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A
Anonymous
October 13, 2015
Question

Opting In/Out Duplicates?

  • October 13, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 2633 views

Hi everyone.

Does anyone have any strategies on how to handle opt-in or opt-outs for when a duplicate exists?

For example:

bob.smith@gmail.com decides to unsubscribe from marketing communications => unsubscribe = true

bob.smith@gmail.com (a duplicate record) does not change => unsusbcribe = false

Take the same example for when a duplicate exists and only one of the duplicates opts in.

Our concern with this is that a duplicate like Bob Smith could still receive emails, which could lead to complaints that we'd rather avoid.

I should also mention that we use fields such as  'Marketing Channel - Email' and 'Marketing Channel - Phone' etc. but use the Marketo field 'Unsubcsribe' as the Global opt-out.

One way we've considered fixing this (aside from deduping the base) is to extract any emails that have opted in or out in the past week, match that with any duplicates in the database and then update their appropriate value.

I can't see a way to completely automate this process, although I'm sure subscribe to smart lists will assist in this manual process.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas. Josh Hill, I'm sure you've come across this one in the past?

Cheers Greg

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2 replies

Grégoire_Miche2
Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10
October 13, 2015

Hi Greg,

To make it short, when the 1st bob smith unsubscribes, all other leads in your database will be unsubscribed as well automatically.

See Durable Unsubscribe that explains it all.

-Greg

A
Anonymous
October 19, 2015

Hi Gregoire,

Thanks for sharing the related article. I should have been clearer in my question, as I believe the behaviour is different if you're not using the "Unsusbcribe" field as the Email Opt Out flag. We actually use custom fields such as Marketing Channel - Email and Marketing Channel - SMS, etc. This changes how we manage duplicate records with differing Opt In preferences, because it's not managed from a system level, like Marketo's system field, "Unsubscribe".

I half knew the answer to my question initially, but was hoping there may have been an automated way around it.

@Stijn Heijthuijsen​ - your idea might just work. Thanks!

Cheers

Greg

Stijn_Heijthuij
Stijn_Heijthuij
Level 6
October 13, 2015

Hi Greg,

There's no way you can trigger any data value change to Lead B by something that happens to Lead A.

Looking at what you're trying to achieve, you could set up an email to be sent as an alert (not an email) to the lead's email address (token value) requesting them to confirm their unsubscribe. If they're succesfully unsubscribed they won't receive the email. If there's another person with that email address it will reach their inbox. You can trigger an unsubscribe on clicking (or even receiving) that email.

That being said, I'm unsure as to how the system chooses which of the two identical email addresses to choose. I'm guessing it's by lead ID, but as I said, I'm not sure.

Let me know if it works?

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