List Uploads to Append vs Over Write a Field

[Troy_Larson1]

Hey Marketo World.

Question for you - when you do a list upload and you have data in a certain field, I know that it will automatically over write it - do any of you all have a solution to append the field vs over write it? We get a lot of data post events on .CSVs and I want do upload them however as time goes on the fields I would upload to will fill up and we wouldn't want to erase the prior info.

Any thoughts? Anyone dealt with this before?

Thanks,

-Troy

[SanfordWhiteman]

For a simple append with no other "intelligence" to it, use a different field for the new value in the CSV, then append the new value to the old value using a Data Value Changes + Change Data Value.trigger campaign.

[Denise_Greenb12]

Hi Troy -

I thought it might be helpful to add more details to Sandy's reply. I agree with him about using a different field to use for the list import. For example, if your field is "Notes from Event" you could create another field called "Notes from Event List Import." When you import the list, import the value you want to append into Notes from Event into Notes from Event List Import.

Next, in a Smart campaign, take the value from Notes from Event List Import and append it to Notes from Event. You do this by using tokens.

Change Data Value

Choice 1

If Notes from Event is empty

Attribute: Notes from Event->New Value: {{lead.Notes from Event List Import}}

Default Choice

Attribute: Notes from Event->New Value: {{lead.Notes from Event}}, {{lead.Notes from Event List Import}}

If you want to add more information about where the new data came from you can do something like this for the Default Choice:

Default Choice

Attribute: Notes from Event->New Value: {{lead.Notes from Event}}, 2019.2.29 Summit: {{lead.Notes from Event List Import}}

Denise

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yep, exactly. Also can use a Line Break Token as a separator.