Setting up transactional emails like Forgot PW

[Kevin_Lustgarte]

I'm relatively new to Marketo. So far using it primarily for batch campaigns and some engagement.

Yesterday one of the product managers on our Web team asked if they might use Marketo for transactional emails. Their homegrown system for Password Retrieval emails (and similar) isn't working well.

Can someone thumbnail for me how this would work in Marketo? I figure we'd use REST API, triggered emails, and the person probably has to exist in the Marketo database.

Thoughts? Ideas? Hidden gotchas?

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes, you can do this by connecting your product to Marketo using the API.

I would avoid using Marketo for security emails like reset pw. Do not use it for PCI compliance either.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not a good idea to respond to uncontrolled user action (password reset forms are a particular magnet for hackers) by consuming a Marketo API call. I advise strongly against it.

Sending transactional emails in response to trusted user action (i.e. logged-in, paying users) can be okay, in contrast.

But even in the latter case, you have to consider that you're sending critical content through a server known to send promotional content (no matter how much *we* love Marketo, them's the facts!). For best deliverability, use your own server here. Don't know what's "not working well," but better to fix that than to go down this road.