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From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

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Sergio_Azevedo1
Level 2

From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Hi All!

I have a large campaign going out and was asked to use a different email for auto responses like out-of-offices so as not to bog down the other email.

My colleague says that the Reply-To email is the one that will get actual responses from people who click Reply-To, but I believe email clients can vary in this situation.

Has anyone dealt with this before and can verify this?

Thanks!

Sergio

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SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Guys, you're missing an ingredient here.

By specification, the preferred destination for auto-responses is the envelope sender, that is, the SMTP-level MAIL FROM address.  This isn't the From: header, nor the Reply-To: header.

With Marketo emails, unless you have the special branded sender add-on to your subscription, the envelope sender is an address @*.mktomail.com.  That's why you never get actual SMTP-level bounces to your header addresses (save for some scattered bounce-like traffic).  It's also the reason SPF doesn't matter for most Marketo instances.

The auto-responder spec makes it very clear that "automatic responses" should go to the envelope sender (also referred to as the Return-Path: header, which should represent the exact same address, again not the From: or Reply-To:).

Problem: it's never been accepted across the board that Out Of Office messages qualify as "automatiic responses." So the disagreement is more about whether "automatic" (seen as "machine-generated, unsolicited") includes emails that required human intervention from the mailbox owner to author, may only be sent in a reserved time window, and (in most cases with OoO) are supposed to be read as if they are human responses. That is, we know person X is on maternity leave because they originally wrote the email. It's not AI figuring out which content to send.

None of this changes the fact that implementations differ, each side saying they're equally right. But you need to keep in mind there's an entire other mailbox that you have no access to that is routinely receiving automated messages.

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14 REPLIES 14
Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Hi Sergio,

This question belongs to the Products  section and you should move it there to get more answers, faster. Marketing Central is for global marketing questions.

-Greg

Sergio_Azevedo1
Level 2

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Ahh... Good catch. It's been awhile. Thanks!

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

AFAIK, most of the time, the reply-to address will be used, not the sender one.

-Greg

Hobie_Thompson1
Level 4

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

This is correct. Sergio Azevedo​, unless a mail server is misconfigured (e.g., up until recently, Windows 10 Desktop Outlook), it should honor the 'Reply To' email address.

Dan_Stevens_
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Greg, are you saying the reply-to will be used for all replies - including out-of-office?

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Hi Dan,

In most, but not all case, depending on how the receiving email server is setup.

-Greg

Sergio_Azevedo1
Level 2

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

Awesome. Thanks guys!

Steven_Vanderb3
Marketo Employee

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

As someone who sees support tickets about this fairly often, it can go to the reply-to or sender address.  It depends on how the destination server is configured.  Don't be alarmed if the address in the sender field does receive some auto-responders, it's pretty common that the reply-to address gets ignored. 

Sergio_Azevedo1
Level 2

Re: From email / Reply-To email: Who gets the auto responses?

So here's an update:

From the mailing there were 4k total bounces (out of 49k sent). About 1k auto-replies (bounces plus OoO, etc.) went to the Reply-To email, but NONE went to the From email. The 1k isn't a big deal, but nothing going to the other email box is a bit of a concern. Will need to dig in to this with IT to find out more.

Thanks!