This blog is the fourth in a multi-part series on monitoring your email deliverability. The first part on managing bounces can be found here. The second part on unengaged users can be found here. The third part on troubleshooting high bounce rates can be found here.
Next up on troubleshooting deliverability problems: spam blocks.
The first thing you should do is evaluate the seriousness of the problem. Not all spam blocks are of major concern. If the spam block is from a major company, our deliverability team will have already been notified and will be working on the issue. Spamhaus is the one to be most concerned about, as they have the biggest footprint. Spamcop may be an issue for B2B but is not likely a huge concern for high volume B2C senders.
Second, take a look at the automated email that you received from the Marketo deliverability team to understand what information is known about the spam block. In some cases, this tells you the specific email subject line, date, and time of the email that triggered the spam trap.
Next, create a smart list to search for the email addresses that bounced, either from the specific email send (if that was included in the email) or within a certain date of activity. Add constraints to the smart list for each bounce category (as shown in Part III) to show you the results specifically for Category 1 bounces. When viewing the smart list, add a new view for Deliverability that includes the Email, Email Invalid, Email Invalid Cause, Email Suspended, Email Suspended At, and Email Suspended Cause fields. (If you aren’t sure how to create a new view or edit your view, read this.)
Export the list to Excel to investigate the Email Suspended Causes. Remember that the Email Suspended fields are never cleared out, so only look for those with an Email Suspended At date and time within 24 hours of the send in question.
Identify the appropriate tactics to isolate the leads likely to be hitting the spam traps. If you know which email caused the spam trap, this can help you narrow down the list to the most likely offenders. Once you have the right list, make sure you delete or unsubscribe the most likely offenders. You may also want to consider:
- Removing chronically unresponsive or inactive leads.
- Removing leads acquired through purchased lists or appended data.
- Reviewing your opt-in practices and notices.
- Reviewing your content for potential spam triggers.
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