Identifying Unsuccessful Email Addresses
Identifying email addresses with recurring technical failures enables you to update these leads as Marketing Suspended is TRUE in your database.
If there are recurring failures over time, it is likely that email will never deliver to those addresses. Mailing to these can be risky because domains that have expired are sometimes turned into spamtraps. A send to a spamtrap can have different kinds of impacts from individual content being fingerprinted and blocked by filtering systems or the sending infrastructure being blocked.
We suggest creating a Folder in Lead Database to house your Deliverability SmartLists. From there, you can either import our Deliverability Program, or you can create your own SmartLists to monitor for recurring bounces.
Option 1: Import Marketo’s Deliverability Program
You will need to create a field within your subscription called “marketingSuspendedReason” using the instructions here.
For “Type,” select “String” and for “Name,” enter “Marketing Suspended Reason.” This will automatically fill in the “API Name” field:
Once your custom field is created, you are ready to import our program. To do so, follow the instructions here. For “Subscription,” pick “Marketo Program Library,” and for “Import Program,” select “OP-Email Deliverability”:
For “Campaign Folder,” we recommend “Data Management,” but you can select any folder that makes the most sense for you and your business needs.
Option 2: Creating your own SmartLists
Smartlist: Chronically Bouncing Addresses
You’ll need to use Advanced filtering: 1 and 2
- Email Bounced Soft filter (I don't recommend setting Hard Bounces invalid manually, Marketo already sets Invalid Addresses invalid, and they are not mailed again. Other Hard Bounces include Spam Blocks, and I encourage you to retry mailing to those addresses in subsequent campaigns.)
- Constraint – Time:
- Set time constraints to reflect the SAME range of time depending on your email frequency.
- You will have wanted to have sent more than two or three emails to the leads you are reviewing to determine if the technical bounce issues are chronic.
- A three-month window is a good standard window of time to review in this situation if you are sending at least monthly.
- Constraint – Minimum number of times: Three (variable depending on your campaign frequency)
- Constraint – Time:
- Was Not Delivered Email Smart List filter
- Constraint – Time:
- Set time constraints to reflect the SAME range of time depending on your email frequency.
- You will have wanted to have sent more than two or three emails to the leads you are reviewing to determine if the technical bounce issues are chronic.
- A three-month window is a good standard window of time to review in this situation if you are sending at least monthly.
- Constraint – Time:
Identifying Chronic Non-Responders/Unengaged
Identify chronic non-responders or those unengaged with your email marketing to:
- Target for a re-engagement program
- Changes status to Marketing Suspended to remove them from active campaigns
Identify Chronic Non-Responders
- Email Delivered:
- Constraint – Time:
- Choose the emails in the series you are querying or set time constraints to reflect a set range of time depending on your email frequency; 6 and 12 months are common windows of time people use for this.
- Constraint – Time:
- Not Opened Email inactivity filter is any.
- Constraint – Time:
- Choose the emails in the series you are querying or set time constraint to reflect a set range of time depending on your email frequency, 6 and 12 months are common windows of time people use for this.
- Constraint – Min. Number of Time:
- Choose the number of emails sent in that time period you are evaluating to account for multiple delivered emails with no opens/clicks. This can be a predetermined threshold, ie: 5 emails in 6 months for a monthly sender, or 8 emails in 2 weeks for a daily sender, or the actual number of emails sent within that time period. (You may need to review an Email Performance report ahead of time to get that number of emails sent in the specified time period in advance.)
- Constraint – Time:
- Not Clicked Link inactivity filter is any.
- Constraint – Time:
- Choose the emails in the series you are querying or set time constraint to reflect a set range of time depending on your email frequency, 6 and 12 months are common windows of time people use for this.
- Constraint – Min. Number of Time:
- Choose the number of emails sent in that time period you are evaluating to account for multiple delivered emails with no opens/clicks. This can be a predetermined threshold, ie: 5 emails in 6 months for a monthly sender, or 8 emails in 2 weeks for a daily sender, or the actual number of emails sent within that time period. (You may need to review an Email Performance report ahead of time to get that number of emails sent in the specified time period in advance.)
- Constraint – Time:
- Add any other brand engagement if desired: Are you tracking other engagement with your business such as webinar attendance, whitepaper downloads, etc.
- Constraint – Time:
- Choose the emails in the series you are querying or set time constraint to reflect a set range of time depending on your email frequency, 6 and 12 months are common windows of time people use for this.
- Constraint – Min. Number of Time:
- Choose the number of emails sent in that time period you are evaluating to account for multiple delivered emails with no opens/clicks. This can be a predetermined threshold, ie: 5 emails in 6 months for a monthly sender, or 8 emails in 2 weeks for a daily sender, or the actual number of emails sent within that time period. (You may need to review an Email Performance report ahead of time to get that number of emails sent in the specified time period in advance.)
- Constraint – Time:
Reviewing Specific Bounce Types
You would first create Smartlists by Bounce Type, and then use these Smartlists as filters within the Email Performance Report in the Analytics section.
- Hard Bounces
- Category 1 – spam block (Email Suspended=true (for 24 hours))
- Category 2 –email invalid (Email Invalid=true)
- Soft Bounces
- Category 3 – Soft Bounce (Mailbox Full, Timeout, Soft Bounce, Generic Bounce)
- Category 4 – Technical Soft Bounce (Transient Failure, Admin Failure, DNS Failure, Too Large)
- Category 9 – Unknown (Undetermined)
Smart Lists: Bounce Types
Create a SmartList for each of the major types of Bounces:
- Hard Bounces – Spam Block
- Filter: Email Bounced (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
- Constraint: Category is 1
Example of hard bounce, spam block bounce type
- Hard Bounces – Email Invalid
- Filter: Email Bounced (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
- Constraint: Category is 2
Example of hard bounce, email invalid bounce type
- Soft Bounces – Mailbox full, other technical issues
- Filter: Email Bounced Soft (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
- Constraint: Category is 3
- Soft Bounces – Technical
- Filter: Email Bounced Soft (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
- Constraint: Category is 4
Email Performance Report
In the Analytics section, you would add Filter this report by any of the four Smartlists above:
Retargeting Failed Addresses
To troubleshoot a delivery situation where email addresses bounced for temporary reasons, create a Smart List that looks specifically at bounces. This will capture the addresses that are likely deliverable, but ran into temporary delivery issues. The Smart List will pull addresses that bounced due to being invalid, but those addresses will not be mailed to in a follow up campaign.
Retargeting Failed Addresses
- Email Bounced (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
- Email Soft Bounced (set constraints as needed, by time range or by email)
Query for leads with failed addresses
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