Open Rate Malfunction | Community
Skip to main content
Dan_Askin
Dan_Askin
New Participant
August 22, 2018
Solved

Open Rate Malfunction

  • August 22, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 6348 views

Context:

Before Saints games, we send a preview email to the full DB. OR fluctuates depending on team performance (and clever copywriting), but has been fairly consistent over the last few seasons.

Before our first 2018 preseason game, OR dropped by 75% YoY. CLTR, on the other hand, was up 50%, with clicks up 150%. CTO was 70% -- a metaphysical impossibility in this universe, but maybe not in the multi-verse.

I submitted a support ticket since the OR was an absurdity. Other templates were humming along as usual. The game preview code didn't change much from last year, but I speculated that something in my clunky html/css may have screwed with the 1x1 tracking pixel, which I assume is appended by Marketo. We do use a bgr image -- a pattern -- and the emails are fairly image-heavy (example below), but nothing insane. I'm scratching my head. The OR, when combined with the CTO and CLTR, isn't possible.  

I got a whole host of suggestions for improving deliverability (we're still on a shared send IP), including getting the NFL's domain authenticated with DKIM or SPF. "From the recipient side of things, if your team has been sending emails from Marketo at high volume for a period of time from a domain that does not have an authenticated DKIM or SPF record, it appears as though Marketo is not authorized to send emails on your behalf. This also increases the chance of your emails landing in the spam folder over time since the email was addressed from your domain, but sent from an IP address with a Marketo domain. Your team may have experienced strong Open rates in the past, but since receiving email clients can't validate that Marketo can send on your behalf, the receiving server will begin to place your emails in the spam folder as opposed to the inbox or promotion folder."

This post is no longer active and is closed to new replies. Need help? Start a new post to ask your question.
Best answer by SanfordWhiteman

Same deal with today's game preview. 60% CTO, standard clicks and a bizarrely low OR. A full list send (different template) that went out Wednesday had no issues.


And here's the reason:

<!--[if (gte mso 9)|(IE)]></div>
</center>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<a href=3D
"http://go.pelicanssaints.com/FIjD0H060000kk00H2E0U0Rf0d0JG"
></a>
<img src=3D"http://go.pelicanssaints.com/trk?t=3D1&mid=3DMjA0LUhVRC01NTg6OT=
gyODo4NTcxOjE0OTIwOjA6MTA1ODA6OToxMjc3MTo0Njk2MzI5=
HIrc2FpbnRzMDFAZ21haWwuY29t" width=3D"1" height=3D"1" style=3D"display:none=
 !important;" alt=3D"" />
</body>
</html>--></div>

Your template is wrapping the tracker in comments (not deliberately, but because there's an unclosed tag somewhere.)

1 reply

Josh_Hill13
Josh_Hill13
New Participant
August 23, 2018

While you should always have a dedicated IP for high volume and setup all those technical details (which are well documented here and on docs.marketo.com), you are likely being hit by two things:

  • Spam Filters deciding you have a low reputation and aren't making it to inbox.
  • Spam filters testing links (click link) -- this is also discussed in several places here.

I summarized things here The Great Spam Click Bot War - Marketing Rockstar Guides

Dan_Askin
Dan_AskinAuthor
New Participant
August 23, 2018

Thanks, Josh. We've sent subsequent emails with no issue in OR. This seems like an outlier -- especially given the CLTR is entirely within an expected range (there's no saying that expected range hasn't always include bot clicks, of course). We haven't seen the erratic click activity you reference in the piece. This is literally, out of the blue, a 4% OR, impacting only one type of email (of dozens). Just sent an email yesterday afternoon with the more expected OR.

I'm taking a deeper dive and will try that stealth link approach in our next send, but I haven't been able to find any ancillary evidence for what just occurred.

Josh_Hill13
Josh_Hill13
New Participant
August 23, 2018

In that case, you may have hit a spam trap/blacklist that day. You can monitor those at mxtoolbox.com or similar.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

Loading footer...