Changing Email address of multiple leads

[Ravi_Ansal2]

Hi There,

I was cleaning my database and came around multiple leads whose email address have been changed in the last year due to some company acquisitions or few have joined the new company.

So i downloaded all that data and starting working on correcting them in an excel sheet but now before uploading that i have few questions:

     1. I f i upload that data with a different email address will Marketo create a new records?

          1.1 If so; is there a way to over right the current data value in a bulk way?

     2. If i add existing Marketo ID column will that help?

     3. Or should i update the leads via Salesforce?

Hope i clarifies my question.

[Jenn_DiMaria2]

Hi, Ravi!

Marketo de-dupes records by email address, so yes, uploading your list with new email address will create new records. As far as I know, there's no way to overwrite the data in a bulk way. I would update the records in SFDC if that's that master. Perhaps there's a tool (like DemandTools) that could help? It's a pricey piece of software, but very handy, and I can't think of another way to accomplish your goal without getting extremely manual.

[Mike_Reynolds2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

Marketo De-duplicates against the email address, so if you import the list with just the new email addresses, new lead records will be created, which you'll want to avoid. But, there's actually a good work around for this by loading the new email address into another field on the existing lead record, then using a smart campaign to populate that new email address over the top of the main existing email address.

1. Create a new custom field

2. Import your list using the existing email address mapped to the standard email address field so that it de-duplicates against the existing lead.

3. During import, map the correct/updated email address to the new custom field you created. This gets the correct email address into the correct exiting lead record.

4. Create a smart campaign with a change data value flow step.Set the value to be changed as the standard email address field. For the new value, use the token value for your new custom field. This will take the updated email address from the custom field and write it into the standard custom field.

5. Run the campaign, sit back and enjoy an updated email address for your leads!

[Lucas_Metherall]

Hi Mike, 

Can you expand on using the 'token value for the new custom field?' What would that look like, how would I action that?

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Flow step: Change Data Value

┖ Attribute: Email Address

┖ New Value: {{lead.The Other Field You Created To Hold The New Email}}

[Lucas_Metherall]

Thanks, perfect. 

[Kenny_Elkington]

Mike's solution will work, but if you're API savvy, you can use the Import Lead API, and set your lookupField as 'id' then import your list with id and email columns.  This will match your records against their Marketo ID instead of their email address and update them that way:  Import Lead » Marketo Developers

[Ravi_Ansal2]

Thanks everyone but Mike Reynolds​'s idea is simple and Kenny Elkington​ i an not that good with API