List upload - best practice and questions

[Nurture_Ninja]

I'm looking for some best practices around uploading leads on Marketo to create specific audience lists for pulling into engagement streams. 

1. What is the best process for pulling existing records within Marketo?
2. Is there a template that needs to be used when importing new records to ensure all the right data is being captured?

Thank you.

[Katja_Keesom · Accepted solution]

Oh wow, so many questions in response to that... It is a really broad question and the answers have loads of "it depends"!

First of all, assuming you have integrated your Marketo instance with a CRM, I would try to always use smart list filters to select your audience based on the data Marketo already has rather than using list uploads. You could also (again, depending on how your CRM is integrated) assign people to the campaign from your CRM. If you have just migrated from a traditional email tool it is very hard to get your users to trust the database filters you have available, but it is well worth investing in building that trust.

List uploads can be tricky and I have seen plenty of database issues created by the practice. A few things can help you keep this under control:

• Ensure only people who understand the database structure get the permission to upload lists.
• Having a template with the fields to include (marking mandatory vs optional fields clearly) will definitely help.
• Identify fields where existing data may never be overwritten from a list upload and set the block field updates accordingly.

There is a lot that can be / should be configured in your instance's data management processes for new records which will define what you should or should not include in a list upload.

I hope this at least gives you an initial sense of how to go about it in your particular circumstance.

[Christiane_Rode]

Seconding everything @Katja_Keesom is saying, and also I want to add that you want to be sure that you're taking a close look at specifically what data you're importing in and understand issues to keep an eye out for. Even if you're moving data from a reliable source, there can be all kinds of bad data that will make its way onto a file and into your DB. Some things to think about:

• Does the system you're grabbing data from have validations set for those fields?
  • Do email fields require a @ and .; do they accept special characters?
  • Are people required to fill out certain fields? If so, can you trust them to put accurate info into name fields, company fields, and phone numbers?

You'll want to keep an eye out for certain reoccurring issues -- weird characters in the email field, poorly formatted email addresses (firstnamelastname@. <-- to get around certain validations) as well as other bad data -- so you can address prior to importing. 

[Katja_Keesom]

Yup, totally agree with that too!

[Zoe_Forman]

Third, all that has been said above.

Also, suppose you are working for a global company. In that case, it is perfect to have a Global list upload template which can include all local fields such as region, country, language, privacy/opt-in, GDPR opt-in date, and product/industry segments. This ensures global consistency for shared Marketo Instances and shared CRM (Salesforce in our case).

Some values will also be based on your segmentations. ensure your values and naming convention is consistent.

Also, consider what your default values are - sometimes, they may be blank.

[Katja_Keesom]

@Nurture_Ninja Has your question been answered? It is good practice in this community to respect the effort people put in to help you with your question by giving at least some feedback on the input you received and if there are one or more answers that provided the solution mark those as such.

Thank you!

[Nurture_Ninja]

Sorry for the delay in my response. I was out for a few weeks due to illness. Thank you for your recommendations. Very helpful!