Email-only program member does not later sync program with SFDC when sufficient fields are populated

[Anonymous]

I have a subscribe program built, so when someone fills out the subscribe form (email only), it adds them to the Marketo program. That part works fine. When that is attached to a record that is already in Salesforce, it syncs over fine and adds them to the SFDC campaign as intended.

The issue is when the subscribe action is the first action - not enough info yet to sync with SFDC. When a second form is filled out that gets enough info to sync (name, email, company), the record is created in Salesforce, but the connection to the subscribe campaign doesn't come over. I consider a subscription to be a campaign response, and want a campaign to be associated in Salesforce, but if the subscription is the first response, this causes a hole in campaign reporting.

Suggestions on how to ensure these show up when they're the first response?

[Alex_Stanton1]

Gordon, can you post the specifics of the smart campaigns in the subscribe program?

[Anonymous]

It's nothing complex. The biggest thing is wanting to not sync this with SFDC if the person doesn't already exist in SFDC.

Smart List:
TRIGGER:
Filled Out Form: XYZ
On Page: XYZ1

Flow:
1. Change Program Status: Opted In2. Add Interesting Moment
3. Opted In -> True
4. Marketing Unsubscribed: If True -> False

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes, because it failed to sync the first time and the program isn't going to try again because the status did not change.

Either add more fields to the Form, or do not sync the program to the sfdc campaign. Use a flow step to handle this if the key fields are there every time.

[Anonymous]

How do you not auto-sync a particular program (short of adding a field and another smart campaign filter like "CRM Sync = True", which would then need to be updated for every single program I'm running as well)?

[Anonymous]

Hey Gordon,

Salesforce requires that you to have Last Name & Company to create a new lead.  You may want to consider adding just those 2 fields (& maybe First Name) to your form.  I understand you be concerned about subscribe/opt-in rates going down, if you add more fields to the form, but there are some best practices you may want to look into as well.  If not, there are some other backup options.

If it is absolutely necessary for you to have campaign reporting in SFDC (which can easily be mirrored in Marketo also), then there are 2 workarounds you could do to sync your leads.  One option forces the lead into Marketo without the info, the other option waits for the info & then syncs it.

1. [trigger: Flow] Change Data Value (Company Name) = PLACEHOLDER                 (or some value like that, to allow the sync to happen; same for Last Name)

            Note: be careful here as you could really mess with emails (using Tokens), and discourage sales people by doing it this way!!

OR

   2.  Create a new / separate (triggered) Smart Campaign that waits for those leads to get those 2 fields to get populated AND that also ran through this Smart Campaign (as members of it); then runs the SFDC Auto-Sync & Adds to SFDC Campaign

Hope that helps.

Good luck,

Phil

[SanfordWhiteman]

A compromise is to add the 2 fields to the form as optional, so you will still get some number of fill-ins from willing people, especially those with the browser's own autofill tuned on.

Then if the fields are still empty when they click Submit, fill in the placeholder variable(s) in the browser (this saves extra flow overhead and management).

For the placeholder variable I advise something that distinctly signals a pending value, for example the literal string "{$LastName}" or "{!LastName}".  Trying more word-like strings like "PLACEHOLDER" or even "N/A" I find can be error-prone: "Na" is a Chinese surname, of course, and there are even human Placeholders​!