Marketo Smart Campaigns
The backbone of Marketo marketing automation is the smart campaign.
Smart campaigns are Marketo’s automation rules.
While studying for the Marketo Certified Expert Exam, Marketo smart campaigns and programs were the most difficult topics for me to understand, but understanding smart campaigns is one of the most interesting parts of working in Marketo. As one long-time Marketo expert told me, “Marketo is extremely flexible; anything you can think up, you can run.” This is a true statement, made possible by smart campaigns.
In this post, I will discuss the following about Marketo smart campaigns and programs:
- What does a smart campaign do
- How do you create a smart campaign
- Where do smart campaign fall within the rest of Marketo Programs
What does a smart campaign do?
Smart campaigns run Marketo Programs. They send out the emails for Event Programs, they add, pause, and remove people from Engagement Programs, and they measure success for each Program, depending on how you’ve defined it.
Smart campaigns also control Marketo operations. All operational programs including lead lifecycle, Salesforce/CRM syncs, reporting, scoring, Sales Insight, and data management are run by smart campaigns.
How do you create a smart campaign?
Smart Campaigns are composed of Smart List + Flow + Schedule.
Smart List
Smart Lists are dynamic lists composed of Triggers and Filters. Triggers only listens and adds to the list after the smart campaign has been activated. Filters are retroactive and looks at what has happened in the past and adds to the list.
The most popular smart list triggers are Clicks Link in Email, Fills Out Form, and Visits Web Page.
The most popular smart list filters are Clicked Link in Email, Filled Out Form, Visited Web Page, SFDC Type (discussed more in post on Syncing Marketo with Salesforce), Member of List, and Member of Smart List.
Smart List are also used for many Marketo reports.
Flow
Once you pick your target list, you add the flow step.
Flows are automation rules.
The most popular activity you do to your list are Send Email, Wait (before you take another action), Add to List, Send Alert, Change Score, Change Data Value, Sync Person to SFDC, Create Task
Change Data Value is very important. You can change the value of any person or company field. You can also add a condition by using the Add Choice feature. For example, you could change the value of a person field, if the field is empty,
Schedule
Lastly, you need to schedule or activate your smart campaign. If your smart list contains at least one trigger, you only need to activate your smart campaign. If your smart list contains all filters, it’s called a batch campaign, and you can choose to only run it once or schedule multiple runs.
Where do smart campaign fall within the rest of Marketo Programs
Smart campaigns must live within Marketo Programs. Some smart campaigns live within Event Programs, others within Engagement Programs, and the rest live within Default Programs.
After creating a Program, right click to create a Smart Campaign.
To best organize your smart campaigns, create multiple folders under Marketing Activities. Put your operational smart campaigns in an operational programs folder and your other smart campaigns in the other folders.
Check out my video on Smart Campaigns and Program Types here:
Where to learn more about smart campaigns
Marketo created a video called Marketo’s Secrets to Automating Campaigns, which shows how the Marketo team uses smart campaigns to market its own product. View this video to see examples of triggered camapigns for web visits, form abandonment, bounce management campaigns, mini-nurture conversations, and scalable programs.
Look out for a future post on a summary of this video!
Also, see Digital Marketing Techie’s page on Marketo and the following resources:
The Complete Guide to Marketo Salesforce Campaign Syncing and Reporting
Syncing Marketo with Salesforce
How to Increase Email Delivery Rate and Avoid Spam Traps
Aligning Marketing and Sales Using Salesforce Lead Lifecycle Reporting
Cracking the Code on Salesforce Campaign and Multiple Campaign Influence Reporting