Marketo Marketing Automation and WordPress: What You Need to Know

Marketo is one of the four best-known marketing automation platforms for business customers. Here, we explain what it is and what you need to know about how it integrates with WordPress.

Curious about how Pardot integrates with WordPress for seamless marketing automation? Check out our guide on Pardot Marketing Automation and WordPress to learn everything you need to know for optimizing your marketing strategies.

What is Marketo?

Marketo describes itself as the “world leader in marketing automation for companies of any size”.

Marketo helps a company be found by people searching for what they are selling. With buyers these days directing a large proportion their own journeys, lead generation is a key aspect of marketing strategy. Marketo builds landing pages and forms, which are enhanced by built-in search engine optimisation (SEO), driving more quality traffic to the website. Known visitors are recognised and customer profiles can be built. Targeting the right people with ads is managed through an audience hub that integrates Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and other ad platforms and all campaigns can be amplified with social media. Tailored, personalised content can be delivered according to behaviour and interests.

To nurture leads and build relationships, scalable and automated campaigns can be built and run across channels. These engage customers via email, mobile and in-app messaging and advertising.

Lead scoring allows businesses to identify their best prospects and integration with CRM packages allows for sales actions to be triggered according to behaviour. Marketo has native integrations for Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM; integrations for Netsuite, Oracle, SAP Cloud for Sales, and SugarCRM; and other CRM packages can be linked via custom configurations.

Campaign tracking means that marketing programmes can be measured and analysed, so that they can be optimised for improved future performance.

Pricing for Marketo is not available except when making a specific sales enquiry. However, some sources quote pricing that starts from $1,195 per month, based on an annual contract.

How does Marketo integrate with WordPress?

Unlike some of the marketing automation vendors, Marketo has not built its own plugin for WordPress. Instead, third-party plugins are available, three of which are listed on the Marketo LaunchPoint site, a resource that details integrations available from Marketo partners.

There are also some free plugins listed on the WordPress website, but many of them have not been tested with current versions of WordPress or have not been maintained in some years. Because of this, and as they are not from endorsed Marketo partners, then we advise caution when using them. You digital agency partner can guide you on the best way to proceed if you are in doubt.

What functionality does a Marketo/WordPress integration bring?

The three plugins showcased by Marketo each have different functionality.

WordPress Marketo Integration Connector from Grazitti Interactive

With this Marketo plugin from Grazitti Interactive, a user can:

The plugin has an initial set-up cost and an annual fee.

MSync – Integrate Marketo Forms into WordPress from Magic Logix

The MSync plugin from Magic Logix allows forms to be easily created and embedded in WordPress.

It creates and publishes forms that allow more advanced actions to be taken with the resulting lead data:

Marketo WordPress Connector from LeadMD

Using LeadMD’s Marketo WordPress Connector, a user can email single or multiple WordPress blog posts to Marketo lists.

It also integrates WordPress with Marketo tracking so that campaign effectiveness can be demonstrated.

It doesn’t require a user to recreate content or to build complex emails, but works simply with a template, allowing users to select the content, the recipients and the scheduled send time. Featured images and metadata are automatically added, along with social media icons to amplify content sharing.

The plugin costs $999 annually, which includes five hours of set-up and configuration.

What is the support like?

Support for each plugin is provided by its developer and is covered in the annual costs, where if applicable. But Marketo also has a community forum called Marketing Nation. Here, users can share information, ideas and best practice.

Conclusion

Some other marketing automation vendors provide their own plugins – free of charge. While Marketo does not do this, the third-party plugins do at least provide a range of functionality, allowing users to select the one that is right for them. As with all WordPress plugins, they are simple to set up and manage.

Looking to streamline your marketing efforts with automation? Check out our guide to marketing automation software for WordPress and discover the tools and strategies to enhance your digital marketing.