What was it like at Marketo Summit 2014? Large crowds and a constant buzz across the show floor. The entire delegation of attendees in an endless, snake-shaped line, getting ready to hear Hillary Rodham Clinton’s keynote:

Photo: Lining up for Hillary Clinton's keynote.

In the evolution of any company, it’s a significant moment when the customer conference graduates to Moscone Center in San Francisco. Marketo Summit 2013 took place at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. A few months later, Marketo went public. A year later, Marketo Summit took place at Moscone Center West:

Photo: Marketing Nation takes its place on the exterior of Moscone Center West in San Francisco.

6 Takeaways from Marketo Summit 2014

1) It’s All About the Nation.

In a stroke of Marketing genius, Marketo continues to “brand” its customer base as The Marketing Nation. During his keynote, Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez referenced lists of innovative companies, including one list compiled by Harvard Business Review. “It’s you!” said Fernandez, indicating that Marketo customers are well represented on the lists.

And that’s the genius of it: by branding and promoting The Marketing Nation, Marketo is saying “it’s all about you, not us.” It’s a customer-centric mindset and one that helps breed camaraderie across and among its customers. Last year, the event’s hash tag was #mus13. This year? #MKTGNATION14. It’s all about The Nation.

2) Marketing Has Graduated to the Adults’ Table.

During his keynote, Phil Fernandez recalled Marketo Summit 2012. Customers asked, “help show me how to do this.” At Summit 2013, customers started to talk about real results. This year, customers are sharing stories of how they tripled pipeline and doubled revenue.

CEO’s are congratulating Marketing leaders at company-wide meetings. In short, Marketing now has a seat at the table. And now that we’re there, the role of Marketing becomes ever more strategic (e.g. “How do we expand market share globally?”).

3) Marketo is Making a Big Push into B2C.

In the early days, Marketo customers were technology companies. Then, B2B companies came on board. Today, Marketo has a mix of B2B and B2C customers. Judging by the Fernandez keynote, Marketo is making a concerted push into B2C.

Photo: Marketo shows its new user interface at Marketo Summit 2014.

Just look at the new user interface for “My Marketo.” It looks to me like they’re targeting a B2C user. In addition, a number of the customer success stories (shared in the keynote) came from B2C: healthcare, auto and lifestyle brands.

I bumped into a former colleague at Summit. She’s with a B2C brand who’s considering deploying Marketo. She wanted to speak to other B2C Marketo users. I think she’ll find plenty of people to talk to at Summit.

4) Marketo Broadens the Scope of its Platform.

While marketing automation is Marketo’s bread and butter, they see a broader world. With acquisitions they’ve made and new features they announced (at Summit), Marketo now sees itself as a Customer Engagement Platform.

This makes sense, because marketing automation is an important part of a bigger picture.

Last year, the big product announcement at Summit was the Customer Engagement Engine, a core marketing automation feature. This year, the new features were clearly in the Customer Engagement camp: website personalization (facilitated by the Insightera acquisition), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and a mobile-friendly marketing calendar.

PREDICTION: As Marketo seeks to further round out its customer engagement platform, they'll acquire 2-5 of the Exhibit floor sponsors before Summit 2015.

5) Marketing Software is Most Effective When Its ROI is Self-Evident.

During his keynote, Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez invited a number of Marketo customers up on the stage. The customers gave brief overviews of their projects or campaigns. Then, every single one of them provided quantifiable results (e.g. 200% increase in qualified leads, 400% increase in pipeline, 30% increase in regional market share, etc.).

When you can produce quantifiable results like these, you don’t have to justify marketing technology spend to the C-suite. Instead, they’ll come asking you to deploy it. As a marketing technology vendor, think about how customers can easily quantify the ROI of your product(s). Before long, you’ll be asking your customers on stage at Moscone as well.

6) Hillary Will Run in 2016.

While Hillary wouldn’t confirm that she’s running in 2016 (although she said she’s thinking about it), I’m fairly certain that she’ll run. During her appearance at Summit, Ms. Clinton covered a wide range of topics, from immigration reform to Vladimir Putin to Twitter. Hillary is a big fan of Twitter. Follow her here: @HillaryClinton.

Conclusion

Marketo Summit is a fun and rewarding springtime tradition. It’s good to hear about new features in Marketo and walk the exhibit floor to learn about all of the solutions available. But what I enjoy the most is talking to other Marketo customers and getting new ideas from them. And of course, attending the wide array of sessions and bringing ideas back to the office to implement. See you again in 2015.