How do I refer content from a data sheet to an email?

[Anonymous]

Hello, wonderful Marketo community!

I'm working on creating an email that is fairly simple, except for two tiny pieces that are throwing me off. (Of course, these tiny pieces are the most important parts of the email!)

Basically, what I need to do is have a snippet/token/whatever of dynamic content that refers back to a data sheet. In this case, we're trying to inform consumers of how much money they might be able to save in a rebate program that is being promoted, along with providing them an individual promotion code to enter. The dollar amount and promo code will come from a data sheet, which should be tied to individual customers.

Mind you, I'm not the one in charge of segmenting that customer data or executing the campaigns. My job is simply to code the emails/landing pages, so my Marketo knowledge at-large might be spotty...

Would this be better done with a snippet or a token? How would I go about having that snippet or token refer to the data sheet? While I excel at HTML ninja skills, I'm a little new to the whole notion of a REST API or anything of that nature, so if that's the route I need to go down, what's a good ELI5 way to approach it?

For clarification, I've attached the PDF proof for what it is we're trying to do.

Any and all help is, as always, greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Kenny_Elkington · Accepted solution]

I'd say the best way to do this would be to create custom object records for your promotion, and then refer to fields on these records using velocity script.  Based on the pdf, you'd want a record type with approximately these fields:

Annual Savings

Seasonal Earnings(you may need four of these if it's individual to each season)

Activation code

You could then refer to each of these with individual tokens in the email:

Annual Savings = ${FlexPromtionList.get(0).AnnualSavings}

Seasonal Earanings = ${FlexPromotionList.get(0).SeasonalEarnings}

Activation Code = ${FlexPromotionList.get(0).ActivationCode}

P.S. If you could extend your service grid in Portland about 3 blocks east, that would be great.

[Anonymous]

Hehe, I'm actually in Austin, PGE is just one of our clients that we're trying to migrate to Marketo. That said, I'll see if I can pass along the message.

I think this will definitely set me on more or less the right path, though this will be my first chance to script with Velocity! I don't have the data sheet in my hands yet, either, which complicates things slightly. I don't know if they have the activation codes already designated or not.

If I get the data sheet in the form of an excel spreadsheet, how do I parse out the information for the custom objects?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Anonymous]

Hi Alex,

You will have to upload the Excel file contents in to Marketo custom object.

Once you (or your Marketo admin) have created the custom object and published it, you can upload this excel file contents there.

Here are some instructions that might help.

Custom Objects in Marketo - Part 4 - Bulk Upload

Hope this helps

Rajesh

[Josh_Hill13]

While Custom Objects are better for this, you can create custom fields and upload the data as long as you have the email address. It gets messy if you do this a lot or you have more than basic rules for how promos work.

[Anonymous]

Hi Josh!

We do indeed have the email addresses. It's going to be fairly simple, as far as these things go; basically it will be the email address, the $ savings amount, and the promo code. I'm supposed to get the data sheet later today, but I figured I'd get ahead of the game now.

I see in the documentation about adding custom object fields, is this different than custom fields? Whereabouts could I find out how that works as opposed to the custom objects?

Thanks for your help!

[Kenny_Elkington]

The difference is basically that custom fields are only on the lead record, while a lead can have multiple custom object records.  What approach is best is going to be largely dependent on whether you may have more than one promotion active for a given person or set of people.  If you can or you're not sure, then you'll want to use custom objects.  If this will never happen, then you want to use lead fields.