Reply-to: Option

[Anonymous]

We send a non-html email quarterly with 2 CTA's, to either reply directly to email or for the recipient to fill out the form.  In most cases recipients of the email are replying directly to the email, which is good news but on the other-hand I can't track those who replied directly as the emails go directly to the token holder.  A workaround I'm considering is adding my email to the reply-to field, right after the token but my preference is to have my email invisible in the reply email.  Any suggestions?

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

A workaround I'm considering is adding my email to the reply-to field, right after the token

It's not a workaround because it won't work.  Mail clients do not respond to multiple Reply-To: addresses.  Technically, having multiple addresses is allowed, but real-world technology does not respect more than one address.

You can have the replies go to a group address that includes you and the token holder.  Or you can use a service that can (with varying degrees of accuracy) parse replies for "CTA-like content" -- but even in this case the replies should go to an address that is expected to receive only marketing-oriented emails to aid in accuracy.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Sanford, very helpful.  Is there anything I can do to set-up a trigger/report that would indicate which records replied to an email?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not directly, because replies don't go to Marketo, they go the mailserver for your domain.  That's the tradeoff of using the Reply button (same goes for mailto: links) as your CTA.  It may be more comfortable for the lead but the tracking will never be as robust.

The technical claim behind reply processing services is that they can correctly distinguish positive reply content, and can in turn update databases and/or Marketo. (If I sound skeptical, it's because I've built a reply processing service, and even I know it's not possible to be as accurate as people expect!)

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the information, v. helpful!

[Josh_Hill13]

try siftrock if you need a service. Keeping in mind caveats.

[Anonymous]

I'm on their site now, thank you!