Unbranded links & deliverability

[Anonymous]

Hi. We recently migrated to Marketo from Pardot and opted not to brand our email tracking links for a few reasons. One thing though, I've noticed our deliverability in Pardot was exponentially better, like for one particular list we had a 99.94% deliverability out of Pardot over a time period of 3 years, and for the same list, we are currently achieving ~96% deliverability in Marketo for the last few weeks. 

So, just wondering 3 things:

1. Could nonbranded tracking links be hurting our deliverability? I've heard nothing about it either way, so just wondering if someone else had any experience
2. Is there anything more I can do to get it up? I already set up DKIM and all that, same as what we went through in Pardot, but I'm wondering if there's anything else? We acquire the emails through opt-in process on the website, same as how we did when we were using Pardot. 
3. Will the rates adjust themselves over time? We're seeing over 100 bounces a day on the list compared to a handful we were seeing when we were using Pardot. It's hurting our subscriber numbers to the point that we're actually in negative growth week over week right now. 😞 

Any advice will be appreciated. 

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

• Did you setup SPF?
• Do you have a shared IP address with either system? This will affect you the most
• How big is this list? Small lists always do better than giant lists.
• When you switch systems, even if you keep the email address from the same, you will likely lose people because their spam filters don't recognize your IP. You need to ramp it up.
• Did you investigate the bounce codes?
• Did you clean up your list when you migrated?
• Did pardot have looser rules than Marketo?
• Branded tracking - from what I've read, these can help. I don't know if it would be 2.5% of help, but it could. Spam filters do look at the link domains and score you lower if they do not align. It's easy to install so I recommend it.

See my guide on this for Marketo:
http://www.slideshare.net/jdavidhill/marketo-email-reputation-management

If none of these questions help, then speak to someone in Deliverability. Support can connect you.

[Justin_Cooperm2]

It absolutely has a deliverability impact. I would setup branded tracking links in order to make sure you're getting best deliverability. 

[Anonymous]

Josh - I did set up SPF & DKIM signing. 

The list is about 30k, it's been a very great list for us, fully opt-in. It's a daily newsletter that people look for and when we sent out of Pardot, the deliverability was over 99%, typical open rate ~40% and click ~10%. 

We're just seeing more like 96% deliverability in Marketo & opens more like ~30%. 

I changed the branded links back today, but I didn't notice a change in any of those figures on today's email. I'll check back on it later tonight.

I also have been in touch with support but they aren't responding to me still. 

Anybody else have any other ideas?? It's really disconcerting because our list has decreased 10% since we switched but we are still taking in new subscribers everyday at roughly the same rate as before. 


Also - what is a "soft bounce"? Does anybody know? We see literally hundreds of "soft bounces" a day so far, but in the Pardot during the lists entire lifespan (well over 2 years), we only ever saw 16 soft boucnes.