Marketo Email Deliverability FAQs

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You asked, we listened! We've heard many deliverability related questions from the community so we've partnered with our deliverability team to put together an FAQ below to address the most burning topics. Please comment below if your questions are not answered here or if you have additional questions!

What is Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) policy change and how does it impact Marketo users?

In short, Apple’s MPP allows Apple device email recipients to opt in to MPP in order to anonymize their email open activity from being tracked. Note this change impacts the entire email marketing industry, not just Marketo users, as the new policy prevents email open activities tracking on Apple device email recipients (provided the user takes the action to anonymize their email open activities). Due to this change, the best practice is to focus on click-based activity as your primary engagement metrics with your email program and re-evaluate existing automations/workflows (i.e. lead scoring) that are based on email open activities. More information can be found below:

How to be in line with Google & Yahoo's latest spam guidelines

There are three main areas you should address in your overall email management to be in line with Google & Yahoo’s latest SPAM guideline:

1) Authenticating your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your identity, as DMARC authentication is now a requirement.

2) Comply with privacy regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM by obtaining proper consent and include a clear unsubscribe option in every email – Note you must honor unsubscribe requests within two days. Please note Marketo has put the necessary changes in place to support the One-Click List-Unsubscribe requirement as detailed here.

3) Sign up for feedback loops to receive notifications if recipients mark your emails as spam, the new guideline requires that you keep a spam rate of <0.3% (or less than 2-3 complaints per thousand emails).

For more details, please see attached PDF document for Adobe Deliverability Guidance on Google and Yahoo changes.

How does Gmail’s one-click unsubscribe requirement impact Marketo users?

Beginning on January 31, 2024, Marketo has put the necessary changes in place to support the One-Click List-Unsubscribe requirement, and all Marketing messages will support One-Click List-Unsubscribe. See details here.

How to avoid spam traps or getting on email blocklist?

Follow these three guidelines to avoid hitting spam trap or blocklisting:

Build your email list organically through opt-in methods and avoid purchasing lists. Regularly clean your list to remove inactive or invalid addresses to prevent sending to spam traps.
Authenticate your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to establish credibility. Send relevant, high-quality content that engages your audience and avoid excessive links and spammy languages.
Monitor your sender reputation, handle complaints promptly, and use a consistent sending schedule and avoid sudden spikes in email volume.

What should we do if we found out we are blocklisted or hit a spam trap?

Marketo’s Email Delivery and Compliance team monitor blocklist activity daily and will notify a customer if it’s identified that a customer caused a top blocklists or spam trap hit. Upon an incident, you should follow these steps for blocklist remediation. The recommendation is that you review your email list data acquisition policy and conduct list data cleanup. Please also see Blocklists: Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best practices to address email bot activity?

Here are the three recommendations to address bot activity:

Enable Marketo’s bot activity identification to filter bot activity from your email performance reporting or log activities for further analysis.
Bot activity can be related to sender reputation so efforts to regularly clean up your list to remove bounces and inactive records to increase list quality and sending relevant and quality content to improve engagement can help manage your sender reputation.
Keep in mind email bot activity is inevitable in today’s email world, marketers should focus on engagement metrics beyond opens and clicks, such as visiting a webpage (as bots will not generate page visit activities) or completing a call to action to download content or fill out a form.

What should I do when there’s declines in email engagement metrics?

When you see declines in email engagement metrics, start by analyzing the data to identify trends or specific issues. Review and update your content for relevance and quality, and experiment with A/B testing to find what resonates best. Segment your audience for more targeted messaging, clean your email list to remove inactive subscribers, and adjust your sending frequency if needed. Collect feedback from recipients and avoid email marketing mistakes to refine your strategy and improve engagement.

How do I know if a message goes into Spam?

There isn’t a definite way to determine if a message ended up in Spam. Best way is to leverage the Inbox tracker feature of deliverability tool to help identify inbox placement rate. If both the Seedlist result and the email performance report show low metrics, then it likely confirms spam folder placement.

What affects my email deliverability score or email deliverability in general?

There are 5 main factors that impacts email deliverability: 1) List quality 2) Email authentication protocol (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) 3) Content Quality 4) Engagement and 5) Sender reputation. Therefore, it is important to develop an opt-in strategy to organically grow your email list (HINT: Do NOT buy list) and establish a deliverability data management practice to regularly clean up your data by removing bounces and inactive records. Verify your sending domain with SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication protocols, segment your list to make sure your content is relevant to the recipients to drive engagement, which will build up your sender reputation and ultimately improve deliverability.

Best practices for maintaining sender reputation, inbox placement, and improve email deliverability?

Follow these best practices to maintain a strong sender reputation, ensure good inbox placement, and improve email deliverability:

1) Authenticate your email sending domains with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

2) Regularly clean your list to remove invalid or inactive addresses.

3) Craft relevant, engaging content with clear option to unsubscribe.

4) Use a consistent sending schedule while monitoring engagement metrics and feedback loops.

5) Optimize emails for mobile and continuously test and analyze your campaigns to improve engagement which will in turn improve deliverability and inbox placement.

What are the best practices for IP warming?

For effective IP warming, gradually increase your email sending volume to build a positive reputation with ISPs. Start with a small volume of emails and slowly scale up over several weeks, focusing on your most engaged subscribers first. Monitor key metrics like open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints closely during this period. Ensure consistent and high-quality content to maintain engagement to build up your sender reputation.

What are best practices for managing unsubscribed records in Marketo?

When Marketo’s out of box “Unsubscribed” field is set to true for a record, Marketo will automatically block email sends to the unsubscribed record (except operational emails). In addition, records in your Marketo instance can be auto unsubscribed due to default Feedback Loop setup (Here’s how you can find Leads that are Auto Unsubscribed for Email Spam Complaints). To maintain a highly marketable database, it is recommended to keep <5% of Unsubscribed population in your database. Consider purging unsubscribed records if there is no recent activity or interaction with other marketing activities. Keep in mind Marketo has a “Durable unsubscribe” feature which will remember a record’s unsubscribed status in case the record is deleted and then re-added into the instance.

Best practices for managing unengaged leads and “Wake the dead” campaigns?

To manage unengaged leads effectively, regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or outdated addresses and segment your audience based on engagement levels. For "wake-the-dead" campaigns, use targeted re-engagement strategies such as personalized offers, compelling subject lines, and tailored content to rekindle interest. Consider using a series of emails to gradually re-engage inactive subscribers, and if they remain unresponsive, consider removing them from your list to maintain overall list health and improve deliverability.

Best practice deliverability & email metrics for Marketo customers?

While there are industry specific metrics, here are the general recommended guideline for all Marketo customers:

Delivered: Aim for 98-99% delivery rate
Opened: Recommend > 20% open rate. Keep in mind open rates are often inflated due to email bot activities in today’s world. If you have a large base of Apple Mail users, this can be skewed further due to Apple’s Mail Protection Policy (What is it?). If you still see lower than 20% deliverability despite the trend of generally inflated open metrics, this may indicate a warning sign.
Clicked-to-opened: Recommend >15%. This is an important metric to see your overall email engagement in general. With the trend of bot activities inflating email metrics, you will want to couple this report with the actual web page visits to determine true engagement. A bot click will not generate a web page visit activity.

What are the different email bounces and how to manage them?

Why should I purchase the Email Deliverability Tool and which modules are recommended?

Deliverability Tool offers additional features to help you better manage your email deliverability within Marketo. For example, the inbox tracker feature offers visibility and insight to your Marketo email send by providing a seedlist so you can get data on your inbox placement rate, and design tracker feature shows you how your email design is rendered across different email platforms so you can improve your email content look & feel.

Deliverability Module with the Inbox Seedlist Tool is strongly recommended as it provides insight into inbox placement.
The Reputation module is recommended to help you monitor your sender reputation if you are on dedicated IP.

What is the best practice to start using the DLVR tools in my Marketo contract?

Start with Tutorial video here & Adobe’s Deliverability consulting service can provide hands-on training if you need additional guidance.
Include a seedlist in your email campaigns to help you monitor and track inbox rate.
Use design informant to review design rendering across email clients so you can improve your email look & feel.

When should I look into buying deliverability services beyond an IP warming project?

Our Deliverability team offers valuable consulting service on all your deliverability needs. Example engagements may include but not limited to:

Deliverability health audit
Deliverability monitoring subscription
Bespoke/hands-on Deliverability Tool training
Troubleshooting specific deliverability issues (i.e. sudden/steady drop in inbox placement)