Recommendation on CMS integration

[Eva_Yu]

We are having some many problems with Marketo and CMS integrations, and would like to see if there is any tool/solution to improve the situation.

We have a board range of products (thousands) and a large number of content on a custom made CMS system. All content on the website are gates behind a web form (non-marketo) tied to the complex product database, so we cannot move them all content to Marketo, or replace them with marketo form at this point. All the web form entries are synced to Marketo through API calls and campaigns are triggered based on field value change (publication title). Occasionally we create programs and landing pages with same piece of content available on the website.

Problems:

1. the API sync can not view the web form entry, or download from website as an activity

2. Cannot score them same way as we score the same content on a landing page

3. API call sync overwrites the field value every time there is new activity, we cannot preserve the history

4. can not run content performance report on Marketo

Any suggestions is high appreciated!

Thanks,

Eva

[SanfordWhiteman]

we cannot... replace them with marketo form at this point.

I don't think you've proven that.

Why exactly can't the product list be used with a dynamic Marketo form -- either a visible form or a hidden form that uses data from your custom form? This would be by far the easiest way to patch all these gaps at once.

[Eva_Yu]

Hi Stanford,

Thanks for the reply. I want to make sure I understand you correctly. So we can add a hidden Marketo form to the our website page with a web form, and just use the information on the web form to fill out the hidden Marketo form automatically?

Our pain point now is the large product portfolio with custom configurations on the web form. Those information are all stored in the database and  I'm not sure how we can translate those information into Marketo.

Thanks,

Eva

[SanfordWhiteman]

Thanks for the reply. I want to make sure I understand you correctly. So we can add a hidden Marketo form to the our website page with a web form, and just use the information on the web form to fill out the hidden Marketo form automatically?

Yes, this is the recommended way to integrate a native HTML form, or other non-Marketo form, with the Marketo database. Upon submission of the visible form, map the visible form values to the hidden form using the Forms API; stop the visible form from submitting; submit the Marketo form.

The other way is to use only a (visible) Marketo form with a dynamically built form descriptor, adding the fields from your database to the Marketo form when the page is rendered.

There are examples of both approaches throughout Community threads and in my blog posts.

[Eva_Yu]

Thanks Stanford, I found the documentation on this, very helpful! 

Additional question: Our website use a pop-up to host the web form, will it make a difference? Furthermore, we allow user to register an account with us to download content (pointless but it's what it is), will the hidden marketo form catch the user's email from the login page?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Our website use a pop-up to host the web form, will it make a difference?

Nope.

will the hidden marketo form catch the user's email from the login page?

You would need to record that entry somewhere -- cookie, localStorage, etc. if you want to reuse it on another page with a fuller form.