Duplicate Mobile Number

[dpatil36]

Hello,

We have an SMS campaign that we run using a list in Marketo but constantly facing issues due to duplicate mobile numbers which is causing the members to receive single SMS multiple times.

The "Duplicate Field" filter does not contain "Mobile Number" as a criteria to merge/delete numbers.

I know we can achieve this by exporting-cleaning and then importing it back to Marketo.

But we are looking for a way to achieve this in Marketo itself since new members are added to this list on a daily basis.

Will look forward to your inputs.

Thanks in advance! 

Dheeraj

[uditmathur]

Hi,

By default Marketo uses Email address as a unique identifier lookup key hence by using "possible duplicates" you can not track mobile numbers.

You will have to achieve this outside of marketo.

A word of caution though... Make sure to check the email id of the records with same mobile number as there might be cases in your database which have same mobile number but different email ids & then this will create issues if you delete the record which might have updated email id.

[dpatil36]

Thank you Udit.

Yes, I do have the same concern where we have same mobile number but different email addresses, so will take care of that.

However, I am wondering if anything can be done in Marketo like "remove from the list if the email already exists in the list" which I am not able to execute in Marketo.

Also, another concern for me: The list contains 12k records and when I put in the Duplicate: Email Address" filter, it is showing 7500 records which is not possible. Any inputs why this could be happening?

Appreciate your guidance.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Also, another concern for me: The list contains 12k records and when I put in the Duplicate: Email Address" filter, it is showing 7500 records which is not possible.

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Don’t understand. How are you proving it’s “not possible”? Should be very simple to export that Smart List and see that the records in it are indeed members of duplicate sets. All the dupes are there in the file!

[dpatil36]

Hello Sanford,

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried exporting the data and checked the duplicate which comes to around ~800 but the smart list with "Duplicate" filter is showing ~7500 records, hence it seems doubtful.

Look forward to your insights on this.

Thank you!

[SanfordWhiteman]

However, I am wondering if anything can be done in Marketo like "remove from the list if the email already exists in the list" which I am not able to execute in Marketo.

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No, this isn’t possible within Marketo Engage itself.

Using the Marketo REST API, you can query for all people with the same value for a custom field. Note Mobile Phone is not itself a custom field, but you can easily copy it to a custom field Mobile Phone Mirror using Change Data Value.

One of our clients uses this approach: when a new person is created, they call a webhook-compatible service to automatically merge with an existing person (if any) that has the same Mobile Phone Mirror.

If you must preserve duplicates by Mobile Phone and can’t actually merge them, you’re going to need another tactic, also presumably using a webhook + API. For example, instead of using Add to List, let the external service check for duplicates that are already in the list and skip adding if so.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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By default Marketo uses Email address as a unique identifier lookup key hence by using "possible duplicates" you can not track mobile numbers.

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Email Address is not a unique identifier in Marketo. It’s simply the default lookup key used by many (though not all) means of entering the Marketo database.

Also note the fields you can use in the Possible Duplicates filter are more than just Email Address. Phone and Mobile Phone aren’t available, which is a missing feature. But First Name and Last Name are, and they’re also not supported lookup keys.

[uditmathur]

HI @SanfordWhiteman 

Thank you for correcting & clarifying.