How to recognize the bad/fake email address in Marketo ( the Email invalid and Email suspened wasn't being recorded)

[Hsin_Yi_Lee]

Hi everyone,

We would like to clean out some of the bad data in our Marketo lately to manage the usage.

I have noticed something and looking accross the community , but not quite sure if there is a better solution with it?

Some of the bad data were inserting like asdf@asdf.com,  123123@gmail.com,  ddd@ddd.dd.uk , since the leads might be insert for requesting some , but it is a fault email address, so they never being delivery with any email, that is why Marketo won't be able to recognize these email address are invalid or should be suspened?

When I run the smart list, these email address just sit in marketo, but Not showing as Email invalid , Email suspened, not even Unsubscribed

Does anyone know what will be the better way to identify them?

Thank you

Kind regards,

[SanfordWhiteman]

An email validation platform like BytePlant will tell you if emails are (hypothetically) deliverable. And you can use a Marketo webhook to call BytePlant and return results to Marketo lead fields.

But Marketo itself won't preemptively check if people can get email. You'd have to at least attempt to send them an autoresponse, then you can act on the outcome.

[ilona_buteneers]

Hi,

Cleaning out bad data in Marketo is a great way to maintain a healthy database and improve deliverability. The issue with invalid emails not being flagged as invalid or suspended can be addressed with several best practices and tools. Some recommendations from my side: 

Best Practices for Identifying and Managing Bad Data

1. Engagement-Based Filters: Look for leads with zero engagement (e.g., never delivered, no activity) to identify potential bad data.

2. Pattern Matching: Use Smart Lists in Marketo to filter leads with suspicious email patterns (e.g., repetitive characters or placeholder domains).

3. Real-Time Validation: Integrate tools with your forms to block invalid submissions before they enter your database.

Recommended Tools for Email Validation

While BytePlant is a reliable option, there are several alternatives you might find useful:

1. NeverBounce

   • Offers real-time and batch validation.

   • Excellent Marketo integration for seamless cleaning.

2. ZeroBounce

   • Detects spam traps, abuse emails, and disposable addresses.

   • Includes activity scoring for better segmentation.

3. Kickbox

   • Focuses on mailbox verification with easy-to-use APIs.

   • Great for ensuring deliverability and domain health.

Cheers, 
Ilona

[SanfordWhiteman]

Sorry, NeverBounce doesn't have an "excellent Marketo integration". This sounds like marketing fluff from their site.

Have you actually integrated NB with Marketo forms on form submit? Or are you talking about the server connector, which by their own admission doesn't efficiently consume the Marketo API?

Similarly, Kickbox has no forms integration at all.

[Miray]

If you haven't set up Bot Management yet, it can help reduce and identify bot form fills, which can include invalid emails. In my opinion, using an email verification tool to identify invalid emails in the current database is an easy approach. However, just doing a one-time cleaning won't be helpful in the long run. This process should be run in the backend to continuously determine email validation.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Think you mean reCAPTCHA, not bot management. Marketo’s Bot Activity filtering is designed to detect mail scanner requests, not form fills.

But yes, reCAPTCHA helps narrow down form fills to those done by humans. There’s no direct connection to valid/invalid emails, of course, but the fewer leads you have to ingest, the better.

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However, just doing a one-time cleaning won't be helpful in the long run. This process should be run in the backend to continuously determine email validation.

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Yes and no. If you’re consistently sending people emails from Marketo, there’s no need for continuous validation of that same audience. An actual email send is always superior to an aborted email transaction (which is how validation works).