My Spam Blog

[Robb_Barrett]

Even though I now have Blogging Rights, I can't blog anywhere but the Chicago User Group so I wanted to share this with all of you so you'll actually see it: https://nation.marketo.com/groups/chicago-user-group/blog/2016/06/16/spam-spam-spam-eggs-spam-spam-s...

[Robb_Barrett]

do you hate sleep?

[SanfordWhiteman]

It hates me, man. I'm on this midnight nap/6am bedtime thing.

[Geoff_Krajeski1]

LOL.  I wish I could say the same.  It also seems that Greg is up at all hours, though he has a jump on us in the U.S.A. but seems to be on all the time!

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yeah, Greg even scares me!

[Robb_Barrett]

If they never filled out a form, aren't from CRM, received an email and they clicked three links in an email within 2 minutes then yes, if they're legit they might get blocked.

I think I mentioned that it's not fool-proof.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Isn't it true that if their mail scanner prefetches 3 links in the email, then before they've gotten a chance to make a single click as a human, they'll hit the trigger?  Or if the scanner clicks 2 links and they click 1. Prob is this would perfectly describe an imported, highly engaged lead who direct-downloaded an asset, so kinda the opposite of a honeypot.  The kind of lead you want to Sync to CRM, not remove.

Thing is, the absence of Visit Web Page doesn't mean anything if the lead isn't going to Munchkin-enabled assets, and it's also not a smoking gun if someone is going to Munchkin-enabled pages but using an anti-tracking plugin.  It creates a major kink in the attempt to determine who's behind a scanner vs. who is just a scanner.

[Anonymous]

Nice!  I appreciate you posting this!

[Anonymous]

Hi Robb Barrett PRD​, I noticed under your screenshot for Probable SPAM traps that you may have missed a filter step.I set my smart list up the same way - clicked link in email min 3 times, not visited any webpage, not filled out any form - and it seemed to work.

Then I noticed one of my most ardent, loyal customers in the list. No way is that a SPAM trap. So I reevaluated and realized that there's a filter missing because this didn't take into account people from my CRM (added by sales) who are highly engaged through clicks that might not take them to my website (ex: a newsletter article that takes them to a partner site).

I added this filter and the number drastically reduced.

Thanks for writing this, AWESOME blog post!

[Robb_Barrett]

Yeah, I just noticed this the other day when I was reviewing my process and I meant to update.  Thanks, I will soon.

[SanfordWhiteman]

... or anyone who just direct-downloads assets, since those don't result in a ​Visit Web Page ​activity.

[Robb_Barrett]

How did the names appear in the DB then?

[Anonymous]

I think that's assuming that they received a link to content that was hosted outside of Marketo. In that case they click but they go to a PDF unrelated to Marketo.

[Colin_Mann]

Loved the Monty Python reference!

[Anonymous]

Excellent compilation of tips!

[Philip_Tieu]

This is really useful! Thanks Robb!