Auto cloning and populating tokens from an API call

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

My company has recently introduced events managed by marketo. As per events the Programs are driven largely by Tokens as there are multiple data points that are unique to each event.

We plan to process thousands of events in this manor. I have a couple of questions that some of you may be able to help me answer:

1. With the current technology is it possible based upon an API call to clone a program, auto populate the tokens and activate the campaigns?
2. If the above is not possible... collaborating with Marketo (Development) would this ever be possible?

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Justin_Norris1]

Hey Matthew Varone​,

Looks like you can get pretty close, but not quite, yet:

Clone Program​

Create Token​

This would get you a cloned program with tokens, and yet the smart campaigns remain inactive. There is no way to activate a trigger campaign that I can see (I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this point!).

There is one other potential option to consider:

Schedule Campaign​

In looking at the documentation, I noticed an optional parameter that I hadn't paid much attention to before:

cloneToProgramName (string, optional): Name of the resulting program. When set, this attribute will cause the campaign, parent program, and all of its assets, with the resulting new name. Programs with snippets, push notifications, in-app messages, static lists, reports, and social assets may not be cloned in this way
...
tokens (Array[Token], optional): List of my tokens to replace during the run of the target campaign. The tokens must be available in a parent program or folder to be replaced during the run

This looks like it will let you clone a program, set its tokens (for a scheduled run) and then schedule the smart campaign to run (activate it). This seems pretty close to what you want - and it will work as long as your events can function with only batch campaigns (no triggers).

Would be curious to know more about your use case.

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Justin Norris | Perkuto​​

[Anonymous]

Hi Justin Norris​.

I have build a fairly complex event program that contains multiple campaigns, velocity scripting, multiple asset types web hooks etc.

Here is a screen:

The way it works is a sales person fills out a form with the event details, these are sent as an alert to corporate. Corporate then clone this program and adjust all the tokens:

As you would know these tokens change all the info in the assets.

To activate the program we self register with a specific email address, this then triggers an alert to the sales person. This alert contains an activation link, which is a short form. I have stripped all the tracking data from this form and the LP so that the sales person can register on the behalf of a customer.

This triggers a responce to the customer where they start to receive communications. Part of this process encourages the 1st customer to then share a link with her friends and family thus encouraging more registrations and so on.

So far we are trialing the program and it is quite effective. Although it takes about 5 minutes to set one up and we would like to process around a 1000 a month.

If we could automated the cloning of the program and population of the tokens from an external data source we would be able to create greater efficiency.

Look forward to feedback.

[Justin_Norris1]

Matthew Varone​

I think unfortunately that you will not be able to 100% control this via API with your current setup, as the inability to activate a smart campaign seems a blocker.

We have created custom applications for a number of clients that consist of a portal interface where a non-Marketo user can supply details and submit a form, which results in a program being cloned and tokens set - very similar to what you are looking for. However, a Marketo user always checks and activates the resulting program within the system.

One other consideration that may make things more efficient: you may want to create an SFDC campaign for each event and allow sales people to add leads or contacts to that campaign with a status of registered. If that campaign is synced to the Marketo program then the lead will get added with the appropriate status to the program without the salesperson needing to fill out the form and register as the lead.

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Justin Norris | Perkuto​​

[Anonymous]

Hi Justin Norris​.

Id like to learn more about the solution your company has previously developed. I have just sent an invitation to connect via LinkedIn.

Thanks

Matt

[Justin_Norris1]

Thanks Matthew Varone​ - I sent you a LinkedIn message.

[ernie]

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[...]

We have created custom applications for a number of clients that consist of a portal interface where a non-Marketo user can supply details and submit a form, which results in a program being cloned and tokens set [...]

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Justin Norris | Perkuto​​

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Hello Justin,

I hope that you are having a good one!

Now, I stumbled across your post and wanted to kindly ask for more information in regards to cloning a program and setting/updating its tokens. 

According to the docs, and what I have found in Marketing Nation, it's currently not possible to bulk update tokens. So I am particularly interested in how you set/update a number of tokens. And how you have solved this particular problem via an interface where on can "supply details and submit a form, which results in a program being cloned and tokens set".

This is exactly what I am trying to build! 🙂 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Best / ernie