Data Automation

What is Data Automation in Marq?

Data Automation in Marq allows you to streamline content creation by linking documents and templates to external data sources, such as Google Sheets, CSV files, or API-connected datasets. With Data Automation, you can create dynamic, data-driven content that automatically populates fields in documents, ensuring consistency and saving time on repetitive tasks.

Key Benefits of Data Automation

Increased Efficiency: Automate the population of fields in templates, reducing time spent manually updating content.
Data Consistency: Ensure that all documents and templates use the latest, most accurate information by connecting directly to data sources.
Scalability: Easily scale content creation across multiple documents by updating data in one central source, which automatically updates all linked templates.
Personalization: Generate customized versions of documents, like personalized sales collateral, with data from customer databases or spreadsheets.

Core Components of Marq’s Data Automation

Marq’s Data Automation feature is built on several components that work together to create data-driven content. Here’s an overview of the main elements:

Datasets: These are external data sources, such as Google Sheets, CSV files, or API-linked databases, that contain the information used to populate documents in Marq.
Smart Fields: Smart Fields are placeholders within documents and templates that are dynamically filled with data from connected datasets. When a document is generated, Smart Fields automatically pull data from the specified dataset.
Data Automation APIs: Marq provides APIs to manage and integrate datasets programmatically. These APIs allow you to create, update, and retrieve datasets, making it possible to connect Marq’s Data Automation functionality with other applications.

Setting Up Data Automation in Marq

To use Data Automation in Marq, you’ll need to set up a dataset and configure Smart Fields within your templates. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started:

1. Create or Upload a Dataset

You can create a dataset in Marq from various sources:

Google Sheets: Connect directly to a Google Sheets document, allowing Marq to pull data updates automatically.
CSV Files: Upload a CSV file as a static dataset. While CSV data cannot automatically update like a Google Sheet, it’s a quick way to set up data-driven content.
API-Connected Datasets: Use Marq’s Data Automation APIs to create and update datasets programmatically. This option is ideal for dynamic datasets that need to stay in sync with other platforms.

2. Set Up Smart Fields in Your Template

Once you’ve created a dataset, you can add Smart Fields to templates. Smart Fields are placeholders that dynamically pull data from your dataset:

Open the Template Editor: In Marq, open the document or template where you want to add Smart Fields.
Insert Smart Fields: Select the text or content area where you want data to appear, and add a Smart Field linked to the corresponding data in your dataset.
Map Dataset Columns to Smart Fields: Map each Smart Field to a column in your dataset. For example, a “Customer Name” field in the template could link to the “Name” column in a customer dataset.

3. Apply Data Automation to Generate Content

When you’re ready to create documents with the connected data, use Marq’s automation tools to generate personalized versions of your templates for each dataset entry. Smart Fields will automatically populate with the corresponding data, producing documents tailored to each entry in your dataset.

For a more in-depth tutorial, check out this video: Data Automation Tutorial.

Example Use Cases for Data Automation

Data Automation in Marq can be applied to a wide range of scenarios across different industries:

Sales and Marketing: Automate the creation of sales presentations, proposals, and marketing collateral with customer-specific data, such as names, locations, and contact details.
Event Planning: Generate individualized event invitations, badges, and schedules by pulling attendee information from a central database.
Education and Training: Create personalized certificates or completion reports using data from student or employee records.
Internal Communications: Quickly generate personalized internal documents, such as onboarding packets, for new employees.

Using Marq’s Data Automation APIs

Marq offers a range of APIs to help developers manage datasets and integrate external data sources programmatically. Here’s an overview of the main API endpoints for Data Automation:

Data Automation API Endpoints

Create a Dataset: Use this endpoint to create a new dataset in Marq. This is useful when you need to set up a dataset directly from an external system.
Create Dataset with Specific Details: This endpoint allows you to create a dataset with specific attributes and configurations, including metadata or tags.
Retrieve a Specific Dataset: Fetch details of a specific dataset, including its structure, columns, and data entries. This is helpful for verifying data integrity and ensuring that Smart Fields in templates have the correct data mappings.
List All Data Sources: Retrieve a list of all datasets connected to your Marq account. This is useful for quickly accessing and managing multiple datasets.

Example Workflow with the Data Automation API

Create or Update Dataset: Use the create_a_data_set or create_data_set_copy_1 API endpoints to create a new dataset or update an existing one. For example, if you’re generating customer invoices, you could set up a dataset with each customer’s information (name, address, purchase details) in Marq.
Add Data to Dataset: Populate the dataset with entries corresponding to each individual document that needs to be generated. You can push data from your own application into Marq by using the create-data-set endpoint.
Generate Documents: Use the Marq platform to generate documents from templates that contain Smart Fields mapped to your dataset. This process will produce personalized documents, such as contracts or marketing brochures, with data-specific variations.
Update or Delete Dataset as Needed: If any data changes, use the API to update or delete entries in your dataset to ensure that new documents reflect accurate information.

For more details, consult the Data Automations Guide on the Marq Developer Portal.

Best Practices for Using Data Automation in Marq

Regularly Update Data: Ensure that datasets are current by updating them whenever there’s a change. Use Google Sheets or APIs for dynamic datasets to keep all generated content accurate.
Map Smart Fields Consistently: Use clear and consistent naming conventions for dataset columns and Smart Fields to simplify the mapping process.
Validate Data Sources: Before deploying templates, verify that datasets are complete and accurately mapped to avoid data errors in generated documents.
Automate Content Updates via APIs: For datasets with frequent changes, automate updates with Marq’s Data Automation APIs to ensure that document content reflects the latest information.

Helpful Links for Getting Started with Data Automation

Data Automation Overview: Introduction to Data Automation and setting up connected datasets.
Smart Fields: Guide on using Smart Fields to dynamically populate content.