Marketo Q1 Resolutions

Database Hygiene Report 
Data is and will be the engine that drives marketing.  Without a good clean data source, Marketo will not have the power to drive the marketing results required by fast paced marketing departments.  One tool to accomplish this hygiene goal is a lead quality data report.  This report consists of key database fields that are missing data. As leads come into the database, we identify any gaps in the current data process. At the beginning of each quarter, you can use this report to help review your Marketo database to ensure it’s as optimized as possible. 

To create this report, first start with:

1. Group smart lists in your database.  You can create a new folder called Database-Heath-Check, or whatever name you would like to group the smartlists. Be sure to create a smartlist for each key field that your organization feels is crucial or is used to segment audience members.  For example: email address, state, postal code, phone, etc.  Each of these fields should look for invalid or empty data. 
2. The next step is to create a report in analytics that pulls leads created within the past 90 days containing custom columns of the smartlists you previously created in the Database-Health-Check folder. This report will illustrate how many leads are being created with empty or faulty data. Before any cleanup of the database can occur, you should first address any incoming data graphs.

Email Template Review 
At least once a year, email templates should be reviewed and checked for the following items:

1. Brand compliance  
   Has your brand changed or been modified?  Does your email template reflect the most current look and feel of your company? Review the current template and make sure it’s in 100% compliance with your company’s brand guide. 
2. Client compliance  
   Is your email template constant across all browsers? It’s time to fully test the email template across multiple clients to ensure all modules and elements are rendering properly.  Use Email, Acid, or Litmus to perform this test. 
3. Modernization compliance  
   Does your template feel contemporary, or is it in need of a redesign? There is no set tool for this other than to review your inbox of other emails that match your company’s sector.  Do yours feel out of date or stale?  If it does, it might be time to refresh the look of your template. 

Performance Reports 
Performance reports are generally used by most marketers and are a key indicator of the health of an email campaign.  If you are not using them, its time you started!  Use Q1 to implement those reports to gain a better understanding of how your campaigns are performing.  If you are already using those reports, here are some key things to consider in Q1:

1. Are the reports accurate?  
   Are your click rates effected by bots? Open rates with iOS 15 are not as accurate as they used to be based on privacy changes in the new Apple operating system.  Of course, this is just the latest of changes that marketers have had to adjust to and will have pivot on as technology changes.  The key to all reports is knowing their strength and weaknesses and using conversion goals and metrics to get a true understanding of a campaign’s performance. 
2. Are you using the reports to drive testing?  
   As we mentioned, reports are just one metric used to review the overall success of a campaign but are still relevant in helping to drive performance. Take Q1 to set up a few A/B tests.  Is your subject line perfect or something you might want to adjust to see if you can nudge open rates?  Does your content need to be changed or even dynamic? Use Q1 to review your campaigns and reports to be proactive and test, test, test. 
3. Have you done a deep dive into your reports?  
   Leverage Q1 to really dive into those reports.  Are you seeing a one-off change or is there a deeper trend you are missing in those reports?  We all fall into the habit of seeing a weekly report come in and just scan it to get a general sense of the report, but do you really know what is happening with your campaigns across multiple weeks and months?

These are just a few processes you can adopt in Q1 to help review your Marketo instance.  While there is not one, two, or three items you can do to optimize your Marketo performance, the key is to understand that your instance and marketing objects are always maturing and changing based on business requirements. Use the beginning of the year to take a deep breath and look at your instance, campaigns, and data in a new light.