It’s your first day in your new construction job. You feel nervous but hopeful that you’ll meet the expectations. Suddenly, you stumble back in surprise: you’ve been tasked to build a skyscraper. While they didn’t specify the exact height or dimensions, the goal is clear: create the tallest and most impressive skyscraper possible.
Although this is a challenging endeavor, it’s certainly not impossible. The world’s tallest skyscrapers share common characteristics: they’re supported by solid foundations and feature a blend of modern yet efficient designs.
These structures typically showcase elegant interiors, sharp exterior edges, and streamlined architecture that becomes more refined as it reaches towards the sky.
However, before considering the intricate details and golden ornaments, you need a starting point to lay the first stone of your skyscraper. Everything begins with a great and solid foundation, which fundamentally determines how high you can build.
Each new floor represents an addition that builds upon your ground level, but this is only possible when everything is done correctly from the beginning. Otherwise, you risk collapsing the entire building, hopefully with no one inside.
The Marketo Foundation Principle
Just as skyscrapers require a strong foundational base that determines their ultimate height and luxury potential, Marketo instances operate on the same principle.
I view the higher floors of the skyscraper as advanced AI implementations, predictive lead scoring models, buying groups, enrichment and similar sophisticated processes. These are built on top of your existing infrastructure and receive support from the stepping stones of your systems.
Whenever I examine a new instance, I always ask myself before proceeding further: do we have the basics right?
My Foundational Questions
For me, the main foundational base of every Marketo instance centers on the following aspects, presented as essential “do we” questions:
- Do we have strict control of permissions and roles?
- Do we have a solid internal folder structure?
- Do we have a standardized and effective naming convention?
- Do we have a reliable CRM sync?
- Do we have the necessary amount of fields?
- Do we have a Center of Excellence with optimized templates?
- Do we have our data entry points assessed?
- Do we have a lead lifecycle that supports the entire buying journey?
Failing to meet any of these foundational steps can lead to significant difficulties when implementing more advanced features such as lead scoring, attribution systems, lead routing, or AI capabilities.
As the saying goes, before running a marathon, you should first learn how to develop an effective running technique.
My Actionable Steps
Here are my recommended action items for addressing each foundational question:
Permissions and Roles: Perform a comprehensive role and permission audit. Additionally, assign expiration dates for contractors and consistently follow the principle of least privilege.
Folder Structure: Ask an external person to navigate your instance. If they have trouble finding an asset, then it’s time to rethink how your instance is organized.
Naming Convention: Review all programs built in the last year. Do they all follow the same structure? Identify any redundancies that need addressing.
CRM Sync: Check for Salesforce Sync steps, as you should only have one or very few of them. Do search for any sync errors in the Notifications tab.
Field Management: Create a Data Dictionary that maps all fields between Marketo and your CRM. Subsequently, assess which fields are needed for marketing efforts and hide or delete unnecessary ones.
Center of Excellence: Create a centralized folder with all necessary programs for campaign creation. Then ask yourself: are there any steps we could optimize?
Data Entry Points: Map all possible ways a lead can enter your instance and look out for potential duplication entry points. Also, determine which fields are being populated at every entry point.
Lead Lifecycle: Audit your lead lifecycle and consider all possible scenarios that could occur. Run smart lists to double-check the automations in place.
Some Final Thoughts
Always strive to maintain an objective mindset and seek second opinions when needed. However, if you want to reach the top floors, the basic features must be implemented correctly from the start.
If you were to ask how tall my Marketo skyscraper is, I would say it’s currently a solid 50-story building that’s under renovation to add more substantial elements to its structure.