As an administrator of Marketo, or any marketing automation system, you have power to do many things. The wise use this power carefully, delegating some of it to trusted marketers.
Security and Users of Marketing Automation
Administrators must decide on the Roles and Users to be allowed access. If you have ever administered a CRM or another critical system, you should treat Marketo the same. Marketo contains confidential data on your customers and prospects, including their email addresses – a valuable commodity on the black market. I recommend the following roles and users. The table is particular to Marketo, but the idea is applicable to other systems as well.
|
Role Name |
Access Level |
Assign to This Kind of Person |
| Admin | Admin, default | CRM Administrator, Power Marketer or lead marketing automation person. |
| Marketing User – Limited | Do not use the default Marketing User-Restrict certain things like list uploads, Forms, Templates | Associates, Interns |
| Designer | Design StudioProgram Emails | Web designer, graphic designer, external vendor. Consider restricting approvals |
| Marketing Super User | Run campaigns, approve assets | Marketing Managers, Marketing OperationsLimit list uploads, Forms, Templates |
| List Uploader | Limited to importing lists and running campaign flow actions. | If you have a database manager who does this for everyone, use this. |
Be sure to keep a list of current and past users so you know the internal staff and contractors who have or had access. When someone leaves your firm, you should deactivate their account immediately. In Marketo, deactivating a user means deleting the user, however, you can simply remove their Roles as well.
Sometimes I recommend adding a “Null” Role that has no permissions. If you move a user to this Role, then you can still see their login and change history. If you remove the user, their creation history is lost and you will no longer know who edited various assets.
Field Security
To protect your data, I recommend using field blocking to ensure existing data is not overwritten inadvertently. Marketo permits this field level security on any field. Simply go to Admin > Field Management, then choose the field you want to secure. It is a one at a time feature, so it can take a while if you have a lot of fields to secure.
Integration with CRM/Salesforce
The Administrator is also responsible for connecting the marketing automation system to the CRM. Often this is Salesforce. Be sure to keep track of the sync’s health on both sides of the CRM-MA system. Marketo provides Notifications to warn of issues related to data and the sync. Maintaining a good sync also means representing the system during project meetings. If another group makes a CRM change, it could impact the sync and data flow.
Administering Marketo
If you are a Marketo admin, or studying for the Marketo Certified Expert exam, you can use this helpful guide. This chapter is a part of the Marketing Rockstar’s Guide to Marketo. It’s now free for you to use and share. It’s licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 License, so remember to Share and give me proper attribution.
There’s more to running a marketing automation system than I’ve described here. Be sure to download the Administering Marketo guide. Enjoy!
