Forward to a Friend causing Unsubscribe

[Anonymous]

I have been looking at this issue and trying to find a work around for it but the problem seems to be worse the more I look at it.

I used the forward to a friend functionality in various campaigns.
I understand that if a known lead uses the functionality to send a FTAF to an unknown user and that user interacts with it by filling out a form etc. that Marketo will automatically unsubscribe them. I agree that an opt-in campaign is the way to go here BUT ...

If a known lead in Marketo receives a FTAF from a colleague for example and they interact with this FTAT email by filling out a form etc. Marketo will then unsubscribe that known lead also. An opt-in campaign is not ideal here because the user will become confused as to why they are being asked to subscribe when they already thought that they were.

Any advise or suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

[Michelle_Tizian]

Sometimes we have contacts who forward to themselves using their non work email and it creates another record in Marketo.  😞

[Anonymous]

Have you come across this issue Michelle, where you have current known leads being unsubscribed because of this?
If you do how do you go about solving this?

Do you mean Marketo creates a second record for the same email?

[Michelle_Tizian]

Hi Karen,

From what I've seen same name, but different email address (non work, usually a yahoo, gmail or hotmail). They'll be acquired in the program but will be unsubscribed, those are the ones who received the forwarded message. If they're opted in to that program already but are using a different email, I just activate the unsubscribed email, but if it's a totally different person, I'm keeping it unsubscribed for now. 

The problem I'm still thinking about is, if they actually opt-in as a result of the forwarded email, they'll be stuck in the unsubscribe status.  I just have to watch out for it. 

I do want to automate it where if someone gets added to the program by way of forwarded email (this is usually for our newsletters, and podcast/video emails and some promotions), change data unsubscribe from true to false, then send an email to opt-in, and if they unsubscribe, delete from Marketo. 

[Anonymous]

Is this issue still present? When I tested the FTAF function I see an unsubscribed cause (System flow action for 'Change Data Value' triggered) but the unsubscribed box is unchecked. So I'm not actually sure if I've been unsubscribed.