Our goal is to pass a simple object like this in the URL:
{"LeadEmail":{{Lead.Email Address}},"OwnerEmail":{{lead.Lead Owner Email Address}}
for example
{"LeadEmail":"sandy@teknkl.com","OwnerEmail":"salesperson@example.com"}
while being as subtle as possible.
The way to keep it subtle is by Base64-encoding the data (which also, coincidentally, makes it safe to put in a URL hash without any other encoding). This will look like a random alphanumeric string to the vast majority of people (and even w/those that realize it contains a string, it's extremely unlikely that they would care, especially since you're outputting the info anyway!).
Base64-encoded, the above looks like this:
eyJMZWFkRW1haWwiOiJzYW5keUB0ZWtua2wuY29tIiwiT3duZXJFbWFpbCI6InNhbGVzcGVyc29uQGV4YW1wbGUuY29tIn0=
Store that Base64 version in a token and it's very simple to add that in the #hash of your links (if you're not using the hash for anything else, that's a very easy place to parse out without touching the query string*):
http://example.com/landingpage.html?utm_campaign=whatever#{{Lead.LeadInfoEncoded}}
For the example lead above, that would be output as:
http://example.com/landingpage.html?utm_campaign=whatever#eyJMZWFkRW1haWwiOiJzYW5keUB0ZWtua2wuY29tI...
And once it's in the hash, in the HEAD of the destination LP just go like this:
<script>
var leadInfo = {};
try {
leadInfo = JSON.parse( atob( document.location.hash.substring(1) ) );
} catch (e) {}
</script>
Now you've got a leadInfo JS object you can read to put data anywhere you want on the page.
So the challenge isn't really on the LP (reading) end, it's on the link generating (writing) end -- how to get the Base64-encoded value I'm calling {{lead.LeadInfoEncoded}} above.
In theory, you have 3 choices here:
- Use Velocity.
- Use FlowBoost or the like.
- Export to Excel or another spreadsheet app and reupload.
Unfortunately, while [1] is possible if you used your own Velocity install, in Marketo's Velocity context it isn't feasible.
[2] is easy with FB because a convenience method is available for exactly this reason (Base64 encoding being something we do a lot):
return FBEncode.base64Encode({
LeadEmail: {{Lead.Email Address}},
OwnerEmail: {{lead.Lead Owner Email Address}}
});
[3] is not that hard, either. Excel doesn't support Base64 on its own but you can download a few different macros since others have found the need over the years. I have attached a working Excel spreadsheet with the functions already added.
* Obviously for a more robust solution you would use a known key-value pair instead of expecting to use the entire hash.
** H/t this guy for the spreadsheet it's based on.
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