Deduping Leads in Marketo

Marketo can automatically dedupe leads based on email address. The dedupe works only when you enter new leads into Marketo from:

• List Import
• Marketo Form (iFrame or Marketo Page is ok)
• Direct creation in Marketo database.
• Direct creation through API.

Thus you should do your best to create new leads using the above methods.

How Duplicates Are Created

Of course, people will always create new leads directly in the CRM. These create duplicate records and there are specific rules and situations where this happens.

Lead Duplicates

These usually occur in your CRM or because you are not syncing all Leads to the CRM.

Contact Duplicates

An existing SFDC Contact can force Marketo to create a duplicate Lead if

• Someone created a new SFDC Lead for that email address.
• The Marketo User is not seeing Contacts correctly.
• There were existing SFDC dupes of both record types.

Preventing Duplicates

To prevent duplicates, take the following actions:

• Always use Marketo Forms or the API.
• Sync All Leads to SFDC.
• Import all lists into Marketo using Normal.
• Train Sales SFDC Users to search for leads first using email or Full Name and update an existing record.

Handling Deduplication

Marketo offers a few ways to help you dedupe.

Merge in Marketo

If you use the Merge function in Marketo, the Leads are merged. The activities are merged while the Lead Score is added together. An SFDC Lead will be Converted and attached to an SFDC Contact.

If you have too many duplicates to manually merge, contact services@marketo.com and ask about the Easy Merge service.

Merge in Salesforce

If you manually merge SFDC Leads and Contacts, then the usual SFDC rules apply. In Marketo, the two records are merged, the Scores are added together. If the winning lead has a field value of NULL, then that field will be NULL after the merge. Converting a duplicate Lead and attaching it to an existing Contact has a similar result.

The same rules apply if you use a tool like DemandTools for a mass merge.

One suggestion/precaution is when you do the merge in Salesforce ensure that you are logged into Salesforce with your Marketo sync user. Often times you may be logged in with a Sys Admin (who has full access) and the merge occurs but the issue may be that your Marketo sync user does not have the same permission as the Sys Admin user and your merge may not be reflected in Marketo.

Duplicates, Updates, and Email Permissions

A common question is “If I have duplicates of the same email, can that person continue to be sent emails if just one record is opted-out?” The answer is yes, and no, depending on the situation.

• How do I know which record will be updated? Marketo will update the most recently updated record of any group of duplicate Leads. So if you have 5 duplicates and the Lead fills out a new form with a matching email, only the most recently updated record is updated.

Duplicate Records Qualify for the Same Campaign

Sending email to duplicates: if duplicates qualify for the same campaign, Marketo checks for email duplicates and only sends 1 email out. The email activity is attributed to the most recently updated Lead record.

If you have 5 records with the same email address, it is possible for all 5 to qualify for a smart campaign. If this happens, Marketo dedupes based one email address to send only 1 email per email address.

If one of those email addresses is also opted out, then Marketo will not send any email to that address.

Your Qualified Count and Blocked Count will not match in this situation.

One Record Qualifies, But Others Do Not

If you have 5 records with the same email address (or even the same person with different email addresses), it is possible only one record will qualify for a campaign.

In this situation, the qualified record could be opted-in, while the others are opted-out, which means the email will go out.

Unsubscribed on One or More Records

Only the most recently updated Lead record will be unsubscribed and it may be possible to send out email if the other subscribed records qualify for a campaign. If both an Unsubscribed and Subscribed Lead qualify for the same campaign, no email will be sent.

Remember that if someone registered with a corporate email and previously with a personal email, those are not duplicate records to Marketo and it is possible to keep sending that person email on either account.

Solutions

Always setup a standard Smart List and static suppression list which includes all opted-out leads. Be sure to include this list as NOT IN on all email campaigns to exclude all opted-out leads.

A Deduping Process

Here is my recommended deduping process:

1. Import Lists into Marketo.
2. Merge Records in Marketo using the Duplicate Fields filters.
3. In the CRM, use DemandTools (or a similar service) to identify dupes using fuzzy logic. Break this down by each territory and ask Sales to check off the master record. Then merge automatically.
4. Individually: ask someone to do this for you. I always Merge Leads first, then Attach any duplicate Lead-Contact pairs to the Contact record.

If you are looking for specific rules over which fields to choose to override, I usually do the following:

• Prefer Older Record over newer.
• Prefer More complete record over less complete.
• Choose the most recently updated field over the older field.
• Average the scores (although Marketo adds them).
• Use the score of the more recent lead.

Duplicates Feel Beyond Repair?

Schedule a complimentary Marketo Health Audit. The Etumos team will log in and perform a health audit and find areas for improvement.