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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

Featured article

(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 Issue Description Links in Interesting Moments viewed in Salesforce Sales Insight section are not clickable. Trying alternative methods of inserting links, such as in <a> tags, still results in being unable to click these links within Salesforce. Solution Issue Resolution There are no current methods for inserting links into Interesting Moments so the link is clickable within Salesforce record's Sales Insight section. Who This Solution Applies To Customers using Sales Insight for Salesforce

Issue Issue Description You would like to have an RTP domain in your Account Settings in Web Personalization removed Solution Issue Resolution We cannot delete domains from accounts unless the tag for this domain has never been implemented on your website. To check that, log-in and verify that (by navigating to the visitors page and filtering the data by this domain and see that there is no data showing up). If there is no data under this domain - go ahead and submit a support ticket to delete the irrelevant domain from you Web Personalization Account. Who This Solution Applies To Web Personalization Customers

The Social Form Fill for LinkedIn is not available for new Marketo customers/instances after June 17, 2015. LinkedIn's revised API policy requires Marketo to remove this feature. For all customers and instance prior to the June 17 date, this feature will still be available for a limited time. For any questions about this policy, please contact LinkedIn Marketing Solutions with questions. For an alternate solution, customers can use LinkedIn's Autofill. More details on this solution can be found here - LinkedIn Autofill

Issue No predictive content loads after embedding the JavaScript code for Rich Media Recommendation: The error: "Cannot read property 'assets' of undefined ", is visible when you inspect the website and check for the errors under the Console tab. Solution If there is only one piece of predictive content approved then not content would display. The error "cannot read property 'assets' of undefined" means that there is no more content available to display. In order to fix this you need to have THREE OR MORE predictive content assets approved.

Problem/Issue: During a list import you noticed a couple of fields, some of which are custom fields, show up in red. Reason/Cause: This is because the column header you specified in the list is either not recognized or does not exist. Fix/Solution: To correct this, be sure you have the proper syntax for the column header. Please do the following steps in order to get access to a list of all the fields and custom fields in your Marketo instance: In Lead Database, create a test static list - or, you can use an existing static list if you prefer. Be sure the static list contains at least one record in order to do an export. Click the export button towards the bottom (i.e. Excel icon) and choose the second radio button labeled “All Columns” with CSV as the format. Click Export. Now you have access to all the fields available in your Marketo instance with the proper syntax. You can use it moving forward as a guide.

Issue There are discrepancies in the leads activity logs within Marketo, where the Email Delivered activity timestamp is sometimes recorded a few seconds before the Email Sent activity. This sequencing issue causes confusion for analytics teams, particularly when using external analytics platforms like Tableau, as the logical sequence would typically show that an email is sent before it is delivered. Solution Understanding email statuses and utilizing Campaign Run ID for analytics: The confusion arises from a misunderstanding of how Marketo logs email activities and the meaning behind the statuses Sent and Delivered. Email Sent Status: In Marketo, when an email status is logged as Sent, it indicates that the email has been considered for sending or queued for sending. The status does not mean the email has been physically sent through the servers but rather is prepared to be sent. The logging of this event happens shortly after the email is queued, which could be almost instantaneous. Email Delivered Status: The Delivered status is an acknowledgment from the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) infrastructure, signifying that the recipient's email server has accepted the email. This status is logged after the event has occurred and the email has been accepted by the remote server. It is important to note that while both statuses are recorded after their respective events, they come from different systems within the email delivery process. This can sometimes result in the Delivered status being logged before the Sent status, although such instances should be rare. To correctly analyze and interpret the email activity logs, users should adhere to the following guidelines: Recognize that the timestamps for Sent and Delivered may not always be in the expected order due to the separate systems involved in logging these events. Focus on the Campaign Run ID for analytics purposes. This ID is unique to each campaign run and can be used to accurately reassemble the sequence of events, regardless of the order in which Sent and Delivered statuses are logged.

Issue Multiple alerts are sent from the same campaign. Solution Recognize that Send Alert functions at the person level, triggering an alert for each individual in a campaign. Utilize Marketo's reporting to send a consolidated notification: Create an Email or Campaign Performance report. Tailor the report settings for the specific campaign. Schedule the report to be sent after campaign completion. This method provides a summarized notification, avoiding the repetition of alerts per campaign member. Alternatively, use Send Alert for individual notifications where needed, such as: Alerting a lead owner of a form submission. Triggering personalized alerts for specific lead activities.

Issue Files uploaded to Marketo's Design Studio, like PDFs or image files, are assigned an HTTP URL instead of HTTPS. This discrepancy can trigger security warnings in emails, as modern browsers and mail clients expect secure links that match the SSL certificate's domain. Solution To address this issue, follow these steps: Ensure you have a custom landing page rather than the default domain. See under Admin > Landing Pages. Apply an SSL certificate to any new domains added. Marketo won't do this automatically. You can contact Marketo Support to request an SSL application for your domain. Provide necessary details. After SSL implementation, send test emails to check for proper HTTPS encryption and the absence of security warnings. By implementing these actions, asset URLs and landing pages in Marketo communications should be secure.

Issue Leads were uploaded into Marketo with the wrong opt-in date and time, which also synced with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Solution To correct the opt-in date and time, do the following. Update information in Marketo. Prepare and upload a corrected list for the leads. Confirm the opt-in field in Marketo is not blocked from updates. CRM Sync The corrected data in Marketo will auto-sync with Dynamics 365. If auto-sync fails, manually update the opt-in dates in the CRM. Additional Steps Check for any automated actions triggered by the wrong data and rectify them If needed. Confirm data accuracy in both systems after updates. Back up data before mass updates to prevent data loss.

Summary When attempting to approve snippet error Access Token is Invalid appears. Have the customer sign out and sign back in. Seems maybe they got logged out somehow. Issue When attempting to approve a snippet you receive "Access Token Is Invalid" error. Solution The error can occur when your internet browser logs you out of Marketo in the background. To resolve, sign back in to Marketo and retry the approval.

Issue You encounter the error "XSRF Protection Mismatch: User does not have access" when trying to access a Marketo instance, or when using the instance switcher to change from 1 instance to another. Root Cause This error can happen when you have multiple Marketo tabs open or can be due to session cookies, and the resolution is to clear cookies and re-try. If the error persists after clearing cookies, please reach out to Support.

Issue Lead activity log shows "Change segment" or "Add to Segment" for a segmentation (i.e. "Change Title to "Directors") The named segmentation ("Title") does not show up in the segmentation list in Database Environment Marketo instance with the Target Account Management feature Solution Even though the activity log shows a segment activity, the segment is actually a Persona, which is a feature of Target Account Management.

Issue A/B test in Email Program status is still showing “Running test…” and not all email variants were sent as expected. Environment A/B Test Email Program Sample Size Running Test Solution To ensure the sample size qualified at least a minimum of the total variants of the A/B test. For example, if you have a total of 6 records, a sample size of 34% will suffice for 2 records (1 for variant A and 1 for variant B). Root Cause This can occur if the sample size selected is too small. For example, if you have a total of 6 records, a sample size of 1% will not suffice for 1 record.

Summary Sales Insight Email Performance Report grouped by Sales Rep exports file sorted by template rather then by sales rep. Issue Sales Insight Email Performance Report grouped by Sales Rep exports file sorted by template rather then by sales rep. Subscription email displays report grouped by email template as wel Report within the Marketo UI will show as expected Solution The current workaround exists for the CSV exported. 1. Export the report to a CSV 2. Format Columns A (Sales Rep) and B (Email Name) to sort A to Z in order to get a view by sales rep. Root Cause This issue is scheduled to be addressed and resolved in the 2021 Q2 release Environment Sales Insight for Salesforce This issue occurs within the subscription email that gets sent out of the report This issue occurs when exporting the report to a CSV file

Issue Issue Description Landing Page is not selectable as a Web Page constraint value for a Fills Out Form trigger. Solution Issue Resolution Check if Landing Page is Approved Check if Landing Page is within the same workspace as the Smart Campaign with the Fills Out Form trigger [Note: this condition is only applicable if there are workspaces within the instance] Check if Landing Page is NOT within an archived folder Check if Landing Page has a form associated with it. If not, then it will not appear as a selectable option as Web Page constraint. While it is possible that a form can be inserted directly into the HTML of the landing page template, the landing page will not be associated with the form in this way. This is a article attached image For a Landing Page to be a selectable option as a Web Page constraint it must be associated with a form by inserting the form to the landing page via the UI as illustrated in our docs below: http://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Add+a+New+Form+to+a+Free-Form+Landing+Page http://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Add+a+Form+to+a+Guided+Landing+Page This is a article attached image

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 If you create a Landing Page Domain Alias within Marketo Admin > Landing Pages > Rules, you are given the option to set up a Default Page for that Alias. What happens if an end-user navigates to an invalid page on the Domain Alias? Solution Let's say that your Branded Domain Name is pages.domain.com, and the Fallback Page set to www.domain.com. You have also set up a Domain Alias: pages.otherdomain.com. The Default Page for that Alias is: www.otherdomain.com. When you navigate to an invalid page on the primary domain (pages.domain.com/invalid-page.html,) you will be redirected to the Fallback Page: www.domain.com. If you were to navigate to an invalid page on the Alias (such as pages.otherdomain.com/invalid-page.html), you will be still be redirected to the Admin Settings Fallback Page: www.domain.com. The Domain Alias Settings are particular in the sense that the exact setting is for the "default page". You will only be redirected to the Domain Alias Default Page if you were to navigate to pages.otherdomain.com.

Issue Can the {{system.unsubscribeLink}} be customized to point to a different page, such as a preference center? Solution Issue Resolution The system token unsubscribe link will always behave the same way, and it cannot be customized. The {{system.unsubscribeLink}} will always bring you to: sub.domain/UnsubscribePage.html. If your Landing Pages are not branded, this system token will still behave the same way and take the lead to your out-of-the-box Marketo Unsubscribe Page (ending in /UnsubscribePage.html). If you want the link to go to a different page, the easiest workaround is to create a redirect rule that sends visitors to UnsubscribePage.html to your custom page instead.

Knowledgebase

Maintaining a Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails

Top Blocklists - What You Need to Know

Links in Interesting Moments Are Not Clickable in Sales Insight

Removing Web Personalization (RTP) Domain

LinkedIn Social Form Fill Button Not Available in Marketo Instances after June 17, 2015

Advanced Landing Page Template Development

Landing page with Rich Media Recommendation code not loading Predictive Content

Once I sync with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance, can I change it to sync to a different Dynamics instance?

"IGNORED (unknown)" During Preview of List Import

Email activity log sequence issues in Marketo

Multiple alerts sent from the same campaign

Resolving Marketo unencrypted asset URL issue

Correcting incorrect opt-in date-time in Marketo and CRM

Access Token Is Invalid Error When Attempting to Approve Snippet

XSRF Protection Mismatch: User does not have access

Segmentation - Leads Assigned to a Segmentation that does not appear to exist

Status: “Running test…” A/B Test

Sales Insight Report By Sales Rep formats by Template Instead

Landing Page Not Selectable as a Web Page Constraint Value for Fills Out Form Trigger

Limited Access Message Displayed When Previewing Email

Domain Alias Default Page and Fallback Page

{{System.unsubscribeLink}} Customization