Managing multiple branding domains in Marketo

[Alexandra_Maes3]

Hi all,

The company I'm working for will soon change its name. Hence, we bought a new domain. Are there any best practices or a step-by-step guidebook on how to tackle this?

I noticed there are other discussions on this topic, but they mostly talk about managing subdomains and CNAMES. I've already read the following posts, including the compilation Gregoire Michel made, but it isn't clear to me.

(latest one)

Doing marketing for multiple companies in one marketo instance.

Multiple brand domains in one account

Manage Multiple Domains and Microsites

Effect and usage of the domainlevel munchkin Initialization Parameter

Doc: Add an Additional Branding Domain - Marketo Docs - Product Documentation

Etc. Etc.

I'm puzzled on how to approach this.

Thanks for your input!

Alexandra

[SanfordWhiteman]

Are you really asking about branding domains?  Those are the domains used for tracking pixels in Marketo emails. They're extremely easy to swap in/out.

Add a new branding domain, set up the corresponding CNAME record -- note that for clearest communication on the topic, the branding domain is not "the CNAME", it's mkto-{nnnn}.com that's the CNAME -- and switch the new branding domain to be the default domain when you're ready.

[Alexandra_Maes3]

Not sure if branding domains is the right terminology here. What I'm trying to say:

Now we have companyname01.com and when changing its name, we'll have companyname02.com. What does this mean for our Marketo instance? How do I approach it?

Kind regards,

Alexandra

[SanfordWhiteman]

A full switch of your private domain means at least 3 areas need updating in Marketo and in DNS:

• the default branding (click tracking) subdomain
• the primary LP subdomain
• the domain used in From:/Reply-To: headers

And potentially a 4th, if you're using branded sender domains with your subscription:

• the branded sender (that is, envelope sender) subdomain

And potentially a 5th, if you have and/or need a custom Munchkin config, for example for 2-letter TLDs:

• the Munchkin domainLevel option

These areas have varying complexity.

For example, changing the branding subdomain requires only a DNS change + setting the new default in the Marketo UI. New emails can be sent out with the new branding domain immediately, long as you set the old branding domain as secondary so already-delivered emails work.

On the other hand, fully changing the LP domain means not only DNS + UI changes, but also redirection for LP URLs that are already in the wild, which takes a bit of JavaScript. And if you want to preserve existing Munchkin (web sessions) that takes a lot of JavaScript!

All in all you should really have someone who's experienced with the vagaries of Marketo shepherd you through this. Without a working understanding of DNS (CNAME, A, MX and SPF/DKIM RRs are all involved) and SMTP, you'll at best be involved in loads of back-and-forth with IT -- and at worst will miss something critical since IT rarely knows enough about Marketo, or even DNS, to test adequately. It's not a complex process per se, especially if you forget about the Munchkin session part, but it has several moving parts and doing them all losslessly takes a technical hand.

[Amy_Millikan2]

Hello,

Sanford Whiteman‌ I am trying to replace my main level domain from companyinc.com to company.com.

I updated Admin > LP > Domain name for Landing Pages: from info.companyinc.com to info.company.com.

When I test, I am getting Marketo's error page (sad pug). 

Please note, I have set up our cname: info.company.com to point to accountstring.mktoweb.com

Do you know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks so much!

Amy

[SanfordWhiteman]

Please provide your real domains, and a shot of the Admin » Landing Pages UI. 

P.S. Placeholder domains should use example.com. The ones you're using in your post are actual registered domains.

[Amy_Millikan2]

Sanford Whiteman‌ Thanks so much. Would you have time to jump on a call? 

[SanfordWhiteman]

I guess in about ½ hour we can get on my JoinMe (join.me/figureone).

[SanfordWhiteman]

In case anybody's lurking, Amy had done everything right in the Admin UI and in DNS.  But due to a partially-completed SSL rollout earlier this year, Marketo had done a server-side tweak for the old domain that will need to be redone for the new domain.