Re: Reducing Database Size

Anonymous
Not applicable

Reducing Database Size

I know there has been discussion here in the past on reducing your database size back down to its contracted limit, but I want to confirm the process. I've heard that Marketo does not include invalid email addresses against your database count. Is that true?

Also, has there been a good solution developed to deal with unsubscribed leads? It seems that an unsubscribed lead is pointless to have in a marketing database, except for the fact that you need to know that they are unsubscribed (and except for customers and partners who unsubscribe but still receive operational emails). Does Marketo have sort of a "storage room" ability, where these leads sit in a closet somewhere and serve no purpose other than to reserve their place as having unsubscribed? It seems unfortunate that they should count against your number, but at the same time, it isn't in your best interest to remove their subscription information. I've seen the solution offered to transfer these leads to an external list before deleting, but having to scrub against a large spreadsheet with each upload would be tedious, not to mention having to do the same with all leads that re-enter through the API. You would also have to continually update your spreadsheet after each campaign. Yikes.

I'd love to hear ideas of what others are doing to solve this!
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3 REPLIES 3
Grant_Booth
Level 10

Re: Reducing Database Size

Hi Jeff,

I don't believe we exclude email invalid leads from that count - however, I'm in Support not Sales so I don't know all of the details on that. I've been told that we *do* exclude anonymous leads.

As for the unsubscribed leads, even if you delete them from your database, their email addresses remain marked as unsubscribed on the back end via our "durable unsubscribe" feature:
https://community.marketo.com/MarketoResource?id=kA650000000GxXxCAK
which will automatically unsubscribe a new lead if it has the same email address as a lead which was unsubscribed when it was deleted. So if you have no intent of using those leads again, it's safe to just delete them.

I hope that helps!

Josh_Hill13
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: Reducing Database Size

Jeff,

You might find this helpful
http://developers.marketo.com/blog/how-to-clean-your-marketo-database/

Unsubscribed leads are added to a back end table that permanently stops a lead from being emailed even if you remove them fromyour instance. If they come back in, they will be unsubscribed until they opt in.

There are threads that explain what marketo charges for. I believe they do not charge for invalid emails only. You can still use an unsubscribed lead, but you might want to keep it in your CRM instead.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Reducing Database Size

Awesome. Very helpful! Thank you both.