How can I reduce soft bounces after a one-day email volume spike?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Quora answers that low engagement can be the reason. Focus on re-engaging your subscribers. Implement a re-engagement campaign to win back inactive subscribers and remove those who don't respond. This helps improve your sender reputation and reduces the risk of soft bounces.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that the first step is to identify which ISPs are generating the soft bounces. This will help you target your efforts to reduce volume and improve reputation. Use your email analytics to identify the ISPs with the highest bounce rates and adjust your sending practices accordingly.
Email marketer from Neil Patel shares the importance of list hygiene. Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive subscribers and those who have bounced in the past. This helps maintain a healthy sender reputation and reduces the likelihood of soft bounces after a volume increase. He suggests using double opt-in to verify email addresses at signup.
Email marketer from Litmus shares advice that segmenting your email list can help mitigate the impact of a volume spike. After the spike, focus on sending targeted campaigns to your most engaged subscribers. This helps improve your sender reputation and reduces the likelihood of soft bounces.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that ISPs often throttle senders after a volume spike as a security measure. Gradually reduce your sending volume to the affected ISPs to avoid being flagged as a potential spammer. Monitor your bounce rates and adjust sending practices accordingly.
Email marketer from Sendinblue responds that to mitigate the impact of a volume spike, actively monitor your bounce rates. Higher bounce rates signal deliverability issues to ISPs. They recommend implementing a feedback loop to automatically remove invalid addresses from your list and proactively manage your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that after a volume spike, it's important to monitor your sending reputation closely. A sudden increase can negatively impact your reputation with ISPs, leading to increased bounces. They suggest warming up your IP address if it's new, gradually increasing volume, and segmenting your lists to send relevant content to engaged users.
Email marketer from Hubspot explains you should implement frequency capping. Limit the number of emails you send to each subscriber within a specific timeframe to avoid overwhelming them. This can help reduce the likelihood of soft bounces and improve engagement.
Email marketer from Email on Acid that you need to Ensure email authentication is properly configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). This helps ISPs verify that your emails are legitimate and reduces the likelihood of soft bounces. Monitor your authentication reports to identify any issues.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares hints to reduce soft bounces which include checking which ISP generates those bounces, ensuring you don't send to inactives, and being mindful of volume spikes.
Email marketer from Gmass highlights understanding and improving sender reputation. Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools to see a domain's reputation and take the appropriate action. Low reputation is a primary cause of emails going to spam folders, or soft bouncing.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource.com shares a step by step process that can be followed when warming up your IP - this is important after large sending spikes. The article indicates the importance of increasing volume slowly to avoid issues with ISPs and spam filters.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that after a volume spike, careful list management is crucial. Examine bounce codes to understand the nature of the soft bounces. It's essential to identify and suppress problematic addresses. She also suggests ensuring proper authentication and monitoring feedback loops.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests backing off your sending rate slightly to the ISPs that are throttling you until you're not being throttled as much. He also notes that throttling can be a warning that your mail stream reputation is grey and spiking volume can put you on a list of mail sources to monitor.
Expert from Email Geeks advises removing any addresses added for the “spike” that haven’t engaged, and to stop sending to them ever again. She also notes that a spike in volume could damage your reputation and cause ISPs like Yahoo and Gmail to throttle your mail.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC explains that soft bounces are temporary delivery failures, and the server will try again. Monitor the frequency of soft bounces, and if they persist, treat them as potential hard bounces to maintain list hygiene. Check the specific SMTP error codes for clues about the cause.
Documentation from Microsoft SNDS shares information about using Microsoft's Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) to monitor your IP reputation with Microsoft. Check your IP address in SNDS after the volume spike to see if it has been flagged for any issues. Resolve any reported issues to improve deliverability to Outlook.com and Hotmail users.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains sender reputation which affects deliverability, particularly after a spike. Use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your domain reputation and identify any sudden drops in reputation after the spike. Address any issues identified, such as spam complaints or high bounce rates, promptly.
Documentation from SparkPost shares best practice about implementing a warm-up schedule for new IP addresses or domains. Slowly increase your sending volume over time to establish a positive sender reputation. Avoid sending large volumes of email all at once, especially to inactive subscribers.