Email Deliverability Tools - 250ok, Glockapps, ReturnPath, Litmus

[Mackenzie_Warre]

What has everyone's experience been with email deliverability tools? My team  has the Marketo Email Deliverability PowerPack,which leverages 250ok, but we've also tested Glockapps and the spam testing functionality in Litmus. The problem is that we're getting significantly different results across the different platforms, which means we don't know what to trust. We plan to continue testing these tools to get a better sense of what drives the results on each platform, but in the meantime I'm curious what everyone else's experience has been with any of these tools.

[Pierce_Ujjainw3]

Litmus has an amazing community and we have been using their testing tools for years and have been really happy with them.

[Mackenzie_Warre]

Here's a fun thing I learned from one of Marketo's deliverability experts who used to work at Return Path. Return Path is very consumer email centric. We were checking our Sender Score with them to monitor the health of our dedicated IP, but our list is heavily B2B with lots of Outlook & Proofpoint users, so the deliverability consultant said the Return Path Sender Score doesn't give us an accurate picture. We will likely continue to use it as one component of our deliverability monitoring, but will be placing less stock in it going forward.

[Josh_Hill13]

These are all wildly different services, but somewhat diff in their best use. 

• Litmus = email rendering. They also have a full feature toolkit as described. 
  • In order to use the deliverability, spam tests, audience tests, and inbox, you need to:
    • Add Seed List to every send and/or
    • Place pixel in every send
• 250ok 
  • similar in feature set and data to ReturnPath and Litmus
  • UI isn't that good.
  • limited to 15 tests/campaigns per month (at least in the Marketo package)
    • Inbox Tests - big issue is that I'm sampling the Seedlist and not getting a smooth daily view into what's working and what's not by type of email. I bet the others have a similar issue if they limit by campaign.
    • Audience Tests - so you have to choose which email sends to add the pixel to. A bit inconvenient. This is likely your best bet to get real data from your actual list.
  • Mostly uses Seedlists to gather data on inboxing
    • Sender data and MSFT tracking is helpful as a guide. Doesn't really give you any actionable information.
    • Handles multiple IPs.
  • Spam Assassin type info isn't that helpful, IMO. Honestly, if you have a good coder, they know the right email code to not get flagged on silly items.
• EmailOnAcid -
  • Believe it renders better than Litmus for email. We use it.
  • Disappointed they stopped rendering landing pages.
• ReturnPath
• • has all the features, looks more deeply into technical delivery and offers more of a dashboard for tracking blacklists and direct links to remove yourself. Except, you can do this part yourself in 10 mins.
  • Whitelisting help.
  • Audience - they use a panel audience with their pixel rather than just rely on your sent audience. Supposedly provides deeper inbox data.
  • I'm a bit skeptical it does any more than 250ok so I haven't switched. 
  • control your pricing and options.
• G Lock Apps
  • haven't used it.
  • Seems like their core proposition is tab and inbox monitoring
  • automated testing sounds cool.
  • relies on seed lists.

[TrabaM]

We are new to Marketo, but not to marketing & analytics. We use Email On Acid for Inbox Previews and Prechecks (walks through and analyzes your code) and Glock Apps for Spam Tests. We use Folderly for subdomain/ip warm up and spam fixes if domain reputation drops. The problem is Folderly doesn't work with Marketo right now. Folderly is working on an integration though.

Does Marketo integrate with any preview, spam testing, or warm up tools?

[Cory_Gabor1]

I have always had a good experience using Email on Acid and would recommend checking it out. 

[Mackenzie_Warre]

We looked at Email on Acid and ended up with Litmus because people on the team were already familiar with it. The two tools seemed pretty comparable to me. The Email on Acid blog always comes up whenever I'm troubleshooting or looking for suggestions and best practices!

[Bryan_Epstein]

We are also looking into Marketo's Email Deliverability Power Pack along with Email Informant and wanted to see if anyone had any feedback on either of these tools.

[Mackenzie_Warre]

We have the Email Deliverability PowerPack and have a process in place for using it now with every send. It's powered by 250ok. The biggest benefit for us is that it lets you create a weighted seed list that reflects the makeup of your database, so that your results are more accurate. To get the most out of it, you really do have to use it a lot and actually take action on the feedback it gives. It's felt like a crash course in email deliverability since implementing it last year, but our deliverability has definitely improved.

[John_Lane]

I would also like to hear some thoughts, in terms of email creative content 250ok seems to do the trick. There may be some rendering differences from the preview to real world but with all the different configurations of handsets, software and mail clients I wouldnt expect perfection.

In terms of deliverability specifically for B2B clients, the information seems like it is hard to take action on any of the information that it provides. I have tried to research for some specific software to assist but have had no luck.

[Paul_Raybould]

I've taken to using https://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check and entering the IP address that emails from my Marketo come from. The only problem is I found we're blacklisted on one spamfilter. I've no indicator of this on the Marketo deliverability product. Plus I've also no way of being able to get unblocked using Marketo's email deliverability tool, so it's only real value I can see is tracking deliverability over time without any actionable insights.

[Josh_Hill13]

Marketo generally only works with one Spam List to auto remove you.

You have to follow the delisting process for each DNSBL. It may or may not help.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Well, there are a lot of low-trust spam dbs out there... doesn't mean any of your recipients are actually consulting that DNSBL.

[Mackenzie_Warre]

I've found the feedback provided by Glockapps to be the most actionable.