I imported a CSV with a single lead having two columns: Email and Company. I correctly mapped to the right email fields. But instead of updating the company name, it created a new lead, with the given company and other fields empty. I am not sure why this is happening as I have looked everywhere and found that Marketo automatically de-deduplicates upon import. I have ensured that de-duplication is activated at the beginning of the import.
Could someone guess why this is happening? Or how I could fix it?
Thanks
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The "Notes" fields are empty.
I think I know what is happening. I know that the leads dataset in Marketo has some emails that have multiple entries (duplicated). So when I import this list, one of the duplicates gets updated and the other doesn't. (Which leads me to falsely believe that the duplicate was created at the time of import.) I checked the creation dates for the duplicates, and both of them have the same date, some time a couple of years ago. So I am guessing that Marketo really isn't duplicating it during list import. But only updating one of the records instead of both. What do you think?
Please attach a sample CSV for which this is happening (you may of course use an Email Address mailbox@email.invalid and a dummy Company name, but please make sure this exact CSV shows the behavior when you upload it).
Thanks for your response. Here is the CSV file with some edits.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wOyZIfvjJOOQ8caooOAG4f6M1paN19Iu/view?usp=sharing
File looks fine at a byte level (no hidden control characters or anything). And importing it into one of my instances wasn't a problem.
Please show a screenshot of the field mapping page when you import.
The "Notes" fields are empty.
I think I know what is happening. I know that the leads dataset in Marketo has some emails that have multiple entries (duplicated). So when I import this list, one of the duplicates gets updated and the other doesn't. (Which leads me to falsely believe that the duplicate was created at the time of import.) I checked the creation dates for the duplicates, and both of them have the same date, some time a couple of years ago. So I am guessing that Marketo really isn't duplicating it during list import. But only updating one of the records instead of both. What do you think?
That makes perfect sense and is always a good thing to look for when an import appears to have gone awry.
Okay, great. Thank you so much and sorry for the misdiagnosis!!
But now I have another problem. How do I update the duplicate record that doesn't get updated by the list import?
But now I have another problem. How do I update the duplicate record that doesn't get updated by the list import?
Well... you can't. Unless you use the API. Because an import will only ever update a single lead per row, and UI-based imports dedupe on the Email Address field. An API-based import can dedupe on ID (though you'd have to the different IDs in advance, which could be done with additional API work). A webhook-driven process could also update all leads with a matching email address, but wouldn't be advised in large quantities (let's say "large" = > 10,000 leads triggered at the same time).
Marketo does dedupe by email address.
There are always flukes and scenarios where that might not occur.
How sure are you it created a dupe? Screenshots?
Do you use Lead Partitions or Workspaces?
Did anyone change the dedupe key on your instance?
I am new to Marketo but I am as sure as I can be. Since I also tried exporting the duplicates and the original and both of the emails are the same i.e. no white spaces, etc..
About your last two questions, I will get back if I am able to obtain answers for them. Thanks for your input.
When you say "There are always flukes and scenarios where that might not occur.", do you mean that there is a chance that Marketo actually failed to duplicate, and made a mistake?