Email says pending but won't deliver?

[Anonymous]

We sent an email over the weekend to a list of new subscribers. It was the 2nd time we hit this audience. The first time had a decent delivery rate, this last one was awful 33% with nearly 80k still pending delivery. 

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Firstly, I would check your technical set up. Have you set up SPF and DKIM for your Email Deliverability?

If you're not sure whether this is correctly implemented, you can ask Marketo Support to check for you, or alternatively post your email domain here and I'll happily take a look for you.

It's unlikely to be completely down to bad data, as you mention your first send's rate was ok, so this is why I suggest checking the tech-side first. If that's all fine, then the next steps would involve checking blacklisting status or the spamminess of the content.

Let me know how your investigation goes!

[Anonymous]

I have confirmed we have set these up. I"m trying to make a smart list with the pending status and review the leads and see if its a domain issue but I'm getting a spinning wheel and won't save the smart list! Have not really seen this issue before but I know there was a system update at some point over the past weekend maybe? (1-25-14)

[Anonymous]

If you have a large number of leads who match your Smart List filter, it can take a while to load, so don't give up on it! You may be able to decrease the loading time by adding in a date constraint. Once you can see the email addresses at fault, create a view called Deliverability and add in the Email Suspended Cause (along with other deliverability fields) and you might notice a pattern.

I'm curious as to what the cause is here, so please keep me posted on your progress!