Social Media Marketing Awards: Marketo

Closed Community: Winner

Program: Marketo Community

Why we liked it: The success of this community as defined by the numbers is impressive: more than 1 million total page views, 800-plus knowledge-based articles, more than 1,000 ideas proposed and 2,000 questions submitted. What really made this entry stand out, however, is the commitment Marketo has made to fold the community into its business. The company has committed a full-time manager to the project and energized people at every level across the company to listen to and respond to customer comments. Ideas and recommendations are evaluated twice monthly, and more than 60 features suggested by members have been incorporated into Marketo products. Customer support cases have also dropped by one third, demonstrating bottom-line value. Marketo is effectively restructuring its business around customer conversations, thereby taking full advantage of the potential of community. Its efforts have been recognized by Forrester Research, which nominated the project for a Groundswell Award, and by Salesforce.com, which designated it best in class. That's doing community right.