Can I limit the number of records who receive email from the output of smart list

[Pratik_Gurnani1]

I have a smart list that give me an output of approx 10K records. I want to send only to 1000 records out of this.

Can this be done either in Smart list or Smart campaign.

[Anonymous]

Hi Pratik,

You can certainly do this a couple of ways.

Method 1 - Static List

1. Create a static list within your email program.
2. Access your existing  smart list and select 1000 of the records.
3. Click Person Actions
   1. Hover over "Marketing"
   2. Click "Add to List"
   3. Select the static list you created in step 1.
   4. Click Run Now.
4. Access the Smart list INSIDE your email program
5. Make the criteria "Member of list"
6. Set list to the one you created in step one.
7. Complete your email program as you normally would.

Method 2 Add members to your email program

1. Open your existing smart list
2. Select 1000 Members
3. Click "Person Actions"
   1. Hover over "Programs"
   2. Click "Change Program Status"
   3. Find your program and select status of "Member"
   4. Click "Run Now".
4. Go to your email program (you should now have 1000 program members.
5. Access the Smart List INSIDE your email program
6. Make the criteria - "Member of Program"
   1. Select the email program that you're working in and set to "True"

Now just complete your program as you normally would.

[Veronica_Holme4]

I am assuming that you don't care which 1000 otherwise you would have identified those specific 1000?

Sounds like a good case for using random sample in the Send Email flow step. Use your 10K in the smart list, and set something like this in the smart campaign flow:

The 10 represents "10%", so Marketo will take a random sample of 10% of your 10K, which gives you your 1000 unless my maths is seriously off this afternoon

[Pratik_Gurnani1]

Thanks Veronica, You math is spot on!!

This is good option if we want to limit it to a specific percentage. I will have to fall back on this option, unless I find something that could limit it to an absolute number I provide, as I may not always know what number my Smart list output going to be. My marketing team wants to send an email to only X number irrespective of what how many people qualify in my smart list every week.

[SanfordWhiteman]

My marketing team wants to send an email to only X number irrespective of what how many people qualify in my smart list every week.

A common requirement, and one that (as others note) can't be executed automatically with the Marketo UI alone.

We do this with help from a webhook-based counter. The counter assigns each lead that qualifies to a specific group. You specify the size of a group -- including increasing and decreasing sizes if you want -- but for now think of them as groups of a thousand: the 0XXX group, the 1XXX group, the 2XXX group, etc. Then that group membership is written to a lead field, which is then easy to filter on across successive sends.

[Devraj_Grewal]

Pratik,

In this case, there is no workaround but Veronica's option. You can vote for the product idea here: