Hard Bounces - What to do

[Anonymous]

I have about 2100 leads that are listed as hard bounces from two emails that I sent in the past week. I do not want to delete them from my database, so what is one way I can handle all of these addresses so they don't get sent additional emails?

[Adam_Vavrek1]

Dory - good to know! Had no idea. I'll review that thread. Thank you for sharing.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Haha, it's like a dirty little secret... It isn't even on Marketo, you have to link to Jep's Dropbox!

[Amy_Lepre]

Thanks for that, Dory! I have saved the deliverability file for future reference, too - what a great resource. I'm wondering why this isn't more readily available somewhere. 

[Dory_Viscoglio · Accepted solution]

Ahh, here's the thread! I have the Analyzing Email Deliverability document saved at work so that I can access it whenever I need it... it can be very challenging to find in the community!

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Adam, there are actually multiple types of hard bounces, and only one of them triggers email invalid to be set.. It's a little known fact in Marketo! I have a document that I can send you when I get to my desk tomorrow, or you can search through some threads regarding deliverability and Elliot Lowe's name, and you might be able to find it. 

[Adam_Vavrek1]

This is how I would set it up (use ALL filters):

[Anonymous]

Adam, would the smart list be a filter or a trigger?

[Anonymous]

Oh I just saw your response, Adam! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Is there anyone who can confirm this? I want to make sure I am doing the right thing. 

[Adam_Vavrek1]

Hi Karina,

According to this help article, when an email hard bounces, it is set to invalid.

If you wanted to do this manually, you would create a new Smart Campaign and in the Smart List find all emails that have hard bounced. Then in the flow, drag in the step to "Change Data Value" and set "Email Invalid = True." You can do the same for Marketing Suspended leads.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hi Karina, as Runjini suggested you can create a smart list of everyone who hard bounced from your email campaign, select all, and then do a single data value change which can impact all 2100 in a single shot. 

Runjini, I will have to get back to you with more information about best practices surrounding deliverability, but one thread that might help is: https://community.marketo.com/MarketoDiscussionDetail?id=90650000000PxfdAAC

[Anonymous]

Karina, I am not sure about this, but perhaps you could pull the list of hard bounces based on which campaigns they bounced for, and then do some kind of flow step to mass change their values?  I've never done this before, but I've seen it posited as a solution for other similar issues.

Dory, other than what you suggest, are there any articles or help resources to address email deliverablity and smart campaigns to address them?  I need a step-by-step breakdown of how to do this, why to do this, and how it affects leads in the system.  All this information is so buried in Marketo's resource guides but it seems like a common campaign everyone else has set up.  Why isn't this a part of everyone's onboarding?

[Anonymous]

Since I have over 2100 leads, is there a way to handle this so I don't have to go in one-by-one and mark them as invalid/suspended?

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hi Karina, you can mark them as email invalid, or marketing suspended to ensure that they don't receive any additional emails. I would also advise setting up a smart campaign so that if a person's email address changes, email invalid (or marketing suspended, depending on how else you use the field) is unchecked to allow new emails to flow through if the person has corrected their email address.

Hope this helps!