Speakers: Carmi Lopez-Jones, Mgr. Email Deliverability @ Marketo Kiersti Esparza, Dir. Email Delivery & Compliance @ Marketo

2. Email Deliverability 101:
Winning the Inbox Wars
Kiersti Esparza, Director, Email Delivery and Compliance
Carmi López-Jones, Manager, Email Deliverability

4. Deliverability 101: Winning the Inbox Wars

5. Agenda
 Understanding Keys to the Force
 Deliverability Jedi Lessons
 The pathway to the inbox
 Using key audiences to optimize deliverability
 Avoiding The Trap!
 Be our padawan as we build programs to win the Inbox Wars!

6. Winning the Inbox Wars

7. “Is it possible to learn these powers?”
-Anakin Skywalker

8. The Force is with You
 Subscriber Acquisition
 Data Management

9. Deliverability Jedi Lessons

11. How Do Emails Get to Subscribers?
BLOCK? SPAM?
✓No No
Yes Yes
Gateway SPAM Filter Inbox
SPAM FolderBlocked

13. Deliverability is Hard
250ok reports a positive trend of
improvement, with a 4% increase
in inbox placement and a 5%
decrease in missing emails
between EOY 2016 and 2017.
Source: 250ok’s Global Benchmark Report, Q12018

14. B2CB2B

15. Delivery Is . . .
. . . the measurement of your
email rate of acceptance at the
gateway of your subscribers
Emails Accepted At Gateway
Emails Sent
= Delivery Rate

16. Deliverability Is . . .
. . . the rate of email delivered to
your subscribers Inbox rather
than Spam/Bulk/Junk folder.
Emails Delivered to Inboxes
Emails Sent
= Deliverability Rate

17. Audience Definitions

18. Defining Engagement
 Brand affinity
 Built through trust and mutual commitment
 Shared interest
 Mutual benefit
“Your focus determines your reality.” –
Qui-Gon Jinn

19. Email Engagement
 Measured by opens/clicks/conversions for email marketers

20. Who are the audiences that matter most?
 Engaged Audience
 Chronically Unengaged Audience
 Bounces
 Unsubscribers
 Complainers

21. Why does Data Quality matter?
• Acquisition Strategy
• Inactivity Management
• Bounce Management
• Invalids
• Spam Traps

22. Engaged

23. Engaged Audiences

25. Unengaged Audiences

26. Chronically Unengaged SmartList

27. Chronically Unengaged Flow

28. “It’s a trap!”
-Admiral Akbar

29. What’s a Trap!?
 Data quality indicator
 Pristine/Honeypot
 Recycled

30. “Size matters not. Look at me.
Judge me by my size, do you?”
-Yoda

31. Bounces

32. Sample Hard Bounce Codes and
Messages
550 • No Such User Here
511 • no mailbox here by that name
50 5.1.1 • Recipient not found.
550 5.1.1 • Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual mailbox table
550-5.1.1 • The email account that you tried to reach does not exist.
554 • delivery error: Sorry your message to test@test.com cannot be delivered. This account has been
disabled or discontinued. bosimpinc13 bizsmtp Connection refused - 199.15.213.65
554 5.4.7 • last transfail:
421 4.7.0 • [TS01] Messages from 199.15.213.57 temporarily deferred due to user complaints
553 • Message filtered.
550 • The content of this message looked like spam.

33. Sample Soft Bounce Codes and
Messages
452 4.3.1 • Insufficient system resources
452 • Too many recipients received this hour
451 4.7.1 • Please try again
550 • Mailbox quota exceeded
550 • Recipient Rejected: Temporarily inactive
550 • Account Inactive

34. Bounce Categorization in Marketo
Bounce Type Bounce Category
Hard Bounce Spam Block Category 1
Hard Bounce Invalid User Category 2
Soft Bounce Soft Bounce Category 3
Soft Bounce Technical Category 4
Soft Bounce Unknown Category 9

35. Analyzing Results: Soft Bounces
A soft bounce is a temporary problem with email deliverability,
usually due to an unavailable server or a full inbox. This could be due
to:
• Temporary/technical errors
• No status change
• Retried for 24 hours

36. Chronically Soft Bouncing SmartList

37. Chronically Soft Bouncing Flow

38. Deserters

39. Unsubscribes

40. Complaints

41. Complaint Management
• Frequency
• Setting/Managing Expectations
• Consent/Disclosure
• Subscriber Experience

42. What can we learn from the Deserters?
 What are my areas of vulnerability?
 What sources are not serving me well?
 Is double opt-in necessary?
 Am I mailing to frequently?
 Am I not mailing frequently enough?
 Is my messaging relevant and resonating with my subscriber?

43. “If no mistake have you made,
yet losing you are …
a different game you should play”
– Yoda

44. Automate Data Management

45. “Do or Do Not. There is no try.”
-Yoda

46. “Always pass on
what you have learned.”
-Yoda