Passing parameters to a non-Marketo form

[Anonymous]

I am trying to understand the best way to do this. Here is the use case:

User is sent an email from Marketo with a link to a non-Marketo page that has a non-marketo form on it. When the user clicks through to the non-marketo page, the non-marketo form should be pre-populated with the account number of the user, which is stored in Marketo. 

What is the best way to achieve this? Any inputs will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

So, there are two approaches I like for this:

• Maintain a local cache of IDs (e.g. Marketo Cookies) and their Account IDs, and look it up on that other site
• Call our REST API in real time when someone hits the page and updates it

First one is more work, but a better (faster) web experience. Second one is easier, but less easily cached if you want super fast page load times or to avoid any delay in populating the field.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Eric. What about passing the account ID as an URL parameter in the email link? Will this work assuming that our developers can parse the URL and grab the account ID from it? I will have to check the security/ privacy angle and see if its OK to expose the account number in the URL.


 

[Anonymous]

Oh, that's a good idea. I think that might work really nicely, assuming y'all are OK from a security standpoint. I was thinking someone might stumble on the page later (not through the email) and was thinking about options that were cookie based.

[Anonymous]

Eric, you bring up a good point. I will have to check if the account number is again needed later at any point. If yes, then I will have to go the cookie route.