Preventing Duplicate Content Across Programs

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

We are in our infancy with Marketo and we're also working to clean up our Salesforce instance, so let's just say that things aren't running ideally at this point. After sending out our first few emails (we don't even have automated streams going yet), I noticed that a few leads received duplicate content. I did try to make sure all leads were only in one program, but clearly, I wasn't 100% successful. I don't want to annoy recipients and cause opt-outs!

Could the problem be that I cloned the email in question and used it in a different program? If so, what would I have done differently/how would I use the same email in two programs? (Sometimes, the same content goes out to different groups but the email wording is customized for that group or the emails are in a different order.) Is there a way to make sure each lead is only in one program? What's the best way to do prevent leads from getting duplicate content until we're using Marketo in a more sophisticated manner?

Any advice or resources would be greatly appreciated as I need to figure this out ASAP and continue with our email sends.

Thank you!

Karah

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Karah,

There is one big rule that you should observe, at least at the beginning: 1 content = 1 program. Using the same content in various programs should be only done if you are really sure of what you are doing.

Then they are various, more advanced, techniques to make this happening the way you want, such as

• Using segmentations instead of smart lists when possible (as a lead can only be in 1 segment within a segmentation),
• Using engagement programs and streams, as a lead can only be in 1 stream of a given engagement program.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Hi Greg,

Thank you for the insight - very much appreciated! Sounds like I need to spend more time setting up our instance before I move forward to be most effective/efficient.

Thanks again!

Karah

[Jenn_DiMaria2]

In your second Program (we'll call it Program 2), you could add the following filter to your Smart List:

Member of Program FALSE

Program is [Program 1]

You can also suppress by:

Not Was Sent Email

Email Is [Program 1 Email]

The second may be more accurate depending on how your have Program Statuses configured.

There are a bunch of ways to go about this, all with their pros and cons. The con of the above is that you'd have to keep suppressing previous Programs, which can be a pain.

Also, as Gregoire mentioned above - it's best to house content in one Program as opposed to many. This is best for tracking, as well, especially if you move forward with multi-touch attribution.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jenn,

Thank you for the advice - it's very much appreciated and will help me move forward for the time being! It sounds like from what you and Greg have said that I should spend more time setting up the proper programs and streams rather than just getting the emails out ASAP to appease our leadership team.

Thanks again!

Karah