Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Danny_Famularo
Level 1

Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Hi, I'm new to Marketo and am transitioning from SalesForce Marketing Cloud (AKA ExactTarget). In our business it is very common for there to be two accounts attached to a single email address. So for example, there could be a husband and wife, each of which have separate account number (i.e. 10000 and 10001) however they share the same email address jsmith@household.com. When we send out an email, we need to to ensure that each of them both get their account relevant email as there may be different content within them. In ExactTarget, we were required to change the "subscriber key" from email address to a custom field (i.e. "AccountNumber") to allow for these instances. Is it possible to do something similar with Marketo?

16 REPLIES 16
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

First, to be clearer about terminology: in Marketo, the email address is not actually a unique identifier. Not only is it not mandatory (in database terms, that means that all the leads with a blank email address in fact have the same email address) but, as you know, there's far from end-to-end protection against duplicate emails.  Email is merely the default deduplication key when using certain (but not all) Marketo functions. Custom settings exist so that some functions use the email address + one other field as the dedupe key instead, but that still doesn't make it a unique id, and still, not all functions will use the custom dedupe key.

The only guaranteed unique identifiers in Marketo are the Lead ID, Unique Code, and Unique Name. Other fields might be treated (by some functions and outside apps) as if they are unique, but Marketo will not ensure uniqueness. An example is when you sync an outside system to Marketo that has a special guaranteed-unique field associated with each of its records. As long as Marketo settings and flows are careful to never touch that field, it'll stay unique in Marketo as well. But it can still be changed within Marketo and the system won't blink.

Anyway, to your question: the Marketo feature that stops the same batch flow step from sending to the same email address more than once isn't deduplication per se. It's a special feature to stop spam-like behavior, and isn't related to create/update deduping. To work around this feature, have your Batch Smart Campaign call Request Campaign on a related Trigger SC. Everyone who qualifies for the Batch SC will then get the email, since the email step is standalone.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Sanford Whiteman

Hi, thanks for explanation.

Right now we are integrating with Marketo and also would like to have several leads sharing the same email address.

We are using Marketo Form created in Design Studio and we have added embed code to our site. This form has hidden field that is populated with uuid (generated on our side) in order to distingush our leads.

So as you can guess, each new lead just updates the existing same email lead, because deduplication key for the form is set to email. I know that API has functionality to easily change this deduplication key during API call (it is called lookupField in API reference), but we aim to use Marketo Form functionality, not API.

As you have stated:

Sanford Whiteman wrote:

Email is merely the default deduplication key when using certain (but not all) Marketo functions. Custom settings exist so that some functions use the email address + one other field as the dedupe key instead

Could you, please, tell us where can we change the custom settings for the Marketo form, so that our custom hidden field with generated uuid will be used as deduplication key?

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Could you, please, tell us where can we change the custom settings for the Marketo form, so that our custom hidden field with generated uuid will be used as deduplication key?

The compound key is implemented by Support on the back end. You can't do it in the UI.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Sanford Whiteman

Ok.

So could the Support change deduplication key from email to our custom key for our particular Marketo Form?

If not, could Marketo Form be fully replaced by API usage? Is lead creation the only thing Marketo Form does or is there some additional logic that should be reproduced by other API calls as well?

Steven_Vanderb3
Marketo Employee

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Alex Saukou wrote:

Sanford Whiteman

Ok.

So could the Support change deduplication key from email to our custom key for our particular Marketo Form?

If not, could Marketo Form be fully replaced by API usage? Is lead creation the only thing Marketo Form does or is there some additional logic that should be reproduced by other API calls as well?

Support can only change the deduplication key to email and your custom key.  Not to just your custom key.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Thanks, that will work.

What information should we supply and where in order to make such changes by the Support?

Kevin_Weisenber
Level 4 - Champion Alumni

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Click Help in the upper right of your instance and then customer support. Alternatively if you are logged into the Marketing Nation forum (where we are connecting) there is a support button across the top of the page. Once in the support section there will be a submit A Case button towards the top of the page. Go ahead and open a case and explain to support what you are trying to accomplish and the new rules you want implemented.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

Hi Danny -  I am keen to find a solution for the same issue.  We understand that if we can't add leads into Marketo via the SOAP or CSV upload with the same email address nor keep those records up-to-date.  But I am seeking to find a way to be able to allow a couple to have their own names & flags as well as share an email address.  Have you found a way ?

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Change the unique identifier from email address to a custom field.

I don't understand your remark about the SOAP (API). You can insert/update leads based on another dedupe key, not Email Address, if you use the API. What you can't easily do is have a compound dedupe key spanning multiple fields.