Speak to an AU or NZ Consultant
What is Marketo and is it the right CRM solution for your organisation?
Marketo, part of Adobe Experience Cloud, is a customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation platform designed to support businesses in managing leads, automating campaigns, and driving personalised customer experiences.
Known for its strong B2B marketing capabilities, Marketo helps organisations align marketing and sales, track engagement, and optimise ROI across the full customer journey.
For businesses in Australia and New Zealand exploring CRM solutions, Marketo often emerges as a top contender for those seeking scalable, data-driven marketing and engagement strategies. But is it the right fit for your CRM transformation?
This page breaks down what Marketo offers, who it suits best, and how SMC can help guide your CRM journey.
Key features of Marketo
- Lead management and advanced nurturing workflows
- Multi-channel campaign orchestration across email, social, and web
- Marketing and sales alignment with robust CRM integrations
- Real-time customer profiling and segmentation
- Predictive content and personalisation tools powered by AI
- Engagement scoring and lifecycle tracking
- Analytics and performance dashboards for attribution and ROI
- Native integration with Salesforce and other major CRMs
- Scalable to support enterprise-level operations and global teams
Who is Marketo best suited for?
Marketo is typically well suited for:
- Medium to large B2B organisations with complex sales cycles
- Enterprises looking to improve lead management and conversion rates
- Marketing teams needing sophisticated automation and personalisation tools
- Businesses using Salesforce CRM or planning tight integration with sales platforms
- Organisations with strong digital marketing maturity and a focus on performance tracking
Strengths and challenges of Marketo
Where Marketo delivers value:
- Best-in-class lead nurturing and marketing automation
- Deep Salesforce integration for improved sales alignment
- Advanced segmentation and AI-driven personalisation
- Strong support for multi-touch attribution and campaign reporting
- Scalable for high-volume marketing teams and complex campaigns
Where it may fall short:
- Can be resource-intensive to implement and manage
- Steeper learning curve compared to lighter CRM or automation platforms
- Less intuitive UI for smaller marketing teams without dedicated specialists
- Cost may be high for smaller or less mature businesses
Alternatives to Marketo
Depending on your team size, use case, and CRM requirements, alternatives may include:
- HubSpot – for all-in-one CRM, marketing, and content management
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud – for enterprise-grade marketing and customer journeys
- Pardot (Salesforce Account Engagement) – for B2B organisations in the Salesforce ecosystem
- ActiveCampaign – for smaller teams looking for integrated email, CRM, and automation
- Zoho CRM Plus – for growing businesses with cost-conscious budgets
Explore these options in our Customer Relationship Management Software Guide.
Planning your Marketo journey
Whether you’re starting fresh or reviewing your current CRM and marketing tech stack, SMC can support your entire transformation journey – from vendor selection through to implementation and optimisation.
Expert insights from SMC
At Solution Minds Consulting, we’ve supported organisations across manufacturing, distribution and retail, finance and insurance, professional services, government, education, and healthcare in selecting CRM platforms that deliver more than just sales tracking – they drive business transformation.
If you’re considering Marketo, the real question isn’t just about features. It’s about fit: does this platform support your growth model, your customer lifecycle, and your internal capabilities?
We bring independent, vendor-neutral advice to help you evaluate CRM platforms like Marketo through the lens of strategic enablement, data readiness, and long-term scalability.