to an opportunity 

• Set the operator as per your choice. If you choose the IS ANY operator, it means the lead will graduate to the Mid Stage over any added opportunity 

• Click Close, and that’s all.

So what did you do in the above steps? You defined a condition for the lead to be assigned to the next stage of the funnel. Whenever the lead is associated with a new opportunity, the Added to Opportunity trigger will fire. The lead will then exit the Early Stage stream, and leapfrog to Mid Stage. 

Next, you need to set the cadence of your stream. Keep reading! 

Set Stream Cadence 

You can set any cadence you want. Suppose you want to set a monthly cadence. Follow these steps:

• Go to Marketing Activities and click Streams. Select Stream Cadence

• The following dialog box appears. Select Monthly. That would be your first cast 

• Choose the date and time for the first cast. Click Save

You’re done! Your recipients will now receive emails once every month. You can also set a weekly cadence, or for every Sunday every two weeks at a particular time, etc. 

You set cadences on the basis of buyer journey and behavior. If a prospect is at the early stage, you want to stagger your sends. If they open and engage with your emails frequently, you can increase the cadence. They will then receive more content because they showed higher intent.

Engagement Score

You have successfully created your first lead nurturing program in Marketo. It remains to see how it performs over time. For this, keep tabs on Marketo’s Engagement Score. 

How does it work? Marketo relies on an inhouse algorithm to calculate the score. It looks at patterns of engagement and disengagement. It then compares your score to scores of similar nurture campaigns, and gives you an average score of 50. 

The score is calculated three days after every cast. It does not consider data beyond your previous three casts.  

Source

3 Best Practices for Marketo Lead Nurturing

In this final section, we will look at three best practices for lead nurturing in Marketo. We will touch on the use of skip logic, personalized email copy, and add-ons. 

1. Use Skip Logic to Prevent Sending Redundant Emails

You can configure the skip logic so that a lead does not receive content that they have already consumed. Follow these steps:

• Segment your audience into Smart Lists based on the criteria that determine email redundancy. Learn how to create a Smart List in Marketo.
  
• Add a Flow step to your campaign. In the flow, include a Decision Step that checks whether or not a lead is in the Smart List.
  
• Set up the skip logic. If the lead is NOT in the “Do Not Send” smart list, they will receive the email. If the lead IS in the list, they will not receive the email. In that case, you can divert the lead to a different smart list or campaign. 

Using the skip logic is a great way to send highly targeted emails. Plus, it eliminates email fatigue, resulting in reduced unsubscribe rates.

2. Personalize Your Email Copy for Max Engagement

You can use dynamic content in Marketo to send the same email to different audiences. Feel free to learn more about segmentation and personalization in Marketo. 

3. Improve Your Streams with The Help of Marketo Add-ons

You can use Marketo add-ons to deliver targeted content. One such add-on is Adobe Sensei, which leverages predictive and generative AI. Lear how Adobe Sensei can help you to utilize AI to improve your lead nurturing efforts. 

The point of using add-ons is to benefit from enhanced functionality and performance. While Marketo offers core functionalities, add-ons bring out their full potential. 

Since you want to shorten the sales cycle, add-ons can be a game-changer. You can consider trying Quividia, LeadSpace, Lean Data, Conversica, etc. Choose your Marketo Engage add-ons. 

Coming Back to You…

It’s okay if you have questions. You don’t have to understand all of Marketo at once. Re-read this article a few times over. If that doesn’t help, feel free to reach out to our Marketo experts. We’re a 150+-strong team of email experts. So far, we have worked with over 5000 brands and agencies across the globe. 

We’re not asking for commitment. We’ll be happy to answer any questions. Whether or not you go with us, your decision will be an informed one. 

The post A Guide to Shortening B2B Sales Cycles with Marketo Lead Nurturing appeared first on Email Uplers.

It’s understandable. Naturally, no two ESPs are alike in their proprietary offerings, data integration methods, and implementation logic. Terminology is arguably one of the biggest hindrances. Add to that the problem of regular platform updates. It’s hard to keep up, unless you’re fully invested. 

But you don’t have the time to read through every ESP documentation. As a result, if you’re failing to implement proven marketing strategies (e.g. segmentation and marketing), it’s naturally depressing. 

Now, we’ve been expanding our portfolio over the years, and today we have experts proficient in more than 50 ESPs, Marketo being one of them. In this geek guide, we will take you through the ins and outs of Marketo segmentation and personalization. Don’t worry, it’s not exactly rocket science. 

Marketo Segmentation: Defining Segment Rules

You must define segment rules before you can do segmentation in Marketo. The purpose of defining segment rules is to categorize your contacts into “different mutually exclusive groups.” This means that contacts can exist in only one group at a time so that there’s no overlapping. Here’s how to do it in Marketo:

• Log in to your Marketo account and go to Database.

• Click Segmentation in the dropdown, and choose a Segment.

• Click Smart Lists to add filters.

• Fill in the filters with the right values.

• Click the People (Draft) tab to view contacts that you think are eligible for this segment. 

• Select the Segmentation Actions dropdown, and click Approve.

Marketo Segmentation: Implementation 

We have successfully defined the segment rules. Now it’s time to implement segmentation in Marketo for real. Follow these simple steps:

• Go to Database. Click New. From the dropdown, select New Segmentation as shown below. 

• Enter a Name. Click Add Segment. Then click Create. You can add up to 100 segments.

• You can now drag and drop the segments to establish their priority. That done, click Create. 

Marketo Email Personalization: Understanding Tokens, Dynamic Content, And Velocity Scripting

Email personalization in Marketo depends mainly on tokens, dynamic content, and velocity scripting. Let’s start with tokens.

Tokens

Tokens are simply placeholder variables. Marketo offers a host of tokens, such as Person tokens, company tokens, campaign tokens, system tokens, trigger tokens, custom tokens, etc. 

Every token you use should have a default value. In other words, if you use a First Name token, its default value will be the relevant contact’s name. In this way, you can personalize a single email, so that every contact in a segment will receive the same email addressed to them individually. 

In the following example, the default value is “earthling.”

Dynamic Content

But tokens alone are not the answer. Without dynamic content, personalization is useless. In Marketo, you can add dynamic content blocks to your email. Learn how to implement dynamic content in Marketo in the following steps:

• Log in to your Marketo account, and go to Marketing Activities, as shown in the following image. 

• Choose the email where you want to use dynamic content. Select Edit Draft. 

• Suppose we want to make the subject line dynamic. Click inside the field, and choose the Make Dynamic option. 

• Now you need to apply segmentation. In this example, segmentation is by geography. Once done, click Save. 

• Now it’s just a matter of applying Dynamic Content. So click your segments, add the subject line, and then repeat for each segment. 

Now seems a good time to introduce another quintessential Marketo feature called snippets. Snippets are not strictly necessary for Marketo email personalization. But snippets come in handy when you want to personalize reusable elements in your email. 

For instance, you can create an email signature snippet that will change dynamically based on the recipient’s location. You create a snippet once, then reuse it in multiple places. This means you can also update a snippet centrally. Update it once, and it will be updated across your digital marketing assets. 

“Tokens” and “snippets” might sound synonymous, but they’re two completely different things in Marketo. While tokens are placeholders, snippets are reusable blocks of HTML content that may include tokens, images, text, etc. So a token acts as a data reference, and a snippet is a content entity.

Velocity Scripting

Last but not least, for advanced personalization, Marketo offers Velocity scripting. This is mainly development-oriented. It allows the developer to write code snippets (different from snippets previously discussed) that can manipulate data and generate content dynamically within an email. 

For instance, if you need to send out an email solely targeted at active subscribers, not contacts or potential subscribers, your assigned developer can write a Velocity script within an email to check the “hasActiveSubscription” field. If the field is “true,” then the script will show the content; else, it will hide it. 

Take another example. Say, you want to personalize product recommendations. The Velocity script will now check the “lastPurchasedProduct” field. If it is “true,” the script will access the subscriber’s purchase history and recommend complementary products; else, no recommendations. 

If your development team needs help, they can go through Marketo’s Email Scripting documentation. Meanwhile, here’s how to implement Velocity scripting in Marketo:

• Go to Marketing Activities in the Marketo dashboard. Then select a program as shown below. 

• Go to My Tokens, and drag in an Email Token.

• Give a name to your token, then click to edit its content.

• You should see the following dropdown on the right. Drag in your token in the way shown here.

• Now the token is active within the script editor.

• Next, you write the code in Velocity. Once you complete the script, click Save. 

• Click Save again. And you’re good to go!

Closing The Loop: What Next?

Mastering an ESP can be time-consuming. Being good at it is only half the battle; if you want to see results, you should be able to rely on your intuition. Documentation can help, but there are many things a marketer needs to intuit mid-campaign, which are not necessarily found in documentation. It’s a matter of experience.  

Not to mention the usual roadblocks such as understanding all features and functionalities of an ESP, campaign complexity, integration challenges, and data management practices. 

But you can always outsource your email marketing needs to our ESP-locked experts. Feel free to get in touch with our full-time Marketo-certified team of seasoned, bankable professionals. 

Trust us, you’ll save a lot of cognitive as well as financial drain by launching your next Marketo campaign with us. 

The post How to Implement Marketo Segmentation And Personalization appeared first on Email Uplers.

Ever since its makeover seven years ago, Marketo Email Editor has helped businesses employ email for marketing in a more dynamic way. In this post, we will explore the various functionalities of Marketo Email Editor, starting with modules. 

Incidentally, if you are looking to switch to Marketo, get in touch with our Marketo-certified migration specialists for a hassle-free transition.

Table of content:

• Adding Modules 
• Creating an Email Template
• Editing Emails 
• Forward to a Friend Link
• Adding a Calendar Event 
• Operational Emails 
• Creating Dynamic Content 
• Previewing Dynamic Content 
• Downloading and Editing Email HTML
• Adding Tracked Links

1. Adding Modules via Marketo Email Editor

In Marketo, a module refers to a section of your email that is defined within a particular template. Follow these steps to add modules in the Email Editor. 

• First, create an email. Make sure to choose a template that contains modules. (We will look at the Editor’s Template Picker in more detail in just a while.) 

• Now, click Modules on the right-hand side of the email as shown in the image below.

• Now choose the module you wish to add and then drag it over to the email as shown.Now choose the module you wish to add and then drag it over to the email as shown.

• You will notice a Drop Here option as you drag the new module over to your email. Drop the module where you want it to appear. 

• Having dropped the new module, wait for a few seconds for the email to auto-refresh, following which it will display the updated look. 

Now, the Email Editor also gives you the option to move your module within your email. This means that you don’t have to drag a new module each time you want to modify placement. 

There are two ways of moving a module within your email. You can either hover over the module and then drag it over to the desired place, or you can select the module to be moved, click the subsequent gear icon, and choose between Move up and Move down. 

2. Creating An Email Template in Marketo Email Editor

Before we look at how to create a new template in the Email Editor, one important point: do not use camel case since the Editor converts color values and CSS properties to lowercase.

Now, follow these steps to create a new template in Marketo Editor:

• Click Design Studio and then click New. The dropdown should reveal the New Email Template option as shown below. Click on it. 

• When you are creating a new template, Marketo Email Editor gives you a number of free templates to choose from, thanks to its new Email Template Picker. 

• Go to Starter Templates if you want a pre-built, responsive template. Or you can choose My Templates if you would like to use your own templates. 

• You can also preview each template and it will show you how the template will render on desktop and mobile.
  
• You can use template thumbnails which are live. This allows the thumbnail to change in tandem with any changes you make in the template. 

• Once you choose a template, enter a suitable name for it and then click Create. (Follow widely accepted naming conventions for easy retention and immediate recognition.)

• You can also save an email as a template for future use. For that, first click Marketing Activities (next to Design Studio). Select an email and then click Edit Draft as shown below. 

• Next, go to Email Actions (next to Edit Draft as shown above) and select Save as Template on the drop down menu.
  
• In the dialog box that appears, click the Folder option and choose where you want to save the template, then click Save. 

3. Editing Emails in Marketo Email Editor

Marketo allows you to edit rich text, snippets, images, and videos in an email. It is very easy to edit these four elements within the Editor. Just follow these steps:

• Select your email and click Edit Draft to open the Email Editor.
  
• Select the rich text/snippet/image/video, click the gear icon, and select Edit.
  
• For rich text, edit the text and click Save.
  
  For images, you will be taken to the Image Editor; choose from where you want to import the new image (Design Studio, My Computer, or External URL). That done, press Swap.
  
  For snippets, find your new snippet and add it in the Insert Snippet dialog box. Likewise for adding video. Just paste the video URL in the Insert Video dialog box. Finally, click the Insert option. And you are good to go!

You can learn how to edit rich text, snippets, images, and videos through screenshot illustrations right here.

4. ‘Forward to A Friend Link’ in Marketo Email Editor 

Now we come to the various default functions within the Email Editor, the first of which is the Forward to a Friend Link option. Adding this to your email enables you to track people who have received a forwarded message via this link.

If the recipients are not on your list, they are added automatically. Follow these steps to add the Forward to a Friend Link:

• Go to Design Studio. Select the email you want to add the link to, then click Edit Draft.
  
• Now add this HTML code where you want the link to appear: 
  
  <pre data-theme=”Confluence”><a href=”{{system.forwardToFriendLink}}”>Forward to Friend</a></pre>

• (You can preview the template by clicking Preview Draft.) The HTML code ensures that all the emails that use this template will have the link option.
  
  When a recipient clicks the link, they will be redirected to the web version of the email with a Forward to a Friend dialog box as shown below.

You can also add the Forward to a Friend link to an individual email. 

5. Adding A Calendar Event in Marketo Email Editor

You can add a calendar event in your email. First, you need to create a calendar event file (.ics) and then follow these steps to add the event:

• Click where you want the calendar token to go, then click Insert Token. You should see the following dialog box. 

• Insert the token and click Save.

Next, we look at how to make an email operational. 

6. Operational Emails in Marketo Email Editor 

An operational email is intended to share an important message with customers. Follow these steps to make an email operational in the Editor. 

• Open the email you want to make operational and click Edit Draft.
  
• The Editor opens. Now click the Email Settings option.
  
• Choose the Operational email option in the Edit Settings dialog box and click Save.

7. Create Dynamic Content in Marketo Email Editor

Before you create dynamic emails, you need to create a segmentation. Adding it is the first step to create a dynamic email in the Editor:

• Go to Marketing Activities, select your email, and then click Edit Draft.
  
• Suppose you want to make the subject line dynamic. Just click inside the Subject field, and then select the Make Dynamic button on the far right as shown below. 

• Next, in the Segment by dialog box, enter a name for your segmentation, and click Save.

• Now, in order to apply dynamic content, click the segment just created and add your subject line. Repeat the process for each of your segments and you’re done.

8. Preview Dynamic Content in Marketo Email Editor

Given the nature of dynamic emails, you should always preview one before sending it out to your contacts. Follow these steps to preview dynamic email in the Editor:

• Select your dynamic email. Go to the Content tab and choose the Dynamic option.

• Choose the content you want to preview on the Dynamic dropdown as shown below.

9. Download And Edit an Email HTML in Marketo Editor

Downloading an email’s HTML in Marketo is a one-step process. Just select the email, go to Email Actions, and click Download HTML. That’s all! 

When you need to edit an email’s HTML, follow these steps:

• Select the email and click Edit Draft. Then click Edit Code as shown in the screenshot.

• Make the necessary changes and when done, click Save. Next, select the Code Actions option and download the code as an .html file. 

10. Add Tracked Links in Marketo Email Editor

Marketo allows you to track text email links. If you have created a text-only email and now want to track links, follow these steps:

• Select your text-only email and click Edit Draft as shown in the following screenshot.

• Now double-click the area where you want to add the link as shown below. 

• Enter the URL within double brackets as shown in the screenshot. That done, close the Editor and approve the draft. 

That’s A Wrap!

Marketo Email Editor combines capability and flexibility to realize a brand of email marketing that is driven as much by human vision as by technological efficacy. The result inevitably is progressive, persuasive engagement with the target demographic, leading to better, more qualified customer relationships. 

The post An Exhaustive Look at Marketo Email Editor And Its Functionalities appeared first on Email Uplers.