Marketo’s updates for February are short and sweet: better security and enhancements to their Real-Time Personalization platform. While they plan to release more information following this release, the product team has already hinted in their January notes that we can expect some big changes in the coming months.

Without further ado, let's dive into the highlights from Feburary's release.

How Will This Help Me Work Better?

• Move Smart Campaigns between Programs.
  This enhancement speaks for itself. No more cloning Smart Campaigns in order to get them into the right Marketing Program — saving you both time and frustration. Sometimes, the little things make the biggest difference.
• Real-Time Personalization: configure Campaigns for target URLs.
  Now, marketers have greater control over where their web campaigns will display. Previously, display locations were controlled by placement of the RTP Javascript tag, but now marketers can specify target URLs to ensure that they are reaching their segments with the right message at the right time.

How Will This Help Me Go Further?

• Real-Time Personalization: target accounts by country and state.
  One of the key differences between the main Marketo platform and the Real-Time Personalization platform is the ability to create account-targeted campaigns in RTP. Currently, you can only target accounts based on a domain name match, but with the February update, you can create more precise segments by drilling down into country and state. Use this to plan events, or to display information only relevant to certain regions.

Additional System Enhancements

• Integrate with more security.
  Marketo currently uses security protocols SHA-1 and SSL, but soon the platform will be making the switch to more secure versions (SHA-2 and TLS) for the following domains: marketo.net (encrypted Munchkin traffic); marketo.com (main SaaS applications). With the increasing threat of data breaches, this is a smart move that cements Marketo’s commitment to protection of customer data. If you are currently using SHA-1 for an API integration, note that you have until 2015 to update your system. Nonetheless, the earlier you start planning the transition, the better.

The Final Word: The updates to security protocol is arguably the most important update in the February release notes, but aside from those customers who are actively using a customized integration or are planning to, this won’t impact the average marketer’s day-to-day. Enhancements to Marketo’s Real-Time Personalization, on the other hand, raise exciting possibilities for a more robust account-targeting strategy. Combined with the more powerful email scripts introduced in the previous release, Marketo is equipping marketers to give their customer retention and expansion initiatives a serious re-think.

Read the full February Release Notes here. How do these new features impact your marketing initiatives? Let me know in the comments below, or Tweet me @deandrathtan.