Problems with deliver vs bounced: false delivered or false bounced?

[ggerla]

Hello guys,

I landed with a bunch of invalid emails and I was looking for the reason behind it.

I found a multitude of these logs:

1. Email send
2. Email delivered
3. Email bounced (main reason: 550 [internal] [oob] The recipient is invalid) 

This process marks the email as invalid even if the person actually received the email.

The solution could be just right behind the corner, but does it make sense? I mean, I can just run a simple batch campaign every day and validate the invalidated ones, but I'd like to understand if you have some contraindications.

[Ishita_Chawra]

Hi @ggerla 

If you expand the Email bounced activity type, you'll see the error details - Details: 550 [internal] [oob] The message was blocked by the receiver.

And this document here explains it well what the error message indicates: Email bounces with error "550 [internal] [oob] The... - Marketing Nation (marketo.com) 

[SanfordWhiteman]

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This process marks the email as invalid even if the person actually received the email.

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No, it doesn’t.

Delivered doesn’t mean the person received the email. It means the person’s mailserver did not immediately reject the email at the SMTP level. That has nothing to do with whether it got any closer to the person’s inbox. If there’s a later bounce, that’s because the further scanning/routing determined the email was undeliverable. The email is thus invalid for marketing purposes.

[ggerla]

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@SanfordWhiteman wrote:

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This process marks the email as invalid even if the person actually received the email.

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No, it doesn’t.

I was thinking about that any email bounce with a certain error, would flag people as invalid.

Anyway, I've discovered different cases where we have this behavior, where the user is actually receiving and clicking the email, visiting the website, and so on. Additionally, we have sales and mkt people who tell us some emails are real (due to direct contact).

I'd like to understand maybe if there exists a chance of a spam firewall that is sending "Invalid recipient" just for discharging newsletter emails.

Considering I had 49 people in August with emails delivered, bounced but then opened or clicked, I can consider maybe, in the worst of cases removing all the frequent domains, to exclude 30/40% of firewalls, I still have few people that could have an existing email.

[Ishita_Chawra]

Interesting! 

Thinking about my case, where I get the quarantined email list everyday EOD where I review and release the one's I like to see. 

It could be a similar scenario where the server is storing it for review and once receiver releases then it is considered opened or clicked.

I'm curious to see what others have to say on this...

[SanfordWhiteman]

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Anyway, I've discovered different cases where we have this behavior, where the user is actually receiving and clicking the email, visiting the website, and so on.

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While this is possible (someone might release an email from quarantine after a bounce was sent by the  mail scanner) ultimately the recipient is telling you the recipient is invalid for Marketo email marketing purposes.

If you continue to send them email, you’re merely more likely to be blocked completely.

[ggerla]

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Someone might release an email from quarantine after a bounce was sent by the mail scanner

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This could make sense and could be the point of the topic.

I would make further analysis, but with these thoughts, I've also noticed there are some common domains in these buckets.

I can try to build a sort of a "Quarantined smart list" to identify those accounts that need to allow us on their firewall.