How to resolve increased soft and hard bounces after sending to a new segment with a new sender address?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog explains that maintaining good email list hygiene by removing invalid or inactive email addresses can help reduce bounce rates and improve deliverability. Regularly clean your list.
Email marketer from Litmus Blog explains that A/B testing subject lines and email content can help improve engagement and reduce spam complaints, indirectly lowering bounce rates by improving overall sender reputation.
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog explains that inconsistent sending volumes can negatively impact your sender reputation and lead to increased bounces. Establish a regular sending schedule.
Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that implementing email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for establishing trust with email providers and reducing bounce rates. These help verify that you are who you say you are.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that using a different sender address might improve inboxing initially, but not in the long run. Contacts that hard bounced should be removed, and clarifies that `envelope blocked - User Entry` is a hard bounce indicating the user blocked the sender.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that using double opt-in ensures that subscribers actively confirm their subscription, leading to a higher quality list and lower bounce rates.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that sending from a new sender address without a established reputation can lead to increased bounces. Work on warming up your domain and IP address.
Email marketer from MailerCheck Blog explains that when sending from a new IP address, you need to warm it up to establish a sending reputation. Start with small volumes and gradually increase the number of emails you send daily.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce Blog recommends validating any newly acquired email lists with an email validation service before sending to them to remove invalid email addresses.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum recommends checking your sender address and domain against known blocklists to identify potential issues impacting deliverability. If you're listed, take steps to get removed.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that blocks may be triggered by other users sharing the same envelope domain and suggests using a custom envelope to isolate sending reputation. Because you are using a shared envelope domain blocks may be triggered by someone else using that domain.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that permission is key, especially with new segments. Increased bounces can indicate a lack of permission or outdated data, and emphasizes the importance of confirming opt-in and practicing good list hygiene.
Expert from Spam Resource emphasizes that sender reputation is critical. Sending to a new segment with a new sender address can trigger spam filters due to the lack of established reputation. He recommends warming up the IP address and domain gradually. Ensure the sending infrastructure is correctly configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
Expert from Email Geeks explains that recipients have explicitly blocked the sender's address, indicating they don't want the mail. The best course of action is to remove these recipients from future sends. She also suggests reviewing the history of blocked addresses for prior unsubscribe attempts and investigates why the unsubscribe failed.
What the documentation says6Technical articles
Documentation from AWS explains that Amazon SES provides detailed sending statistics, including bounce rates. Monitor these metrics to identify and address deliverability issues proactively.
Documentation from RFC Standards explains that interpreting SMTP error codes provided in bounce messages can help diagnose the specific reasons for delivery failures. Different codes indicate different problems.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that exceeding sending limits in Exchange Online can cause temporary blocks and bounces. Understand and adhere to the specified limits.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that implementing List-Unsubscribe headers allows recipients to easily unsubscribe, reducing the likelihood of them marking your emails as spam, which can lead to bounces.
Documentation from Mailchimp explains authenticating your email domain (SPF and DKIM) can improve deliverability. This helps show email providers that you own the domain you're sending from.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that soft bounces are temporary issues (e.g., full inbox), while hard bounces indicate permanent problems (e.g., invalid address). Handle hard bounces immediately by removing them from your list.