Important changes to Acoustic’s partnership with Validity (250ok)

Inbox monitoring, powered by 250ok (now Validity), is a valuable way to understand inbox-placement and deliverability metrics by making it easier to understand how major inboxes across the globe may categorize your email messages. As part of Validity's refreshed product strategy and offering, the 250ok Inbox API will be discontinued. Acoustic will no longer offer Validity's inbox placement reporting offering as an embedded feature within the Marketing Cloud effective March 31, 2023.

Even with this change, we want to assure you that deliverability reporting and key metrics will continue to be part of our classic reporting interface as well as available in our upcoming Acoustic Insights platform.

If you are currently using seed-list based inbox placement testing and would like to continue to receive additional email reporting metrics from Validity beyond March 31, we encourage you to review Validity Everest platform packages and subscribe directly through their web store. Please contact Lisa Reuther at lisa.reuther@validity.com with any additional questions about Validity.

As an alternative to continuing your service with Validity, Acoustic's professional services offering, available now, will enable you and your team to access deliverability best practices around your IP and sending domains' authentication and reputation.

Acoustic's professional services offering will include:

• Customized sending practice recommendations

• A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan with access to a deliverability reporting tool for insights into spam traps and inbox placement (similar to Acoustic inbox monitoring report).

Please contact your Customer Success Manager for more information on the Acoustic professional services offering.

Thank you for being a valued Acoustic customer.

FAQs

Q. What is inbox monitoring within Acoustic Marketing Cloud? 

A. Inbox monitoring is an optional, pay-per-use feature that helps to maximize email engagement and reduce deliverability issues by measuring how major inboxes across the globe categorize email messages (inbox, spam, or not delivered). 

Q. Can I still use inbox monitoring after March 31?  

A. After March 31, sends scheduled via the UI or the API can no longer generate inbox placement tests using the built-in inbox monitoring feature, and the inbox monitoring reports will no longer be available to view from the UI. 

Q. I use inbox monitoring regularly, can my org be granted an extension to continue to use inbox monitoring beyond March 31^?

A. March 31 will be the absolute last day this feature will be available to all customers.  Acoustic is unable to provide any exceptions to this date.

Q. What happens to the metrics and data associated with my previous inbox monitoring reports after March 31?  

A. After March 31, data from previous inbox monitoring reports will no longer be accessible from within the Acoustic Marketing Cloud.  If you choose to contract with Validity directly for a continuity of services, then your previous reporting data will be migrated into a new Validity Everest account for you to use. That Everest account will have no direct connection with your Acoustic Marketing Cloud Org. 

Q. How can I export my historical inbox placement reporting data out before March 31? 

A. The inbox monitoring report UI provides you the option to export summary data across all previous inbox placement tests generated as well as ISP overview data for each inbox placement test. 

Q. What exactly are my options if I wish to continue to use seed-list inbox placement testing? 

A. Acoustic's professional services offering, available now, will include 1) Customized sending practice recommendations, and 2) A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan with access to a deliverability reporting tool for insights into spam traps and inbox placement (similar to Acoustic inbox monitoring report). Alternatively, you may subscribe with Validity for direct access to their Everest product offering, or any number of providers that offer similar functionality.  Examples include  

• Email Consul - http://emailconsul.com   

• Glockapps - http://glockapps.com   

• Inboxable - http://data-axle.com/what-we-do/inboxable/   

• Kickbox - http://kickbox.com   

• Mail Monitor - http://mailmonitor.com   

• Postmastery - http://postmastery.com   

• Sparkpost - http://sparkpost.com/inbox-tracker/  

After a list of monitored contacts is generated from one of these products, upload it to your Marketing Cloud Org as a new seed list and attach it to one or more outgoing sends to begin generating inbox placement data.