Posting from a Marketo Form to a Custom Activity

[Michael_Oslin]

Hi,

Does anyone currently post directly from a Marketo Form (on a Mkto Landing Page) to a custom activity?

I need to have this post to a custom activity because the data we collect is additive.

I could send it to a Person field, but as soon as the Person submits a new form we run the risk of overwriting the original data.

e.g. Form field name is "Foods I like" 1st time answer submitted "Salads"; 2nd submission "Steak"

I would like to keep both submissions so i have historical data.

thank you-

[Jep_Castelein2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael, this can only be done via the Marketo API, so you'd temporarily capture it in Person fields, then use the Marketo API to save it as a Custom Activity, or better, save it as a Custom Object (since custom activities will be deleted after 2 years). Marketo Consulting is working on a standard solution for this, but that will be at least a couple of months before it's generally available. A savvy developer should be able to build it for you today.

[Michael_Oslin]

Hi Jep,

Thank you for your answer.

A couple clarification questions:

1. Do you mean that the custom activity data is deleted after 2 years or is Marketo deprecating Custom Activities?

2. When you say Marketo Consulting, do you mean a solution that will be deployed to all instances as a standard feature? Is there somewhere I can read more about this?

thank you again!

-Michael

[Jep_Castelein2]

1) as part of our new data retention policy, any activities (including custom activities) will be deleted after 2 years (or 25 months to be precise, see details Marketo Activities Data Retention Policy - Overview & FAQ ). Custom Activities as a feature is not deprecated.

2) it will be an add-on services offering, available for an additional fee. There are no details yet, because it's still being designed & developed. It is intended to store event-specific data, just like in your example.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Michael,

If you use some API, NEVER connect a front end app with the REST API. It would create a serious security breach.

Usually, when Marketo Consulting develops a solution, it's available with an additional fee

Vote here:

-Greg

[SanfordWhiteman]

The other approach here, to eliminate API limits and add-on costs, is to store the historical data in a separate Textarea field. You need only add the changed {{lead.token}} to the history field upon Data Value Changed and it'll be preserved.

You can store hundreds of form posts in a single field this way, a sort of "poor man's custom object" -- though in certain ways you get richer functionality, since you can embed and query history tokens in both Landing Pages and Emails (while COs can only be displayed in Emails, and CAs in neither).

[Michael_Oslin]

Hi Sanford,

Can you elaborate on this part?

"You need only add the changed {{lead.token}} to the history field upon Data Value Changed and it'll be preserved."

1. I've created a text area field "Historical Form Capture"

Not sure how/where to go next?

thank you as always!

[Grégoire_Miche2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael

Add a trigger campaign on data value changes on your {{lead.token}} field.

in the flow, add a change data value, on the field "historical lead value", new value being the compilation:

{ "datetime":"{{system.datetime}}","value":"{{lead.token}}"}, {{lead.historical lead value}}

-Greg