How to delete only some Unsubscribed records based on an external list?

[Anonymous]

How do I delete unsubscribe records that match an external list I have? Example: I have 20,000 total unsubscribe records in my Marketo instance, but I only want to delete 15,000 permanently. How do I delete these and not go in one-by-one and find to delete?

[Justin_Cooperm2]

Import List to Marketo.

Create Smart Campaign with Smart List "Member of List X" and Flow "Delete Lead"

Run that Campaign.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Justin and Edward! Do you then need to go in the database and delete that list imported into Marketo? If not, wouldn't you have them still in Marketo?

[Edward_Unthank_]

The "Delete Lead" flow step in the smart campaign Justin describes will do the actual work of deleting the leads, after you've exported the leads.

Edward

[Anonymous]

Thanks Edward! Oddly, I have the option 'Delete Person' not 'Delete Lead'. Which then only gives the flow option: 'Remove from CRM: false'.

This is different than what you are showing above. Any thoughts?

[Justin_Cooperm2]

That's because you have a newer instance where "Lead" was re-named in some places to "Person" and the reason it says "Remove from CRM: false" is often because your subscription is not hooked up to SFDC or Dynamics. Is that true?

[Anonymous]

Correct. We are not connected to SFDC or Dynamics. Ok, great. Well thank you both for your help. I think I got everything worked out and those records deleted from our Marketo instance. I appreciate it!

[Edward_Unthank_]

Also, I always export those leads first with all of their fields and save them on a work computer somewhere. No reason in having all that data go away irreparably. Export all lead data first, then do what Justin recommends.

Edward

[Edward_Unthank_]

Interesting! Must be a new improvement in Marketo, change of phrasing. It's the same thing, but "person" seems less misleading than "lead."

[Dory_Viscoglio]

I like the person instead of lead distinction! It would be very helpful when dealing with people in my org who only use SFDC and therefore get confused when everything in Marketo is a "lead". I wonder why they don't rename it in all instances?