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The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union recognizes in Article 8 the right to the protection of personal data. This fundamental right is developed by the European legal framework on the protection of personal data consisting mainly of the Data Protection Directive and the ePrivacy Directive. They lay down several substantive provisions imposing obligations on the data controller and recognizing rights to the data subject, prescribing sanctions and appropriate remedies in cases of breach, and establishing enforcement mechanisms to make them effective.   Although strictly speaking it is data controllers who bear legal responsibility for complying with data protection rules, also those who design technical specifications and those who actually build or implement applications or operating systems bear some responsibility for the data protection aspects from a societal and ethical point of view.   The law applies to all Member States of the European Union. However, even websites outside the EU are required to comply with the law if they are targeting Member States. For example, a site based in the USA that sells products to consumers in the UK, or that has a French-language version of its site aimed at users in France, will still have to comply.   Anonymous cookies, those that do not contain information that would enable you to identify a user, do not infringe the law anonymity and therefore are not a problem. The directive’s core requirement is to define how consumer’s "opt-in" or "opt-out" to cookies, and what level of information the consumer must be provided when cookies are used so they are sufficiently informed.   Support Browser Do Not Track Settings https://docs.marketo.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=2951124   Visits to web pages do not reflect actual activity https://nation.marketo.com/docs/DOC-1300
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  What is a Blocklist? Can I Still Send My Emails, or Are You Blocking Me from Sending? What Is a Spamtrap and Why Do They Matter? Can You Give Me the Spam Trap Address That Triggered the Blocklist So I Can Remove It from My Database? Can You Give Me More Information regarding the Blocklist Issue? What Is the Quarantined IP Range? I Sent This Email Campaign a While Ago. Why Am I Only Getting Notification of the Blocklist Issue Now, and Am I Still Blocklisted? The Blocklist Notification Went to the Wrong Email Address. Why Was It Sent to That Address? Which blocklists should I be concerned about? - Top Blocklists – What You Need to Know How do blocklist issues get resolved? What steps do I need to take to resolve the blacklist issue? - Blocklist Remediation      
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Syntax Recommendations Common Look Up mechanisms a: mx: include: ip4: ip6: exists: ptr: all Common Modifiers redirect= exp= An A Record must ALWAYS contain IP address (map host to IP) CNAME (Alias) must contain hostnames. No IPs here NS an MX records must contain host names. No IPs allowed. MX records (for mail servers)  should contain hostnames NOT IPs. Too Many Mechanisms Section 10.1, "Processing Limits" of the SPF RFC 4408 specifies the following in regards to DNS lookups: SPF implementations MUST limit the number of mechanisms and modifiers that do DNS lookups to at most 10 per SPF check, including any lookups caused by the use of the "include" mechanism or the "redirect" modifier.  If this number is exceeded during a check, a PermError MUST be returned.  The "include", "a", "mx", "ptr", and "exists" mechanisms as well as the "redirect" modifier do count against this limit.  The "all", "ip4", and "ip6" mechanisms do not require DNS lookups and therefore do not count against this limit. The "exp" modifier does not count against this limit because the DNS lookup to fetch the explanation string occurs after the SPF record has been evaluated. This limit is in place to prevent SPF lookups from being a useful avenue for Denial of Service attacks. Using an example SPF record as an example to illustrate, this record was breaking with 12 look-ups: example.com text = "v=spf1 include:_spf-a.example.com include:_spf-b.example.com include:_spf-c.example.com include:_spf-ssg-a.example.com include:spf-a.anotherexample.com ip4:131.107.115.215 ip4:131.107.115.214 ip4:205.248.106.64 ip4:205.248.106.30 ip4:205.248.106.32 ~all" [ 5 mechanisms] _spf-a.example.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:216.99.5.67 ip4:216.99.5.68 ip4:202.177.148.100 ip4:203.122.32.250 ip4:202.177.148.110 ip4:213.199.128.139 ip4:213.199.128.145 ip4:207.46.50.72 ip4:207.46.50.82 a:mh.example.m0.net ~all"  [ +1 = 6 mechanisms] mh.example.m0.net a = 209.11.164.116 _spf-b.example.com text = "v=spf1 include:spf.messaging.example.com ip4:207.46.22.35 ip4:207.46.22.98 ip4:207.46.22.101 ip4:131.107.1.27 ip4:131.107.1.17 ip4:131.107.65.22 ip4:131.107.65.131 ip4:131.107.1.101 ip4:131.107.1.102 ip4:217.77.141.52 ip4:217.77.141.59 ~all" [+1 = 7 mechanisms] spf.messaging.example.com text = "v=spf1 include:spfa.anotherexample.com include:spfb.anotherexaple.com include:spfc.anotherexample.com -all"  [+3 = 10 mechanisms] spfa.anotherexample.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:157.55.116.128/26 ip4:157.55.133.0/24 ip4:157.55.158.0/23 ip4:157.55.234.0/24 ip4:157.56.112.0/24 ip4:157.56.116.0/25 ip4:157.56.120.0/25 ip4:207.46.100.0/24 ip4:207.46.108.0/25 ip4:207.46.163.0/24 ip4:134.170.140.0/24 ip4:157.56.110.0/23 -all" [+0 = 10 mechanisms] spfb.anotherexample.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:207.46.51.64/26 ip4:213.199.154.0/24 ip4:213.199.180.128/26 ip4:216.32.180.0/23 ip4:64.4.22.64/26 ip4:65.55.83.128/27 ip4:65.55.169.0/24 ip4:65.55.88.0/24 ip4:94.245.120.64/26 ip4:131.107.0.0/16 ip4:157.56.73.0/24 ip4:134.170.132.0/24 -all" [+0 = 10 mechanisms] spfc.anotherexample.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:207.46.101.128/26 ip6:2a01:111:f400:7c00::/54 ip6:2a01:111:f400:fc00::/54 ip4:157.56.87.192/26 ip4:157.55.40.32/27 ip4:157.56.123.0/27 ip4:157.56.91.0/27 ip4:157.55.206.0/24 ip4:157.55.207.0/24 ip4:157.56.206.0/23 ip4:157.56.208.0/22 -all" [ +0 = 10 mechanisms] _spf-c.example.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:203.32.4.25 ip4:213.199.138.181 ip4:213.199.138.191 ip4:207.46.52.71 ip4:207.46.52.79 ip4:131.107.1.18 ip4:131.107.1.19 ip4:131.107.1.20 ip4:131.107.1.48 ip4:131.107.1.56 ip4:86.61.88.25 ip4:131.107.1.44 ip4:131.107.1.37 ~all" [+0 = 10 mechanisms] _spf-ssg-a.example.com  text = "v=spf1 include:_spf-ssg-b.example.com include:_spf-ssg-c.example.com ~all"  [+2 = 12 mechanisms] _spf-ssg-b.example.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:207.68.169.173/30 ip4:207.68.176.1/26 ip4:207.46.132.129/27 ip4:207.68.176.97/27 ip4:65.55.238.129/26 ip4:207.46.222.193/26 ip4:207.46.116.135/29 ip4:65.55.178.129/27 ip4:213.199.161.129/27 ip4:65.55.33.70/28 ~all"  [+0 = 12 mechanisms] _spf-ssg-c.example.com text = "v=spf1 ip4:65.54.121.123/29 ip4:65.55.81.53/28 ip4:65.55.234.192/26 ip4:207.46.200.0/27 ip4:65.55.52.224/27 ip4:94.245.112.10/31 ip4:94.245.112.0/27 ip4:111.221.26.0/27 ip4:207.46.50.221/26 ip4:207.46.50.224 ~all" [+0 = 12 mechanisms] spf-a.secondexample.com  text = "v=spf1 ip4:157.55.0.192/26 ip4:157.55.1.128/26 ip4:157.55.2.0/25 ip4:65.54.190.0/24 ip4:65.54.51.64/26 ip4:65.54.61.64/26 ip4:65.55.111.0/24 ip4:65.55.116.0/25 ip4:65.55.34.0/24 ip4:65.55.90.0/24 ip4:65.54.241.0/24 ip4:207.46.117.0/24 ~all" [+0 = 12 mechanisms] Character String Too Long 255 character limitation in a single string https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-00356/0/Can-I-have-a-TXT-or-SPF-record-longer-than-255-characters.html http://www.string-functions.com/length.aspx You may have more than 255 characters of data in a TXT or SPF record, but not more than 255 characters in a single string. If you attempt to create an SPF or TXT record with a long string (>255 characters) in it, BIND will give an error (e.g. "invalid rdata format: ran out of space".)  Strings in SPF and TXT records should be no longer than 255 characters.  However to get around this limitation, per RFC 4408 a TXT or SPF record is allowed to contain multiple strings, which should be concatenated together by the reading application.  In the case of use for SPF (using either TXT or SPF RRs) the strings are concatenated together without spaces as described below.  Reassembly by other applications of multiple strings stored in TXT records might work differently. 3.1.3. Multiple Strings in a Single DNS record As defined in [RFC1035] sections 3.3.14 and 3.3, a single text DNS record (either TXT or SPF RR types) can be composed of more than one string. If a published record contains multiple strings, then the record MUST be treated as if those strings are concatenated together without adding spaces. For example: IN TXT "v=spf1 .... first" "second string..." MUST be treated as equivalent to IN TXT "v=spf1 .... firstsecond string..." SPF or TXT records containing multiple strings are useful in constructing records that would exceed the 255-byte maximum length of a string within a single TXT or SPF RR record. EXAMPLE text = "v=spf1 ip4:199.15.212.0/22 ip4:72.3.185.0/24 ip4:72.32.154.0/24 ip4:72.32.217.0/24 ip4:72.32.243.0/24 ip4:94.236.119.0/26  ip4:37.188.97.188/32 ip4:185.28.196.0/22 ~all“ text = "v=spf1 ip4:199.15.212.0/22“ " ip4:72.3.185.0/24 ip4:72.32.154.0/24 ip4:72.32.217.0/24" " ip4:72.32.243.0/24 ip4:94.236.119.0/26" " ip4:37.188.97.188/32 ip4:185.28.196.0/22 ~all" Null Records in the SPF Record A record that is NULL or that does not exist will break an SPF record.  Syntax within the record is very important, if there are extra spaces between mechanisms it will count as NULL. EXAMPLE text = "v=spf1 ip4:199.15.212.0/22“ <- accurate text = "v=spf1 ip4: 199.15.212.0/22“ <- NULL (NOTE the space between IP4: and the IP) Repetitive Records in the SPF Record - Void Lookups If there are too many repetitive mechanisms in the SPF record, including records that cascade (for example when using "include:") the record will break. There is a MAX of 2 void look ups in an SPF record.  More than that and the record will break.  This prevents SPF records from being used in Denial of Service style attacks. Validation Tools SPF checker, syntax validator and SPF tester http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html SPF checker http://vamsoft.com/support/tools/spf-policy-tester SPF validator http://vamsoft.com/support/tools/spf-syntax-validator CIDR Calculator http://www.subnet-calculator.com/cidr.php Nslookup http://network-tools.com/nslook/ SPF creation wizard http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/ Common SPF errors http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Common_mistakes SPF syntax definitions http://www.openspf.org/SPF_Record_Syntax
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Issue Issue Description You enabled a field for email CC and it is working for some email CC recipients, but some records on the CC are not receiving the email.   Solution Issue Resolution If any of the CC email addresses are known leads in your Marketo database and marked as unsubscribed they will not receive the email, even if the email is marked as operational.  
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Issue Description The exact distinction between the "Email Bounces" and "Email Bounces Soft" filter and trigger is unclear. Issue Resolution The “Email Bounces” trigger or filter will look only at hard bounces, where Marketo received a definitive "No" from the target server. The “Email Bounces Soft” trigger or filter only looks at soft bounces, which occur when we are unable to deliver the email, but did not receive a rejection from the target server. You can use both filters with "OR" logic in order to look at all bounces.
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    Overview Add Leads to Static Lists Use Custom Fields Overview Lead records have two primary components – lead attributes and activity logs. Lead attributes are the fields and field values within the lead record. For example, Job Title is a lead attribute. Lead Name is a lead attribute. Activity logs record the actions Marketo or the lead themselves have taken. For example, sending an email to a lead is an activity that would show in the activity log. If the lead opens the email or visits a tracked page, those activities would show in the activity log as well.   Activities in the activity log are only retained for 90 days, 25 months, or 37 if you have purchased the premium data retention option. The official Marketo Data Retention Policy can be found here: Marketo Activities Data Retention Policy   The main way to store activity data beyond the Data Retention Policy timeframe is to use the Bulk Extract API. There are two other ways you can keep a reference of these activities after the end of the Data Retention period, and they can be referenced within the Marketo UI. This article will show you how that can be done.     Add Leads to Static Lists Static lists will retain lead membership even if the activity of adding the lead to the list has been removed. This will let you have lists dedicated to specific criteria that would otherwise be removed after the data retention time period has been passed.   For example, Smart Campaign membership history is not retained after 25 months. If you are searching for members of a Smart Campaign, but a lead first became a member of the Smart Campaign more than 25 months ago, the search results would not include that lead.   An easy way to work around that is to add your leads to a static list as part of the flow of the campaign. When creating your Smart Campaign, create a new static list with the same corresponding name (makes it easier to identify later). When building the flow of your campaign, add the "Add to List" flow step so that all leads going through the campaign will be logged on the list.   Use Custom Fields Lead attributes and their field values are not affected by the Data Retention Policy. Use Smart Campaigns to populate custom fields with values based on activities your leads take. This will allow you to filter leads by these lead attributes that are not affected by the Data Retention Policy. A side benefit to this is that it is faster to search by lead attributes than by searching through lead activity logs.   Example: This approach can work for many different activities, but let’s use form fill outs as an example.   Let’s say you want to be able to identify leads who have been very active and have filled out more than 5 forms over their lifecycle. You could use the filter “Filled Out Form” with the “Min. Number of Times” constraint set to 5. However, if one of those forms filled out occurred more than 25 months ago, the filter would only be able to access 4 form fill activities in the activity log. Therefore, the lead would not pass the filter.   Instead of using the “Filled Out Form” filter, set up a Smart Campaign to write to custom fields that show you how many forms they’ve filled out, and when the first one was. Here’s how to do it:   1. Create two new custom fields in Marketo, one Score Field, and the second a Date Field.   2. Create a new Smart Campaign   3. Add the trigger “Fills Out Form” set to “is any” to the Campaign Smart List 4. Add these two Flow Steps to the Campaign Flow: Flow Step 1: “Change Score” Score Field Name: your score field name Change: +1   Flow Step 2: “Change Data Value” Add Choice to Flow Step Choice 1: If “your score field name”  “is empty” Attribute “your score field name” New Value: {{system.date}} Default Choice: Do Nothing This campaign will listen for any time a lead fills out a form, add +1 to your score field, and if it’s the very first form they’ve ever filled out, it will log the date of when it was done. If the lead has ever filled out a form in the past, there will already be a date value in the date field, so the flow choice would just skip over it and do nothing. Results You’ll See: With the original goal of identifying leads who have filled out more than 5 forms you’ll be able to filter for leads that have filled out at least 5 forms. In addition, this campaign will let you search for leads based on when they had filled out their very first form, regardless of how long ago it was. Since it’s stored in a lead field, it’s a lead attribute that is not affected by the Data Retention Policy at all.
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Issue Issue Description How to add a seed list in a batch Smart Campaign or Email Program.     Solution Issue Resolution Import the seed list addresses into an appropriately-named static list Add a filter in the Program/Campaign Smart List to include the static list. The trick will be to make sure the filter logic is correct. Advanced Logic may need to be used in the Smart List of the Program/Campaign. For example, if there's a sending campaign with 5 filters to send to an audience 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND  (4 OR 5) then you will want to use Advanced Logic and put parentheses around the original filter set (1 AND 2 AND 3 AND  (4 OR 5)) and add the seed list outside the parentheses with OR logic (1 AND 2 AND 3 AND  (4 OR 5)) OR 6 In that advanced logic, the original intended membership (1 through 5) exist within its own set of parentheses and the Seed List is included in addition (OR 6).
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Issue You see a record in the database has something similar to the following Email Suspended Cause: "554- Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to the sending MTA's poor reputation. If you believe that this failure is in error, please contact the intended recipient via alternate means." Solution The 554 error is generated by a hard bounce due to a spam block. It is possible that one of the sending IP addresses used may have been on a temporary blacklist the day of the attempted send. This happens while using shared IPs when another Marketo instance using the same IP hits a spam trap, putting the IP on a blacklist for 24 hours. This error can also happen to users on a dedicated IP if they hit a spam trap with one of their email sends.        
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There are thousands of blacklists out there and all of them operate a little differently and all have varying levels of reputation.  There are only a dozen blacklists that really can impact delivery.   The blacklist that requires the most work from you when you request delisting is Spamhaus. Spamhaus is a trustworthy blacklist and if you are listed at Spamhaus you have made a mistake that will need to be directly addressed before the listing can be removed.   SpamCop is considered a tier one blacklist for B2B marketers but a tier 2 for B2B marketers.  Marketo responds to all SpamCop listings; researching to identify the source so we can work with the customer to educate on best practices and prevent future listings.    Some blacklists require that you pay a fee to be delisted. These blacklists are not favored in the email community because they use this tactic. For the most part, Marketo advises our customers not to mind alerts of being listed on a pay-to-delist blacklist.  These blacklists tend to have minimal impact to your deliverability.   For the most part blacklists are dynamic and resolve themselves in around 24 hours if the issue resolves. If the problematic sending continues, of course, the blacklist will continue to keep you listed until the problematic sending ends.   If you are blacklisted, your main concern at that point should be making sure it doesn't happen again. For steps on how to identify the problematic data source and improve your list hygiene in an effort to avoid blacklist issues, see our blacklist remediation article.
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This originally appeared on the Brand Driven Digital blog, 9/19/2013. Written by Marketo's Digital Marketing Evangelist, DJ Waldow. Used with permission. Unemotionally Subscribed – People on your list who have not opened or clicked an email message from you in an extended (several months) period of time. They have not unsubscribed. They have not marked your message as spam. They either ignore it or take the time to actually delete it every time it lands in their inbox. Now, it depends on who you ask, but the percentage of your list that is considered “unemotionally subscribed” can be as high as 30%. Yup. Nearly one out of every three folks on your email list are not interacting with your emails … not at all. As I mentioned in this What Counts guest post, once you figure out who fits this “inactive” criteria, you have a few options: Immediately unsubscribe or delete them. I call this the “DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200″ approach. Move to a new list and mail to less frequently. I call this the “I think I need to see you a bit less often” approach. Send a last ditch “We missed you” type email. If they don’t respond, then do #1. I call this the “I’m going to give you one more chance” approach. Set up a re-engagement email series. I call this the “I really don’t want to break up, but if you are not responding at all, well, it’s over” approach. No one method is necessarily better than the other. I’ve seen all 4 executed before. As I often say, the best practice here is the one that’s best for your subscribers (and your business).   I recently came across a great – creative, human, funny – example of #3, the last ditch “we missed you” email. Thanks to Suzanne Oehler who forwarded me this email. Check out this email from NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network The subject line – We miss you! - was certainly one that would stand out in many inboxes. The intro paragraph was short and to the point, but nothing crazy.   But then it got fun … and creative.   The first call to action read: “If you’d like to continue receiving NTEN emails, click here by Friday, August 2nd. Yay! This makes us very happy.” Again, they get right to the point. They even add a bit of “human” (Yay! This makes us very happy.) But it gets better. The “click here” link leads to hilarious Happy Dog video. IF you are a dog owner, you’ll love this.   The second call to action read: “If you’d rather not receive NTEN emails, we’re sad to see you go. Simply delete this email and in a short time your account with NTEN will be removed from our systems.” Nothing crazy. Direct. Clear. Simple. However, the “sad” link again goes to a video – this one goes to a Sad Cat Diary video. Warning: some language in this video is NSFW. Then again, if you’ve ever owned a cat, you’ll appreciate the humor.   The third, and final, call to action read: “Of course, if you change your mind, you can always sign up again” with the “sign up” link taking clickers to their email subscription landing page, of course.   Now, fun and creative is one thing. If campaigns like these do not meet their intended goals (getting folks re-engaged), then, well, they are just “fun and creative.”   So … Did It WORK?   I contacted the team at NTEN to see how effective this campaign was. Below is what they shared with me.   They sent this email to a list of 24,000 subscribers who had not opened in email from them in the past year.   For this particular campaign, they reported the following metrics:   Open rate – 38.89% vs. 26.73% “average” over the previous few emails Click-to-Open Rate* – 47.37% vs. 12.3% “average” over the previous few emails *in other words, of the 38.89% who opened the email, nearly 50% clicked at least one link   Of those who clicked a link, the Top 4 most-clicked links were:   41.14%: Click Here (Happy Dog … to stay subscribed) 4.91%: Unsubscribe 2.21%: Sign up 2.14%: Sad (Sad Cat … to opt-out) By all accounts, I’d say this “We Miss You” campaign was a HUGE success? What do you think? Have you tried a “reenagement campaign in the past? If so, how effective was it for you? Drop a note in the comments below!   P.S. The email marketing team at NTEN shared their “lessons learned” from this campaign in this blog post. I love their transparency. Is this article helpful ? YesNo
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If you have submitted a support case and you feel that the case was improperly handled or that the solution being offered does not meet the communicated Marketo support expectations, then we would welcome the opportunity to look deeper at your specific support engagement and work with you on delivering a better resolution. Caution: If the item you're looking to escalate is related to a Production Down incident, please call the support line for your region to receive immediate assistance. Support Manager escalations are only handled during normal business hours. The phone numbers for each region are listed below, follow the prompts for P1: Americas: +1.877.270.6586, Direct: +1.650.376.2303 Europe, Middle East, & Africa: +353 (0)1 242 3030,  UK: 0800 151 3030 Asia Pacific: +61 2 8310 7646  Japan: +81.03.4233.9014 How to Escalate: Step 1. Navigate to the "Case Management" area of the support portal either by mousing over the Support tab and selecting "Case Management" or clicking the Support tab and click on the “My Case Management” button. NOTE: You will need an open or recently closed case in order to escalate to support leadership. This is a article attached image Step 2. From here you will need to click on either an open or a recently closed* case: This is a article attached image *Support Cases that have been closed for longer than 10 days are no longer eligible to be re-opened and we ask that you open a new support ticket for your current issue prior to escalating to a Support Manager. We ask that you have an open support ticket for a Support Manager to be able to address specific issues. Step 3. After selecting a case, click on the Escalate to Manager button: This is a article attached image Step 4. A pop up will display and you will need to the purpose for the escalation and click on the “Escalate” button. This is a article attached image Once your support escalation case has been submitted a Marketo Support Leader will contact you within 1 business day of your support region's support hours to address the issue.
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  This is a article attached image Upon signing a contract with Marketo you are provisioned a Marketo instance and a Support Service. There are four different types of Support Services which are available to meet different customer support needs: Online (Legacy) Business or PREMIER SUPPORT BUSINESS (Legacy) Premier or PREMIER SUPPORT ENTERPRISE (Legacy) Elite or PREMIER SUPPORT ELITE Each Support Service has a different Service Level Target (SLT). An SLT is the amount of time Marketo Support targets to make first contact with you after a support case has been submitted. SLTs differ for each Support Service and priority level. Priority levels range from Priority P1 to Priority P4. Here are the SLTs and priority levels for each Support Service:   Priority Online (Legacy) Business PREMIER SUPPORT BUSINESS (Legacy) Premier PREMIER SUPPORT ENTERPRISE (Legacy) Elite PREMIER SUPPORT ELITE P1 1 hour 1 hour 1 hour 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes 15 minutes P2 4 hours 3 hours 2 hours 2 hours 1 hour 2 hours 30 minutes P3 6 hours 5 hours 4 hours 4 hours 2 hours 2 hours 1 hour P4 3 days 1 day 1 day 1 day 1 day 1 day 1 day   Here are the descriptions for each priority level: Priority Description P1 Mission Critical: Core business function down or potential loss of mission critical data P2 Urgent: Major feature or workflow is not functioning. Mission critical workflow and majority of user community is not blocked P3 Important: Normal usability or task completion is impacted but functional, or workaround is available P4 Minor: Minor issue requiring a correction. Normal workflow is not impacted   Find more information About Support here!  
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When using Marketo it is not a requirement to set up DNS text records for SPF and DKIM.  However, Marketo recommends setting up SPF and DKIM because it improves the deliverability of your mailings.  Configuring and implementing one or both of these records is a way to verify that the server sending your mail is authorized to do so. If a recipient domain is configured to check for SPF and/or DKIM and those DNS records are available and your mail passes the SPF/DKIM check, it further reinforces its good reputation.  Not implementing SPF/DKIM records does not add to or subtract from its reputation, it’s just not there. Please note, not all domains check for SPF/DKIM and if this is the case, again, the presence of these records does not add or subtract from your mail’s deliverability. There is no negative effect to setting up these records, and it can improve your deliverability.  It is for these reasons that Marketo recommends setting up these DNS records and configuring their use in your instance of Marketo. For more information on how to set up and configure SPF/DKIM, please read our KB article here.
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  Marketo Champions are customers who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the Marketo Community, are experts in Marketo products, are avid contributors in the social world, and are loyal advocates of the Marketo brand. Benefits and perks our Champions receive include:   Access: Meetings with our product and marketing teams to give exclusive feedback Previews: Given early previews to products, features, and releases when available Publicity: Exclusive speaking opportunities at our annual Marketo Summit and other events Networking: Special networking events with Marketo executives and fellow Champions and semi-annual conference calls Ownership: Ownership of content and exclusive activities at our annual Marketo Summit that showcase your expertise and thought leadership Credibility: Special Champion badge on Marketo Community profiles, and profiled on Marketo's corporate website Sweet Swag: Champion-exclusive swag To find out more information and apply, click here. To view a complete list of current Champions, click here. Join the Marketo Elite Today!  
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When a customer triggers a blacklisting on Marketo's shared IP range that customer is moved to a set of IPs we call the quarantined IP range.  We do this to protect the health of our shared network and ensure the best deliverability possible for all of our customers on that network.   If you have received a Blocklist Notification from Marketo reporting that you have triggered a blocklisting your Marketo account is now in the quarantined IP range.   While you are in the quarantined range it is possible that you may experience a slight decrease in your deliverability rates. The reason for this is that you are now sending from a range made up of senders that have also caused other blocklist issues. All customers have received a notice of the listing and are in the process of repairing their database.   There are two ways to be removed from the quarantined IP range: Follow the steps outlined in our Blocklist Remediation article. Be sure to fill out the form referenced in the email alert to indicate that you have taken steps to mitigate the issue. Demonstrate clean sending behavior for 3 months. We remove senders from the quarantined IP range if they have not triggered any new listings in 3 months.   To ensure your best deliverability rates blocklist issues should be addressed right away to prevent further damage to your sending reputation. Furthermore, if no action is taken to improve list hygiene the issue will likely recur. Marketo's Privacy Team strongly recommend following the Blocklist Remediation steps.   Additional Resources: Blocklist Deep Dive​  
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For a list of blacklists worth paying close attention to visit our article Top blacklists - What you need to know.
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An email being filtered to a quarantine or bulk mail folder happens after the recipient mail server has accepted message.  Once an email has been accepted by a mail server, it is impossible to tell where it went or what happened to it.  Note that this is true of any mail sent by any system on the Internet. Every mail server has configurable filters that determine how received mail will be handled.  The mail server administrator should be able to adjust those filters to ensure delivery of emails based on their business standards, or there may even be end-user-configurable controls that can accomplish the same thing. If test mailings you are sending to yourself or your colleagues are being filtered to a quarantine or bulk mail folder, you should consider asking your email administrator to whitelist Marketo’s IP ranges.  They can be found here. You can also improve your deliverability in general by setting up SPF and DKIM records, setting up a custom DKIM signature and branding your tracking links.
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As part of your efforts to maintain a healthy inbox delivery rate, you should be monitoring your email bounce rates. If your hard bounce rate climbs above 5%, you should take a closer look at what’s going on. If your hard bounce rate hits 10% or more, you should be concerned about your data quality. If you have a high hard bounce rate, it is likely that you have a high number of invalid addresses. An invalid address is an address that has never existed or no longer exists, so mail will never be delivered to these addresses.  Marketo automatically stops sending to these addresses, so you do not need to worry about suspending or removing them. But having a high invalid address rate could cause you major delivery problems and reputation issues, and could indicate problematic data sources or list segmentation practices that should be reevaluated. A high invalid address rate can lead to outright blocking of your mail at major ISPs. Many ISPs monitor the number of invalid addresses being sent to at their domains by specific senders. Once a certain threshold is hit, those ISPs will block mail coming from the offending sender. ISPs behave this way because they view a high rate of invalid addresses as an indication of problematic data practices of the sender. At best, a high invalid address rate means you are not sending to an engaged, active audience. At worst, it means that you are sending to purchased or rented lists, which is a violation of Marketo’s Email Use and Anti-Spam Policy. Chances are, if you have a high invalid address rate, there are other issues with your data that could also contribute to. If you receive a notification that we have noticed a high invalid address rate associated with your mailings, you should ask yourself some questions about your list management practices. Below are some things to consider: - Have you recently added any new leads or lead sources? Purchased lists are often full of invalid addresses. We often find that purchased lists contain numerous addresses from domains that don’t even exist any more. While you can use purchased lists to bulk up the data you have for existing leads, you cannot use them to bulk up your lead database. -Have you recently targeted old or inactive leads? We strongly recommend that you never send to an address that you haven’t mailed to for over a one year. You should be mailing to your contacts at least every six months. This will help prevent high invalid address rates, and will also help keep you and your content fresh in your contacts’ minds. If you do have to send to older leads, you should break up your lists and send to your most recent and active contacts first. - Who are you targeting?  Some senders have more problems with high invalid address rates because of their target audiences. For example, targeting .edu domains often causes high invalid address rates because these are school addresses that have a higher turnover rate. B2B campaigns may sometimes have higher invalid address rates because of similar turnover rates at businesses. The best way to avoid high invalid address rates is to send to opted-in, engaged recipients. To help with this, a lot of senders clear out their inactive leads every six months or so. An inactive lead is a contact that has taken no action in the given time period— they haven't opened an email, clicked a link, visited your webpage, attended a webinar, and so forth. This can help with both your high invalid address rates and spam complaints. Inactive leads are a dangerous group to continue mailing to because their behavior proves that they do not want to interact with your mail, and will therefore likely complain to us or to their ISPs about it. We have a great resource on how to create a Smart List to remove inactive leads here. If you still need some help, please feel free to reach out to our Support team (support@marketo.com). Additional resources: Dos and Don'ts of Effective Lead Generation Best Practices for Purchased Data
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When someone writes to abuse@marketo.com to tell Marketo that they received unsolicited email from one of our customers the result is called an abuse report.  Instead of just hitting the “Report Spam” button, someone actually took the time to write to our abuse@marketo.com address and explain to us that they never wanted email from the sender.  Because of this direct complaint we take these types of spam reports very seriously. Only about 10% of our customers ever receive any abuse reports at all so it is cause for investigation if you receive one. If you receive notification that someone filed an abuse report against your account review your list management practices. Below are some things to consider: When people sign up to receive emails from you, is it made clear to them that they are giving you permission to email them? Have you recently added any new leads or lead sources? Have you recently added older leads to your database that you have not reached out to in the past 6 months or more? Was there anything about the campaign that was complained about that makes it different from previous campaigns? In most cases people file these kinds of reports because: They never requested to be on your email list. They did request to be on your email list at some point but have forgotten because they have not heard from you in so long. The importance of using explicit opt-in in your list building efforts cannot be stressed enough. You should also send to active leads consistently enough that they continue to expect emails from you. The best ways to avoid complaint driven reputation issues is to send to opted-in, engaged recipients. To help with this, a lot of senders clear out their inactive leads every 6 months or so. An inactive lead is a contact that has taken no action in the given time period— they haven't opened an email, clicked a link, visited your webpage, attended a Webinar, and so forth. Inactive leads are a dangerous group to continue mailing to because their behavior proves that they do not want to interact with your mail and will likely complain to Marketo or to their ISPs about it. We have a great resource on how to create a Smart List to remove inactive leads here. If you still need some help, please feel free to reach out to our Support team (support@marketo.com). Additional resources: Abuse Report Deep Dive Blacklist Deep Dive
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From the Marketo Email Use Policy: "...You may not send any Unsolicited Email by use or means of the Marketo Service. "Unsolicited Email" is defined as email sent to persons other than: persons with whom you have an existing business relationship, OR (ii) persons who have consented to the receipt of such email, including publishing or providing their email address in a manner from which consent to receive email of the type transmitted may be reasonably implied." The full text of the policy is here: https://documents.marketo.com/legal/use-policy/ An abuse report is a report that an individual sends to abuse@marketo.com alleging that a Marketo customer sent unsolicited email. There are a number of reasons why someone might report abuse. Here are a few common reasons people report abuse to us: The person forgot they opted-in to the mailing The person received genuinely unsolicited email The person opted in, but the branding in the email was different than the branding on the opt in form so it was not clear the email they received was connected to their opt-in experience Someone signed up for your list with the wrong address, and the person who actually received your email felt it was abusive   For additional reference - Abuse Report Deep Dive  
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