Could Smart List Subscriptions have any gaps or overlaps?

[Bishoy_Riad]

Hi Marketo Nation,

Curious if anyone has looked into whether Smart List Subscriptions can have gaps or overlaps, as there is no timeslot configuration for this feature.

Our use case would be to relay CSVs of leads who order physical mail brochures. What we are aiming to avoid is missing leads who order a brochure, or marking brochure recipients twice.

1. If we set a frequency interval of Daily for instance, would it be possible for us to miss any records between Monday and Tuesday exports?

2. Inversely, would it be possible for the Monday and Tuesday exports to contain duplicate values?

3. If the answer is yes to either or both 1 and 2, what would we do to prevent gaps and overlaps?

Bonus question: how can we set a frequency interval of every 2 days? (I considered setting 3/4 "Weekly" subscriptions that fall on different days of the week, but alas the 7 day week is not divisible such that we can achieve a 2-day cadence.)

Thanks in advance!

Bishoy

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

You can't absolutely guarantee there will not be gaps. And, as you've correctly gathered, the solution can create overlaps (the same underlying event being sent twice).

The easiest way to detect (though not prevent) overlaps is to stamp the last interesting interaction with a DateTime (like {{lead.LastBrochureRequest}}). Then that will be, at least on the human level, seen as a duplicate if it comes through the next day as well.

[Bishoy_Riad]

That makes sense, as it will require human oversight barring any possibility for preventative measures. In this case, I would be inclined to define "last interesting interaction" as the moment when a lead qualifies to become a member of the "Brochure Recipient Smart List".

Here's the workaround I have in mind:

(1) Create DateTime field: LastBrochureRequest

(2) Build Smart Campaign:

Smart List Filters:

• Member of Smart List IN <Brochure Recipient Smart List> AND
• LastBrochureRequest IS EMPTY

Flow steps:

• Change Data Value
  Attribute: LastBrochureRequest
  New Value: {{system.date}}

Schedule:

• Batch Run (Daily)
• Set timeslot to soon before Subscription event occurs

(3) Update Smart List Subscription Columns to include DateTime field: LastBrochureRequest

Would you suggest an alternative approach to this type of workaround?

[SanfordWhiteman]

That might be okay for backfill, but going forward you want to stamp that field in the same trigger that adds them to the list.