Handling Special Characters in LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms with Zapier
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms can be a powerful lead generation tool, but managing special characters when automating data flow requires careful consideration. Here's a real implementation guide based on actual customer experience.
The Challenge
"We have people here, executives, they will download the leads manually," explains a digital marketing analyst. "What happens is salesforce won't take special characters... Some people have different fonts also in their keyboard."
Common Problem Areas
"Some people mention their job title with special characters," the analyst notes. Examples include:
- Brackets in titles: "(Civil Engineer)"
- Technical roles: ".NET Developer"
- Hyphenated positions: "Full-Stack Developer"
- Numerical prefixes: "4th Marine Engineer"
Two Solution Paths
A Zapier expert outlines two approaches: "You can use multiple formatter steps, or implement a JavaScript code solution."
The Formatter Approach
"We have to like pick the one where we are getting most issues" notes the analyst. Each formatter step:
- Targets one specific character
- Doesn't count toward task limits
- Can be chained for multiple characters
JavaScript Solution
"If you want to do this with first name or last name, or anything," the expert explains, a single JavaScript step can:
- Remove all special characters simultaneously
- Process multiple fields
- Provide consistent formatting
Implementation Tip
"Currently, the way this is set up... the only issue will be sometimes the little percentage of data that comes in with some special characters not showing up," advises the expert, suggesting starting with the simpler formatter approach for basic needs.
Remember to test your integration thoroughly with problematic data samples before full deployment.
