DealerSocket Email Hell

[John V.]

To expand- I sorted the report to only include gmail accounts and was seeing opt out link clicks which means some emails to gmail accounts were getting through

 

[John V.]

@SoCalMark - I was able to work with one of the Level 3 Support engineers at DS regarding the issue you mentioned as I was having the same issue by doing some internal testing. We were able to track down a few issues that I think will help you as they did help me.

1. The actual SPF record for dealersocket is include:_spf.dealersocket.com note the semicolon :
2. the SPF record that dealersocket tells you to use when you using their validation tool under admin menu, and you domain does not pass, is WRONG and they need to update it.
3. Since adding correct SPF record i am not getting PASS in my outbound emails to Gmail.

See below

Message ID <0.0.3.191.1D4D079FD2067D1.0@mail01A4621.dealersocket.com>
Created at: Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 4:59 PM (Delivered after 142 seconds)
From: John Vincent <jvincent@###########com>
To: j#########@gmail.com
Subject: Am I stuck in your spam folder?
SPF: PASS with IP 192.41.46.21 Learn more

Hope this help!!

 

[AWNick]

One of our engineers wrote up a little something that DealerSocket CRM folks may find useful:

https://www.autowebing.com/tutorial/spf-record-need-one/

 

[Alex Snyder]

One of our engineers wrote up a little something that DealerSocket CRM folks may find useful:

https://www.autowebing.com/tutorial/spf-record-need-one/

Fantastic work! I hope some others can come in to verify this is a way to go. If so, we'll give your developer's work a lot more attention Nick :thumbup:

 

[Baron Ringler]

I've seen the issue with other CRM's as well, to a greater or lesser extent. But Dealersocket is the worst. I have never liked it, even on a usability scale. My thoughts are that nearly all CRM's are ancient technology. They may have been updated in looks or have added features over time, but underneath they are the exact same as when they were first created. Only the newest CRM's are situated differently and they will soon start to take over the market because of it.

 

[Ben Blanco]

We ran into this issue a few months ago with our clients as well. DealerSocket provided us the attached PDF that verifies the SPF record that everyone else has been sharing. Updating DNS records is always a chore. It can even be more daunting if updating an existing record. Plus, my SPF record won't match your SPF record so all we can do is share guides.

I think that's where a few good tools come into play to help us all out:

• To generate valid SPF records: https://www.spfwizard.net/
• To Test if your SPF record is valid: https://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
• GSuite MX, SPF and DMARC Tester: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/

When testing these types of records I always like to set the TTL to 30 minutes or less. Once you're able to validate that your new record is correct then you set your TTL to an hour or more.

After making these changes we had a client that still had sporadic issues.

• Check your subject lines.
  • Ex: "Hurry in to DEALER for savings!!!" (Kept being flagged as SPAM)
• Do your templates include images?

After several rounds of testing on several different email clients I can't stress enough that sending 1:1 personalized emails will not only help with getting the original email in your customers inbox, but also with replies going back into DealerSocket. Hope this information is helpful. Cheers!

 

[Viracocha]

This really isn't DealerSocket's problem, its yours. The others are correct with their suggestion that your SPF record, if applied correctly, should be enough for Google (and others) to trust your mail. The other option is DKIM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail

 

[SoCalMark]

SOLVED:

changing the SPF records did nothing for us especially since we are using GSuite for the delivery of mail. I subscribed to the service called SMTP2GO and started rerouting all the dealerships outgoing email through it with the updated SPF records and that did it like a charm. Even crap that used to bounce-back that the lead generating companies were using doesn't go to spam anymore.

What a fracking hassle this was.

Nothing works better than a personalized email DIRECTLY from the sales team anyways. All you get with DealerSocket is more of the same crap Facebook is being accused of doing and that is more data mining of your customers.




Need an SMTP Option for SalesForce? We've Got a Solution! - SMTP2GO

 

[umer.autojini]

@SoCalMark so the problem was the SPF record... since you jumping to SMTP2GO and updating the SPF solved the problem as dealersocket would still use their own servers. Or did you get dealer socket to use SMTP2GO as well?

Agreed on personalized emails. But their is only so much one can do. If I had to send a personalized follow up emails to every contact one would have no time.

 

[Ben Blanco]

@SoCalMark , we use SMTP2GO as well. Great service! :thumbup:

Did you opt for the Dedicated IP? Their larger packages also give you access to Email Previews powered by Litmus, and SPAM testing services. Overall, a really great value.