Do soft bounces affect email deliverability and sender reputation?

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that whether soft bounces impact deliverability depends on the ISP and the type of soft bounce. High soft bounce rates (above 2%) are a bad sign, but otherwise, other metrics are more important for assessing reputation with major ISPs.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that if you see lots of soft bounces, it's a sign that your list might be getting old or has a lot of invalid addresses. Cleaning your list regularly can prevent deliverability issues.

Email marketer from Mailchimp Resources explains that while a few soft bounces are normal, a consistently high rate indicates problems with list quality and can negatively affect deliverability. Monitoring bounce rates and practicing good list hygiene is essential.

Email marketer from Reddit emphasizes that it really depends on the cause of the soft bounce. A full mailbox isn't a big deal, but if the server is blocking you due to reputation, then that's a major problem.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog emphasizes that soft bounces are a signal to clean your list. While they may not immediately destroy your deliverability, repeated soft bounces to the same addresses indicate a problem.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that monitoring and managing soft bounces helps maintain a clean list, preventing long-term damage to sender reputation and deliverability.

Marketer from Email Geeks responds that mixed messages about soft bounces are due to numerous factors, including the number of bounces, resending frequency, the ISP, and other variables. Soft bounces *can* affect deliverability, but it may not always be the case.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum states that soft bounces can affect your reputation indirectly. If you keep sending to addresses that soft bounce, ISPs might start treating your emails as spam.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that soft bounces triggered by weak sender reputation are detrimental. Temporary soft bounces are not as bad, but high hard bounce rates can lead to ESP account suspension. Neil recommends inquiring with your ESP about their bounce handling policies.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that some soft bounces (blocks) result from bad reputation, indicating poor deliverability, while others do not. Tim is not aware of any soft bounces that directly *cause* poor deliverability.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog shares that ignoring soft bounces can hurt your sender reputation. Cleaning your email list regularly to remove inactive or problematic addresses is crucial.

Email marketer from Hubspot Blog explains that high bounce rates not only negatively impact the ROI of your email marketing strategy, but they also damage your sender reputation, which is the score that email providers assign to your company based on the quality of your emails. If you send out too many emails that result in bounces or user complaints, you could end up on a blacklist.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that mailbox full bounces, often considered 'soft,' can indicate stale lists and potential reputation or hygiene issues. Establishing a definitive causation is difficult, but high numbers are problematic.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog shares that soft bounces may not need immediate attention because they usually resolve on their own but ignoring them can still result in a bad sender reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks reminds that Gmail counts everything (pictures, videos) towards the storage quota, potentially causing 'mailbox full' errors. Gmail signals this using both 4xy and 5xy codes.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that there's no simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. It depends on the specific bounce code, the receiving mail server's policies, and your overall sending reputation. Repeated soft bounces to the same address can be a negative signal.

Expert from Spamresource explains that even though temporary delivery failures aren't as big of a problem as non-existent addresses, they should still be monitored for. Frequent soft bounces can point to larger email deliverability problems.

Documentation from SendGrid Docs shares that while soft bounces might not immediately damage your sender reputation, consistently high soft bounce rates can lead ISPs to view you as an unreliable sender, negatively impacting deliverability over time.

Documentation from SparkPost Documentation indicates that while soft bounces are temporary, a pattern of soft bounces to the same addresses should be investigated and those addresses should be removed from the list after a certain number of attempts.

Documentation from Campaign Monitor Resources explains that both soft and hard bounces are harmful to your email deliverability.

Documentation from Klaviyo Help Center explains that Klaviyo automatically suppresses profiles that soft bounce seven consecutive times; however, each time an email bounces, your deliverability is affected.

Documentation from Omnisend Blog indicates that a soft bounce isn’t dangerous to your sender reputation until it becomes a hard bounce.