This post is to create an complete review of what's currently possible in Marketo with regards to multi-domain and what's really missing. I would like to hear from you all you feebacks on this.
Why is this important?
As Marketo develops it's activity to large, international companies, with potentially multiple brands, most of them will have multiple internet domains. Especially companies that have activities in Europe tend to have separate web domains per country, as this a recommended SEO practice (So tell me my SEO guru 
).
What is currently possible?
It is possible as of today to host Marketo landing pages in more than one domain. This done through domain redirects (admin -> landing pages -> rules. See also Add Additional Landing Page CNAMEs - Marketo Docs - Product Docs ). As a proof of concept, please look into these 2 minisites :
They both link to a Marketo LP that is in the same domain as the mini page. A visitor can fill out the form in each domain and be tracked in each domain completely separately, although the Marketo Instance is the same (Try with different, dummy addresses). In the background, there is only 1 landing page, accessed from the 2 domains.
Furthermore, we can use this feature with workspace and partitions and create distinct tracking codes for each partition so that leads from each domain will automatically be insterted in the corresponding partition.
EDIT: One can also add multiple email branding domains and enable SPF/DKIM features for each of them so that email sent from Marketo be correctly identified.
What's really missing?
- Being able to restrict domains used by workspaces, so that users in a given country, using a specific workspace, cannot inadvertently use LP URLs with the wrong domain name, that would not share cookie with their usual web site. See here : . Thx c466e7f94b4d072b5524732aff22710089c7c57f. When setting which domain are available to which workspace, we would also set the default domain for the workspace. That default domain would apply to both landing pages and files leaded in the design studio.
- By default, a landing page should always be published in one domain (the default one, see above), to avoid errors such as publishing a landing page in German in another domain that the company's .de domain. But an LP could be additionally shared in other domains, provided that these domains are available from the workspaces in which the LP is built (see above). For instances without workspaces, all domains would be available and the user would choose to which domain the LP should be published.
- The possibility to get a landing page URL in the domain we want (in the LP summary screen) and also to be able to generate URL with parameters in various domains in the "URL Builder". Today, these tasks have to be done externally to Marketo, in a text editor, with all sort of risks and frequent errors. See this long lasting idea : that should be completed with the ability to do the same in the URL Builder.
- The possibility, when selecting a follow-up page on a form or when inserting a form in a Landing Page to define in which domain this follow-up will show up. By default, the domain of the follow-up page should be the same as the page that called it. Currently, if we want to control the follow-up page domain, we have to use the "external URL" choice. We also could imagine a smart mechanism by which the follow-up would automatically be in the same domain as the form page.
- Being able to choose branding domain for email links. It should be possible for emails to choose the branding domain to use, amongst the various domains for which a SPF/DKIM is declared. See (Thx 70182). When used together with workspaces, if a workspace in which the email is built is restricted to one domain, then the branding domain would also be made automatically consistent to the branding domain of the workspace, and the user would have no choice.
- Have unsubscribe and view as web page links URLs also reflect the branding domain used for the email, and especially, have unsubscribe links be redirected to various Landing pages based on the domain the email is branded, which itself would be linked to the workspace the email is sent from.
- Be able to decide that we want to use partition driven munchkin and have the landing page automatically use the relevant munchkin based on the domain they are published. And make sure that the munchkin works correctly, whatever the number of domain levels and number of letters in the TLD (see and Effect and usage of the domainlevel munchkin Initialization Parameter.
All this pledges for a distinct domain section in the admin, where one could :
- Create a domain (and automatically its redirect, currently done in the Landing Page section) and obtain the DNS entries that should be added for email branding and landing page subdomains
- Gather DKIM and SPF information and activate SPF/DKIM checks (which is currently available in email section)
- Assign Workspaces that can use the domain (When Workspace / Partition feature is available)
- For each workspace, choose in which domain the view as web page link should be provided (see )
- For each domain, choose a Marketo Landing Page for the unsubscribe link for emails sent from this domain. If used together with Workspaces, the unsubscribe Landing page will have to be defined in each workspace, with a global default one.
- For each domain, set the fallback page.
- For each domain, decide if we want a workspace specific munchkin on landing pages published in this domain.
-Greg
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