Hi All,
We are having an issue with deliverability at certain clients and they have come back with some details regarding why our emails are not coming through. The advice was provided that the envelope from field is different to the sender address. Example:
Envelope from: MunchkinID-1234.12314@marketo.acme.com
From Name: marketing@acme.com (can be different but always xxx@acme.com)
(Where acme is an internally owned domain)
I believe that SPF and DKIM alignment are completed (but these are at domain level?), but this seems like a really strict filter that will only allow an exact match of the two email addresses to come through. Has anyone experienced this or have ways of navigating around this?
Thanks in advance,
John.
Solved! Go to Solution.
OK, checking your auth results and also hand-checking your DKIM and SPF, everything is as in-order as possible.
Your Marketo-emitted email passes SPF, DKIM, and your DMARC relaxed alignment requirement. (If your DMARC record required strict alignment, they would fail, but you have set up DMARC to match your real-world characteristics.)
In essence, what these clients are requiring is DMARC strict alignment. To be fair, this is a good way to discourage mail from MA platforms, since even with well-managed dedicated IPs and a branded envelope sender domain, that sender domain isn't expected to be the same as your corporate domain (or else OOB bounce messages can't be processed by Marketo). You could of course start setting your visible From: address to user@marketo.example.com, or perhaps only for these super-strict domains (use a segmentation or a Velocity script to switch the From: dynamically). Of course then you need to have the MX records for marketo.example.com point to somewhere other than Marketo so you can get responses.
It's not an easy problem to solve. Truth is some places really don't want email sent from platforms like Marketo, even when you have an ongoing business relationship. I've had to do some insane things (gatewaying some Marketo emails through our own server, and then to the destination, with all the rewriting that suggests) because financial companies refused to budge in blocking Marketo's IP range, although many millions of dollars were changing hands between the companies in question.
It's a strict and unreasonable rule.
Is acme.com your actual domain or are you using that to mean example.com?
Hi Sanford,
Thanks for the quick reply. its just an example domain. I have asked to whitelist our dedicated IP addresses to try and navigate around the issue but the industry is a very strict industry (Financial Services)
Thanks,
John.
I wouldn't expect whitelisting to be acceptable, with the exception of DKIM-based whitelisting.
You'll need to provide your actual domain if you want help on this... nothing is gained by hiding the domain.
Hi Sanford,
Sorry, sure thing the domain is @fil.com / @marketo.fil.com
Thanks,
John.
Can you send me (via Marketo) a test email to
OK, checking your auth results and also hand-checking your DKIM and SPF, everything is as in-order as possible.
Your Marketo-emitted email passes SPF, DKIM, and your DMARC relaxed alignment requirement. (If your DMARC record required strict alignment, they would fail, but you have set up DMARC to match your real-world characteristics.)
In essence, what these clients are requiring is DMARC strict alignment. To be fair, this is a good way to discourage mail from MA platforms, since even with well-managed dedicated IPs and a branded envelope sender domain, that sender domain isn't expected to be the same as your corporate domain (or else OOB bounce messages can't be processed by Marketo). You could of course start setting your visible From: address to user@marketo.example.com, or perhaps only for these super-strict domains (use a segmentation or a Velocity script to switch the From: dynamically). Of course then you need to have the MX records for marketo.example.com point to somewhere other than Marketo so you can get responses.
It's not an easy problem to solve. Truth is some places really don't want email sent from platforms like Marketo, even when you have an ongoing business relationship. I've had to do some insane things (gatewaying some Marketo emails through our own server, and then to the destination, with all the rewriting that suggests) because financial companies refused to budge in blocking Marketo's IP range, although many millions of dollars were changing hands between the companies in question.
Hi Sanford,
Thank you for your assistance, your response is much appreciated.
Regards,
John.