What is our primary use case?
Marketo is used for creating landing pages and sending email newsletters. It is mostly used for engaging the leads more and sending invitations and offers. There is also a program where region-wise, people get a notification whenever there is a new lead. I work with Salesforce integration with customs fields in the backend.
I mainly work on the entire thing, that is, from designing to coding to implementation. I have one or two members who provide support in designing assets just in case if I need support. I focus on the designing aspects through Design Studio of Marketo, where I plan for the design of the email that will get us more leads and fills ups of the forms. I also use it for tracking customers from social media such as Facebook, setting up UTM parameters, customizing forms, and customizing designs for the landing pages, emails, variables, etc.
I work on the latest as well as the earlier versions of this solution. Some of my clients are using the earlier versions, and some of them are using the latest version. Most of my clients are global enterprises, and it is deployed in the cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
You can hold up to your leads and customers and send them offers. You can get the repeating leads. It has definitely been helpful in holding up the leads and converting them to customers.
What is most valuable?
It is a very user-friendly solution. I'm mainly working on Design Studio, which is useful for companies in tracking repeat users. The progressive proofing is also useful. It is not available in other solutions.
What needs improvement?
I had an issue while integrating JavaScript with forms. When you embed JavaScript, you can either embed it in a landing page or some other self-contained management system like WordPress. Currently, it provides you access to CSS, where you can customize your form design, but there is no option for JavaScript modification for a particular form. This area needs to be improved where you can integrate JavaScript, and it has the JavaScript functions for that particular form.
There are a lot of other areas of improvement. In the design area, they can give us more testing options instead of relying on email testing alone. It would be great if they can provide responsive testing where email clients can be tested within Marketo. It would be also helpful if they can implement some in-built options for users or forms for blocking a generic email ID such as Yahoo or Gmail. Similarly, it would be helpful to have JavaScript features and forms as well as the option to add Google analytics and a header and footer for the landing pages.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Marketo for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. The only issue is that it is slow because it has a lot of features. Other than that, it is a very stable automation process.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is definitely scalable. After Adobe acquired it, they have scaled it and implemented a lot of features in it. It is definitely more scalable now. Most of my clients are global companies.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support gives you just the basic support. If you need more or in-depth information, you can approach the community. The community is great, and a lot of solutions are available in the community forum.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used a lot of other solutions before using Marketo. MailChimp was the first product that I used. I then moved to ActiveCampaign and a lot of other solutions and started learning Marketo. I prefer working on Marketo because it has a lot of features and a lot of value for money. It is a niche solution, and many people will not get the opportunity to work on it.
Marketo differs from ActiveCampaign in terms of how it integrates with CRM such as Salesforce and how you create programs. It is very unique and different from ActiveCampaign. I would give a ten out of ten for Marketo and a three out of ten for ActiveCampaign.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was mostly straightforward. You just need to know the steps and follow the procedure. It was easy for me because of my experience in working with a lot of projects. The deployment took a couple of hours. It was quick.
What was our ROI?
My clients have definitely seen a return on investments by using Marketo. Their product's growth has definitely increased.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure about the cost because I don't get into this aspect. Clients normally take care of that. I only know that it is costly, and I don't think there are any additional costs to the licensing.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend this solution. The confidence that I got from working on Marketo is tremendous. Many people do not get the opportunity to work on it. It is a very important solution for any developer where your competition is less, and you learn new things. You will not be able to get out without purchasing the software.
We plan to increase its usage. It is the most used automation software in global MNCs. The cost could be the only issue why some small companies move away to some other software, but considering the features it offers, it provides value for money.
I would rate Marketo a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
There are certainly more budget-friendly platforms out there, but the pricing is within the range of what I would expect for an enterprise solution. The renewal process has proven challenging. We've had a new rep every year, and Marketo generally requests a substantial price increase.