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Included in this article Overview Data you’ll get from Email Bounces Bounce Categories Hard Bounces Soft Bounces Bounce Details Building the Directory 1. Create 6 custom fields 2. Create a Program to house everything 3. Create a Static List 4. Create two Smart Campaigns Smart Campaign One - Logging Email Bounces with Bounce Details Smart Campaign Two - Remove Leads From the List After Successful Deliveries 5. Create Custom List View Showing Bounce Details Overview Bounce activities carry details for why the email was bounced, but it’s housed within the activity log entry, not in a field on the lead record, so it’s difficult to export that data. This article will show you how to extract that information to create a directory of leads bouncing emails and how to make the list automatically update. This will also create counters for bounces and successful re-deliveries after bounces happen. Data you’ll get from Email Bounces Bounce Categories Email bounces come in different types depending on why the email was bounced; Hard Bounces or Soft Bounces. Hard Bounces Hard Bounces come in two types, Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 bounces are emails that have been marked as spam by the recipient mail server. Many email servers monitor blacklists or spam traps, so after de-listing with them, leads that have had a Category 1 bounce previously may be able to receive emails again. Category 2 bounces occur due to an email address that is invalid or doesn’t exist. Soft Bounces Soft Bounces come in three different types, Categories 3, 4 or 9. Category 3 bounces are usually temporary, caused by full mailboxes, timeouts, or throttling. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Category 4 bounces are caused by technical problems, Transient Failures, Admin Failures, DNS Failures. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Category 9 bounces are unknown, undetermined or gibberish details. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Bounce Details When an email is bounced, the recipient mail server includes details of why it was bounced. These are created by the admin of the recipient mail server and vary greatly, but most will give some explanation that can give valuable information. Email Bounce Codes Building the Directory 1. Create 6 custom fields You’ll need 6 custom fields, two DateTime fields, two Score fields, and two String fields Name the DateTime fields “Bounce Date” and “Email Delivered After Bounce”. Name the Score fields “Email Bounces” and “Deliveries After Bounces” Name the String fields “Email Bounce Details” and “Email Bounce Category” Directions for creating Custom Fields can be found here: Create a Custom Field in Marketo 2. Create a Program to house everything Use a default program type and name it "Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails". Info on creating programs can be found here: Create a Program 3. Create a Static List This static list will be your actual directory that contains all of the leads that are currently bouncing emails. Name it "Active Bounce List". Info on creating a static list can be found here: Create a Static List 4. Create two Smart Campaigns These two Smart Campaigns are what will be used to add and remove leads from your active bounce list. Info on creating Smart Campaigns can be found here: Create a New Smart Campaign Smart Campaign One - Logging Email Bounces with Bounce Details Your first Smart Campaign will be used to listen for any email bounces that occur. The campaign will populate the “Bounce Date”, “Email Bounce Category” and “Email Bounce Details” fields. It will then add one point to the “Email Bounces” score field which can be used to count how many bounces have occurred per lead. Lastly, the campaign will add the lead to the static list which will be an active directory of leads who are bouncing emails. Campaign Smart List Use the two triggers of “Email Bounces” and “Email Bounces Soft” in the Smart List. Set both triggers to “is any” so that they will fire whenever any email bounces for any reason. Campaign Flow The Flow of the campaign will have 5 flow steps. The flow will use a System Token and some Trigger Tokens, which can be used to pull details out of the action that activated the trigger. In this case, the Trigger Tokens will be pulling out the details on why the emails were bounced. That info is in the bounce message and is logged in the lead's activity log. Normally you'd have to comb through the activity log one at a time to find these details for each individual lead. This method, however, will pull the details out automatically for all leads. Flow Step 1: Change Data Value Attribute: “Bounce Date” New Value: {{system.dateTime}} Flow Step 2: Change Data Value. Attribute: “Email Bounce Category” New Value: {{trigger.category}} Flow Step 3: Change Data Value Attribute: “Email Bounce Details” New Value: {{trigger.details}} Flow Step 4: Change Score Score Name: “Email Bounces” Change: +1 Flow Step 5: Add to List List Name: “Active Bounce List” Smart Campaign Two - Remove Leads From the List After Successful Deliveries Campaign Smart List The Smart List of the campaign will need a trigger for “Email is Delivered” set to “is any” and also a filter of “Member of List” looking just for leads that belong to your Static List. This way, the campaign will only apply to leads who have had an email bounce but have then had an email successfully delivered afterwards. Campaign Flow The Flow of the campaign will have 3 flow steps to do the following; log when the email was delivered, add a point to the "Deliveries After Bounce" Score Field, and remove the lead from the "Active Bounce List". Flow Step 1: Change Data Value Attribute: “Email Delivered After Bounce” New Value: {{system.dateTime}} Flow Step 2: Change Score Score Name: “Deliveries After Bounces” Change: +1 Flow Step 3: Remove from List List Name: Operational.Active Bounce List 5. Create Custom List View Showing Bounce Details The custom fields you’ve created for email bounce information won’t show automatically in the view of your list. You can create a new view of the list to show just this information so that when it is exported it will give you only the email bounce information you need. Once the list has the necessary details, it can be exported with those columns included so that you can work with it. You can identify emerging trends and issues with your deliverability by looking for common themes among the bounce details. Directions for creating Custom Views can be found here

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(Article Updated - August 2024) Overview A blocklist is a database of IP addresses or domains that have been associated with the sending of unsolicited commercial email or spam. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and business email networks use information from blocklists to filter out unwanted email. As a result there can be a drop to inbox delivery rates if the IPs or domains involved with sending email are listed on a blocklist. Marketo’s Email Delivery and Compliance team monitors blocklist activity on our IPs and domains daily. When an impactful listing occurs, we reach out to the blocklist, attempt to identify the sender that triggered it, and work with the blocklist organization to get the listing resolved. There are thousands of blocklists, most will not have a significant impact on your delivery rates. Below, we have compiled a list of the blocklists that commonly appear across our sender ecosystem. Each blocklist has been grouped into a top tier (Tier I) by most impactful, to the bottom least impactful tier (Tier III). These may have little to no impact across our sender network. Tier I Blocklist Spamhaus (SBL) Impact: Spamhaus is the only blocklist that we categorize as a Tier I for a reason: it has by far the greatest impact on delivery. It is the most well-respected and widely used blocklist in the world. A listing at Spamhaus will have a negative effect on your ability to deliver emails to your customer’s inbox and can cause bounce rates of over 50%. Evidence suggests that most of the top North American ISPs use Spamhaus to inform blocking decisions. How it works: Unlike many blocklists, Spamhaus lists senders manually. This means they are proactively watching sender activity, collecting data, and base listings on a number of variables. Most commonly senders are listed for mailing to spam trap addresses that Spamhaus owns. Sometimes Spamhaus will list senders based on recipient feedback as well. Next Steps: Please note that every Spamhaus email can be quite different depending on the information provided and the nature of the listing . Because Spamhaus has multiple types of listings, the remediation steps are based on which type of blocklisting has occurred. We have listed the most common types to affect Marketo customers, from most to least impactful. Impact can range from a full block of top severity, to a partial block that is less severe (CSS Data, DBL). If remediation isn’t performed and the problem not addressed, these listings can increase in severity and turn into a full blocklisting. Spamhaus Blocklistings Types SBL (full blocklisting) Considered the most impactful. Remediation steps: Our team monitors closely for Spamhaus listings. Once alerted to the listing, we send an email notifying the customer, and reach out to the Spamhaus contact to start the remediation process. Only a Marketo delivery team member should be in direct correspondence with the Spamhaus contact, to speak on behalf of the customer, and to relay their questions and instructions, ensuring quick resolution and reduced impact. Senders that trigger this listing on a shared IP range will be moved to a more isolated, penalty range (IPB), so as not to impact the other shared senders. Those affected on a Dedicated IP, only impact their own sending and will not be moved. However, depending on the severity of the issue, our team may need to revoke a customer’s ability to send any emails until full resolution. The listing will last until Spamhaus is satisfied that the offending sender has taken the appropriate steps to mitigate the problem. SBL CSS Customers are alerted of the listing with an email containing all the information needed to immediately begin the remediation process. This is part of an automated trigger listing, that allows for a customer to delist directly on the Spamhaus website, after they’ve completed remediation. Remediation steps: Customers will go to the Spamhaus IP lookup website, at https://check.spamhaus.org, where they can check on the status of their IP and continue to monitor it in real time, until it is no longer listed there. Follow the remediation and delisting instructions provided, and check for specific details in the blocklist notification email. DBL (Domain blocklisting) Customers will receive an email notification alerting of the company domain being listed. The email will contain specific information to help narrow down and identify which email source likely triggered it within Marketo. It’s important to note that any email sent from outside of Marketo, that contained the company domain, is suspect. This means, if the sender uses multiple IPs and/multiple email platforms, then any of those could be the source. Remediation steps: Follow the detailed instructions in the email, which will also provide a link to the Spamhaus Domain reputation checker webpage, to check the real time listing status of the affected domain. Once the email source is identified and cause addressed, this customer will follow the online instructions to request to be delisted. Tier II Blocklist SpamCop Impact: SpamCop is not used by any of the major North American ISPs to inform blocking decisions, but it makes it to the Tier II list because it can have a significant impact on B2B email campaigns. SpamCop is considered a Tier I one blocklist for B2B marketers but a Tier II for B2C marketers. SpamCop is a dynamic IP blocklist, that can affect a single IP or a subset of IPs Typically, the block will automatically lift within one business day, but can take longer for relisted IPs. To have triggered a SpamCop listing likely means the sender has a list management problem that should be addressed. How it works: SpamCop lists IPs for one of two reasons: Either the email hit SpamCop spam trap addresses OR A SpamCop user has reported the email unwanted. Most of SpamCop’s spam traps are previously valid addresses that have not been active for 12 months or longer. Remediation steps: If you are seeing a significant number of bouncing emails caused by a SpamCop blocked IP but aren’t sure if your email activity triggered the listing, first identify whether you are sending on a shared sender network or not. If sending from a shared IP range when this occurs, you or any other customer sending from the same network may have contributed to the IP block. This IP block will automatically get dropped within a business day. For those on a Dedicated IP that trigger a listing, refer to the above remediation steps and resources, to address the list management issue. Tier III Blocklist (Low/ No impact ) These are considered the lowest tier and therefore cause the least impact across the Marketo sender ecosystem. Some of these blocklists were more impactful at one time, while others are only impactful based on the sender region (Manitu). Others still can suddenly flare up (Lashback). There are also many blocklists that are ignored (0spam), and are not taken seriously because they do not provide any means to delist once on the list (NoSolicitado) or that they charge money to have the listing removed ( UCEPROTECT ). The pay-to-delist model is not well respected in the email industry. When using blocklist tool checkers, such as MXToolBox, many blocklists will appear, but very few are relevant. Here is our selection of Blocklists you may come across that are least impactful: Project Honey Pot SpamAssassin URIBL/SURBL DrMX PSBL 0spam HostKarma Ascams ZapBL Barracuda Trendmicro Inc. Cloudmark Proofpoint Invaluement ISP Blocklists Some ISPs use internal blocklists to make blocking decisions. Examples include AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook and Hotmail. If your IP is being blocked by one of these networks, and those networks have a large presence in your lists, a block of this kind could have a noticeable negative impact on delivery. Marketo monitors for significant ISP blocks. Those experiencing deliverability issues with emails not making it to the Inbox and bulking in the spam folder may benefit from additional services with our Email Delivery Consultants. Remediation Steps: Email Delivery Compliance Team works to resolve any ISP blocks. ISP blocks are are usually resolved or lifted within less than 24 hours of a delisting request. Customers experiencing significant blocks for Microsoft domains (outlook.com, live.com, microsoft.com), can submit a request to the delivery team to seek mitigation on their behalf. Additional Resources: Blocklist Deep Dive Abuse Report Deep Dive What is a spamtrap, or spam trap, and why does it matter? Blocklist remediation Blocklist resolution flowchart Successful lead reconfirmation What is a blocklist?

Issue In an instance where there are multiple workspaces, when creating a new email and right-clicking on a Marketo Starter Template to send a sample email, an error is displayed: Access Denied This error occurs even though the user has all permissions to Access Design Studio and all permissions to Access Marketing Activities. This includes the 'Run Single Flow Action' permission which is required for sending sample emails: "You must have the Access Database - Run Single Flow Actions permission to send sample emails." https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Send+a+Sample+Email Solution This error can occur if the user does not have access to the Default workspace. To solve this, the user must be provided with access to the Default workspace in [Admin > Users & Roles]

When a user switches to another language in their preferences not everything in Marketo will get translated. Specifically, any object that has an editable name is not automatically translated. Type of Text Example Translated? Editable Text Programs Seeded Channels Seeded Marketing Activities Folders Progression Statuses Custom Fields No Not Editable Text Standard Fields System Smart Lists General User Interface Yes When a user views content in a workspace that is not the same as their preferred language, the above table describes what would be translated.

Issue In the activity log, you see that a lead has been added to a Marketo Custom Object, but in the Custom Object tab there is no data. Solution The reason why that it appears as the custom object data is missing for a lead is because the custom object data becomes disassociated to the lead and associated to another lead when the custom object data is pushed into Marketo. When the custom object data is pushed to Marketo intended for lead A with the same dedupe field value of an existing custom object record associated to lead B, it disassociates it from the lead B and associates it with lead A. Therefore, when looking at lead B that has had an 'Add to Custom Object' activity, but does not have the Custom Object data visible in the Custom Objects tab, it is because the custom object data was associated to another lead. For example: On Lead A, custom object data is added on x time with the dedupe field value 'test' --> custom object data is associated to this lead and is visible in the Custom Object tab On Lead B, custom object data is added on y time with the same dedupe field value 'test' --> existing custom object data that was created in previous step is now associated to this lead, becomes visible in the Custom Object tab Since the custom object data is moved to this lead, it is no longer visible in the custom object tab for Lead A.

Issue When changing Program Status in Admin > Tags > Channel for "Event" result in this error, "Failed: no more information". Environment Changing Program Status Failed: no more information Solution "System mapping for Registered, Waitlisted, and Attended statuses is required." Therefore, ensure the status is mapped to Registered, Waitlisted, and Attended. Root Cause One or more of these statuses "Registered, Waitlisted, and/or Attended" were not mapped as required.

Summary Your global form validation rule is setup/active in Admin, and the rule is enabled on the form, but the rule isn't working. Issue Your global form validation rule is setup/active in Admin, and the rule is enabled on the form, but the rule isn't working (emails that should be blocked can still submit) Environment Admin Solution Check the rule in Admin > Global Form Validation Rules and confirm that there is no '@' prepended to the email domains. The domains should look like the below: 'gmail.com, outlook.com, acme.org...' Instead of: '@gmail.com, @outlook.com, @acme.org..." Root Cause '@' referenced in the domain name within the validation rule.

Issue Issue Description API Only user is not appearing when creating a service in [Admin > LaunchPoint] Solution Issue Resolution It is highly likely that the reason why the API user was not appearing because it did not have "API Only" ticked. This can be checked in [Admin > Users & Roles > User > Edit User]. However, this cannot be modified once the API user is created, so in order for the API user to appear in LaunchPoint, "API Only" must be ticked when the API user is created. Reference: Create an API Only User Role Who This Solution Applies To Admin users

Issue Issue Description Unable to limit user access specific to certain programs or assets Solution Customization of user roles for assets (such as landing pages, emails, etc.) or programs is currently unavailable. However, you can control user access by limiting their permissions to specific workspaces, provided that Workspaces are enabled for your Marketo instance. Configure Protocols for Marketo

Issue When editing the expiration date for a user in Admin by completely removing the expiration date set to null and clicking save. The change is not saved, and the expiration date remain. Environment Expired Date for user Expiration Date Changing the expire date to never in Admin Solution There are two options: 1. Change the expiration date to a date in the future. 2. Delete the user in Admin and recreate the user again and set the expiration to never. *Please note that if option 2 is selected, the history of the user is will be lost and this cannot be retrieved. Root Cause This is a design limitation as it is expected for the user with an expiration date to be deleted from the Marketo Instance after the expiration date has been reached.

Summary duplicate records with the same email across lead partitions can be affected by uploaded custom object activity Issue System not separating lead partitions for custom object imports Uploading custom object activity affects duplicate records across partitions Custom Object activity import writing to the most recently updated record regardless of partition Solution Use the following workaround: Run an update on the records that should be affected by the custom object activities import. This will make sure they are the most recently updated records among the duplicates Root Cause Normally when you do a list import, it would import into the one partition, whatever partition the list is located in and only impact the record in that one instance. But when you import a Custom Object, it's able the see ALL the records across ALL the partitions. If there are duplicate records, it just looks to see which one was updated most recently and grabs that one for the list import. So if you have lead record in A with Add to Custom Object already completed and you re-import again but the lead record in B has been updated more recently and has NOT had the custom object added to it, you get the duplicate "Add to Custom Object" activity. Environment Multiple lead partitions with duplicate records across them Custom Object activity import

Issue Issue Description The 'Marketing Suspend Cause' field is not available as an option in the Change Data Value flow step, or in the Smart List of a Smart Campaign, nor is it possible to manually update the field in the lead record. Solution Issue Resolution Unlike the 'Marketing Suspended' field which is not system managed and can be manipulated by the user, the 'Marketing Suspended Cause' field is a System Managed field and is not able to be updated by the user. The intention of the field is to provide additional details about why a record may have been marked as "marketing suspended" based on a background process. Note: The "Marketing Suspended Cause" field is no longer used by any background processes. It has been retained as a legacy field to preserve any information that might have been written to the lead record in the past.

Issue Description The smart campaign has a last modified date of x, however, it does not have any details of any change on date x in the audit trail. Issue Resolution The smart campaign's last modified date was updated by a campaign change that is currently not recorded in Audit trail (e.g. campaign was aborted). docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Change+Details+in+Audit+Trail#ChangeDetailsinAuditTrail-AssetAuditTrail To confirm, reach out to support by creating a case Is this article helpful ? YesNo

Issue Issue Description The user role has all the permissions to Design Studio, but whenever trying to preview an email, a limited access message is displayed: "You do not have sufficient privileges to perform this action" Solution Issue Resolution The user role must have permission to 'Access Database'. The full access to Database is not needed, just the main access by selecting 'Access Database' and unchecking everything else underneath. The reason for this permission is that, when previewing emails, you are able to select to preview an email as a specific lead. In order for this to happen, users will need access to leads.

Issue The email was sent from an engagement program or email program where Recipient Time Zone was enabled, however, emails sent to several leads were not sent based on their time zone. Solution If the time zone calculation for the affected leads falls under the conditions mentioned in https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Understanding+Recipient+Time+Zone, then check in [Admin > Field Management] if the Person Time Zone field is hidden. If this field is hidden, then this would be the reason as this field is where the Person's Time Zone is stored for when it is calculated and is used to determine the Recipient Time Zone for sending emails.

Issue Clicking on a link in a Marketo e-mail that re-directs to a non-Marketo webpage destination does not open the page. Solution Complete the troubleshooting step below. If they do not resolve the issue, include the results in a Marketo Support Ticket. Check the CNAME is correctly setup for the email tracking link Check that the Default Branding Name matches the CNAME in Step 1 (check for typos). If you are unsure you can visit CNAME lookup on mxtoolbox and enter the default branding name to check. Under the Domain field enter your default branding name. Do you have SSL for tracking links enabled? If Yes, tracking links in emails should start with If No, tracking links in emails should start with If you do not have SSL enabled, but when you click the link it resolves to ,try a different network and see if it still occurs. Your network may be configured to automatically use HTTPS automatically even if the link is specified as HTTP. (Check with your network admin) If you are re-directed to the non-Marketo landing page but the page does not load: Check with the website admin if there are any redirect rules setup on the website. Try cutting out parts of the additional URL Parameter to see if that fixes the issue to identify which part of the URL parameter is causing it. Sometimes lead tokens or the mkt_tok may affect a redirect rule, since mkt_tok generates random characters and sometimes the token contains percentage '%' characters. It very common for websites to interpret a % followed by a character as an encoding. Seen in this website here If you are unable to resolve the issue in the steps above, provide the test results and information in a Marketo Support Case.

Issue Email filtering can prevent the delivery of the invitation email to the Sales Insight Outlook Plug-in, preventing end users from being able to activate the plug-in. Solution This can be remediated by white-listing the trusted IP range from the following document: https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Setup+Steps#SetupSteps-AskITtoConfigureProtocols The email invitation return path is determined by the Marketo user who is inviting in the instance. So if there is a restriction on the domain that the email can be sent from you can adjust this by creating a dummy user with a username with the a domain that would qualify for IT restrictions. Then log in as the dummy user and send the invitation. It will have the dummy address in the From line.

Issue The Smart Campaign has a last modified date of x, however, it does not have any details of any change on date x in the Audit Trail. Solution The Smart Campaign's last modified date was updated by a campaign change that is currently not recorded in Audit Trail (e.g. campaign was aborted). https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Change+Details+in+Audit+Trail#ChangeDetailsinAuditTrail-AssetAuditTrail Please contact Marketo Support if you need further assistance in tracking down changes made to a Smart Campaign

Issue Issue Description When any link within an Email is clicked, the user is redirected to the wrong page. Solution Issue Resolution This can occur when Branded Tracking Links have been incorrectly configured and the user is being redirected to the fallback page. The following checks should be conducted: 1. Ensure the correct Branding Domain is listed in Admin > Email > Branding Domains. 2. Ensure your IT team have set a CNAME record to redirect from your Branding Domain to your Marketo Tracking Link. (e.g.mkto-****.com) Who This Solution Applies To Customers using Branding Domains

Knowledgebase

Maintaining a Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails

Top Blocklists - What You Need to Know

Unable to send sample email from Marketo Starter Template

What to Expect if Your Language Preference Differs from the Default

Custom Object Data Missing for Lead

Failed: no more information

Global form validation rule not working

API Only User Is Not Appearing When Creating a Service In Admin > LaunchPoint

Can We Customize User Roles Specific to Certain Programs or Assets?

Unable to Delete Lead, Permission Error

Changing the expiration for a user to never

Restoring a Branded Tracking Link Domain Back to the Marketo Default

system not separating lead partitions for custom objects

Not Able to Update 'Marketing Suspended Cause' Field

Smart Campaign audit trail is missing event

Limited Access Message Displayed When Previewing Email

Email was not sent based on Recipient Time Zone

Marketo Email Link Is Not Redirecting to a Non-Marketo Landing Page

Unknown User Makes Large Amount of Edits in Audit Trail

Email Filtering Blocking Sales Insight Outlook Plug-In Invitations

Smart Campaign Audit Trail Is Missing Event

Email Links Aren't Going to Right Location