How to Use Marketo Not Filters

Last week we discussed basic Boolean Logic for Marketers. This week we delve into the use of NOT in Marketo.

The NOT filters in Marketo:

Let’s say you want to focus on a group that did not do something. To be specific, let’s look at people who did not click OR open an email. If that is true, then we will take that group and send them a different email.

The first way is to just use the Not filters, excluding anyone with that behavior.

To ensure we only look at people who might have received the email in the first place. Otherwise

(Not Clicked in Email OR Not Opened Email)

Will bring us tens of thousands of leads – because a lot of people never clicked or opened that email. We just want the leads inside that Program.

Using Positive Statements to Exclude

In English class, you were probably scolded for using double negatives because they can be confusing to the reader. “The same is true in Marketo: it can be confusing to setup a system that says “If someone has not clicked or not opened an email, then do not send email X.” Invariably, these are error prone statements, resulting in incorrect segmentation.

Instead, it may make sense to use a positive, inclusive statement to exclude people. It is counterintuitive sounding, but it actually works far better in most cases.

Use this two-step process to make a negative “positive statement.”

Step 1: Setup a Smart List

Step 2: Use the Smart List to Exclude

Then we say, please show us everyone who is NOT IN the Smart List

This would be true of a trigger campaign. Let’s say you wanted to automatically move a lead from Stream 1 to Stream 2 if they did NOT click OR did NOT Open an email.

There is not a trigger method available for that, but you could setup something like

This way you say that anyone who did not click or open the email 2 days after it was delivered, move to Stream 1, everyone else stay put. If you tried to use a Not filter in a Choice Step, when you wanted to use Not OR Not, then you will cause a misfire.

 Thus, quite a few folks might trigger Choice 1, but never get to Choice 2. In this situation, a positive smart list with NOT IN will better reflect your intention.

This post draws on my webinar, How to be a Marketing Automation Rockstar with my friends at RingLead. Check it out for more helpful tips.

Disclosure: Perkuto provided access to a Marketo instance for this post.