How to Implement Marketo: Step-By-Step Checklist

Mitigate Implementation Risks –  Foolproof Your Marketo Setup from Start to Finish

Without proper implementation, Marketo can quickly become a technical nightmare.  You’ll face integration issues, data errors, and a system that eats your time & revenue. This marketo implementation checklist ensures a streamlined setup, and a smooth deployment, giving your team a powerful, error-free head start from day one.

Admin

The Admin section of the Marketo implementation checklist is where you control the nuts and bolts of your Marketo instance. This includes managing user access, permissions, and API roles, along with workspace setup and database settings to optimize organization and data flow.  

Users & Roles – This section covers the management of individuals who can access your Marketo instance and the level of control they have. It includes settings for user creation and expiration, defining specific roles with tailored permissions, and using API roles for security. 

Workspaces & Partitions – This section focuses on how your Marketo instance is organized for optimal usage. It includes defining the purposes of workspaces/partitions, setting access rules, and documenting the logic of your setup, ensuring everyone understands the structure.

Smart Campaign Settings – This section allows for customization of smart campaigns to enhance efficiency. It includes options to set limits on campaign size, as well as restrictions on how often individuals can be targeted.

Email Settings – This section deals with the default settings applied to all outgoing emails in Marketo.  It includes establishing baseline elements and configuring SPF and DKIM authentication for reliable email delivery.

Communication Limits – This section helps you maintain a positive sender reputation by setting limits on how much communication can be sent from  Marketo. It includes options for caps based on individual or overall volume.

Tags – This section is dedicated to organizing and segmenting your audience for targeted campaigns. It covers defining how channels and tags are used for reporting and potentially includes managing a marketing calendar for planning.

Database Management – This section focuses on maintaining accurate data within Marketo. It includes creating clear naming conventions for custom fields, strategic syncing with your CRM, and potentially the use of custom activities and objects for optimized tracking.

Integrations – This section deals with how Marketo connects with your other systems. It includes understanding access levels for your  CRM, configuring integrations like Sales Insight, setting up landing page domains and website tracking, and managing API usage.

Treasure Chest & Others – This section covers additional features and settings within Marketo.  It includes reviewing what’s enabled in the Treasure Chest, utilizing tools like Campaign Inspector, and staying informed with system status updates, alerts, and notifications. It also outlines Target Account Management functionality if relevant.

Marketo Target Account Management (TAM) – Marketo TAM is a tool that helps you focus your marketing on your most important target accounts. It allows you to tailor your campaigns and messaging specifically to those high-value companies.

Design Studio

The Design Studio is your creative hub. This section is for building landing pages, emails, and forms.  Here, you can focus on creating templates and global elements for consistency across campaigns. Be mindful of privacy compliance and use picklists to ensure clean, usable data.

Landing Pages – This section focuses on building and managing the landing pages used in your campaigns. It emphasizes reusable global landing page templates, ensuring consistent design,  and upholding

Emails – This section is dedicated to the design and management of your email communications. You’ll find tools for creating reusable global email templates, a focus on modular design for efficiency, and resources to ensure compliance with privacy regulations.

Snippets – This section offers reusable blocks of content or code used in emails or landing pages. Snippets streamline your workflows and help maintain brand consistency.

Images & Files – This area centers around the organization of your visual assets. It emphasizes consistent naming conventions for easy retrieval, a well-defined folder structure for accessibility, and includes tools for managing the images and files used in your campaigns.

Marketing Analytics

One of the most important tips on “how to use marketo” is to familiarize yourself with the marketing analytics section. It is all about organizing and streamlining your marketing analytics to extract the most valuable insights. 

Organization – This area focuses on the structural elements that keep your Marketo instance well-organized. It includes establishing consistent naming conventions, a clear folder structure, and program templates for efficiency.  Additionally, it covers managing archiving, notifications, and smart list subscriptions to stay informed.

Assets – Here, you’ll find tools for streamlining your marketing efforts. This includes  using tokens for personalization, setting up engagement programs,  configuring trigger and batch campaigns, and developing local forms when needed.

Operational Programs – These programs focus on maintaining a healthy database and effective external communications. They include implementing lead scoring, defining lead source tracking, standardizing data, setting up dynamic chats, managing bounced emails, and adhering to privacy regulations.

Analytics Section

This section focuses on the reports you’ll use to track campaign results and analyze marketing performance.  Key reports include email performance, lead behavior, web activity, program success, lead status, and revenue cycle modeling. These provide the data you need to optimize campaigns and demonstrate marketing’s ROI.

Reports – The reports part offers a range of reports to track and analyze your marketing efforts. It includes performance metrics for emails (overall and by individual links), lead behavior, web page activity, and individual programs. Additionally, you can generate reports based on lead status.

Revenue Cycle Model – The Revenue Cycle Model offers insights into lead progression through the sales funnel, and the Success Path Analyzer helps identify which marketing touchpoints are most effective in driving conversions.

Database

The database section is dedicated to maintaining a healthy, accurate database. It emphasizes managing unsubscribes, bounced emails, and potential duplicates to ensure clean data.  It also covers smart list strategies, acquisition programs for lead tracking, and the limitations of segmentations within Marketo.

System Smart Lists – These pre-configured lists provide insights into specific aspects of your database. They include lists for your entire database, unsubscribed contacts, leads with suspended marketing activities, blacklisted email domains, invalid or bounced email addresses, potential duplicate records, and leads without a designated acquisition program.

Group Smart Lists & Group Lists – Here, the focus is on organization within your database. Group smart lists let you combine multiple smart lists, and group lists allow you to create folders and structure your lists for easy access.

Segmentations – This area deals with dividing your database into targeted groups for personalized marketing. Remember, Marketo has limitations on the number of segments you can create.

Outside Marketo Instance

Outside Marketo Instance focuses on the data flow between Marketo and your other systems. It highlights the need for careful planning about which fields sync, along with clear documentation to ensure everyone understands your data structure.  

Data – This area focuses on how data moves in and out of your Marketo instance. It’s crucial to define which data sources will be used for imports and carefully plan what fields will sync between Marketo and your other systems for optimal data flow and usage.

Documentation – This area emphasizes clear and organized records for smooth Marketo operations.  A data dictionary explains your fields,  documentation outlines how your instance is structured, and a changelog tracks changes over time. Playbooks define standard workflows, and open communication with stakeholders ensures Marketo aligns with your business goals.

Conclusion

This checklist will help you navigate those complexities. If you find yourself needing more in-depth assistance, our Marketo Consulting Services offer the expertise to address any implementation challenges.