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Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

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lukea
Level 3

Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

Hi Nation!

 

From our past email service provider, I've got an exported list of a few thousand email addresses, which must not receive any emails - also not via Marketo.

 

What is the Marketo way to ensure that persons, who exist today in the database, as well as persons that might get into the database in the future, and which are also part of the suppression/blacklist, don't get emails?

 

I know about the blacklisted field. However, this can only be set for existing persons. Also, if possible, I would not necessarily want to create a person/database entry for every blacklisted email address.

 

Thank you in advance for your help. 🙂

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Darshil_Shah1
Level 10 - Community Advisor

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

While uploading the list if you choose the option "Default(Fast Import)" mode as the List Import Mode then new leads not existing already in the database will be created in marketo lead database, if the lead is already existing it would automatically de-duplicate leads based on email address (default de-duplication method), so as long as if you choose Default(Fast Import) mode while importing then you need not worry for duplication for existing leads. However if you choose the other option "Skip New people and updates" then no new people will be added and none of the existing people will be updated, it will simply show the pre-filtered static list of existing people for use in your marketing activities (which is something you don't want to do). 

 

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Darshil_Shah1
Level 10 - Community Advisor

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

You can create a static list and upload the email address provided by your email service provider, and in email send campaigns you may use the filter : Member of List Person Not in - <static list name> to ensure that none of the people who mustn't receive email from you receive one.

 

lukea
Level 3

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

Hi Darshil,

Thanks for the suggestion, which sounds good to me. When I import the static list of email addresses, would this create a new person entry for each listed email address in the main database? Because that's something I would like to prevent if possible.

Darshil_Shah1
Level 10 - Community Advisor

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

While uploading the list if you choose the option "Default(Fast Import)" mode as the List Import Mode then new leads not existing already in the database will be created in marketo lead database, if the lead is already existing it would automatically de-duplicate leads based on email address (default de-duplication method), so as long as if you choose Default(Fast Import) mode while importing then you need not worry for duplication for existing leads. However if you choose the other option "Skip New people and updates" then no new people will be added and none of the existing people will be updated, it will simply show the pre-filtered static list of existing people for use in your marketing activities (which is something you don't want to do). 

 

Darshil_Shah1
Level 10 - Community Advisor

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

@lukea Please accept a solution to this post so it can be marked as solved. Thanks!

lukea
Level 3

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

Done, thank you

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?


Thanks for the suggestion, which sounds good to me. When I import the static list of email addresses, would this create a new person entry for each listed email address in the main database? Because that's something I would like to prevent if possible.


To be clear, it will create a person in your database.

 

Now, if you want people to be Unsubscribed (not the same as Blacklisted) you can import people, set them to Unsubscribed=true, and then delete them. Marketo will remember that they were Unsubscribed when last seen, so if they come back into the system they will start off Unsubscribed. This is known as the "Durable Unsubscribe" feature.

 

However, DU may not be completely appropriate for your use case — it's a not a permanent setting, as Unsubscribe can easily be un-set for people on the DU list afterward.

 

You might also think about a webhook-based solution. That's how we manage massive suppression lists (like 100s of thousands): they're stored in multiple Google Sheets (one for each do-not-send source) and then when someone enters Marketo we check to see if they're in one of the lists. This avoids the database churn of adding, then deleting people.

lukea
Level 3

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

Thanks @SanfordWhiteman - I think you are right: while it's good to know about DU, it might not be best suited to 100% prevent specific email addresses from never getting emails again, which the purpose of the suppression/blacklist is.

 

A webhook-based solution is something I haven't thought of, yet. I will take it into consideration. Do you happen to have a link to where this webhook, or a similar one, is described in more detail? 

 

 

lukea
Level 3

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

Another option that came to my mind was using a smart list, which contains the addresses in an "is" condition. I have read that the textarea for each filter is limited to 50,000 characters, so a filter could contain ~2K addresses. And one could "any" a few filters together. Main question is probably, if this scales well. How would you rate that @SanfordWhiteman@Darshil_Shah1 ?

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Best way to use an email blacklist/suppression list?

A static list is far preferable.