How do bounces impact email deliverability and how can I minimize them?

Summary

High bounce rates negatively impact email deliverability by damaging sender reputation and increasing the likelihood of emails being filtered or blocked by ISPs. Minimizing bounces requires a multifaceted approach. Using confirmed or double opt-in methods to ensure valid email addresses, regularly cleaning email lists to remove unsubscribed, inactive, or invalid addresses, and employing email authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are crucial. Monitoring bounce rates and analyzing bounce codes to understand the reasons behind bounces is also essential. Using email verification services to identify risky or invalid addresses before sending, automatically suppressing bounced email addresses, improving engagement rates through personalized content, understanding and avoiding spam filter triggers, and validating email addresses at the point of entry further contribute to reducing bounces and improving deliverability. A bounce rate under 2% is generally considered acceptable, and focusing on hard bounces is vital as they are especially damaging to sender reputation.

Key findings

  • Bounce Impact: High bounce rates damage sender reputation and lead to deliverability problems.
  • Opt-in Methods: Confirmed/double opt-in ensures higher quality email lists.
  • List Hygiene: Regular list cleaning removes invalid and inactive addresses.
  • Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verify sender identity and prevent spoofing.
  • Bounce Analysis: Analyzing bounce codes helps identify and address root causes of bounces.
  • Verification Services: Email verification services identify and remove risky or invalid addresses.
  • Engagement Impact: Low engagement can increase bounces; personalization is key.
  • Spam Filter Triggers: Avoiding spam triggers improves inbox placement.
  • Hard Bounce Severity: Hard bounces are particularly damaging to sender reputation.
  • Acceptable Rate: Target a bounce rate under 2%.

Key considerations

  • Address Collection: Implement robust address collection methods.
  • Maintenance Schedule: Establish a routine list cleaning schedule.
  • Authentication Setup: Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
  • Bounce Monitoring: Implement continuous bounce rate monitoring.
  • Verification Tools: Use an email verification service regularly.
  • Engagement Strategies: Develop strategies to improve subscriber engagement.
  • Suppression Automation: Automate bounced address suppression.
  • Real-time Validation: Validate email addresses at point of entry.
  • Spam Filter Awareness: Stay updated on factors that trigger spam filters

What email marketers say
11Marketer opinions

Bounces negatively impact email deliverability by damaging sender reputation and leading to filtering or blocking by mailbox providers. Minimizing bounces involves several key strategies, including using confirmed or double opt-in methods to ensure valid email addresses, regularly cleaning email lists to remove unsubscribed, inactive, or invalid addresses, employing email authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, monitoring bounce codes to understand the reasons behind bounces, using email verification services to identify risky or invalid addresses before sending, and improving engagement rates by sending relevant and personalized content to keep subscribers active. Understanding and avoiding spam filter triggers is also crucial.

Key opinions

  • Bounce Impact: High bounce rates damage sender reputation, leading to deliverability issues.
  • Opt-in Methods: Confirmed or double opt-in helps ensure valid and willing subscribers.
  • List Cleaning: Regularly cleaning email lists removes invalid and inactive addresses.
  • Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC help verify sender identity and prevent spoofing.
  • Bounce Monitoring: Analyzing bounce codes reveals the reasons for bounces and allows for corrective actions.
  • Verification Services: Email verification services identify and remove risky or invalid addresses before sending.
  • Engagement: Low engagement rates negatively impact deliverability, so improve personalization and relevance.
  • Spam Filters: Understanding and avoiding spam filter triggers helps improve inbox placement.

Key considerations

  • Opt-in Process: Implement a double opt-in process to ensure the quality of your subscribers.
  • List Hygiene: Establish a routine for cleaning and maintaining your email list.
  • Authentication Setup: Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your sending domain.
  • Bounce Analysis: Monitor and analyze bounce codes to identify and address deliverability issues.
  • Verification Tool: Consider using an email verification service to minimize invalid addresses.
  • Content Relevance: Focus on creating relevant and engaging content to improve subscriber interaction.
  • Spam Trigger Awareness: Stay informed about common spam filter triggers and avoid them in your email campaigns.
  • Real-time Validation: Implement real-time email validation on forms to prevent invalid entries from the start.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus explains the importance of monitoring and analyzing bounce codes to understand the reasons behind bounces. This allows for targeted improvements to email sending practices and list hygiene, ultimately reducing future bounces and improving deliverability.

September 2023 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign recommends using double opt-in to ensure that subscribers have actively confirmed their interest in receiving emails. This reduces the likelihood of invalid or mistyped email addresses ending up on the list, leading to fewer bounces.

October 2022 - ActiveCampaign
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid details that employing email authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can improve deliverability and reduce bounces. These methods help verify the sender's identity and prevent spoofing, leading to fewer emails being marked as spam or bounced.

June 2022 - Email on Acid
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum emphasizes using email verification tools to validate email addresses before sending. This helps identify and remove invalid, disposable, or spam-trap email addresses, significantly reducing bounce rates.

August 2022 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit explains that regular email list cleaning is essential for maintaining good deliverability. They suggest using an email verification service to remove invalid, inactive, or risky addresses that can lead to bounces.

November 2021 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailchimp Support shares that maintaining a clean email list is crucial for minimizing bounces. This includes removing unsubscribed contacts, correcting typos, and using an email verification service to identify and remove invalid or risky email addresses.

May 2024 - Mailchimp
Marketer view

Email marketer from Constant Contact explains how spam filters can impact deliverability. Understanding what triggers spam filters and avoiding those practices can minimize bounces and improve email inbox placement. Common triggers include using spammy words, sending from blacklisted IPs, and failing authentication checks.

September 2022 - Constant Contact
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that using confirmed opt-in methods helps ensure only valid and willing addresses are on the list, minimizing bounces. Excessive bounces can negatively impact sending reputation by signaling to mailbox providers that the sender may not be sending to valid addresses.

April 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot points out that low engagement rates, such as opens and clicks, can negatively impact deliverability and increase the likelihood of emails being marked as spam or bounced. Strategies for improving engagement include segmenting lists, personalizing content, and sending relevant emails.

January 2022 - HubSpot
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests examining bounce errors and codes for soft bounces to understand the reasons behind the bounces. He advises that it's worth looking at why it's happening as if a lot of typos or non existent domains are getting on your list, then that's not ideal.

June 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from ZeroBounce shares that real-time email address validation at the point of entry can prevent invalid or typoed addresses from ever entering your list. This significantly reduces bounce rates and improves overall deliverability.

February 2024 - ZeroBounce

What the experts say
4Expert opinions

Bounces, especially hard bounces, significantly impact email deliverability by harming sender reputation. Maintaining a bounce rate under 2% is generally considered acceptable. Key strategies for minimizing bounces include proper bounce handling, employing effective address collection methods to reduce non-deliverable addresses, monitoring bounce rates and analyzing bounce codes to understand the reasons behind bounces, implementing double opt-in, regularly cleaning lists of inactive subscribers, and utilizing feedback loops to remove complainers.

Key opinions

  • Acceptable Bounce Rate: Bounce rates under 2% have minimal impact on deliverability.
  • Source of Problem: Flawed address collection processes can lead to many bounces.
  • Bounce Code Insights: Bounce codes provide information on the causes of bounces.
  • Hard Bounce Importance: Hard bounces damage sender reputation.

Key considerations

  • Address Collection: Review and improve your address collection methods to ensure valid addresses.
  • Monitoring: Continuously monitor bounce rates and analyze bounce codes.
  • Opt-in Process: Implement double opt-in to reduce invalid addresses.
  • List Hygiene: Regularly clean inactive subscribers from your list.
  • Feedback Loops: Utilize feedback loops to remove complainers immediately.
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares that bounce rates under 2% have little impact on deliverability. This can be achieved through proper bounce handling and employing address collection methods that reduce the likelihood of non-deliverable addresses.

October 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks states that if domains don't exist, the mail never leaves the MTA. She highlights the underlying issue of a flawed address collection process leading to non-existent domain opt-ins, suggesting it indicates a deeper problem that could harm deliverability in the long term.

June 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, emphasizes the importance of monitoring bounce rates to understand deliverability issues. She explains that different bounce codes provide insights into the reasons for bounces (e.g., invalid addresses, spam complaints, temporary failures). Understanding these codes helps in implementing corrective actions.

July 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource, Steve Linford, suggests several methods for reducing hard bounces, including implementing double opt-in, regularly cleaning lists of inactive subscribers, and utilizing feedback loops to remove complainers immediately. He highlights that hard bounces damage sender reputation and should be minimized as much as possible.

December 2024 - Spam Resource

What the documentation says
4Technical articles

High bounce rates negatively impact sender reputation, leading to filtering or blocking by ISPs. Minimizing bounces requires a multi-faceted approach including using double opt-in, regularly cleaning email lists, properly handling bounce notifications to remove invalid addresses, automatically suppressing bounced addresses to prevent future attempts, understanding and addressing hard bounces immediately due to their significant harm, and monitoring soft bounces for persistent issues. Understanding SMTP error codes is also crucial for diagnosing the root causes of bounces.

Key findings

  • Bounce Impact: High bounce rates negatively affect sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Double Opt-in: Using double opt-in helps to ensure valid email addresses from the start.
  • List Cleaning: Regularly cleaning email lists is essential for removing invalid addresses.
  • Suppression: Automatically suppressing bounced addresses prevents repeated failures.
  • Hard vs Soft Bounces: Hard bounces are more damaging than soft bounces and require immediate action.
  • SMTP Codes: Understanding SMTP error codes aids in diagnosing bounce-related issues.

Key considerations

  • Opt-in Implementation: Implement a double opt-in process to verify email address validity.
  • List Maintenance: Establish a routine for cleaning and updating email lists regularly.
  • Bounce Handling: Set up automated processes to handle and suppress bounced email addresses.
  • Monitoring System: Implement a system for monitoring soft bounces and addressing persistent issues.
  • Error Code Knowledge: Familiarize yourself with common SMTP error codes and their implications.
Technical article

Documentation from RFC explains that understanding SMTP error codes is crucial for diagnosing bounce issues. Error codes provide valuable information about the reason for the bounce, allowing senders to take appropriate action to fix the problem.

September 2023 - RFC
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost explains that hard bounces (permanent delivery failures) significantly harm sender reputation and must be promptly removed. Soft bounces (temporary issues) should be monitored and addressed if they persist, as they can also negatively impact deliverability over time.

June 2024 - SparkPost
Technical article

Documentation from Postmark highlights the importance of automatically suppressing bounced email addresses to prevent future sending attempts. This helps maintain a clean sender reputation and avoid being flagged as a spammer.

December 2022 - Postmark
Technical article

Documentation from SendGrid explains that high bounce rates negatively impact sender reputation, leading ISPs to filter or block emails. Minimizing bounces involves practices like using double opt-in, regularly cleaning email lists, and properly handling bounce notifications to remove invalid addresses.

April 2024 - SendGrid