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How do you handle bounced emails?
Handling bounced emails is crucial for maintaining a healthy email list and ensuring good deliverability. Bounces occur when an email cannot be successfully delivered to a recipient’s inbox. They are categorized into two types: soft bounces and hard bounces. Properly managing bounces can help you improve email deliverability, avoid being marked as spam, and keep your list clean.
1. Understand the Two Types of Bounces
- Soft Bounce: A soft bounce occurs when an email reaches the recipient’s mail server but cannot be delivered due to temporary issues. These could include:
- Full inbox: The recipient’s mailbox is full.
- Temporary server issues: The recipient’s mail server is down or unavailable.
- Message too large: The email exceeds the recipient’s inbox size limit.
Action for Soft Bounces:
- Retry delivery: Most email platforms will automatically retry sending soft bounces a few times. If the email continues to bounce after several attempts, it may be moved to the “hard bounce” category.
- Monitor bounce rate: If you have repeated soft bounces from the same email address, it may be worth investigating further to avoid deliverability issues.
- Hard Bounce: A hard bounce occurs when an email is permanently rejected. Common reasons include:
- Invalid email address: The recipient’s email address doesn’t exist or is misspelled.
- Nonexistent domain: The domain is invalid or unreachable.
- Blocked by the recipient’s server: The server refuses the email due to security policies or blacklisting.
Action for Hard Bounces:
- Remove from your list: Immediately remove or suppress hard-bounced email addresses from your list to maintain a clean and healthy list. Continuing to send emails to hard-bounced addresses can harm your sender reputation and lead to blacklisting.
- Verify email addresses: If hard bounces are due to invalid email addresses, verify and clean your list to prevent future bounces.
2. Automate Bounce Handling
- Set up automated rules: Most email service providers (ESPs) automatically classify and handle bounces, but it’s important to understand how your ESP handles them and whether you need to customize your bounce-handling settings.
- Segment based on bounce type: Automatically segment and filter out bounced emails so that you don’t send further emails to invalid addresses.
- Track bounce rates: Continuously monitor your bounce rates in your email platform. A high bounce rate can negatively affect your sender reputation and email deliverability.
3. Maintain List Hygiene
- Use list cleaning tools: Consider using third-party email verification services (e.g., NeverBounce, ZeroBounce) to clean your list and remove invalid email addresses before sending out campaigns. This helps reduce hard bounces.
- Remove or suppress bounced emails: Regularly clean your list by removing email addresses that have bounced more than once, or suppress them from future sends to avoid damaging your reputation.
4. Monitor and Optimize Your Sender Reputation
- Maintain a low bounce rate: ISPs (Internet Service Providers) use bounce rates as a key factor in determining your sender reputation. A high bounce rate can negatively impact your ability to deliver emails. Aim for a bounce rate below 2%.
- Warm-up new IP addresses: If you’re sending from a new IP address or domain, “warm it up” by gradually increasing your email volume to build a positive sender reputation.
5. Check Email Address Quality
- Double opt-in process: Using a double opt-in process helps verify that email addresses are correct and that the subscriber wants to receive emails from you. This can help reduce the likelihood of hard bounces.
- Validate emails at the point of entry: Use email validation tools at the time of sign-up to catch errors like typos or invalid email addresses before they enter your list.
6. Handle Temporary Delivery Issues
- Retry on soft bounces: For soft bounces caused by temporary issues like a full inbox or server issues, allow your ESP to retry sending the email for a certain period (usually up to 72 hours). If the email still cannot be delivered, take further action.
- Contact the recipient: If possible, reach out to the recipient through other means (e.g., via social media or customer support) if the bounce seems to be a server issue on their end, particularly for high-value customers.
7. Use Detailed Bounce Reports
- Review bounce feedback: Detailed reports from your ESP will provide information about why an email bounced. Use these insights to identify and resolve common issues (e.g., issues with your domain, email size, or server configuration).
- Resolve issues with your email server: If your emails are bouncing due to server-related issues, make sure your email sending infrastructure is properly configured (e.g., correct DNS records, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings).
8. Keep Communication Transparent
- Notify subscribers of issues: If an email bounce occurs due to a temporary issue like a full inbox, you can remind the subscriber to update their email or clean their inbox. However, avoid over-communicating and respect their preferences if they are unresponsive.
- Offer alternative ways to connect: If a subscriber’s email bounces, provide options for them to update their email address or re-subscribe to your list.
9. Monitor Your Bounce Rate and Trends
- Track bounce trends: Regularly analyze your email campaigns’ bounce rates over time to spot trends and identify potential issues before they affect your deliverability.
- Act on patterns: If a large portion of your list is bouncing, it may indicate a problem with your email collection methods or an issue with your ESP’s deliverability.
In Summary:
Handling bounced emails is critical for keeping your email list healthy and maintaining high deliverability rates. Hard bounces should be removed immediately, while soft bounces can be retried and monitored for temporary issues. Regularly cleaning your list, using a double opt-in process, and utilizing email validation tools can help minimize bounces. By actively managing bounces and tracking your bounce rate, you can protect your sender reputation and ensure that your emails reach their intended recipients.
