Monthly Archives: December 2010

Why I’ve Joined Marketo

Most readers of this blog will know that I’m passionate about Marketing Automation and Lead Management. As a consultant, I really enjoy helping organizations optimize their Marketing Automation efforts using the latest techniques and best practices. On this blog I write about this, trying to generate discussion, share ideas, and – in the process – learn a lot myself. To accelerate this learning process I’ve decided to join the Marketo consulting team, in which I can focus 100% on Marketing Automation and Lead Management.

As LeadSloth I did a lot of blogging, but my consulting practice paid the bills. However, I found that being an independent consultant has its challenges. When you’re doing projects, you’re busy and you don’t spend enough time doing sales. And when you’re doing sales, it takes a while to get new projects lined up. As a result, my revenue wasn’t very predictable, but additionally, it also slowed down my learning: fewer projects means fewer opportunities to learn.

Marketo gives me access to more projects, and also the interesting projects that I wouldn’t be able to get as an independent consultant. There are also many colleagues to learn from, not just within consulting, but also in all other departments. All in all, there is a lot of opportunity for personal and professional growth. The only downside is that I won’t have exposure to other Marketing Automation systems anymore (and all the great people that work at those vendors).

What’s Going to Happen With LeadSloth?

I will still be blogging at LeadSloth.com and I will continue to help organize Marketing Automation Mondays. Both of those are independent from Marketo, and done in my own time. However, working for a vendor in the space inevitably brings a bias. Therefore, I won’t blog about vendors and products.

Overall, my goal is to help grow the marketing automation market as a whole. In my new role, I believe I will be in the good position to do exactly that. And with LeadSloth I will focus on activities that are vendor agnostic.

I’m looking forward to hear your feedback. Feel free to leave a comment or contact me via email (jep at leadsloth dot com).