In the beginning, marketing software was conceived to manage and organize only certain aspects of marketing, that is, they were focused on specific areas. With time, the main platforms have achieved such a high degree of development that they control all the processes integrally related to marketing. And this can be achieved with Marketo. We will explain it to you in this post!
What is Marketo?
The Marketo platform is one of those software examples that vary from an inbound marketing strategy to the automation of other marketing processes, without overlooking other aspects such as email campaigns or event organization.
The marketing professional who uses Marketo software probably feels like a pilot at the controls of a platform capable of controlling all areas related to his work.
Marketo management areas
The possibilities of Marketo are so wide that for their inventory and analysis, it is essential to divide them into areas or blocks:
- Marketing automation
- Inbound marketing
- Email marketing
- Social networks
- Events
- Mobile
- Sales Analysis
- Financial management
Let’s analyze them one by one.
1# Marketing automation
Marketo is a high-quality computer tool that, when used properly, can be very useful to achieve more and better sales with the least amount of effort, both in working hours and in economic costs. That is, this platform can be an ideal channel to achieve a positive Return on Investment (ROI).
Marketo allows you to automate the most mechanical and heavy marketing tasks such as:
- Massive sending of emails with all kinds of information about products and services: features, offers, newsletters, white papers, comparatives, etc.
- Analysis and selection of the most suitable potential clients based on multiple variables ( lead scoring ): age, sex, economic level, tastes, websites they visit, the information they have required, etc.
- Sales management with a direct customer orientation, which is known as CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
2# Contents
The varied and quality contents, with the emphasis on relevant data and argumentation, are increasingly valued by customers.
In this area, the Marketo program allows, among other things:
- Publish content easily and quickly on a multitude of channels: websites, blogs, YouTube channels, social networks, etc.
- Generate more traffic with the implementation of SEO and SEM positioning techniques.
- Develop effective conversion techniques for lead visits through forms.
- Design attractive, impressive and professional landing pages quickly and easily using templates.
3# Email marketing
Despite not having a very good image, email marketing is a method, already master, but widely used for its effectiveness of advertising on the network.
With Marketo software you can achieve:
- Eliminate the appearance of spam through personalized emails to each client.
- Startup lead nurturing processes, that is, personalized and automated email campaigns for the education of database leads.
- Design striking and high-quality emails thanks to its own editor, easy to use and intuitive.
- Integration with the main database of the company to be able to send mass emails quickly and easily.
- Message testing using lists of random samples generated automatically.
- Possibility to change the content of the email at any time and incorporate dynamic content.
- Subscription and withdrawal management.
4# Social networks
The possibilities of this software in the area of ​​social media include, among other issues:
- Links to the main social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. from other points, such as the company’s social network, advertising emails, etc.
- Automatic integration of social networks with inbound marketing strategies and marketing automation actions.
5# Events
Events are also an important focus on demand generation and brand support.
The Marketo platform incorporates a series of functionalities that help the organization and promotion of events :
- Sending personalized invitations and reminders to enhance attendance.
- Simplification of the billing process.
- Integration of providers that offer online webinar services.
- Post-event follow-up actions.
6# Mobile
Marketo also has features to implement mobile marketing actions, such as the following:
- It allows delivering personalized messages and notifications through an application or other channels taking into account the characteristics of the users and their behavior.
- Show messages to users and customers in real-time and based on their location.
- It has a section in which you can consult visual dashboards of user behavior with mobile marketing campaigns and the results achieved.
7# Sales analysis
Marketo can help improve sales through:
- Identification of potential customers most likely to acquire a particular product or service. To prepare this list, a large amount of very different data and parameters are analyzed, thus establishing a specific score ( scoring ).
- These previously chosen clients are immediately highlighted so that a sales action can be carried out on them as soon as possible.
- Automatic sending of emails to those selected.
8# Financial management
A different dimension within the possibilities of marketing software is the preparation of budgets, to keep them within the limits previously set.
Some of Marketo’s features in this area are:
- Investment organization by marketing, equipment, and location.
- Monitoring and comparison of the planned budget and the one actually used.
- Management and reconciliation of invoices and purchase orders.
Marketo’s strengths and weaknesses
1# Strengths
The strengths that make Marketo stand out from other similar applications in the market are:
2# Weaknesses
Based on the fact that Marketo is one of the best marketing applications in the market, within that remarkable general tonic it also has some weaknesses in relation to some competing software:
Conclusion
As a conclusion, we will try to graphically represent this software, undoubtedly of great quality and pointer in its specialization. For this, we will draw an imaginary line, where in the emerging part they would be: its more than acceptable integration of the different aspects of marketing and certain details that make it stand out from the competition, such as the excellent personalization of emails and the scoring system.
This same line would have in its lower part, or less prominent: the high price and punctual integration with some CRM systems or with non-specific marketing programs.
