Is there a way to override form submissions with existing Marketo data?

[Anonymous]

I'm sure that some of you may have faced this issue before.  We have existing leads & contacts in Marketo (that are also copied in Salesforce) that we invite to webinars, events, etc. through registration forms.  We have found that some, not all, of our respondents will fill in the forms with poor data quality (all lowercase, abbreviated titles, etc.) that will overwrite their existing database information.  Our Sales team gets somewhat annoyed by this fact, because they feel (and in some cases it's very true) that their data on this lead is more valid than the self-reported data in the forms. 

Is there a way to back out changes from forms for existing database leads while enabling new leads to be created with complete contact data?  How have most of you handled this in the past. 

Do you create new leads for webinars, etc. -or- do you have intelligence in your campaign to restrict updates on certain fields if the data is not net new?

[Anonymous]

Chris,

You sound like a candidate for Progessive Profiling; if you are sending out a webinar invite to people on whom you have good data, then you shouldn't provide those fields for them to update. If you don't have the data (blank fields), they will be shown to those users. This isn't a foolproof way by any means, but it may help to curb leads overwriting your good data.

[Anonymous]

Jason - thanks!  I like this approach. 

[Anonymous]

Before I close out of this discussion, Marketo's default if it is able to identify a lead is to pre-fill the form data.  What setting do I need to look for to make sure this hasn't been turned off (I don't believe it has, but want to confirm). 

[Anonymous]

Admin > Landing Pages > Form Prefill

Form Editor > Progressive Profiling > Enabled

[Anonymous]

Just be aware that when using progressive profiling, the same person that used the computer to submit a form last may not be the person that submits it again, so you may want to always include the Email Address, First Name, Last Name and Company fields in the form.  This also gives the lead the ability to update their email if it changes.

[Anonymous]

We include a link below the registration button that says, "Not Joe Smith? Click Here." This allows people who may have been forwarded the email/different from the original machine user to fill out the form, etc. without allowing bad data to override already-cleaned up data.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ann.  Does the link navigate to a different form with the form data cleared out?  How do you break the linkage between the original recipient and the forwarded recipient? 

I have used the Forward to a Friend link as well, but obviously you can't guarantee that a webinar invitee will always use that link.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, the machine re-cookies (for lack of better word) itself to attach to the new person. I know this is what happens when I use various email addresses to test -- it uses whatever the last address I used as the tracked one.

I have used Forward to a Friend, but stopped because it seemed to add people to our database even if they didn't fill out a form/register, which I didn't like.