Without checking SFDC Is Deleted, you don’t know if someone’s currently synced to SFDC

I’d bet at least 51% of Marketo users don’t realize a non-empty SFDC Type doesn’t mean the record is still synced to SFDC. Same with a non-empty SFDC ID.

That’s right: someone can have SFDC Type = Contact and SFDC ID = 003BLAHZAYBLAHBLAH and there may be no trace of them in SFDC.

Why? Because those fields reflect the last time they were synced and will not be updated unless they’re synced with another SFDC record in the future. And that last connected SFDC record may have been completely deleted.

Don’t believe it? Create a Smart List like this:

You might see thousands of records. (If you regularly delete people who have SFDC Is Deleted = true, the number won’t be as high.[1])

This came up recently on Marketo Nation, when someone wanted to add the person’s current SFDC Type to certain alerts (e.g. type=L or type=C). That could be done via a Formula field:

N.B. Formula fields can’t be used in filters, only in {{lead.tokens}} — and only in trigger campaigns, at that![2] But you can adapt the same logic to create a segmentation + segments, update a roll-up field nightly, or create a nestable Smart List.

SFDC Is Deleted still leaves room for questions

Don’t forget someone can have SFDC Type = Contact/Lead and SFDC Is Deleted = false yet no longer be syncing successfully to SFDC due to permissions/sharing rules.

It’s impossible to know at a glance whether such records were:

(a) supposed to be synced but are erroneously blocked, or

(b) supposed to be deleted from Marketo and left SFDC-only

If Marketo can’t access a previously accessible record, it doesn’t assume it was deleted from SFDC (rightly so!). SFDC Is Deleted means "actually deleted on the SFDC side." So there are always other conditions to consider.

Notes

[1] Summarily deleting people whose SFDC Is Deleted = true isn’t something to do recklessly. A lead may have been erroneously synced to SFDC, but should remain Marketo-only, rather than being purged from Marketo.

[2] The original question was about alerts, so a Formula fits.