One of the many great things about email marketing is the almost instant access to easily understandable analytics following each send. Open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, spam complaints—it’s pretty obvious what each of these metrics means. But what exactly is a bounced email, and why is it crucial to understand the difference between a hard and soft bounce? Let’s delve into this important distinction:
What is a Bounced Email?
A bounced email is an email message that cannot be delivered to its intended recipient and is returned to the sender with a notification that its delivery has failed. This failure notice is known as a “bounce message” or “Non-Delivery Report” (NDR). There are two types of email bounces that email marketers need to be aware of:
Hard Bounces
A hard-bounced email is an email that cannot be delivered to its intended recipient due to a permanent error. This problem occurs because the email address is either invalid or has been rejected by the email server for reasons that are unlikely to change. There are several common causes for hard bounces. These include:
- Invalid Email Addresses: The email address does not exist. This could be due to a typo, a closed account, or a non-existent domain.
- Non-existent Email Domains: The domain part of the email address (after the @ symbol) does not exist. This could happen if the domain name was misspelled, or the domain has been deactivated.
- Email Server Rejection: The recipient’s email server has permanently blocked the delivery. This could be due to the sender’s email address being blocked or the server rejecting the email due to specific policies imposed by the recipient’s organization.
When an email hard bounces, there are a number of proactive steps that can be taken to manage this situation. Recommended actions include:
- Remove any invalid email addresses from their mailing list to maintain list hygiene.
- Check the validity of email addresses before adding them to the list.
- Email validation services can be used to reduce the chances of hard bounces.
Managing hard bounces effectively helps maintain a good sender reputation and improves the overall deliverability of future emails.
Tip: A great way to reduce hard bounces is to utilize a double opt-in subscription strategy. This practice means subscribers will not be added to your lists until they have received and confirmed the receipt of an email confirming their subscription. While this may mean some potential subscribers don’t follow through and make it onto your lists, it will guarantee the quality of your email data.
Soft Bounces
A soft-bounced email is an email that is undeliverable due to a temporary issue. Unlike hard bounces, soft bounces indicate problems that may resolve themselves, allowing for future delivery attempts. Here are some common reasons for soft bounces:
- Mailbox Full: The recipient’s email inbox has reached its storage limit, preventing the acceptance of new emails.
- Temporary Server Issues: The recipient’s email server is down or experiencing temporary technical problems.
- Message Size Limit Exceeded: The email is too large for the recipient’s inbox or email server limits.
- Temporary Block: The recipient’s email server may temporarily block the email due to filtering policies or suspected spam, but this block is not permanent.
While not as problematic or risky as a hard bounce, soft bounces shouldn’t be ignored. Here are some best practices for managing soft bounces:
- Monitor and Retry: If at first you don’t succeed try and send again. Using a different subject line or body text may help the email reach its intended destination.
- Clean Up Your Mailing List: If the same email address soft bounces repeatedly over an extended period, consider removing it from your active mailing list or flagging it for further investigation.
- Optimize Your Email Size: Ensure your emails do not exceed standard size limits to reduce the chances of a message bouncing. It’s considered best practice to keep your email body size below 100 KB.
- Engage with Recipients: If possible, notify recipients whose inboxes are full or who are experiencing temporary issues so they can take action. This is why collecting phone data and social media handles is a good idea when building out your list.
Effectively managing soft bounces helps maintain a clean mailing list and improves the chances of successful email delivery in future campaigns.
Why is it so important to reduce the number of bounced emails?
Reducing email bounces is essential for several reasons. These include:
Deliverability and Sender Reputation
- Improved Deliverability: High bounce rates can tell email service providers (ESPs) that you are sending emails to invalid or disengaged recipients. This can lead to your email marketing campaigns being marked as spam and ultimately not delivered.
- Maintaining Sender Reputation: ESPs monitor email campaign bounce rates. Consistently high bounce rates can damage a sender’s reputation, making it more difficult for future emails to reach recipients’ inboxes.
Cost Efficiency
- Reduced Costs: Many email marketing services charge based on the number of emails sent or the size of your email list. Sending emails to invalid addresses wastes resources and increases costs without providing any benefit. While email marketing is considered a low-cost marketing strategy, spending money on subscribers who deliver nothing but bounces is a costly mistake.
Accurate Analytics and Insights
- Better Analytics: Bounces can skew your email campaign metrics, making it harder to accurately measure engagement, open rates, click-through rates, and overall campaign effectiveness. Reducing bounces ensures that your analytics reflect true recipient interactions.
- Enhanced Targeting: Clean email lists allow for more accurate targeting and segmentation, leading to more relevant and effective email campaigns.
Legal Compliance
- Compliance with Regulations: Regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and GDPR in Europe have specific requirements regarding email marketing. Maintaining a clean email list and reducing bounces helps ensure compliance with these regulations, avoiding potential legal issues and fines.
User Experience
- Improved User Experience: Emails sent to incorrect or inactive addresses can indicate poor list management. This can lead to recipients perceiving your emails as spammy or unprofessional, harming your brand’s reputation and customer trust.
Higher Engagement and ROI
- Increased Engagement: Reducing bounces means more emails reach their intended recipients, increasing the chances of engagement, conversions, and overall return on investment (ROI) from your email marketing efforts.
- Enhanced Personalization: With a clean list, personalization and targeted messaging become more effective as you reach a more relevant and engaged audience.
Build a More Profitable Email List
Email marketing list building and maintenance is a job that never ends. Don’t think that because you’ve reached a “critical mass”, you can relax for a while. Your email subscribers have a shelf-life and are at their most responsive when fresh.
To learn more about how emfluence can help you build a more responsive, less bouncy, and more profitable email marketing list, contact us today at expert@emfuence.com.
