Recipient Time Zone: Navigating Reporting Pitfalls for Accurate Email Insights

Marketo offers a powerful feature that allows you to send emails based on the recipient's time zone. Let's dive into how this feature works and, more importantly, uncover potential pitfalls in reporting while using it.

For background, Marketo determines the recipient's time zone based on information such as City, State, Country, or Zip Code. If these details are unavailable, Marketo uses Inferred City, Inferred State, Inferred Country, and Inferred Zip Code fields.

Additionally, this feature is limited to Email Send and Engagement Programs, specifically for streams containing only email assets. It is not available when default programs are included in the stream.

Marketo initiates the email send process at midnight in the first/earliest time zone worldwide, and this is when the Send Email activity for all the qualified people is logged in the activity log as well.

However, Marketo holds delivering the emails until the appropriate send time of each recipient. During this period, the email performance report shows them as “Pending” until they are either successfully delivered or bounced by the recipient's email server.

A common reporting pitfall users often encounter:

Many users overlook the fact that the Send Email activities are logged well before the scheduled program or stream cadence date/time. This oversight can lead to inaccurate data in your reports. Stay vigilant and account for this discrepancy by adjusting the date of send activity to ensure your reports pull the accurate data.

Pro tip: It's worth noting that if someone unsubscribes between the time emails are sent and their actual delivery, they will still receive the email. To address this, it's recommended to update the unsubscribe notification, acknowledging that unsubscribes may take 1-2 business days to process.