In this follow up to Nurture Your Audience the Way They Want to be Nurtured, I show in more detail how Marketo Engagements help you do this. Presented at the San Mateo Marketo User Group on August 10, 2016.

1. Making Nurturing Work for You
Marketo Engagements
A short guide
Josh Hill
Author and Principal
MarketingRockstarGuides.com
San Mateo MUG, Aug 10, 2016.

2. Page 2
The one with the short bio
• Marketo User since 2010.
• Marketo Champ since 2012.
• Marketing technologist.
• Over 35 projects and implementations.
• Author of marketingrockstarguides.com

3. Page 3
Attention Interest Decision Action
Use storytelling, not one off content
AIDA Model – 4 stage
What You Want (Firm Centric)
Heroic Model
Audience Centric
Credit: Chris Vogler/Wikipedia
S1 S2 S3 S4

4. Page 4
Pre-gaming: audience view
I have a problem, or
Why am I doing
this?
Where do I
want to be?
How do I get
there?
Irritated or overwhelmed. SPAM
Looks like they could help,
where’s the demo?

5. Page 5
Pre-gaming: their view
What to decide on What is this?
Entry Why do I want to receive content from this vendor?
Goal What’s my goal? (hint: it’s not MQL) – buy? Solve problem?
Get information to manager?
Cadence/Timing Today I want to binge to learn all about it….
They seem cool, I’ll subscribe until they become irritating.
Exits - Bad They are irritating. I didn’t buy.
Exit – Good Ok, I need a sales demo…
Ok, I need to understand if this is what I was envisioning

6. Page 6
Pre-gaming: your view
Who enters and when?
What do we want them
to do?
How often will they hear
from us?
Why did they stop
engaging?
Engaged – let’s call them!

7. Page 7
Pre-gaming: your view
What to decide on What is this?
Entry Which current and future leads will enter, and when?
Goal What is the point of this nurture?
Cadence/Timing How often will you send? Will you accelerate or decelerate
depending on behaviors?
Exits - Bad Did the lead unsubscribe, become invalid, or otherwise stop
communicating because of this?
Exit – Good What happens when the Goal is reached?
Metrics We will count # of leads by Goal and Exited.
Pipeline attributed back to this Program

8. Page 8
How the framework translates to
Marketo-speak
What to
decide
What is this? Example
Entry Trigger and batch campaigns to get this
working
Job Title = CMO or Chief Marketing Officer
Goal Status as well as a campaign (MQL? Next
Nurture?)
When Industry IS NOT EMPTY and Score >=20
Cadence/Ti
ming
How often? Every Wed at 2pm EST
accelerate to Every T/R at 8am if Lead Score >25 in Stream 2
Exits - Bad Did the lead unsubscribe, become invalid, or
otherwise stop communicating because of this?
Campaigns and Statuses to manage this. Never make a lead a
Non Member or you lose the data.
Exit – Good What happens when the Goal is reached? Goal count; campaign to move forward

9. Page 9
Goals and the nurturing waterfall
Goal: obtain enough data to select more specific
track. When X values exist, send to Y track
Goal: get to Account Track or
MQL
Goal: get to Account Track or
MQL
Goal: get to SQL or
Opp.

10. Page 10
Engagements vs. Wait Steps
• Regular Cadence
• Continuously adding
Content
• Add content regularly
• Pour in leads regularly
• Always on
Engagements
• Irregular Cadence
• Content won’t change
much
• Onboarding/Offboard
ing
• One time use
Wait Step Drips

11. Page 11
Use Engagements to solve the
nurture problem
• Drag and drop.
• No double sends. (same asset id)
• Will send asset at next cast if
Communication Limits reached.
• Asset attribution+story attribution.
• Start and re-start fairly easily.

12. Page 12
Tracking: Program Statuses for Engagements
Statuses Trigger
Member joins
Engaged Clicked at least once
Goal Reached depends
Bad Exit –
Unsubscribed
Unsubscribed
elsewhere
Bad Exit – Inactive Inactive or Invalid
Bad Exit –
Unsubscribed Here
Unsubscribed from
one of these emails
This is recommended,
but up to you.
Helps count how well
this nurture does and
ensures Success
attribution.

13. Page 13
How to structure the system
Entry point campaigns – Batch
for first Load
Trigger for new leads.
Exit points – Goal and other
ways to leave.
Assets
Complex Transition Rules must
be managed in Smart
Campaigns.

14. Page 14
Entry

15. Page 15
Use streams like railroad tracks
Use Empty Streams to Pause
Leads at Goal or Exit. Empty
Streams send no content and
lose no data.
Consider using Smart
Campaigns to manage
complex transitions better.
What is the best cadence?
It’s what your audience
thinks it is. Don’t over send.
Transition in Stream 2 pulls
people into Stream 2 from
Stream 1

16. Page 16
Exits – the good, the bad, and the ugly

17. Page 17
Exits – Bad

18. Page 18
Implementing Exit Strategy
Goal Point What to do Trigger or Batch
Exit
Notes
Get the lead to ask for a
trial
Good: Pause
Better: Move to Empty
Stream
Bad: Remove from
Program
Examples:
-Reaches Score
-Lifecycle=MQL, SQL
-Fills out Form x 2
-Fills out trial form
This is a Goal and should
be marked properly.
• Non Customers Only
• Member of Program
• Change Engagement
Stream to Empty
• Add to Trial
Engagement Stream
A Bad Exit just means this
lead did not meet our
goals here; but it could
be valuable info.
Bad Exit – Unsubscribed
Here
• Change Engagement
Stream to Bad Exit
• Pause
• Change Status=Bad
Exit - UNsubscribed
This tells us the Story did
not resonate (most likely)

19. Page 19
Engagement Issues
• Cohort Analysis – not within tool.
• Story Analysis – difficult, but possible
• Agile Storytelling and Cast Use – agile storytelling easy,
but are you using up a Cast?
• Routing between Engagements and Streams - needs
planning
• Drip Method vs. Engagements – when to use?

20. Page 20
A Limited Engagement
Marketo Edition Active Engagements Streams
Spark 4 1
Standard 4 1
Select 100 15
Enterprise 100 15
You can ask for more if you are an Enterprise Customer.
The limit is any Engagement, not just Active=ON.

21. Page 21
Resource center
• Email Sub Center
• Communication Limits
• Testing
• Official Docs

22. Page 22
Content creation questions
• What does your audience want to learn about?
• What expertise do you offer?
• Are you allowing them to choose?
• Do your tracks make sense to THEM?
• They don’t care about the data profile, they care about
solving their problem and not getting calls yet.

23. Page 23
Treat people well by listening first
What to decide How this works Example
Do the research Talk to customers, non buyers, prospective – what do they
say? How do they talk about this?
What is the story they tell themselves?
Understand them so you are write like THEY talk. They will
think you are reading their minds.
Opt In Always ask permission to place people into nurturing,
invitations, your blog, etc.
Opt In to Topic X or Webinar Invitations. Honor that. Strictly.
Do we know enough
about the lead to
send them the right
message?
Use progressive profiling after the first form fill.
Offers tailored to encourage sharing.
Use data appending tools to reduce friction.
What is the point of this nurture?
Cadence It’s hard to know how often to send w/o data analytics.
Make a guess based on frequency of Visits, Clicks, Score
Ask how often they want to hear from you.
Not just for unsubscribe forms – ask elsewhere too. Digesto
RSS and workflows can help you manage cadence as well.
Throttle Back Send less often if they stop responding. Did the lead unsubscribe, become invalid, or otherwise stop
communicating because of this?
Let them control the
throttle
Offer leads the ability to throttle back or up.

24. Page 24
Use a storytelling structure to make
content compelling
What to decide on How this works Example
Narrative
Structure
Are you using the AIDA model? The
three buying stage model?
How does your audience want to hear
your story?
We will have content for Attention,
Interest, Decision, Action
We will use heroic storytelling.

25. Page 25
Enable multi-touch asset attribution
Track each Asset success with the Child Program method. Both the
Engagement and the sub-Program get credit to ensure multi-touch
attribution.