Sub-addressing is supported by many providers. Let’s say you have an email address [email protected], then, you can create as many email addresses as you wish using the format [email protected], all receiving sent Emails to [email protected].
This is very handy, for instance you can use [email protected] every time you create a new account for a provider, and so easily identify which provider is sending you an Email (or what they do with you Email…).
But, from a Marketer perspective, all those Email Addresses are actually the same person, and one need to find a way to reconciliate them. Here is a step by step guide on how to do it in Salesforce Data Cloud, which you may implement to handle Sub-addressing in Marketing Cloud Growth & Advanced (as it relies on Data Cloud).
If you haven’t prepared attributes, start with Enrich Unified Individuals
First attempt (TL;DR not working)
At first, I have tried to extend the Contact Point Email DMO, by adding a Field to it, “Sub Addressing Safe Email”. Then, on every Datastream associated with a DLO mapped to Contact Point Email, I would add a Formula Field and map it to “Sub Addressing Safe Email”.
Then I would simply use the DMO Field, to identify same Individuals with distinct Email Address using Sub-addressing. There, I hit a snag 😉
It appears that only the Email Address from the Contact Point Email DMO can be selected, not my new Field.
Plus, this method has a drawback: Formula Fields are not retroactive, meaning their value is calculated only for new records in their Datastream.
Let’s Party 😎
Party Identification is a standard DMO whose function is to link Individuals with an Identification Number. You may have Driver License Number injected in a Datastream/DLO and wish to use this information as a matching Rule in identity Resolution. Inside the Party Identification DMO, an Identification Typeand an Identification Name are used to specify the types of Party records we will use to match Individuals.
Eventually, the Match Rules in Identity Resolution will look like this :
New DLO
We’ll create a new DLO, let’s call it “Party Point Email (Sub-addressing free)”, which will act as the standard Contact Point Email, and will contain a processed Email field, where the Sub-adressing part is removed, which we will use as an Identification Number. This DLO will be of type Profile.
This is how our “Party Point Email (Sub-addressing free)”, is mapped to the Party Identification DMO (tip, once adding a DLO, add it to your Data Space using the Data Space tab so you can map it to the Party Identification DMO) :
Feed the new DLO
In Marketing Cloud Growth & Advanced, there are 3 Datastreams that are mapped to the Contact Point Email DMO: two from Salesforce Leads, Contacts and one from Experience Cloud (when a Prospect fills a Form).
We will create a (batch) Data Transform to write the Data from those Datastreams to our “Party Point Email (Sub-addressing free)” DLO. Here is the Data Transform used :
First, we Append Leads and Contacts records, using the Lead ID and Contact ID columns, along with the Email Addresses. Then we Append Email Addresses gathered from Marketing Cloud Growth & Advanced Forms to this. Finally, we create 2 columns with static text to be matched by the Match Rules of the Identity Resolution (Party Identification Type = “Email Processing”and Party Identification Name = “Sub-address Removed”).
Finally, before outputting in our “Party Point Email (Sub-addressing free)” DLO, we process the Email Addresses from these 3 sources to remove the Sub-addressing part.
SQL here was kinda tricky since only a subset of functions are available as of now in Data Cloud (batch) Data Transformation :
case instr(Email__c, '+')
when 0
then
Email__c
else
replace(
Email__c,
substr(
Email__c,
instr(Email__c, '+'),
instr(Email__c, '@')-instr(Email__c, '+')
), '')
end
😎 And that’s it
There you have it, Individuals using Sub-addressing are now seen as a unique Unified Individual. Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) next. In Data Cloud you can use Profile Explorer to watch those Individuals reconcilated (here is Data Cloud’s Unified Individual Lightning Layout with some Data Cloud Components added) :
Or directly on a Lead or Contact in Salesforce (and Marketing Cloud Growth & Advanced)
