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Included in this article Overview Data you’ll get from Email Bounces Bounce Categories Hard Bounces Soft Bounces Bounce Details Building the Directory 1. Create 6 custom fields 2. Create a Program to house everything 3. Create a Static List 4. Create two Smart Campaigns Smart Campaign One - Logging Email Bounces with Bounce Details Smart Campaign Two - Remove Leads From the List After Successful Deliveries 5. Create Custom List View Showing Bounce Details Overview Bounce activities carry details for why the email was bounced, but it’s housed within the activity log entry, not in a field on the lead record, so it’s difficult to export that data. This article will show you how to extract that information to create a directory of leads bouncing emails and how to make the list automatically update. This will also create counters for bounces and successful re-deliveries after bounces happen. Data you’ll get from Email Bounces Bounce Categories Email bounces come in different types depending on why the email was bounced; Hard Bounces or Soft Bounces. Hard Bounces Hard Bounces come in two types, Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 bounces are emails that have been marked as spam by the recipient mail server. Many email servers monitor blacklists or spam traps, so after de-listing with them, leads that have had a Category 1 bounce previously may be able to receive emails again. Category 2 bounces occur due to an email address that is invalid or doesn’t exist. Soft Bounces Soft Bounces come in three different types, Categories 3, 4 or 9. Category 3 bounces are usually temporary, caused by full mailboxes, timeouts, or throttling. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Category 4 bounces are caused by technical problems, Transient Failures, Admin Failures, DNS Failures. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Category 9 bounces are unknown, undetermined or gibberish details. Any email with this designation has been retried for up to 24 hours (36 for AOL). Bounce Details When an email is bounced, the recipient mail server includes details of why it was bounced. These are created by the admin of the recipient mail server and vary greatly, but most will give some explanation that can give valuable information. Email Bounce Codes Building the Directory 1. Create 6 custom fields You’ll need 6 custom fields, two DateTime fields, two Score fields, and two String fields Name the DateTime fields “Bounce Date” and “Email Delivered After Bounce”. Name the Score fields “Email Bounces” and “Deliveries After Bounces” Name the String fields “Email Bounce Details” and “Email Bounce Category” Directions for creating Custom Fields can be found here: Create a Custom Field in Marketo 2. Create a Program to house everything Use a default program type and name it "Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails". Info on creating programs can be found here: Create a Program 3. Create a Static List This static list will be your actual directory that contains all of the leads that are currently bouncing emails. Name it "Active Bounce List". Info on creating a static list can be found here: Create a Static List 4. Create two Smart Campaigns These two Smart Campaigns are what will be used to add and remove leads from your active bounce list. Info on creating Smart Campaigns can be found here: Create a New Smart Campaign Smart Campaign One - Logging Email Bounces with Bounce Details Your first Smart Campaign will be used to listen for any email bounces that occur. The campaign will populate the “Bounce Date”, “Email Bounce Category” and “Email Bounce Details” fields. It will then add one point to the “Email Bounces” score field which can be used to count how many bounces have occurred per lead. Lastly, the campaign will add the lead to the static list which will be an active directory of leads who are bouncing emails. Campaign Smart List Use the two triggers of “Email Bounces” and “Email Bounces Soft” in the Smart List. Set both triggers to “is any” so that they will fire whenever any email bounces for any reason. Campaign Flow The Flow of the campaign will have 5 flow steps. The flow will use a System Token and some Trigger Tokens, which can be used to pull details out of the action that activated the trigger. In this case, the Trigger Tokens will be pulling out the details on why the emails were bounced. That info is in the bounce message and is logged in the lead's activity log. Normally you'd have to comb through the activity log one at a time to find these details for each individual lead. This method, however, will pull the details out automatically for all leads. Flow Step 1: Change Data Value Attribute: “Bounce Date” New Value: {{system.dateTime}} Flow Step 2: Change Data Value. Attribute: “Email Bounce Category” New Value: {{trigger.category}} Flow Step 3: Change Data Value Attribute: “Email Bounce Details” New Value: {{trigger.details}} Flow Step 4: Change Score Score Name: “Email Bounces” Change: +1 Flow Step 5: Add to List List Name: “Active Bounce List” Smart Campaign Two - Remove Leads From the List After Successful Deliveries Campaign Smart List The Smart List of the campaign will need a trigger for “Email is Delivered” set to “is any” and also a filter of “Member of List” looking just for leads that belong to your Static List. This way, the campaign will only apply to leads who have had an email bounce but have then had an email successfully delivered afterwards. Campaign Flow The Flow of the campaign will have 3 flow steps to do the following; log when the email was delivered, add a point to the "Deliveries After Bounce" Score Field, and remove the lead from the "Active Bounce List". Flow Step 1: Change Data Value Attribute: “Email Delivered After Bounce” New Value: {{system.dateTime}} Flow Step 2: Change Score Score Name: “Deliveries After Bounces” Change: +1 Flow Step 3: Remove from List List Name: Operational.Active Bounce List 5. Create Custom List View Showing Bounce Details The custom fields you’ve created for email bounce information won’t show automatically in the view of your list. You can create a new view of the list to show just this information so that when it is exported it will give you only the email bounce information you need. Once the list has the necessary details, it can be exported with those columns included so that you can work with it. You can identify emerging trends and issues with your deliverability by looking for common themes among the bounce details. Directions for creating Custom Views can be found here

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(Article Updated - August 2024) Overview A blocklist is a database of IP addresses or domains that have been associated with the sending of unsolicited commercial email or spam. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and business email networks use information from blocklists to filter out unwanted email. As a result there can be a drop to inbox delivery rates if the IPs or domains involved with sending email are listed on a blocklist. Marketo’s Email Delivery and Compliance team monitors blocklist activity on our IPs and domains daily. When an impactful listing occurs, we reach out to the blocklist, attempt to identify the sender that triggered it, and work with the blocklist organization to get the listing resolved. There are thousands of blocklists, most will not have a significant impact on your delivery rates. Below, we have compiled a list of the blocklists that commonly appear across our sender ecosystem. Each blocklist has been grouped into a top tier (Tier I) by most impactful, to the bottom least impactful tier (Tier III). These may have little to no impact across our sender network. Tier I Blocklist Spamhaus (SBL) Impact: Spamhaus is the only blocklist that we categorize as a Tier I for a reason: it has by far the greatest impact on delivery. It is the most well-respected and widely used blocklist in the world. A listing at Spamhaus will have a negative effect on your ability to deliver emails to your customer’s inbox and can cause bounce rates of over 50%. Evidence suggests that most of the top North American ISPs use Spamhaus to inform blocking decisions. How it works: Unlike many blocklists, Spamhaus lists senders manually. This means they are proactively watching sender activity, collecting data, and base listings on a number of variables. Most commonly senders are listed for mailing to spam trap addresses that Spamhaus owns. Sometimes Spamhaus will list senders based on recipient feedback as well. Next Steps: Please note that every Spamhaus email can be quite different depending on the information provided and the nature of the listing . Because Spamhaus has multiple types of listings, the remediation steps are based on which type of blocklisting has occurred. We have listed the most common types to affect Marketo customers, from most to least impactful. Impact can range from a full block of top severity, to a partial block that is less severe (CSS Data, DBL). If remediation isn’t performed and the problem not addressed, these listings can increase in severity and turn into a full blocklisting. Spamhaus Blocklistings Types SBL (full blocklisting) Considered the most impactful. Remediation steps: Our team monitors closely for Spamhaus listings. Once alerted to the listing, we send an email notifying the customer, and reach out to the Spamhaus contact to start the remediation process. Only a Marketo delivery team member should be in direct correspondence with the Spamhaus contact, to speak on behalf of the customer, and to relay their questions and instructions, ensuring quick resolution and reduced impact. Senders that trigger this listing on a shared IP range will be moved to a more isolated, penalty range (IPB), so as not to impact the other shared senders. Those affected on a Dedicated IP, only impact their own sending and will not be moved. However, depending on the severity of the issue, our team may need to revoke a customer’s ability to send any emails until full resolution. The listing will last until Spamhaus is satisfied that the offending sender has taken the appropriate steps to mitigate the problem. SBL CSS Customers are alerted of the listing with an email containing all the information needed to immediately begin the remediation process. This is part of an automated trigger listing, that allows for a customer to delist directly on the Spamhaus website, after they’ve completed remediation. Remediation steps: Customers will go to the Spamhaus IP lookup website, at https://check.spamhaus.org, where they can check on the status of their IP and continue to monitor it in real time, until it is no longer listed there. Follow the remediation and delisting instructions provided, and check for specific details in the blocklist notification email. DBL (Domain blocklisting) Customers will receive an email notification alerting of the company domain being listed. The email will contain specific information to help narrow down and identify which email source likely triggered it within Marketo. It’s important to note that any email sent from outside of Marketo, that contained the company domain, is suspect. This means, if the sender uses multiple IPs and/multiple email platforms, then any of those could be the source. Remediation steps: Follow the detailed instructions in the email, which will also provide a link to the Spamhaus Domain reputation checker webpage, to check the real time listing status of the affected domain. Once the email source is identified and cause addressed, this customer will follow the online instructions to request to be delisted. Tier II Blocklist SpamCop Impact: SpamCop is not used by any of the major North American ISPs to inform blocking decisions, but it makes it to the Tier II list because it can have a significant impact on B2B email campaigns. SpamCop is considered a Tier I one blocklist for B2B marketers but a Tier II for B2C marketers. SpamCop is a dynamic IP blocklist, that can affect a single IP or a subset of IPs Typically, the block will automatically lift within one business day, but can take longer for relisted IPs. To have triggered a SpamCop listing likely means the sender has a list management problem that should be addressed. How it works: SpamCop lists IPs for one of two reasons: Either the email hit SpamCop spam trap addresses OR A SpamCop user has reported the email unwanted. Most of SpamCop’s spam traps are previously valid addresses that have not been active for 12 months or longer. Remediation steps: If you are seeing a significant number of bouncing emails caused by a SpamCop blocked IP but aren’t sure if your email activity triggered the listing, first identify whether you are sending on a shared sender network or not. If sending from a shared IP range when this occurs, you or any other customer sending from the same network may have contributed to the IP block. This IP block will automatically get dropped within a business day. For those on a Dedicated IP that trigger a listing, refer to the above remediation steps and resources, to address the list management issue. Tier III Blocklist (Low/ No impact ) These are considered the lowest tier and therefore cause the least impact across the Marketo sender ecosystem. Some of these blocklists were more impactful at one time, while others are only impactful based on the sender region (Manitu). Others still can suddenly flare up (Lashback). There are also many blocklists that are ignored (0spam), and are not taken seriously because they do not provide any means to delist once on the list (NoSolicitado) or that they charge money to have the listing removed ( UCEPROTECT ). The pay-to-delist model is not well respected in the email industry. When using blocklist tool checkers, such as MXToolBox, many blocklists will appear, but very few are relevant. Here is our selection of Blocklists you may come across that are least impactful: Project Honey Pot SpamAssassin URIBL/SURBL DrMX PSBL 0spam HostKarma Ascams ZapBL Barracuda Trendmicro Inc. Cloudmark Proofpoint Invaluement ISP Blocklists Some ISPs use internal blocklists to make blocking decisions. Examples include AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook and Hotmail. If your IP is being blocked by one of these networks, and those networks have a large presence in your lists, a block of this kind could have a noticeable negative impact on delivery. Marketo monitors for significant ISP blocks. Those experiencing deliverability issues with emails not making it to the Inbox and bulking in the spam folder may benefit from additional services with our Email Delivery Consultants. Remediation Steps: Email Delivery Compliance Team works to resolve any ISP blocks. ISP blocks are are usually resolved or lifted within less than 24 hours of a delisting request. Customers experiencing significant blocks for Microsoft domains (outlook.com, live.com, microsoft.com), can submit a request to the delivery team to seek mitigation on their behalf. Additional Resources: Blocklist Deep Dive Abuse Report Deep Dive What is a spamtrap, or spam trap, and why does it matter? Blocklist remediation Blocklist resolution flowchart Successful lead reconfirmation What is a blocklist?

Issue Issue Description The picklist options are updated in Salefsorce for a field that is syncing with Marketo and is used within a Marketo Form, but the form does not automatically reflect these updates. Solution Issue Resolution When field picklist options are updated in Salesforce, the Marketo forms using this field are put in a Draft. This will allow the form draft to be reviewed to ensure the picklist values on the form match what's in Salesforce before being reapproved. Who This Solution Applies To Clients syncing with Salesforce

Issue Issue Description When trying to approve the Launchpoint connection between Marketo and Webex you receive the following error: FailedWebex API call error: validation: Parsing Error : An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x1b) was found in the element content of the document.?Line : x? Column : xxx? [Webex exception ID = '999999'] Solution Issue Resolution This error is being produced by Webex. To resolve, go into Launchpoint and re-enter the login credentials. If error persists, delete and re-add the Launchpoint service as per documentation: https://docs.marketo.com/display/public/DOCS/Add+WebEx+as+a+LaunchPoint+Service Who This Solution Applies To Marketo customers integrated with Webex

Issue Issue Description When pulling an Email Performance Report, the click total doesn't match a smart list looking for all clicks of any link in the email. Solution Issue Resolution One possible reason for this is that in an Email Performance Report, the Unsubscribe link does not count as a click, only as an unsubscribe and will only show in that column. This is because people can unsubscribe via other methods, so they are all included together to give an overall view of your engagement (or disengagement in the case of unsubscribe).

Issue Issue Description You have sent an email and do not see the List-Unsubscribe headers. Solution Issue Resolution Marketo automatically adds the appropriate List-Unsubscribe headers to emails, EXCEPT in three scenarios: 1) The email is marked as operational 2) You are sending a test email via the "Send Sample" action 3) The email is an alert email In these cases, the List-Unsubscribe header will not be added to the email.

Issue Issue Description Importing CSV lists containing international phone numbers can lead to the format of those phone numbers being messed up. This happens when a spreadsheet program, such as Excel, converts the numbers to scientific notation. Solution Issue Resolution You will need to convert the column with your phone numbers to the correct format, then make sure your file is saved in Unicode format. First, convert your phone number column to use the correct format: Highlight the phone number column in Excel. Right click and choose Format Cells. In the Format Cells dialog box, choose Special from the Category list, then select Phone Number. You will also need to save your file as Unicode (UTF-8) format. For Excel versions 1999 to 2010: Click File, then select Save As. Name your file. Click Tools, then select Web Options. Go to the Encoding tab, then under "Save this document as:", select Unicode (UTF-8). Click OK, then click Save. Excel for Macs: Click File and select Save As. In the File Format dropdown menu, select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv). Click Save. Google Drive Spreadsheets: Click File, select Download As, then select Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet). The file will be UTF-8 encoded.

Issue Issue Description A Support Engineer asked you to record a .har file, but you are unsure of how to do this. Har files can include sensitive data, such as any information entered into forms (passwords, etc.), so please exercise caution when recording a .har file. Solution Issue Resolution Please find the instructions on how to save a .har file using the different browsers below: Google Chrome: Open Google Chrome, and visit the page where you noticed the issue. Right click on the page and choose 'Inspect'. This will open the Developer Tools panel. From the options at the top of this panel, choose 'Network'. Look for a round record button in the upper left corner, this should appear as a red button. If the button is grey, click it once and recording will begin. There will be a checkbox next to text that reads as 'Preserve Log', please check this box. There is a button that appears as a circle with a slash through it next to the record button, click this button to clear any existing logs. While recording is taking place, please reproduce the issue that you were experiencing. Right click within the network panel under the 'Name' column, and choose 'Save all as HAR with Content'. Save this file to your computer, and upload it to a case so that your Support Engineer may download it. Microsoft Edge: Open Microsoft Edge, and visit the page where you noticed the issue. Right click on the page and choose 'Inspect Element'. This will open the Developer Tools panel. From the options at the top of this panel, choose 'Network'. Look for a square record button in the upper left corner, this should appear as a red button. If the button is grey, click the green triangle once and recording will begin. While recording is taking place, please reproduce the issue that you were experiencing. Click the save button (this will appear as a gray floppy disk next to the red square button). Save this file to your computer, and upload it to a case so that your Support Engineer may download it. Firefox: Open Firefox, and visit the page where you noticed the issue. Click on the three stacked bars in the upper right corner. This will open a dropdown, please choose 'Web Developer, and then 'Network'. While recording is taking place, please reproduce the issue that you were experiencing. Right click within the network panel under the 'File' column, and choose 'Save All As HAR'. Save this file to your computer, and upload it to a case so that your Support Engineer may download it.

Issue Issue Description You have found the phrase 'lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe.' as the listed reason for a person being marked as Unsubscribed, or you are seeing it in the details of a 'Unsubscribe Email' action. Solution Issue Resolution This message appears when someone has unsubscribed using a special 'list-unsubscribe' option automatically contained in Marketo emails, as well as most other reputable marketing emails. This 'list-unsubscribe' feature is an email address contained in the background header information of the email. Any time someone sends an email to this address, their email address is unsubscribed from your database. This is almost always done by that person's email client, using their inbuilt 'unsubscribe' features, such as the ones in Outlook, Gmail, or other common email clients.

Issue Issue Description Even though the Success Path Analyzer and the RCE report may be looking at the same thing (e.g the conversions from one stage to another), the numbers in Success Path Analyzer and RCE Conversion Ratio will not match. Solution Issue Resolution Success Path Analyzer is telling you that records are flowing from one stage to another, for example a record moving from Cold List to MQL, the conversion rate will display the rate from this stage to the next stage. If you look at the RCE Conversion Ratio, this is not tracking just the conversion from the first stage on the Success Path Analyzer to the second but instead this tracks all the conversions from this stage to another (eg. Cold List to MQL, Cold List to Attempting). Thus resulting in a much higher conversion percentage as the RCE is not bound to the green path from the Success Path Analyzer. Who This Solution Applies To Customers using RCE, Customers using Success Path Analyzer

Issue Issue Description How to migrate the MS Dynamics integration from the old Marketo sandbox into a new Marketo sandbox instance. Solution Issue Resolution There are a couple of actions that are necessary before you start the initial MS Dynamics sync in the new Sandbox instance: 1. In Dynamics, find the XML file and check if there are any custom objects listed in this file. If you find any custom entities listed in this file then it is necessary to remove those reference those entities from the XML file. This is usually found after the Lead entity and this will be listed in the following format: <Entity name="entity_name"> to the last line where the entity is closed by </Entity>. This entity reference needs to be removed and note that this is inclusive. 2. In Dynamics, verify that there are no custom entities listed in the Marketo Config Entity, if you see any custom entities referenced there then these will need to be removed as well as this needs to be empty. 3. If a sync filter is being used in the custom entities, make sure that you update the boolean field (Yes/No) on ALL the records on the entities that will have this filter. Please reach out to support to ensure that you have performed those steps properly and that you are ready to start the initial MSD sync to prevent any issues. Who This Solution Applies To Customers using Microsoft Dynamics

Issue Issue Description How to determine which of your Marketo Workspaces is the original default workspace. Solution Issue Resolution Determining your Default Workspace can easily be done, by following the detailed steps below: [Login] to your Marketo Instance. Click [Admin]. Locate and Click [Workspaces & Partitions]. [Right-Click] on the Field Navigation Bar (It is Blue). From the [Drop-Down List], you'll see three options. Select [Columns]. While reviewing the Column Field options, make sure [ID] is selected. The [ID] with the value of "1" is your Default Workspace. [Note 1]: As a confirmation, the Default Workspace is unable to be deleted. [Note 2]: The ID Number of your Workspaces are provided in the order in which they were created. [Note 3]: The lowest ID number, is your oldest Workspace. [Note 4]: The highest ID number, is your newest Workspace. Who This Solution Applies To Customers using Partitions and Workspaces

Issue Issue Description Is there a way I can populate a field with the system date token, plus a certain amount of days? ie. Change Data Value = Date + X days. Solution Issue Resolution As long as the field type is date or datetime, you can add simple syntax in the Change Data Value flow step to accomplish this: {{system.date}} + X days. This is for times that you would like a date immediately populated for purposes such as sending an email; "Thanks for signing up to our 20 day trial, you have access to this content until the [use lead token populated by the date + x syntax here]..." *note that a wait step of a few minutes might be needed before an email send to ensure the field has time to get populated. Other times, when immediate action is not required and/or a field type is not date/datetime, you could use a Wait Flow step before a Data Value change: 1. Wait X days 2. Change Data Value = {{system.date}}

Issue Issue Description Account records were merged in Salesforce and there is concern if this merge will sync to Marketo. Solution Issue Resolution If you would like this change to be reflected on the affected Contact records that are synced to Marketo, then you will need to update the Contact records so that their System Modstamp field is updated (this can be done by updating a field on the Contact record). This will then cause the updated Account information to sync to Marketo. Please remember that updates to formula fields will not cause an update to the System Modstamp.

Issue You have developed a Marketo landing page and enabled Personalized URLs (PURLs) for your records but when people visit the PURL, form pre-fill does not take place. Solution When a person visits a PURL landing page, the form pre-fill checks their Munchkin tracking cookie to identify what values to populate for the form fields. If that person has a Munchkin tracking cookie associated to a known record in the database, it will pull and populate the information from that record. However, if this is the first time this person has visited a Munchkin tracked page or their browser is tied to an anonymous record, the pre-fill will not populate any information into the form. The customer/prospect will need to fill out a form or click on a tracked link in an email sent from Marketo. This will allow future PURLs that people visit going forward will have pre-fill populate as their cookie will be tied to a known record in the database. The web page visit will be associated back to the know record for the PURL. Additionally, you can also use Person related tokens on the landing page and those will resolve. For examples having the token in the text that states {{lead.First Name:default=Default}} within the body of the landing page will populate with the expected persons first name for the PURL they visited. This is because the token generation goes through a different path on the back end for PURLs.

Issue When editing a form, a field called 'x' is visible. However, when previewing the form, the field is not visible. Solution The reason why the field 'x' in the form edit mode was not visible when previewing the form because the form that was being previewed was the approved version which did not contain the field 'x'. The field 'x' was in the draft version of the form, which needed to be approved in order to see it in the preview of the approved version of the form.

Knowledgebase

Maintaining a Directory of Leads Bouncing Emails

Top Blocklists - What You Need to Know

Contact Showing Opportunity Role But No Opportunity

Salesforce Picklist Updates Not Reflected in Marketo Forms

Retrying Unsuccessful Webhook Calls

FailedWebex API call error: validation: Parsing Error

Error Occurs When Trying To Edit Formula Field Rules

Email Performance Report Clicks Doesn't Match Smart List

List-Unsubscribe Header Not Showing Up in Emails

How Acquisition Date is Populated

Imported lists with international phone numbers breaking phone numbers

How to create a HAR file

Lead Unsubscribed With Reason: 'lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe.'

Success Path Analyzer Conv % vs RCE Conversion Ratio (all types)

Migrating MS Dynamics integration to a new Marketo sandbox instance

Determining your Default Workspace in Marketo

How to add days to system date

How to Filter for Empty or Null Fields in RCE

Merging Account Records in SFDC - Does This Sync to Marketo?

Is there a way for a user to see or pull which users used data towards their daily Bulk API usage?

Personalized URLs Are Not Working for Form Pre-fill

Field in Form Edit Mode Not Visible in Form Preview