Marketo Block Listed v/s. Marketing Suspended fields

There's a slight difference between how these email-ability fields are perceived and used in Marketo that a significant number of users have questions about.

So, let's settle the difference once and for all with this post!

The "Block Listed" field restricts sending any emails to a person from your instance. They receive neither marketing nor operational (non-marketing) emails.

However, the "Marketing Suspended" field temporarily suspends sending marketing emails to a person. When set, the person could still receive operational (non-marketing) emails from your instance.

Not to over-complicate things, but essentially, "Marketing Suspended" could be thought of as a temporary unsubscribe that is often requested by the marketing/sales team to suspend sending marketing communications to a person.

It's evident that both fields are quite distinct in their operations and should never be used interchangeably.