Reducing the options on a filter

[marketouser92]

Hi All, 

Has anyone successfully reduced the # of options on a filter? We have some filters with 200+ options. We want to reduce to only show the 3-4 options that marketers should be using to keep things clean and easier. 

Assuming there's a few options (hopefully) to go about it, ideally I'd love to be able to edit which options show. Alternatively, making a clone of the filter and deleting options we don't want. The route I'd want to go down the least would be creating another column from the data source to feed it into Marketo. 

Has anyone tried this and been successful? 

Thanks!

[jsiebert]

@marketouser92 You cannot reduce the # of options on your filters or delete options. You could cleanse your data to remove some of these options if they aren't necessary/incorrect data, etc. 

I would also recommend looking at your filters and where the data value for that filter is updated from if there are 200+ options. Can you standardize where your data flows form with a dropdown value if that field is updated from a form? etc. This could help keep your options down in the future.

For an immediate solution, I also suggest reviewing your internal documentation and ensuring that your marketing users know what options they should be using so that they aren't overwhelmed by a large drop down! 

[marketouser92]

Thank you so much! 

To double confirm I understand you - your recommendation to cleanse the data is to cleanse it where the data is feeding from, right? Or do we also have the option to delete some of the information in Marketo? Example> 

All Fruit flows from data feed into Marketo 

We only want people to select from apples or organes

Can we delete everything but apples and oranges in Marketo? Or it is only an option from the feed source 

[Christiane_Rode · Accepted solution]

As that information is from your source (let's say a CRM). If you don't want to have people able to choose from all those options, but you're not able to modify the data coming in from the source, you'll have to modify something that is not tied to your CRM -- either create a new field, create a list, etc.

The easiest way I could think of would be to build Smart Lists that people would use in their filters instead of the field itself. So the setup would be as follows:

• Parent Smart List (let's call this Edible Fruit): Filter 1: [CRM Field Name] is Apples, Oranges
• Used Smart List: Filter 1: Member of Smart list - Is member of Edible Fruit

This, of course, requires a certain amount of governance where you would have to trust that people would use the Smart List instead of the CRM field in their filters. If there are concerns that people would still use that field and the data in it, then you might have to create a new field altogether that ONLY pulls in information when the CRM field either shows Apples or Oranges. But that's a more complex setup. 

[SanfordWhiteman]

+1 for the nested Smart List, that's the most practical workaround.

[marketouser92]

Thanks for the assistance