How to handle restricted use lists with Marketo?

[Anonymous]

I'm sure someone has run into this before: 

You buy a list and are allowed to use that list x number of times for sending emails. After that, you need to suspend all marketing to that list unless:

1. You already had that contact in your DB before you purchased the list OR
2. The contact responds positively to your marketing

does Marketo have any build in functionality to handle this common situation, and if not how have people handled this?

Thanks for your thoughts and advice in advance!

Jim

[Kenny_Elkington · Accepted solution]

Hey Jim,

For the first scenario, you'll want to partition your list between existing leads, and leads imported with the list.  To do this, you will need to create two static lists prior to import your CSV.  One should be called "All leads [List Name]" and the other should be "New Leads from [List Name]."  You'll then need to set up a smart campaign with a Lead is created trigger, and the Constraint List Name is "All Leads [List Name]" then a Flow of "Add to List - New Leads."  When you import your list into the all leads static list, this will move any leads created by this import operation into the new leads list, allowing you to partition them out, and suspend marketing after communication.

For the second scenario, it's typical to set up a trigger campaign to remove Marketing Suspended.  Usually this is based on a Form Fillout, but other forms of engagement may be appropriate.

[Jep_Castelein2]

Of course, the best solution is not to purchase lists: they are often the lowest performing marketing campaigns (apart from the fact Marketo is not to be used for sending unsolicited commercial email)

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kenny, that approach works. 

Jep, in our situtation it's not really a "purchased list", it's actually a tradeshow registration list where some registrants have agreed to recieve one email from each sponsor. We would like to send that one email and then supress so as to honor the terms of the opt in.

I was trying to have the use case be more general for this forum, but the point is noted.