Can you import a list to create new leads but not update exiting lead details?

Lynda,

If you go to the admin section of Marketo and you can edit field update settings. Click on the "Field Management" section and then you should get a list of available fields on the right side.

You can drag them into the center area. Next, click on the "Field Actions" dropdown and click "Block Field Updates" (red circle next to it). From there, you can select the types of field updates you wish to block for that specific field.

You'll have to do this process for all the fields you want to block updates from on list imports...Also this will apply to all future list imports, not just a one-time import.

This article: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000KypCCAS gives you a good rundown of the process as well.

Thanks Caleb, do you know if we followed the article steps and selected "list import trusted source"  - would that mean that all fields were excluded from update on a list import directly into the lead database area? Just trying to avoid having to make the setting on all the lead data fields individually!

If you select the "List Import trusted source" option on a field, then when you import a list and choose "Trusted" as the Trusted Source option during import, the data in that field will not be updated by the imported data.  You have to set the Block Field Updates options for every field that you may import; otherwise, the existing data will be updated.

If you think that you may want to update existing field data from an import at some time in the future, you may want to chose the "List import untrusted source" option instead and then when you import your list, if you want to update the existing data in the fields, you would choose "Trusted" as the Trusted Source option during import and if you do not want to update the existing data in the fields, you would choose "Untrusted" as the Trusted Source option during import.