Updating Records - What are the Rules

[Tara_Rowe]

Trying to figure out duplicates in Marketo and how to manage or create work around rules in SFDC that would not allow some data come over, specifically if there is not email address.

What happens if you have someone’s name and phone but not their email, then they fill out a form and give the email (but same name and phone) – does it duplicate or does it find the existing lead and update it?

We are trying to keep the size of our Database down and not do any worse by our data. If this is the case we can create a wall. It seems that we cannot find a definite answer as at times it updates and others it will not.

[Anonymous]

The key field in Marketo is the email address; it will not deduplicate on any other field.

[Tara_Rowe]

Therefore I can not update any existing contacts unless the email matches?

[Dan_Stevens_]

You might also find this post useful (even though it doesn't relate to your specific question, it's good to know how Marketo treats duplicate records for things like form submits, sending trigger emails, list uploads, web activity and merging leads): If duplicate leads are an issue, be aware of how Marketo determines which lead is active

[Anonymous]

Marketos matching by email is the default--however, you can open a ticket with them and change that behavior. For example we currently match on email, name and company.

Email-only was insufficient for us--we have a number of high net worth individuals/families in our system and it is not unusual for family members as well as executive admins to share email addresses.

[Tara_Rowe]

Thank you, this may actually soft the issues we are having.

With our industry our contacts can have several email addresses. If we can match on email, company name and name that may keep our database cleaner.

I will look into this route. Thank you

[SanfordWhiteman]

But bear in mind that your original scenario is not solved by having a compound (multifield) dedupe key.

If you key on Email, Company Name, First Name, and Last Name, and someone has

Email: <blank>

Company: MyCompany

First: Tara

Last: Rowe

this isn't going to be merged with

Email: tara@example.com

Company: MyCompany

First: Tara

Last: Rowe

because the blank value is still a value.