In today’s digital age, email communication plays a vital role in both personal and professional spheres.
For email marketers, maintaining high email deliverability and engagement is crucial for successful email marketing campaigns, effective customer communication, and building solid relationships with clients.
The ability to reach the intended recipient’s inbox and encourage them to open, read, and interact with emails is paramount to achieving desired outcomes.
Within the realm of email marketing, bounce email rate holds significant importance. A high bounce email rate can have detrimental effects on email deliverability, sender reputation, and overall campaign effectiveness.
It is essential for email marketers and businesses to understand the bounce email rate, what exactly it is and why should you be concerned about it.
In this article, we will demystify bounce email rates, differentiate between hard and soft bounces, and delve into the reasons behind email bounces. Furthermore, we’ll provide you with actionable techniques and best practices to reduce bounce rates, enhance your email deliverability, and maximize engagement with your target audience.
So, let’s dive into the concept of bounce email rates and discover proven strategies to keep them at bay.
What Is Bounce Email Rate?
Bounce email refers to an email message that fails to be delivered to the intended recipient and is returned to the sender’s email server. It occurs when the recipient’s mail server or the intermediate mail transfer agents (MTAs) encounter an issue that prevents successful delivery.
Bounced emails are typically accompanied by a notification or bounce message that provides information about the reason for the bounce.
Whereas, “Bounce Email Rate” (also known as the Bounce Rate), refers to the percentage of emails that are not successfully delivered to recipients’ mailboxes and are returned to the sender. It provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of email deliverability and serves as an indicator of the quality and health of an email list.
A high bounce email rate suggests potential issues with the email infrastructure, recipient addresses, or email content. Thus, by monitoring and understanding the bounce email rate, email marketers can not only identify issues that are causing a negative impact on email delivery and sender reputation.
But, they can take corrective measures to improve the overall campaign performance as well.
Difference Between Hard & Soft Bounces
By analyzing the bounce email rate and understanding the types of bounces, email marketers can optimize their email campaigns, maintain a clean and up-to-date email list, and improve overall deliverability, resulting in better engagement with their target audience.
An email bounce can be categorized as either a hard bounce or a soft bounce. It is essential to distinguish between these types to determine the appropriate actions to take.
Hard Bounces: Why do they occur?
Hard bounces occur when an email is permanently rejected and cannot be delivered to the recipient’s mailbox. This happens due to reasons such as:
- Invalid or Non-Existent Email Address: The recipient’s email address may contain a typographical error, or it may no longer exist. For example, if the email address is “[email protected]” but “[email protected]” is entered by mistake, it will result in a hard bounce.
- Domain Issues: Hard bounces can also occur if the recipient’s domain does not exist or has expired. This could be due to a domain name being misspelled or the domain no longer being active.
- Blocked by Recipient’s Mail Server: Some mail servers have strict filtering policies and may block incoming emails from certain senders or domains. If the sender’s email address or domain is on the recipient’s server’s blacklist, it will result in a hard bounce.
Soft Bounces: Why do they occur?
Soft bounces are temporary delivery failures that prevent an email from reaching the recipient’s mailbox, but the issue may resolve itself after some time. Some of the preeminent reasons for soft bounces are:
- Full Mailbox: If the recipient’s mailbox is full and has reached its storage limit, the email cannot be delivered. Once the recipient clears their mailbox, subsequent emails will be delivered successfully.
- Temporary Server Issues: Sometimes, the recipient’s mail server may experience temporary issues or be undergoing maintenance. In such cases, the email delivery is temporarily delayed, resulting in a soft bounce. The email will typically be retried for delivery later.
- Email Size Limitations: If an email exceeds the recipient’s server’s size limitations, it may be bounced back. This can happen when sending large attachments or images that exceed the server’s allowed file size.
Understanding hard and soft bounces is crucial for diagnosing and addressing email delivery issues effectively. Hard bounces require immediate action, such as removing invalid email addresses from the mailing list or resolving domain issues.
Soft bounces, on the other hand, may resolve themselves over time, but monitoring them is still important to ensure successful future deliveries.
How Email Bounce Rate Is Calculated
Many individuals or some email marketing newbies are often confused about how to calculate the bounce email rate. So in order to calculate your bounce email rate, divide the number of bounces you received by the total number of emails sent in a campaign (then, times this number by 100).
For instance, Let’s say a marketing team sends out a batch of 1,000 emails as part of a promotional campaign. After the campaign is executed, they receive 150 bounce notifications. The bounce email rate can be calculated by dividing the number of bounced emails (150) by the total number of emails sent (1,000), which results in a bounce email rate of 15%.
Generally, 2% or less is the acceptable bounce email rate, which means if you are sending 100 emails, then 2 or fewer bounces is good. But if it is more than 2% then you may face extreme circumstances and you will need to take immediate action to reduce the bounce email rate.
Strategies To Reduce Bounce Email Rate
Reducing the bounce email rate is crucial for maintaining a healthy email marketing campaign. High bounce rates can harm your sender’s reputation and hinder your ability to engage with your audience effectively. Below are the effective strategies to reduce bounce email rates and improve your overall email deliverability.
1. Build A Quality Email List
Creating a high-quality email list is the foundation of reducing bounce rates. Ensure that you obtain email addresses from genuine and interested users.
Avoid purchasing or using third-party lists, as they often contain outdated or inaccurate information. Implement double opt-in procedures to confirm subscribers’ intent and validate their email addresses.
2. Regularly Clean & Update Your Email List
Periodically clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid email addresses. Utilize an email verification service to identify and eliminate invalid addresses, typos, and dormant accounts. There are various list cleaning services available but if you want to spend less budget on the verification process so you can focus on other activities then MailCleanup is the right choice.
MailCleanup offers the most affordable pricing plans compared to other services. It provides a hassle-free process where you can purchase the plan, upload your email list, and once the list is cleaned then the system will send you your cleaned email lists.
Besides the affordable pricing plans, MailCleanup helps you can get an accurate email verification result by removing all your invalid addresses and making your list bounce-free. You’d love to know that we offer up to 99% email verification accuracy.
Thus, regularly updating your list will enhance its accuracy and reduce the chances of sending emails to nonexistent or non-functioning addresses.
3. Segment Your Email List
Segmenting your email list enables you to send targeted and relevant content to specific groups of subscribers. By tailoring your messages, you increase the likelihood of engagement and decrease the chances of emails bouncing.
Segment based on demographics, interests, purchase history, or engagement levels to provide personalized content that resonates with your recipients.
4. Use Reliable Email Service Provider (ESP)
Selecting a reputable ESP plays a vital role in reducing bounce rates. A reliable ESP will have an advanced delivery infrastructure, monitoring tools, and a good sender reputation.
They will also adhere to email deliverability best practices and provide assistance in maintaining a healthy email list.
5. Implement SPF, DKIM & DMARC
The Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) are extremely important authentication protocols that enhance your email deliverability and reduce the chances of your emails being marked as spam.
SPF specifies the authorized IP addresses that can send emails on your behalf. DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying their authenticity.
DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM, allowing you to set policies for email handling and receive detailed reports on email authentication failures which will further help to block bounces.
6. Craft Engaging Subject Lines & Relevant Content
Well-crafted subject lines and relevant content are essential to encourage recipients to open your emails. Engaging subject lines can help reduce the likelihood of emails bouncing due to being ignored or marked as spam.
Create concise, clear, and compelling subject lines that accurately represent the content within. Additionally, focus on delivering valuable and personalized content that meets your subscribers’ expectations.
7. Monitor & Analyze Email Campaign Metrics:
Regularly monitor and analyze your email campaign metrics to identify any bounce-related issues. Pay attention to bounce rates, delivery rates, open rates, and click-through rates.
By identifying trends and patterns, you can take corrective actions promptly. Monitor any increase in bounce rates and investigate the reasons behind them to maintain a healthy email list.
Important Takeaway
Reducing bounce email rates requires a comprehensive approach that involves building a quality email list, regularly cleansing and updating it by using some professional email list cleaning service like MailCleanup.
You can further reduce your bounce email rates by segmenting your subscribers, using a reliable ESP, implementing authentication protocols, crafting engaging content, and closely monitoring campaign metrics.
By following such strategies, you can enhance your email deliverability, maintain a positive sender reputation, and maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.
Similar to this blog post, here are a couple of other relevant blog posts that you may like –