Testimony - Thomas Boykin, AFP , Head of CRM and Marketing Automation

Hello, Thomas, thank you for your time for this interview. We've been working for a while now at AFP. Can you please introduce yourself quickly and tell us how we started working together? Yes, of course. Firstly, hello Sylvain. My name is Thomas Boykin. I am a relationship marketing manager at Agence France-Presse, and we set up Marketo three and a half, four years ago via a service company, which didn't do its job very well on the whole setup of Marketo, as well as on the Templates, but also on the programmes, the channels that we had to use. So, when we got our hands dirty, the daily use, we realised the limits of this installation. And so, we asked our CSM from Marketo if he had any contacts in France who could help with support, but also with installing the tool. And he referred me to you. We tested Merlin/Leonard on an audit assignment. And then afterwards, you offered us a certain number of actions to be implemented, corrective actions, but also evolutionary ones, and then let us discover other functionalities. So, we set this up with you, for example, I'm thinking of the preference centre, something that we don't know about and now, it really brings us a lot of information on a daily basis, on the different typologies of players, whether it be Lead Gen or editorial. We've also set up a scoring system which allows for a more relevant lead processing and also allows us to have this distinction in processing. And then afterwards, we also tried training. We saw that this was an area that you were developing. And there was an internal willingness for us to be ambassadors at Marketo's headquarters, so that we can transfer some of our know-how to the regions. And for that, we needed a guarantee of credibility and we had to be experts on Marketo. So we went to you to prepare ourselves for the Marketo certification, which worked out really well because I've recently become an expert, since December 2020. So, I can answer in a very relevant way to the queries of my collaborators. So, beyond this first audit mission and the action plan, which was, if I remember correctly, more of a package deal, and then after that, training. Now we work together on a daily basis via a support contract for more occasional tasks or big tasks. For example, we're together on the CRM integration. Can you tell us how we work together on integrating Marketo with your CRM? For support, what we appreciate when working with you is: we set up a telephone meeting where we basically express our needs. You collect it, you ask us some questions to adjust all of it, our needs, and you get back to us relatively quickly. Your sense of timing is quite appreciable as well as responsiveness. And at that point, you suggest solutions or workarounds, and then we implement or not, or adjust. For projects that are actually quite big, such as the synchronisation of a CRM with Marketo, on that, basically, it's a bit like: we share the documents we have with you, as well as our needs, and you can address the shortcomings, and based on the expertise that you established, for example with Salesforce, you tell us: "Listen, I think it would be good to do this for you as well, for your sector and for AFP." And then after that, you attend the workshops that we organise to really get to grips with it, to finally set up some functionalities, to really frame the need. And behind that, actually, there's a real support that allows us to take on this project with confidence. OK. And were you able to test Merlin/Leonard's different resources today? Well, I think that after the audit, the training and the support, it's obvious. But there is actually one more thing that we've put in place very recently and it's paying off quite well is that we've kind of copied what you do on Friday morning; we added a Marketo Hours at AFP. And for two typologies: editorials that send newsletters on a daily basis and then Lead Gen which prepares campaigns, e-mails, nurturing pages. Basically, we do an hour every month, where questions are prepared, then sent to the person running the session. Then they answer them during the session. They share their screen, they demonstrate. We really observe an improvement in skills from these people, and we feel it quite strongly at the head office, because we have fewer support questions. We feel that there is a growing autonomy. So, at my place, Anne-Sophie is animating. The Office Hours, is that you? That's right. Anne-Sophie works more on the Marketo Hours, and training part of this population. And Vincent mostly provides daily support, and sometimes answers the thorny questions about features. Perfect. And when we have big projects, you're the one we contact. Mostly integration, that's what I'm all about. OK, well thank you, that's great. I think we can end this interview. -Thank you, Thomas. -My pleasure.