Tokens and Excel Spreadsheets

[Anonymous]

I know how to import lists, but it sounds like if I import the list into marketo the way it is currently set up, Marketo will not recognize any of the fields that are being imported unless I change them in the database or back-end of marketo.

[Anonymous]

Or can you also import the data into salesforce and link it to marketo through salesforce?

[Dan_Stevens_]

If you import the data in CRM, you still need those fields in CRM to capture the data (and then the data will eventually sync over to Marketo).  If those fields exist in CRM, then they should also exist in Marketo, assuming all those fields are synced to Marketo.

Be careful with this approach since CRM doesn't always dedupe on email address (like Marketo does).  And therefore may turn into a duplicate record issue.  I suggest you import into Marketo.

[Anonymous]

Fair enough, and if you create those fields in Marketo then they have to be created within the database section of marketo?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Custom fields are created in Admin > Field Management.  Before you start adding a bunch of custom fields, plan out a long term strategy for this, e.g., naming conventions, data dictionary, criteria for adding a new field, etc.  Otherwise, before you know it, you'll have a bunch of unmanageable fields - or even worse, fields that don't sync with CRM (which then require a conversation with the Marketo Support team to do on the backend).  The more fields you have, the more the overall performance it's impacted.

[Anonymous]

Sounds good.  I figured out how to create custom fields.  Is there a way to build tokens to call from the custom fields for each contact so they can enter data that will change from contact to contact?  I guess this would be similar to the name token but in my case the token should enter a currency/dollar amount that varies from contact to contact.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Shane,

If you have created fields, you can populate them with values that will differ from one contact to another, though an import. All contact fields are available as tokens under the form of {{lead.field name}} and can be used as such in emails for instance.

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

If these fields have a specific one-off quality (i.e. to be used in a single send) you could create one field, a Textarea field like 20180313-Special-DataList, and merge all the fields into one semicolon- or comma-delimited cell. Then use a Velocity (Email Script) token to parse out all the values at send time for placement in the email.

Of course, this means you lose visibility into the individual values from the Marketo UI and for most types of filtering, so the approach must not be overused.

But it isn't clear why you wouldn't have realized earlier that these fields need (as Dan rightly says) to be integrated into your instance ahead of time in a planned fashion.

[Anonymous]

Sounds good.  I figured out how to create custom fields.  Is there a way to build tokens to call from the custom fields for each contact so they can enter data that will change from contact to contact?  I guess this would be similar to the name token but in my case the token should enter a currency/dollar amount that varies from contact to contact.

[Anonymous]

Looks like I managed to figure everything out.  Thank you everybody for all of your help.